Chromebooks are little efficient machines that run on a lightweight Chrome OS that provides good battery life and does the job with lightweight tasks. The HP Chromebook x360 14b is another affordable device that provides pretty much the same Chromebook experience with some caveats.
Body and Build
The HP Chromebook X360 14b has an Aluminum chassis that feels sturdy and solid and gives the x360 Chromebook a premium feel.
Unfortunately, that is ruined by the plastic front display with black bezels, which proves to be quite fragile as many users have reported that the screen is very easy if not taken care of.
This ends up being really disappointing, as though the plastic build can be forgiven considering the device price. Still, nothing justifies the screen being this sensitive that it breaks easily.
So if you do plan to buy this, make sure to keep this in mind.
Keyboard, Trackpad, and Speakers
Keyboard
The HP Chromebook x360 14b doesn’t have your average Chromebook keyboard.
Its keyboard has a nice feel and travel, allowing you to type for hours without feeling like you are mashing your fingers on a rock-solid surface.
The only place where this keyboard disappoints is that it lacks backlighting, so you are going to have a problem when you are typing in the dark.
And the only thing that will help you barely see the keyboard is the light from the laptop’s screen. So keep that in mind.
Trackpad
There’s not much to say about the trackpad; it’s also really nice and does the job alright with a good clicky feel throughout the pad and being responsive while also having good palm rejection allowing for really optimal use.
Speakers
Don’t let the Bang & Olufsen branding fool you. The Speakers on the HP Chromebook X360 14b offer an average sound at best that will get the job done.
And honestly, we weren’t expecting them to blow us away, given this laptop’s price.
Just don’t plan on blasting music on these or watching movies on this; you are better off using external speakers or headphones.
Ports and I/O
The HP Chromebook X360 14b comes with one USB 3.1 Type-A port which is nice for connecting a peripheral like a wired mouse or a flash drive, and two USB 3.1 Type-C ports, which are also used for charging.
Type C charging means that it’s possible you could just carry one charger for both your laptop and your Android Phone, which is nice.
Aside from this, the Chromebook x360 14b comes with a Headphone jack and a Micro SD card slot, allowing you to further expand the 128GB SSD on this device.
Specs
Considering that it’s a Chromebook at an affordable price, we weren’t expecting any mind-blowing specs. The HP Chromebook 14 comes with an Intel Pentium Silver N5030, a Quad-Core chip that clocks at 3.1 GHz. 4GB RAM and 128GB SSD.
The laptop comes with a 14-inch Touchscreen 1366 x 768 TN panel; we will touch on that later(pun not intended).
It also has a 720p webcam that does the job for your online zoom calls.
The processor is not a beast and is powerful enough to check in your social media platforms and write some Word Docs.
However, some Chromebooks are powerful enough that you can do some light gaming on them. The HP Chromebook x360 14b is something gamers should definitely stay away from.
Something that I believe would hold this laptop back is its RAM.
With only 4GB of RAM, you would barely be able to open any tabs in Chrome. Some users have even reported the laptop just freezing and being unresponsive.
Though the 128GB of internal storage should be sufficient enough, and if you ever feel like that it’s not enough, then just put in an SD card and expand it.
And it comes with your average WiFi 5 and Bluetooth 5.0 too.
But it’s not all bad. The battery life of the HP X360 Chromebook 14b is super impressive; the laptop can last up to 11 hours and 8 hours at full load. The best part is throughout the usage of this laptop. You won’t ever feel like reaching out for the charger. And when you are done for the day, you would still be left with enough charge to last for half of the next day.
Display
The HP Chromebook X360 is a 14-inch touchscreen laptop, which is where this Chromebook comes crashing down.
The Touchscreen TN panel gives this laptop really bad viewing angles, and the 768p resolution of this Chromebook really contributes to the washed-out colors of this panel.
Making matters worse, the screen barely gets bright, meaning you will have a bad time if you plan to work with this in broad daylight.
And if it isn’t obvious by now, don’t plan to watch videos or do any sort of creative work on this, even though this laptop supports a USI pen.
Software
The HP X360 being a Chromebook, runs on Chrome OS. The OS allows you to run Android Apps along with Web apps.
The OS experience is quite clean and simple and would allow anyone to use it easily without little to no computer experience. If they are familiar with smartphones and tablets, they can easily use this with no issues.
Since this is a Chromebook, you can not run Windows executable programs on this like Adobe Photoshop, though considering the specs of this machine, you wouldn’t want to run those programs here either.
One cool thing about Chromebooks is that they support Linux apps as Chrome OS is basically made upon Linux Kernel.
And on top of that, you can sideload apps on this device like you can on Android Phones. So if you are savvy enough, you can do this too.
Future Expansion and Upgradability
Chromebooks don’t really offer expandability, and the HP Chromebook X360 14b is no exception.
The RAM on this laptop is soldered and can’t be upgraded the only thing that is kind of upgradable is the storage via SD Card.
And all Chromebooks have 8 years of life before their release giving you security and software updates.
After which, the Chromebook would be vulnerable to security threats. That shouldn’t be a problem, though, because you would probably change your laptop before this Chromebook hits the 8-year mark.
Conclusion
Our Final Verdict on this laptop is that if you plan on using the HP Chromebook X360 14b for very light tasks like browsing Facebook and Twitter and occasionally writing some word documents, then this Chromebook would do the job just fine.
This is why the HP Chromebook X360 14b would be best for students who want to attend zoom meetings or for the elderly who would like to check on their socials.
But, if your usage consists of many chrome tabs and documents while watching a youtube video too. Then stay away from this laptop as its underwhelming specs just cannot help you with your workflow.
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