HP debuted a new affordable Chromebook this week and it should be on sale this month. It’s the Chromebook 11a, priced at a mere $219. It’s a dual core Intel Celeron CPU-based machine with 4 GB of RAM and 32 GB of storage. We have more info below.
Best Buy already has the product up for sale, for $50 off. The problem is that we can’t quite see a selling point here, compared to a Chromebook from 2 or 3 years ago. This budget offering relies on an Intel Celeron N3350 Apollo Lake processor, a 6 watt chip based on the Intel Atom architecture launched in 2016. We would have loved an Intel Gemini Lake CPU, but that’s what we get… There’s a 11.6 inch screen on board, with a 1366 x 768 resolution and anti glare protection.
Intel UHD 500 graphics are available as well and on the connectivity front we’ve got WiFi 5 or Bluetooth 4.2. Ports are aplenty: 2 USB-C ones (one for charging and one DisplayPort 1.2), plus 2 USB-A ones (5 Gbps speed). There’s also a 3.5 mm audio jack, a microSD card slot, stereo speakers and a 47 Wh battery. This new HP Chromebook weighs 3 pounds and measures 0.7 inches in thickness. I like the soft touch approach of the case and the appeal here is that you can get Android apps running on the device and maybe even Linux.
