HP's 14-inch Pavilion Chromebook Stings For Microsoft, Only $329
HP's Pavilion Chromebook is now available to purchase starting at $330. According to HP, it's the first full-size 14-inch Chromebook on the market, which means it's every bit as portable as an Ultrabook, but costs several hundred dollars less.
The biggest difference between an Ultrabook and a Chromebook is that the latter ships with Google's cloud-based Chrome OS. Chromebooks aren't as fully functional as a traditional notebook running Windows, as they rely almost entirely on web apps, but they're plenty capable of handling productivity chores, especially if you're already invested into Google's ecosystem.
As for the hardware, HP's Pavilion Chromebook features an Intel Celeron 847 processor clocked at 1.1GHz, 2GB of DDR3 memory (upgradeable to 4GB), 16GB solid state drive, 802.11n Wi-Fi, 10/100 Ethernet, and a 4-cell battery good for up to 4 hours and 15 minutes of run time. It also has three USB 3.0 ports, HDMI output, headphone/mic combo port, and a multi-format media card reader.
At $330, HP is charging more than Acer ($200) or Samsung ($249) for a Chromebook, though the Pavilion is a bigger laptop. More importantly, it's yet another alternative to a Windows 8-based laptop, which could be bad news for Microsoft.
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Wow! So, apparently laptops aren't dead, just Windows 8 laptops are dead! BTW, this article completely fails to mention that HP made a move into low-margin Chromebooks (as have several other PC vendors) because Windows 8 sales have been so dismal, turning a slide in PC sales into a rout. It's too bad the PC vendors refuse to offer Windows 7 PCs to the consumer public like they still offer to the enterprise. The vendors would make more money and many consumers would be better served with Windows PCs than Chromebooks. I just don't understand how the PC vendors can continue to destroy themselves by swilling the Windows 8 Kool-Aid. I can only assume that Microsoft won't let them offer Windows 7 to consumers anymore. The PC vendors couldn't be THAT stupid to continue to offer only Windows 8 to consumers otherwise. Could they? |
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No the vendors aren't that stupid, you're right MS isn't issuing anymore consumer Win7 licenses, and you can't sell what you don't have. |
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What concerns me about these is the 16GB drive. Is that really going to be enough? I don't see how, even if you use cloud storage to the fullest. I'd want to keep some files local for when wifi isn't available. I'd guess these things would be toast without a connection. |
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16gb is enough for what this does. Remember that this is for schools to hand to kids and have full internet access. This is for your grandmother or older parents who just want to check their emails. This is for the 15 year-old who wants a laptop so they can check facebook and watch videos on hulu. It's NOT for a photographer that depends on performance and photoshop, or the gamer that plays with heavy graphics, or the engineer that uses mathematica, or the programmer that has specialized programs. For about $300 or less, this category looks very appealing to those who have a desktop or heavy power laptop at home and work already. |
I agree. If I didn't already have a Win-7 powered laptop, (one that works really well for me) I would consider one of these for portable use. |
DanielWindham:
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