14 DAY TRIAL // Google has been working on Chrome OS for a while, and its vision of what a Chrome computer would be like isn't new.
However, it was only less than a year ago, when the ARM-powered cheap Samsung Chromebook, along with the even cheaper Inte-powered Acer Chromebook, made their debut that people started noticing.
On the one hand, Chromebooks quickly came to dominate laptop sales, on Amazon at least, but likely everywhere else. On the other, companies started noticing that Chromebooks were a sole bright spot in an otherwise grim market and started to be really interested in the idea.
That said, despite a relative variety of Chromebooks available for sale, it was still the Samsung Chromebook and the cheap Acer C7 that most people bought. The number one reason for that is price.
That's probably the biggest reason why Google designed the gorgeous but prohibitively expensive Pixel. It wanted to show that Chrome OS was not synonymous with cheap laptops.
This is the climate that the new generation of Chromebooks will come into. Price is still the determining factor, but there are people who would pay a bit more for a quality bump.
This is where the new HP Chromebook 14 comes in.
The device, available in three bright colors, is aiming for a $299 (€223) base price, more expensive than the Samsung Chromebook, but not by much. For that, it comes with Intel's brand new Haswell processor, a 14-inch display, and a 16 GB SSD.
That's not really something to write home about, but the price point is important and, just as importantly, the new processor should give the Chromebooks a significant battery life improvement. Google is bragging about new Chromebooks to come from Acer as well as new partners Toshiba and Asus, all sporting the new Intel chips.
None of those will surprise or impress with their specs, most likely, but the thing to look out for is the price. With the HP Chromebook at $299, you can expect all other devices to hover around that point.
With build quality and specs getting an upgrade, it will be interesting to see how this affects sales of more expensive laptops running Windows.