A sight for bored eyes

HP’s tiny Chromebook 11 feels like a toy — it’s thin, light, and cheap, and it’s almost surprising that there’s a working laptop inside. The larger Chromebook 14, on the other hand, feels like a computer. It’s made of grippy, rubbery plastic that is comfortable in my hands and on my lap but feels like something of a wholly different class than the sleek, metallic MacBook Air or Acer Aspire S7 — but then, it is of a wholly different class.

At 4.08 pounds and 0.81 inches thick, there’s nothing particularly portable about the Chromebook 14. $299 rarely buys much in the way of fit and finish, and with seams and ridges everywhere you look there’s nothing particularly high-end about it either. But it’s solid and sturdy, having already survived one drop off the edge of my coffee table and plenty of trips in my bag. It feels well-made and carefully assembled, which in some ways matters even more than the raw materials.

It's far from high-end, but it doesn't feel cheap

This laptop is made to stand out, and it’s nothing if not a conversation starter. Everyone who sees it in my apartment or on my desk asks about it, much like they might casually notice a piece of art on the wall. It’s the colors: available in coral, white, and aqua, this is without question the most ostentatiously eye-catching computer I’ve ever used. My salmon-colored coral model has already picked up a few scuffs in my bag, but the color has only grown on me — and it looks really good on my black coffee table.

Chromebooks have always been small, bare-bones, and focused entirely on giving you access to the browser. But the Chromebook 14 comes with an SD card slot, an HDMI port, and three USB jacks (including two for USB 3.0). They certainly have their uses within Google’s operating system, and they clearly don’t meaningfully affect the device’s price tag. But HP’s either taking Chrome OS more seriously than any other manufacturer, treating it as a true Windows equivalent rather than something cheaper and inferior, or it’s simply recycling chassis designs without much thought or optimization.

In at least one case, it’s clearly the latter. The Chromebook 14’s 14-inch, 1366 x 768 display ought to be left in whatever storage bin HP pulled it out of. It’s big, but it’s not particularly bright and doesn’t have great viewing angles — it looks muted and washed out next to the vibrant, colorful Chromebook 11. The bigger problem, though, is that 1366 x 768 is barely acceptable on an 11.6-inch screen, and it’s nearly unusable blown up to 14 inches. At 111 pixels per inch, text becomes blurry and jagged instead of crisp and clear and small icons can be hard to discern. The screen looks like it’s dirty with a sheen obscuring the picture you want to see — but it’s just a bad display. It makes the Chromebook 14 feel like a chore to use, not like a laptop I could stare at all day.

The Chromebook 14's display is a dealbreaker

That’s particularly frustrating because HP got so many other things right. From the build quality to many of its components, the Chromebook 14 may not outperform its $299 price tag, but it operates smartly within its confines. Its trackpad, a problem for a shocking number of laptops, is a surprisingly smooth and glassy experience. The keyboard is clicky and responsive, even if the keys are a bit coarse and the letter labels are just stickers. The keyboard is the one obvious optimization for Chrome OS: the Caps Lock key has been traded for Google’s global search button, and a number of Chrome-specific function keys sit above the number row. The larger chassis leaves room for a comfortable palmrest, a well-spaced keyboard, and a big trackpad, and HP takes advantage across the board.