Hands-on: HP’s Chromebook 13 isn’t cheap, but it’s high-quality hardware

The low end of the Chromebook market is well-served, partly because Chromebooks do best in the cash-strapped education market and because the simplicity (and limitations) of ChromeOS are a better fit for budget hardware. For people who want something high-end, there’s always the $999 Chromebook Pixel, but that leaves a big space in between for people who want to make something that looks and feels nice but doesn’t cost a ton.

Certainly, there have been efforts. The Toshiba Chromebook 2 had a gorgeous 1080p IPS screen but a relatively weak Intel CPU. Dell’s Chromebook 13 is solidly mid-range, though the best features (including a 1080p screen, faster chips, and more RAM) are reserved for the higher-end models. And now there’s the HP Chromebook 13, which is merely a decent Chromebook at its $499 starting price but a full-on Chromebook Pixel competitor if you’re willing to pay more.

At $499, you get a 13.3-inch 1080p screen, a Skylake-based 1.5GHz Pentium 4405Y (which despite its name is a relative to the low-power Core M), 4GB of 1866MHz DDR3 RAM, and a 1080p screen, which isn’t bad for the price. A Core M-derived Pentium is still going to deliver stronger performance (particularly in the single-threaded CPU and the graphics departments) than the Atom-derived Celerons and Pentiums that ship in many low-end Chromebooks.

The “sweet spot” model—and the one we got hands-on time with today—is the $599 model, which bumps you up to a 900MHz (2.2GHz Turbo) Core m3-6Y30 and the 3200×1800 display. You still only have 4GB of RAM, but that’s a fairly comfortable amount for ChromeOS. You notice the jump from 2GB to 4GB more than you’d notice the jump from 4GB to 8GB or 16GB, though it’s nice to have those options. A maxed-out model with 16GB of RAM and the Core m7-6Y75 will run you $1,029, and all models have 32GB of eMMC storage, 867Mbps 802.11ac, Bluetooth 4.2, and a backlit keyboard with a multitouch trackpad.

Going hands-on

The Chromebook 13’s lid and palmrest are all aluminum, giving it the premium look and feel you’d expect from HP’s higher-end Spectre, Envy, and EliteBook laptops. The brushed metal texture on the lid and the subtle monochrome Chrome logo are all classy, and the rounded hinge evokes the Chromebook Pixel—the whole design, in fact, is reminiscent of a streamlined Pixel that ditches that laptop’s boxy corners in favor of a conventional Ultrabook design.

The QHD screen is gorgeous—easily the best I’ve seen on a Chromebook, the Pixel included. It’s not a touchscreen, and there’s no touchscreen option available, something that would bother me more if ChromeOS’ touch support wasn’t such a tacked-on afterthought. I won’t miss it, and the odds are good that you won’t either.

The keyboard, probably the second most important part of a laptop after the screen, is OK but not great. Key size and spacing are both good, and the backlight is nice and even, but the key travel is just a little shallower and mushier than the best chiclet-style laptop keyboards. Dell’s XPS 13, the MacBook Pro and Air, and even Asus’ ZenBook UX305C do a slightly better job here. HP’s isn’t bad; it just isn’t the best.

The multitouch trackpad seems pretty good at what it does. I didn’t have problems with finger tracking or palm rejection in my limited time with the Chromebook, and two-finger scrolling worked fine. Again, the bigger problem is Chrome OS itself—it could support OS X or Windows 10-like trackpad gestures to make window and desktop management easier and faster, but its gesture support is still pretty limited, despite the fact that multitouch trackpads have been a mainstay in Chromebooks for several years now. And the lack of multi-finger trackpad gestures makes it harder to quickly evaluate how good the trackpad really is. Pointing and clicking and two-finger scrolling are pretty hard to screw up, but more three- and four-finger gestures and swipes are a better way to test.

Finally, the port layout on the Chromebook 13 could show certain other laptops a thing or two. There are two USB Type-C ports and one USB Type-A port on the left side of the machine. The Type-C ports are used for everything from charging to data to display output, but there are two of them, so it’s not a problem to use one for charging while you use the other for something else, whether it’s a standalone monitor or the docking station that HP will sell you alongside the laptop. The Type-A port is a handy addition for older USB accessories, which still constitute the vast majority of USB devices and will for years to come.

I like the Type-C port layout of the Chromebook Pixel better, and I’m disappointed that so few OEMs have decided to appropriate it—having one port on each side makes it that much easier to fit it on your desk somewhere. But having two Type-C ports (plus the Type-A port plus the microSD card reader on the opposite side) is preferable to having one.

Like most Core M machines, this laptop is totally fanless, which is a nice touch. But at 2.86 pounds (1.29kg), the laptop is closer in weight to more powerful machines like the XPS 13 or the 13-inch MacBook Air than it is to ultra-light devices like the two-pound Retina MacBook. A three-pound laptop isn’t going to break anyone’s back, but switch to it after carrying a two-pound laptop around for a while and you’ll definitely notice the difference.

HP is aiming this laptop primarily at business and enterprise customers, hence the emphasis on docking and productivity in the official announcement. But like many of the better business laptops, there’s a lot about it for consumers to like, too. Yes, it’s more expensive than the typical Chromebook, and all of ChromeOS’ typical caveats apply. But if you love ChromeOS and want high-end hardware that doesn’t cost $1,000, you now have another option.

Listing image by Andrew Cunningham