14 DAY TRIAL // From time to time HP likes to update its popular Chromebook 11 with a bunch of new features. It's not extremely impressive but they call it an update, nevertheless.
The last time this happened was in May, and the G2 version showed up with a bunch of retailers. A few months later, HP is ready to push out the G3 model which comes with more diverse changes.
But first, a little historic tour. The original HP Chromebook 11 was launched back in 2013 and arrived with a low-power Samsung Exynos 5 dual-core CPU, a decent IPS display and a compact / colorful look Google itself was involved in designing.
Actually, it is the vibrant design that sets the HP Chromebook 11 apart from all the similar products available on the market today. The notebooks boast a distinctive color bar located on the lid and matching colored pads at the bottom.
But the G2 model didn't receive the same aesthetic treatment. As a matter of fact, G2 looks more like the 14-inch Chromebook coming from the same company.
Apart from that, the G2 comes with an 11.6-inch LED Matte Display and takes advantage of a Samsung Exynos 5250 ARM Cortex-A15 dual-core processor fitted with 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, 802.11n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0.
But with the G3, HP is changing the insides of the laptop. You can now kiss the ARM-based Exynos 5250 architecture goodbye and welcome Intel’s Celeron N2830 Bay Trail chip.
The design of the new machine is exactly the same as the one of the Chromebook 11 G2, but under the hood now lies a 2.16GHz dual-core x86 processor fitted with 4GB of RAM.
The device was spotted by Alvin Chin in a support document posted on the HP website. This was probably an accidental leak on behalf of the company because since then the page has been removed.
It’s also worth mentioning that HP draws attention to a TPM 1.2 security chip, so this aspect could indicate that the G3 could be marketed for the business market.
Except these aspects we have mentioned, everything onboard of the new G3 remains the same. That means customers will be paying for an 11.6-inch display with 1366 x 768 pixel res, 1 USB 3.0 port, 1 USB 2.0 port, HDMI, stereo speakers, Bluetooth 4.0, either 802.11ac and 802.11n Wi-Fi plus optional 4G LTE/HSPA+.
For the time being, it remains unknown when the Bay Trail Chromebook will be made available for purchase or how much it will cost.