HP Expands Its Chromebook Offering With A Sleek 15-Inch IPS Model Well Under $500
HP has announced the new Chromebook 15 which is priced at $449. HP offers the machine in Mineral Silver and Cloud Blue colors and both have a metal keyboard deck with a sandblasted finish and a ceramic-like white finished cover. As a Chromebook, the machine runs Chrome OS.
Inside the Chromebook 15 has an Intel Pentium Gold 4417U processor paired with 4GB of DDR4-2133 RAM and 64GB of eMMC storage. Graphics are handled by Intel HD Graphics 610, and the sound system is by B&O with dual speakers. One of the hallmarks of Chromebooks is long battery life, and the HP Chromebook 15 delivers that with up to 13 hours of runtime per charge.
Other features include Intel 802.11 b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.2 along with an integrated HP Wide Vision HD camera with dual array digital microphone. The machine has a 1920 x 1080 15.6-inch IPS BrightView micro-edge WLED backlit touchscreen, the chassis also handles a full-size island keyboard. For those who often work in dark environments, the keyboard is backlit, and there is a numeric keypad beside it. A memory card reader is built into the HP Chromebook 15, and the design makes it very portable with a weight of 3.99 pounds.
More and more Chromebooks are hitting the market recently as people find they can do without Windows for some tasks. Chrome OS is also becoming more functional with new and expanded features; Chrome OS instant tethering is now supported on more phones and Chromebooks for instance. In January, Acer debuted its first Chromebook with an AMD APU and Radeon graphics offering an alternative to Intel-powered machines. HP's new offering has a higher resolution screen than what Acer rolled out making it more appealing to some users.
