The HP Chromebook is remarkably lite weight, which in my opinion was really smart of HP this feature alone adds to the selling factor. The delta between carrying a tablet and the Chromebook is minimal as it weighs in at just 2.3 pounds. The screen resolution comes in at 1366×768 which is adequate for the 11.6 inch screen. The Chromebook is made out of plastic that you can order in a variety of colors, with a metal support frame underneath. The lid flexes a little bit if you open it from a corner but not so much that it would worry you.
The keyboard is a very soft touch and actually not that bad, it is slightly recessed but is ok. I have seen a lot of other keyboards on more expensive computers that where worse. The biggest detractor to me is the touch-pad it was driving me crazy for the first couple of days till i got used to it.. You can always plug in a mouse but I opted not to. With a price tag of $279.00 they have found a great balance here in construction, price and performance. The performance is fine, and even handled multiple tabs opened on the browser and worked fine with the 10-12 extensions I have installed. The unit I reviewed only had WiFi as a option although you could also connect via Bluetooth which should be a consideration for anyone wanting to buy one. While it will work with no internet connection it is best when connected to the Internet.
It comes with Two USB Ports, a MicroUSB for charging (Same as most cell phones) VGA Webcam & headphone port. You can connect an external monitor to it via the MicroUSB port supporting HDMI, VGA, and DisplayPort video. I actually charged the Chromebook with my cell phone charger one evening which was kinda funny. They do include a charger and cable for it. Sadly there was no SD Port which is disappointing so you will have to use flash drives to off-load anything. It comes with a 16gb SSD drive so on-board storage like previous versions is extremely limited.
Overall battery life is great 6 hours of usage. I streamed a couple of movies on Netflix on a single charge with 10-15% to spare. This is nice improvement over the Samsung that I still have that is a couple of years old.
I am a geek and I like it when the barrier to entry is lowered and I feel the Chromebook 11 has done a nice job in providing an affordable alternative for folks that still want to have the feel of keyboard and are comfortable working in the cloud. This was a loaner unit so I will have to decide if I want to purchase one as I have gotten quite attached to it over the past week.