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Although HP hasn’t been pushing out Chromebooks on the identical stage as Lenovo, Asus, or Acer, it’s nonetheless one of many finest producers within the ChromeOS house, accountable for the likes of the HP Dragonfly Professional Chromebook, which is presently the highest canine throughout the board.
What now we have at our disposal right this moment seems to be a promising removable Chromebook by HP known as the x2 11. It’s a bit expensive, with its MSRP set at about $599, but it surely appears to be like to be delivering the whole ChromeOS package deal. On this overview article, we’ll be gauging exactly that as we take the unit for a spin and pluck out its important strengths and weaknesses.
Carry on studying till the tip to go away right here knowledgeably well-equipped, and put your finger on a call whether or not the Chromebook is definitely worth the cash or not. Let’s begin with the {hardware} parts of the x2 11.
HP Chromebook x2 11 technical specs
- CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon 7C processor
- Show: 11″ 2K (2160 x 1440p) decision, 3:2 side ratio, IPS panel, touchscreen, stylus-enabled
- Graphics: Qualcomm Adreno 618
- Arduous Drive Dimension: 64 GB eMMC flash reminiscence
- RAM: 8 GB LPDDR4
- Digicam: Twin-camera setup, 5 megapixels front-facing digicam
- Ports: 2x USB Sort-C ports, WWAN LTE card slot, USI stylus dock
- Battery: 2-cell Lithium-ion, 10 hrs battery runtime
- Charging Pace: 0-50% in 35 minutes
- Weight: 2.57 lbs (1.16 kg)
- Worth: $599
- Purchase on Amazon
HP Chromebook x2 11 in-depth overview
The HP Chromebook x2 11
The HP Chromebook x2 11 is up towards the likes of the Asus Chromebook Removable CM3 and the ever-effective Lenovo Chromebook Duet. Each of those Chromebook tablets are way more inexpensive than the x2 11, so this unit overview will draw comparisons from related gadgets to gauge the worth proposition of this versatile HP Chromebook.
After all, we don’t need you paying extra for a tool when you may get one which does a near-equal or perhaps a higher job with a far lower cost tag. We’ve sized down the x2 11 based mostly on its design, which contains an array of affiliated parameters, efficiency, and battery life.
By the tip of all these sections, we’ll go away our ultimate ideas in so you may resolve whether or not the x2 11 is one thing you may get behind. Let’s kick issues off with the design of the Chromebook first.
1. Design
Beginning with the appears to be like, the HP Chromebook x2 11 is a visually engaging piece of tech, coming in with its powdered aluminum end that tends to withstand fingerprints and feels incredible to carry. The chassis of the Chromebook pill is coloured in what HP likes to seek advice from as Shade Grey.
As for the keyboard and the kickstand cowl that helps the outside unit, the producer determined to go for a Night time Teal coloration scheme, which, in easy phrases, is only a comparatively darkish shade of blue. Furthermore, the USI stylus of the unit attaches to 1 facet of the display screen magnetically in a outstanding style, offering simplicity and luxury in equal measure.
The again of the Chromebook sports activities the brand-new HP brand, which supplies a incredible look to it, together with the Chromebook branding that rests beneath it. Moreover, the quantity rocker and the ability button are positioned in good positions, making it painless for the person to achieve and use them each day.
Let’s get onto the construct high quality of the x2 11 and notice down how good of a job HP has performed with this unit.
Construct high quality and weight
Happily, little or no will get in the way in which of the HP Chromebook x2 11 so far as the standard of its exterior is anxious. As iterated earlier, the ending on the machine makes its floor butter easy, and holding the Chromebook in your palms does give off that premium vibe, no doubts there.
The unit feels agency and durable and takes benefit of its non-plastic construct. With out the addition of the keyboard, the Chromebook pill weighs merely 1.25 kilos, making it a feather to hold round anyplace with you and even letting you maintain it in a single hand for a substantial whereas simply.
Even with the keyboard hooked up, the machine weighs 2.75 kilos, which is nowhere close to the cumbersome house of heavy Chromebooks. And due to the aesthetic that HP has maintained with the x2 11, the unit appears to be like outright splendid. You’re definitely going to be turning heads with this one whereas having fun with the transportable expertise your self.
