HP Chromebook 14 review: It's bigger and better than most other Chromebooks

HP’s new Chromebook 14 didn’t have to do much to impress me. Most other Chromebooks are small, cheaply made machines with underwhelming specs, including measly 11-inch displays. The one exception, of course, is Google’s gorgeous Chromebook Pixel, which almost no one can afford.

The Chromebook 14 is affordable (if not super cheap) at $300, and it has a 14-inch display. It seems not to suffer from the AC-adapter overheating that halted sales of its cousin, the Chromebook 11 (an unfortunate turn of events, because that’s a nice little machine). I understand why most Chromebooks are taking the low road to attract student and casual home users, but the Chromebook 14 is a reasonable middle ground that makes for a much better user experience.

There’s no way you’ll mistake the Chromebook 14 for its predecessor, the HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook, which debuted earlier this year. That Chromebook came in just one color--black--and aside from its large display, it felt pretty cheeseball, with a lot of hard plastics and a clackety feel. (PCWorld did not review this model, but I bought one for a family member and have used it extensively).

Image: Melissa Riofrio

The half-size cursor and function keys are smaller than we'd like.

The Chromebook 14 offers three cheery color choices: peach coral (a bright, silghtly orangey red), snow white, and our eval unit’s ocean turquoise. The color covers the outer surfaces and the display bezel. The colored plastic’s slightly soft feel is nice, though it seems to hold greasy fingerprints easily (and we weren’t bingeing on potato chips while reviewing this product). The unit weighs a little over 4 pounds, and the AC adapter weighs another 0.7 pounds.

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Source: http://www.pcworld.com/article/2065470/hp-chromebook-14-review-its-bigger-and-better-than-most-other-chromebooks.html#tk.rss_laptopcomputers

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