HP Chromebook 13 Ships With Intel Core M (Skylake) Onboard, Pair It With The Elite USB-C Dock

HP was up bright and early at New York City’s Chelsea Market to announce its new Chromebook 13. HP claimed this is the first Chromebook to offer the latest 6^th generation (Skylake) Intel Core M processors inside, as well as the first docking solution for a Chromebook through HP’s Elite USB-C Docking Station.

The HP Chromebook 13 may not be the first on the market to plop a more-powerful Intel Core-series processor into a Chromebook (Acer recently revealed its 14-inch Chromebook and made a similar claim), but it is the company’s first Chromebook to feature 6^th generation (Skylake) Intel Core m processors, specifically the Core m7-6Y75, m5-6Y57, and m3-6Y30, in addition to a Pentium 4405Y.

The all-metal chassis is made of brushed anodized aluminum, making the HP Chromebook 13 exceptionally light at only 2.86 pounds and incredibly thin at only 0.5 inches (12.9 mm) thick. The keyboard is LED backlit, and the 45 WH battery offers up to 11.5 hours of runtime. The device is powered and charged using a USB Type-C port.

The HP Chromebook 13 comes with the Chrome OS features that make the device ideal for enterprise environments, including multi-layered security with automatic updates; sandboxing; data encryption and recovery; and HP Print for Chrome, an app that enables local printing from Chrome OS devices to HP printers (both local and networked).

Chromebook + Docking Station

The HP Elite USB-C Docking Station is compatible with the Chromebook 13, and the company claimed it’s the first docking station compatible with a Chrome OS device. The Elite USB-C dock gives small mobile devices a way to connect to full-sized keyboards, wired networks, power, and up to two external displays with resolutions up to 2560 x 1440 (it can also handle a single 4K display, and three or more 1080p displays using multiple docks daisy-chained to each other).

Although the Chromebook 13 has only USB 3.1 ports with Gen 1 transfer speeds (5 GB/s), it also supports video over USB-C to connect with the dock, which uses Direct Link technology to use GPU horsepower only in sections of the screen that require refreshing.The dock features DisplayPort, HDMI output, gigabit LAN connectivity, and four USB 3.0 ports. The additional Type-C port on the front of the device can be used to connect another dock to increase the USB connectivity and display outputs.

The HP Chromebook 13 will be available soon at a starting price of $499. HP also offers the new device for as low as $16 per month with a paid HP Subscription, the price of which includes a three-year Care Pack service, on-site pickup and return, and accidental damage protection for your HP devices.

The HP Elite USB-C Dock is available now at an MSRP of $199, bringing the Chromebook/dock package to a starting price of about $700. The HP Chromebook 13 does not appear to be listed on HP's site yet.

Derek Forrest is an Associate Contributing Writer for Tom’s Hardware and Tom’s IT Pro. Follow Derek Forrest on Twitter. Follow us on Facebook, Google+, RSS, Twitter and YouTube.