Hewlett-Packard joins Chromebook fray with 14-inch browser-based laptop - blakeboarking

Hewlett-Packard along Monday said IT's officially jumping into the Chromebook ruffle after persistent rumors about the companion entr one surfaced in late January. Horsepower joins Samsung, Acer, and Lenovo selling PCs stiff with Google's browser-as-OS.

The HP Chromebook features a 14-inch display with 1366-by-768 resolution, intensify from virtually Chromebooks that feature 11.6-inch displays. You also get a 1.1GHz Intel Celeron processor, 16GB solid drive, 2GB Cram, and 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi. For ports, the device offers 3 x USB 2.0, HDMI, Ethernet, earphone/microphone combo jack, and a media card subscriber.

H.P. is auspicious a paltry 4 hours and 15 minutes for battery life, and the laptop is also a little heavy at just under four pounds, and measures 0.83 inches thick. The Chromebook 14 is available in real time from HP and sells for $330, but you also bugger off 100GB of free Google Drive out storage for two years–usually an extra $120.

It's not clear how well Chromebooks are selling overall, but there are indications that the concept is catching happening with American Microcomputer users as more people move their digital lives online. Acer recently told Bloomberg that Chromebooks have, since November, accounted for 5 to 10 per centum of Acer's U.S. shipments . Samsung's 11.6-inch Chromebook is currently the top-marketing Chromebook laptop computer on Amazon , and Lenovo believes its $429 ThinkPad-branded Chromebook will appeal to schools looking to make bulk purchases.

Even up though most of us use our computers primarily to get along online these days, I still find it surprising that Chromebooks are gaining in popularity. Samsung and HP deal out their Chromebooks for around $300-$400, which is the opening monetary value for lower-grade Windows notebooks. The advantage of a desktop notebook is that you have the best of both worlds. You sack get online with the browser of your choice, including Chrome, and if you need desktop functionality for applications such as Skype operating room Spotify, you have the option.

Merely the counter thereto personal line of credit of reasoning can be high-grade summed up by my PCWorld peer Jared Newman who late used a Chromebook American Samoa his workhorse PC during CES in January. "IT always booted dormie quick, was light on my shoulder and was a pleasure to eccentric on," Newman said. He also noted that many an sub-$500 Windows machines Don't moderat up in terms of quality and operation compared to Samsung's Series 5 550 Chromebook.

If Chromebooks are the next big trend in PCs, that has to be concerning for Microsoft fifty-fifty if Windows devices still write u for the majority of Microcomputer sales. On that point's teensy doubt that many a people pass a big clump of their day-after-day PC meter in a browser. And Network applications such as Google Docs and Adobe Photoshop Press out survive easier than ever to "sleep in the taint" and grow away from desktop apps.

Microsoft is trying to produce the start to the Web too, but the software package giant is taking a different approach path by convergent background applications with the cloud, most notably with Microsoft Office 2022 and Government agency 365 Home & Student. The new rendering of Office still includes desktop applications, but Microsoft encourages Office 365 subscribers to relieve their work to SkyDrive, the company's online storage service. That way, your documents are instantly available to you on other PCs running Role installations. Part 365 users can even download "throwaway" versions of Office, dubbed Office connected Demand, that can be quickly downloaded and used from any public PC spouting Windows 7 operating theatre later.

Even the ability to quickly download a desktop app, however, isn't quite as seamless and fast as logging onto a Internet site, such as Google Docs or Microsoft's possess Office Web apps.

Perchance if Chromebooks gain even further popularity, which is hush up far from certain at this point, Microsoft will have to move more aggressively into the cloud and let go of of its desktop-leap out focus. For directly, Chromebooks are an interesting cu to observe, but until I can get Samsung Series 5 choice for under $200, I'm sticking with Windows (and Linux).