By HP has revealed two new notebooks that Android-loving folks might want to consider. First is a refresh of their 11-inch Chromebook laptop, which features improved battery life at 6.5 hours and a host of new colors to choose from, including Ocean Turquoise. You still get built-in 4G connectivity and 100GB of Google Drive space, and everything else that comes with your typical Chromebook experience. HP says to look forward to it in July for just $280.
More interesting is the new Android-based SlateBook 14, which HP accidentally leaked back in April. For $430, you’re getting a 14-inch device with a 1080p touchscreen, NVIDIA’s Tegra 4 chipset, between 16GB and 64GB of internal storage, 2GB of RAM, 2 USB 2.0 ports, 1 USB 3.0 port, 1 HDMI 1.4b port, and an HD webcam. You’ll also get about 9 hours of battery life. Not too bad if you don’t need a powerhouse PC to do simple, everyday tasks. It’ll be available for purchase starting July 20th. Let us know if you’ll be looking to pick either of these up in the weeks to come.
The question to me is…. Why would I buy this over a Windows 8 laptop/tablet that has a touchscreen and supports desktop applications? $430 for what, to me, seems like a glorified Android tablet seems like a lot of money for that. Then again, I can understand that people would rather use an Android tablet than a Windows one so this would make it easier for them to use since it is a laptop.
Exactly… Android tablets have never looked attractive to me. I’d much rather get a Windows 8 tablet.
I think that this could attract computer illiterate kind of consumers. I help a few people who don’t know how to shutdown their desktop, they always get confused between left and right click. And of course, when they panic, they click on everything possible, sometime deleting things. An Android laptop with big 14″ touch screen would probably be easier for these people.
Completely agreed.
Also note that the HP 14″ Android laptop, which ships in July 2014…comes with Android 4.3…
I think this is all a test by Google. Seeing what the consumer wants. Chromebook or Android. I’ve got both. I think the benefit is more towards a Android notebook than a Chromebook if you’re basing it on cost and what you get. A Chromebook can’t install anything. However our phones most certainly can. Perhaps the future is an Android OS with Chrome built in? Who knows
I hope the new Chromebook 11 does NOT have a white keyboard! White is too hard to keep clean! If it does, then I’ll be buying the Slatebook 14 (assuming the pictures are accurate and the keyboard is black.)
Hope they have some that are LTE enabled. I tried the regular Chromebook 14 with free T Mobile data and it wasn’t LTE
The slatebook should have 3 gbs of ram. One of my big questions with android laptops are how they will handle instant on and standby power usage vs. Chromebooks(obviously this is one of chromes strongest selling points). It would also be amazing if an android laptop offered a a moto x style low power ok google core, that worked even with screen closed.