HP - Pavilion 11.6" Chromebook - Exynos - 2GB Memory - 16GB Hard Drive - Piano White/Blue

Before the review I'll explain how I ended up with a Chromebook. After my laptop's motherboard died just a few weeks after the warranty expired, I decided to try something new...a tablet. Since I absolutely love Android on my phone (Moto G) I thought it was time to join the 21st century and get a tablet. I settled on the Nexus 7 mainly because it had the best specs I could get in it's price range and it would always be updated to the latest version of Android. At first I loved it but that love quickly turned into frustration. First of all I needed a case that had a kickstand so I could easily watch videos without holding it so I found a good case for $40. Then I realized that while the speakers are good for a tablet, when my roommate is watching tv in the other room, they just weren't loud enough so I bought some bluetooth speakers for another $40. The Nexus 7 also doesn't have a SD card slot so I bought a USB OTG cable to access my music (Google drive is fine for photos and documents but with an upload speed of 512kbps my collection of 2700+ mp3's were going to take over 60 days 24/7 to upload! Even at the library which was 45 minutes away it was going to take a whole day. That's when I decided that while I loved the tablet, I needed something different so I looked into Chromebooks. Now on to the review. After researching all the available models and going to Best Buy to try them out I settled on the HP 11. Pros: -The build quality and design make you think you are using a much more expensive device. -The keyboard feels great. -The screen looks great and is viewable from almost any angle. -Great battery life, not as good as a tablet but much better than a Windows laptop. -Automatic, seamless updates...no more waiting for 30 minutes after a reboot while Windows installs updates or having to roll back drivers because something just stops working. -Based on Linux -Virtually virus and malware proof. -Native flash support. -Fanless and ventless design. This is great since I live in a dusty area and have pets. -Just fun to use! I feel the same about Android so I think Google has done a great job on the user experience. Cons: -No usb 3.0 ports. Not really that big of a deal since USB 2.0 suits my needs. -No HDMI out but that was solved with a $7 slimport adapter from Amazon. -Not as many apps as Android and no video support for yahoo messenger but I have it on my phone so again not a deal breaker. -No HD webcam, just VGA. -Only 16GB of internal memory but since it has USB ports not a dealbreaker. -Slight learning curve. -slightly slower than the Intel models but the fanless and ventless design make up for it. Overall the pros greatly outweigh the cons in my case since I did my homework and was ok with the the shortcomings before I bought it. That's why I gave it 5 stars. I was going to give it 4 but I love it so much it deserves 5! If you compare it to a full laptop, you may be disappointed, but if you look at it as a tablet with an 11.6" screen, built in keyboard, great sound, and USB ports it can't be beat. This chromebook with my Android smartphone is the perfect combo. I keep all my photos and documents on Google drive and Google + photos and I keep my music collection on a USB flash drive and back everything up to an external HD. Another bonus is that it also works with my USB OTG cable! If you ever need a 3rd USB port just plug it into the micro usb port and it mounts a USB flash drive automatically! In conclusion, If you are considering a tablet but want a little more functionality and convenience give this Chromebook a look. If you're a power user or heavy multitasker you may want a full blown laptop. I used to be a power user/linux geek but the older I get I'm discovering that I like something that "just works" and that is exactly what the Chromebook delivers.

This is my first chromebook and I got to tell you that I really impress with this little machine. HP did a great job on the design. It's pretty and comfortable to use. And I don't like HP. The initial setup took less than 10 min - the system had an upgrade and had to download and install it. If you have GMail or any other Google product, the Chrome OS will feel like home. The OS is basically the browser and all the applications will open a new tab in the browser. These days, most of everything people do is in the browser anyway. That doesn't mean you need to be online a 100% of the time. You can do somethings offline, like edit documents, spreadsheets, presentations, read a book and etc. Putting the OS aside, this machine is great to carry around. It's lite and small so it fits everywhere. The screen is absolutely beautiful. Bright colors and sharp resolution. I wish Best Buy had more colors available. Other models have the base white body with a color feature (blue, red, green and yellow) and a black version (my favorite). I would recommend this product if you are familiar with Google and doesn't need more than that. There are thousands of apps in the Google Play Store, but don't expect to install any other software, you just can't. Google wants you to store all of your files into Google Drive and access it from there. The SSD drive only has 16GB, so, no way to save music, videos and another heavy files for offline use. Also, if you want to print something, you have two options. First, your printer should be Google Cloud Print ready (for newer printers) or second, you need to add your existing printer - Google calls it classic (read old) printer - to the Google Cloud Print. The second option is pretty much connecting your printer to your Chromebook via the web, which means, you need to be online in order to print a document. If you get a Chromebook, I would recommend another Windows or Mac based computer as a emergency matter. If there is an internet outage, you won't be able to access your data, unless you have it saved locally.