Onto the extra vital facet of issues right here, the again hinge of the x2 11 might’ve benefitted from being a little bit extra sturdy. When laying the pill flat on a desk with the kickstand geared up, you’ll discover a good bit of wobble to the machine once you attempt sliding your fingers from one finish of the display screen to a different. Aside from that, the construct is superb by itself.
Show
Coming right down to the way in which the visuals look on the HP Chromebook x2 11, now we have to say that the show panel on the unit took us aback with its superior high quality. On paper, the specs sheet tells us that the machine employs an 11-inch 2K (2160 x 1440p) decision with a terrific 3:2 side ratio, much like the tall kind issue of the Acer Chromebook Spin 713.
It’s touch-enabled, in fact, and the panel that it makes use of options IPS (In-Airplane Switching) know-how, virtually making a show brighter, clearer, and energetic. The x2 11 has one of many finest shows we’ve ever seen on a Chromebook pill, and there’s no exaggeration right here.
The colours on the display screen come out, the brightness is greater than considerable at a 400 nits most capability, and the side ratio has been chosen excellent for the x2 11. Every little thing seemingly seems phenomenally on the display screen of the Chromebook, so it does reside as much as anticipations on this regard.
Moreover, most fashions of the x2 11 include a garaged stylus that sticks to 1 facet of the display screen for painless accessibility. We examined the peripheral out and located it to work outright easily, with no lag to its title.
The contact controls are additionally fluid and unlock the added expanse of Android apps that work nice on pill Chromebooks. Judging from the standard of the show alone, together with our expertise with it thus far, the x2 11 appears to be fascinating thus far.
Keyboard
Shifting onto the keyboard of the Chromebook, we first should cowl the tablet-centric a part of this part earlier than we will specific our opinion on the way it stands by itself. Fortunately, we don’t have a large concern to voice right here. The magnets hooked up to the keyboard body are robust and latch onto the pill firmly, even when the 2 ends are within the neighborhood and never all in collectively.
HP has embedded a second layer of magnets within the keyboard body, permitting you to raise the part barely to regulate the typing peak. This is a wonderful addition to the unit’s general accessibility and permits some customers to calibrate their typing place earlier than they get going.
Now, for the keyboard itself, we have been delighted to seek out out that the x2 11 sports activities snug keys with an awesome click on mechanism. The important thing journey additionally appears admirable, permitting quick typers to get themselves on the market and dish out anyplace between 90-150 phrases per minute, given the standard of this factor.
It’s not backlit, although, so don’t count on something in any other case. Nonetheless, in contrast to the Chromebook Duet 5, the keyframe is well-built and isn’t flimsy. The keycaps additionally appear to be of a premium high quality, so there’s that.
Trackpad
The good things continues with the HP Chromebook x2 11 trackpad as effectively. It’s fairly broad, simply accommodating these with massive fingers, and boasts a glass construct, in contrast to its opponents, the place primarily plastic is employed. You may get a variety of work performed with the standard of the unit’s trackpad, whose click on mechanism is admirable, too, and the faucets really feel good and agency.
We should think about that the x2 11 makes use of a keyboard and trackpad cowl, not precise parts constructed into the chassis. From that perspective, the peripherals of the Chromebook pill are fairly succesful, greater than our preliminary expectations, to be truthful.
Ports
The HP Chromebook x2 11 enjoys a good port choice, among the many different obtrusive utilities that set it other than the competitors. Most removable Chromebooks don’t include sufficient I/O, however that isn’t the case with the x2 11, that’s for certain. It comes with two USB Sort-C ports and a WWAN LTE card slot.
On some fashions of the x2 11, you’ll see a microSD card reader slot contained in the SIM card port. The one unhappy factor is that there’s no 3.5 mm headphone jack. Due to this fact, you could depend on Bluetooth headphones in your audio-listening endeavors.
Webcam
The HP x2 11 makes use of a dual-camera setup, being a Chromebook pill. Whereas we will definitely vouch for the rear digicam that gives 5 megapixels of readability, the front-facing webcam is simply satisfactory. You’ll have the ability to get by on video conferencing apps, comparable to Meet, Zoom, or Skype, with out having to show to an exterior webcam off someplace like Amazon.
