HP's gorgeous Chromebook 13 is thinner, lighter than MacBook Pro
The sad truth is most Chromebooks are cheap and underpowered -- $200 to $300 laptops that are just barely good enough to browse the web, stream video and edit a couple of Google documents.
But Chromebooks are growing up. Designed closely with Google, HP's new Chromebook 13 is a premium Chromebook that offers a lot, both in terms of design and performance.
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Starting at $499, the Chromebook 13 is more than the typical Chromebook, but not nearly as hard on the wallet as Google's Pixel 2, which starts at $999.99.
And whereas most Chromebooks are usually thick 1-inch clunkers, the Chromebook 13 is not. At 0.5 inch, its brushed aluminum body is thinner than a 13-inch MacBook Pro with Retina display (0.71 inch) and only a hair thicker than the HP's ultra-thin Spectre 13.3 (0.4 inch). The Chromebook 13's thinness also translates to lightness -- it's only 2.86 pounds.
The base model comes standard with a matte, full HD display, but on the higher-end configuration it has a 3,200 x 1,800 resolution screen (QHD+) IPS screen with wider view viewing angles. Just for comparison's sake, the QHD+ model has more pixels than the Pixel 2. Unreal.
the first Chromebook to be packing an Intel sixth-generation Core m (Skylake) processor
Sound, a feature almost every computer maker scrimps on, is tops on the Chromebook 13, too; audio geeks from Bang & Olufsen's B&O Play division helped tune the sound.
The Chromebook 13 is also the first Chromebook to be packing an Intel sixth-generation Core m (Skylake) processor (m3, m5 and m7), though the base model is saddled with a Pentium chip. And -- wait for it -- up to 16GB of RAM (just like the Pixel 2) for the Core m7 model, so you can open dozens and dozens of Chrome browser tabs before the laptop bottlenecks. The Pentium model will have a measly 4GB of RAM, Core m3 and m5 with 8GB of RAM.
The Chromebook 13 comes with Intel HD Graphics 515 and 32GB of internal storage.
HP says users will be able to get up to 11.5 hours of battery life from its 45 watt-hour battery through its reversible USB-C port.
Speaking of ports, there are two USB-C 3.1 ports, one full-sized USB port and a 3.5mm headphone jack and a microSD card slot.
The Chromebook 13 runs Chrome OS -- pretty standard. If you've used a Chromebook before, you'll be right at home with storing your files in the cloud and using web apps. Many of Google's apps like Google Docs now have offline modes so you can still keep working even without an Internet connection. HP did add a few features to the Chromebook 13, such as Lucid Sleep, a background-refresh mode of sorts, that quietly updates all your emails, documents and notifications while the laptop is in sleep mode. There's also HP Print, which makes it easier to print stuff, a bunch of enterprise management tools and greater security like stronger sandboxing and data encryption.
Another first for a Chromebook: a docking station. With the Chromebook 13 docked into the Elite USB-C Docking Station, users will be able to connect two HD monitors, wired accessories like a keyboard and mouse and get Ethernet connectivity.
The Chromebook 13 will be available by the end of April.
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Raymond Wong is Mashable's Senior Tech Correspondent. He reviews gadgets and tech toys and analyzes the tech industry. Raymond's also a bit of a camera geek, gamer, and fine chocolate lover. Before arriving at Mashable, he was the Deputy Editor of NBC Universal's tech publication DVICE. His writing has appeared on G4TV, BGR, Yahoo and Ubergizmo, to name a few. You can follow Raymond on Twitter @raywongy or Instagram @sourlemons.
