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As one of the first batches of students to trial the “digital learning strategy” back in the early to mid-2010s, I am no stranger to Chromebooks. I have some not-so-fond memories of migrating to the library with the entire class every Thursday afternoon to “do research” and “write essays” on pseudo-laptops that are bulky and can lag at every click, but hey, they’re useable and having Chromebooks mean that we don’t have to hand-write 500 words about the detrimental effects of social media.
When I got the opportunity to review the HP Chromebook X260 11 G3, I had some hopes. After all, it’s been years since I graduated from secondary school, so Chromebooks had to have improved in all that time, right? Right.
Let’s find out.
HP Chromebook X360 11 G3 Specs
- Processor: Intel Celeron N4010 with UHD Graphics
- Memory: 4GB LPDDR4 RAM + 32GB eMMC Storage
- OS: Chrome OS
- Display: 11.6”, 720p IPS Convertible Display with Touch
- Ports: 2x USB-C 3.1 Gen 1, 2x USB-A 3.1 Gen 1, Universal Audio Combo Port, x1 micro-SD Card slot
- Connectivity: Bluetooth 5.0
- Battery: 47.36 Wh Li-ion with HP Fast Charge Technology
- Weight: 1.47kg
- Dimensions: 20.78 x 30.58 x 2.11 cm
Build & Design
- Nice and weighted
- Sturdy build
- Huge bezel around the screen
- Weird screen resolution
Fresh out of the box, the HP Chromebook X360 looked solid. Literally — it was nice and weighty, much unlike the light, flimsy chromebooks of yonder years that I was expecting, so that was a nice surprise. The model we reviewed was grey, with a dotted design on the top cover that gave the laptop a nice, textured look and doesn’t retain any fingerprints at all.
On the inside, the HP Chromebook X360 sports an 11.6” display with a huge bezel around it. The 720p HD webcam is situated at the top edge. The display itself is, while not exactly stunning, pretty acceptable, especially for its price range.
One thing that threw me off was the display resolution. 1366 x 768 makes for a weirdly squarish yet not quite display, so some apps may look a little weird. I work with split screens a lot, and the narrower display size means that splitting my screen results in too-small windows that are hard to work with.
Performance
- Great for working, but on Google apps only. Third-party apps are available through Google Play Store, though not all of them work properly.
- Not powerful at all; be prepared for lag if you open too many tabs at once
- Keyboard is nice
- 2-in-1 means it can turn into a tablet as well for entertainment.
Thirty minutes into using the HP Chromebook x360, and I was already having war flashbacks to my English “lab” classes.
The Chromebook, being a chromebook, runs on the ChromeOS and can pretty much only run Google/Chrome apps. Google Play Store is present for you to download third-party apps, but it is NOT completely like a smartphone/tablet — some apps do not work properly, like Firefox, which just goes wonky when I tried to download the alternate web browser.
Thankfully, though, most of my work can be done through Google Suites, which is really what the Chromebook was made for. On the whole, word processing and simple spreadsheeting went well — I almost thought I could use this as a work-only (you know, work-life balance and all that) laptop. Keyword: almost.
By nature of my work, and leftover habits from my academic research days, I always have a lot of tabs open. On my own laptop (a 16GB RAM Dell Inspiron), I often have up to 50 tabs open at a time in at least three different chrome profiles. That did not serve as a big problem for the Inspiron, but on the HP Chromebook X360, it was Kingdom Lag at half the amount of tabs. Understandable, since the chromebook only has 4GB RAM, but still frustrating when every single click takes two seconds to respond.
To my surprise, I liked the keyboard. The keycaps are wider than your typical laptop, so mistypes are less likely, and every key gives a satisfying tactile-like feedback. As someone who typically uses a mechanical keyboard, it was a pleasant experience.
Also, another good thing about the HP Chromebook X360 is that it is convertible. The hinges can go 360 degrees, which is where its name comes from, and turn the laptop into a tablet. In tablet mode, you can watch Youtube or Netflix (one of the apps downloaded off Google Play that works fine) after work/studying. The audio on the chromebook is also notably great, so consuming content is not a problem at all. The touchscreen is quite responsive as well.
Battery
- Lasts really long, ~10 hours of usage
- Then again, it doesn’t really do much, so this long battery life is expected
Since you can’t game or do anything extra complicated or power-consuming on the Chromebook, the battery life is great. During my review, it lasted through a whole day (~9 hours) of office work and had some leftover juice for two hours of Youtube, ending the day at around 13%.
Recharging it was also not much of a problem, though don’t expect it to have lighting-fast charging like regular laptops. The Chromebook charges through a USB Type-C port. I was able to get it to full charge from the aforementioned 13% in just a little over two hours while still using it while plugged in.
Conclusion
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