HP Has a Colorful New Haswell Chromebook

By Kevin Parrish
published

HP is releasing a 14 inch Haswell-powered Chromebook before the holidays.

Hewlett-Packard introduced on Wednesday the HP Chromebook 14, the first Chrome OS solution powered by a fourth-generation Intel Core "Haswell" processor. The device joins HP's SlateBook x2, the Slate7 and Slate21 All-in-One as part of the company's multiple operating system strategy, and its "Google Experience" assault on an unsuspecting public.

Unfortunately, the new Chromebook isn't expected to arrive until just before the holidays, so details are extremely slim for the moment. However, according to the actual specs spread throughout HP's promotional hoopla, the upcoming Haswell-based Chrome OS notebook will sport a 14 inch BrightView display with a decent 1366 x 768 resolution, a 16 GB or 32 GB SSD, HDMI output, two USB 3.0 ports, one USB 2.0 port, an SD card slot and optional WWAN connectivity.

"The HP Chromebook 14 offers a fast and easy way for customers to connect to favorite websites in seconds," the company boasts. "It also offers a gateway to the Google experience, including Google Chrome apps like Gmail, YouTube, Google Drive and Google+ Hangouts for smooth, immersive work and play."

Not content with just distributing a bloated press release with minimal details, HP also added additional hardware specs in its blog. The company states that the upcoming Chromebook will weigh around 4.07 pounds, and measure 13.6 x 9.4 x 0.8 inches. That's admittingly a rather light and thin form factor that should be ideal for students and consumers wanting something more than an Android-based tablet on the go. And thanks to native packaged apps, this HTML5-based platform isn't quite as dependent on the Internet as it once was.

"With no contracts or commitments, certain models of the HP Chromebook include up to 200 MB of free data per month for two years of fast 4G mobile broadband service on the T-Mobile network," the company said. "This incredible value allows customers to enjoy Internet access without having to search for Wi-Fi."

By purchasing the HP Chromebook 14 this holiday season, owners will have access to 100 GB of cloud-based storage courtesy of Google Drive for two years. Pricing will start at $299.99, meaning expect a higher pricetag when throwing in the extra internal storage and 4G LTE connectivity.

Kevin Parrish
8 Comments Comment from the forums
  • coffee_man
    "a decent 1366 x 768 resolution" -_- dat resolution.
    Reply
  • damianrobertjones
    "Pricing will start at $299.99"

    You HAVE to be joking! Just look at the spec... If this were a Windows machine it would be laughed off of the page.
    Reply
  • back_by_demand
    Thanks to Azz156 for the research
    http://www.geek.com/news/chromebook-sales-are-terrible-even-compared-to-windows-rt-1552333/

    Seems there are 5 times as many RTs as there are Chromebooks, despite Chromebooks being on sale for years. Seeing as RT is generally regarded as a pathetic failure, what should we say about Chromebooks?
    Reply
  • JD88
    Chromebooks may have been on the market longer, but they still didn't become widely available or even nationally advertised until early this year when the Samsung series 3 came out. Additionally, no major OEMs are currently producing Windows RT products calling them "unnecessary," yet 6 major companies are now (or soon will be) offering Chromebooks. Chrome OS was never designed to "kill Microsoft." In fact, I like MS and run Windows 8 Pro on 2 of my 3 PCs. The only purpose of Chrome OS is to encourage development of web based applications for use within the Chrome browser in any form. Hardly a failure as Google didn't take a 900 million dollar loss on the program.
    Reply
  • JD88
    Chromebooks may have been on the market longer, but they still didn't become widely available or even nationally advertised until early this year when the Samsung series 3 came out. Additionally, no major OEMs are currently producing Windows RT products calling them "unnecessary," yet 6 major companies are now (or soon will be) offering Chromebooks. Chrome OS was never designed to "kill Microsoft." In fact, I like MS and run Windows 8 Pro on 2 of my 3 PCs. The only purpose of Chrome OS is to encourage development of web based applications for use within the Chrome browser in any form. Hardly a failure as Google didn't take a 900 million dollar loss on the program.
    Reply
  • back_by_demand
    I can see the words, and I know you think you said something clever, but all I can see is "boo hoo, Chromebooks are crap and nobody wants to buy them"
    Reply
  • Durandul
    Now if I could install Ubuntu, maybe Mint, and a different SSD on this... Haswell laptop for under $500!!!
    Reply
  • Fredrik Aldhagen
    11531830 said:
    Now if I could install Ubuntu, maybe Mint, and a different SSD on this... Haswell laptop for under $500!!!

    I can't speak for replacing the SSD (the Samsung series 3 chromebook has SSD soldered directly to the motherboard) but people have already installed Ubuntu on chromebooks.

    Now, the catch is whenever you run a custom OS on a chromebook you'll face a warning screen on boot-up. If you press SPACE during this warning screen the chromebook will be reset to its default configuration and your custom OS install will be wiped. For that reason it's probably preferable to just run Linux off a SD card instead.
    Reply