The feel high quality isn’t grainy with the machine’s rear digicam, and might produce good-quality photographs usually. Nonetheless, Taking photographs at nighttime with poor lighting is one other story and possibly one that you simply shouldn’t depend on.
Audio system
On the flip facet, you could need to look into exterior audio system for the HP Chromebook x2 11 should you’re captivated with music and video watching as a result of those on the machine are mediocre. Nothing too fancy about them, but it surely’s not downright wasteful both.
The unit employs Bang and Olufsen-certified front-firing audio system on both facet of the display screen, so ideally, HP ought to’ve maintained a sure high quality commonplace. The sound from the audio system sounds skinny, and the loudness isn’t totally as much as par, both. Sadly, you may’t have every thing on one Chromebook, are you able to?
2. Efficiency
The HP Chromebook x2 11 has fairly spectacular aesthetics, and it will get a variety of issues proper with the 2K show panel that it makes use of, however, unluckily, it takes a substantial nosedive concerning the efficiency division. Don’t get us improper—the net looking isn’t all that unhealthy; it’s simply that you simply gained’t have the ability to multitask like a professional on this machine.
Using a Snapdragon 7C processor together with 8 GB RAM and 64 GB eMMC flash reminiscence, the x2 11 appears to be like fairly succesful on paper, however once you put it to its paces, you’ll uncover that even opening 4 to 5 completely different purposes on the Chromebook directly can begin to make the system bathroom down when it comes to efficiency, piece by piece.
That isn’t probably the most supreme of eventualities that we’d like to put a person in once they’re out and about shopping for a brand new Chromebook. That mentioned, if you recognize your use case and it doesn’t revolve round heavy work, the x2 11 will seemingly do the job for you. In case you’re going to deal with one activity in a single given time, the unit could be dependable.
It could additionally run a number of Android apps concurrently, adopted by easily working Linux software program, however don’t push it previous its boundaries, and also you’ll be good to go. ChromeOS has come a good distance from the place it as soon as kicked issues off, so if the {hardware} of the Chromebook is sufficient, shifting across the interface and getting stuff performed can get fairly seamless, as noticed on the Duet 3 Chromebook.
Oh, and one quirky characteristic of the x2 11 is its fingerprint scanner mounted on the ability button. You maintain your finger there for a second or two, and voila! You get signed proper into your Chromebook. It’s a welcome addition that makes log-ins immediately seamless and lightning-fast.
Configurations
At the moment, there’s just one accessible configuration of the HP Chromebook x2 11 that you could buy from Amazon, and it’s the bottom model of the machine that we’ve mentioned within the article. If different variants of the x2 11 pop up anytime quickly, we’ll replace the article with new info.
3. Battery life
Because of the 2-cell Lithium-ion battery that the x2 11 comes geared up with, we will respect the battery runtime that the machine can supply on a dependable foundation. It’s proper up there with Chromebooks with the finest battery life, spanning greater than 10-11 hours on a single full cost.
The most effective half is that it will get juiced up rapidly, permitting you to cost the unit about 50% inside 30-35 minutes as well. Concerning battery life, the x2 11 is a reliable Chromebook that may final you a full day of labor or faculty and go away a while out for something that comes afterward, comparable to Netflix streaming or enjoying PUBG.
4. Closing ideas
So when it comes down to buying this Chromebook or not, all of it depends upon the use case of you as the buyer. The HP Chromebook x2 11 is a tremendous piece of tech concerning its appears to be like, show, and peripherals, however should you want a tool that needs to be a workhorse, you’re most likely higher off venturing elsewhere.
On the opposite facet, although, when you’ve got a factor for tablets and usually like utilizing them, the Chromebook x2 11 will suit you effectively. It has a incredible construct high quality and a terrific 2K decision show, making the viewing expertise totally pleasurable.
We suggest searching for a reduced deal on the machine that makes its MSRP come right down to the $300-$450 vary. When you discover the x2 11 inside that value bracket, it’s a straightforward advice from us at Chrome Prepared.