I've used only the best Macs and PCs for school and let me tell you that I cannot believe this computer is not more common here at school. This thing is fast enough and versatile enough for common usage. Whoever puts negative reviews of this product is either bias or not willing to adapt to the chrome ecosystem or is absurdly busy with programs and tabs. I use it everyday for notes and papers, occasional video usage, everything but maybe spreadsheets because I am so used to using it on the PC. For a student, it does everything that you need to do. The first day I brought this thing to class, people were asking me in every class, "Ooo what is that!? Thats really cool." Its because it is different and unique besides the macbook that everyone has, but I hate carrying that beast because it ways so much and the air is expensive. Screen and Speakers are TOP NOTCH. Trust me, unless you have a brand new computer that is 5x as much, this is up there. Only issues that I am seeing so far, is that video playback is not always clean and could be improved. The scrolling is Mac-esque but the point and click and be a little inaccurate at times, but far from annoying once you get used to it. Battery is sufficient, but you tend to have negative thoughts since most computers last 10+hours, but the charger is so convenient! Great computer, great secondary computer, won't regret it. Just give it chance to make an impression on you.

I purchased my Chromebook mainly for browsing the web. It does this extremely well. I can check email, update Facebook and pretty much anything else I want to do. I can watch Netflix movies and if you have a Chromecast you can also display the Chromebook's screen and audio on your connected tv. Using Google Drive you can create free word documents and spreadsheets. Using the free Chrome remote desktop app I can also connect to my Windows laptop over my Wi-Fi or over the internet when I am on the road and need access to WIndows although I haven't needed this because most of what I do is web-based already which the Chromebook does exceptionally. The only downside is the unit is not extremely powerful so there are times it bogs down a bit when I have multiple tabs open, but it is only occasionally and is to be expected in this price range. Overall I would definitely urge you to consider this product. As a secondary unit this is perfect. As a primary unit you may want to make sure it is compatible with everything you do, but for most people I imagine it would. I have not tested the unit extensively without internet access, so I can not speak to potential limitations when not connected.

Overall, I'm happy with my purchase. I'm able to write documents (supposedly I can work on documents offline but I haven't needed to yet. However, that was a major selling point to me) and I am able to transfer and download files. It communicates with google docs very nicely. These are the main functions I needed for my job. I am also able to connect with media - spotify takes some maneuvering as I am not using the app but that's okay. Finally, there are some drawbacks. There is no conventional "caps lock." To do caps lock I have to hit Alt + Search, and then hit shift to undo. It takes some time for me to get used to. Secondly, sometimes youtube videos "break up" for a little bit, but I suspect that may be because I have many windows open at once. The sound quality depends on what you use it for. If I want to listen to music I usually hook it up to speakers, but not always. I usually don't for lectures.

This is my second chrome book the first one broke pretty fast, I am more of a business user so my wife uses this more as I need the operating system, but even for me I can easily see myself not having the need for heavy programs or hard drive if I decided to pick up and move my entire tech world to the cloud and App life. Chromes Apps are great, they have lots of room for potential but unexpectedly already at a great level developer wise. This product would be great for anyone looking to save money but also move forward in the future of technologies direction. The obvious things handles well like email, web surfing, and you even have online programs such as google docs instead of office. Only people I wouldn't suggest this to are the gamers who already have their games on disc and paid for.

Pros: It's inexpensive, pretty fast, fun, cute and light with some nice google integration. I also got to use a 10% "welcome to the neighborhood" coupon and then 2 weeks later the price dropped, again. No worries, Best Buy promptly matched the price. All in all, I'm very happy with my purchase as I just needed something to temporarily replace my Mac Air 11" (that was stolen) and at 1/5 of the price I'm a happy camper!! Cons: Not much internal capacity at 16GB but they make up for it in giving you 100GB free google drive space (for a yr anyway.) Therefore, no real ability to add software but they make up for that with google's online "Microsoft-like" tools with automatic sync! Battery is about 2.5 hrs but charges fast.

I want to buy a Chromebook after get $100 trade-in my old laptop running Windows XP Most people suggest Acer C720, which would be $100 after the coupon. However, I chose this one due to its good looking. The screen is sharp and the design is fashion and cute. The performance was not bad when I purchased it. However, the performance was bad now after 3 months everyday usage. You can find many video in Youtube shows how slow it is. In addition, the charger was broken 2 weeks ago and replaced a new one by Google, not by HP. Overall, it is a good try and I become a fan of Chrome OS. However, I need a better device.