HP Pavilion 14 Is Largest Ever Chromebook

HP has revealed its first ever Chromebook, the HP Pavilion 14, which will be available in the US for $329.99 (£210).

The company had been rumoured to be preparing a laptop based on the platform following disappointing sales of systems running the latest version of Microsoft’s Windows 8 operating system.

HP says that the release of the Pavilion 14 will widen its PC portfolio and strengthen its multi-OS strategy and suggests that the Chrome OS platform is gaining popularity with consumers.

HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook

“Google’s Chrome OS is showing great appeal to a growing customer base,” said Kevin Frost, vice president and general manager, Consumer PCs, Printing and Personal Systems, HP. “With HP’s Chromebook, customers can get the best of the Google experience on a full-sized laptop -all backed up by our service and brand.”

At 14 inches, the HP Pavilion 14 is two inches wider than any other Chromebook currently available on the market and is powered by an Intel Celeron processor and Intel high-definition graphics. It boasts 4GB of memory and a 16GB SSD for fast start up times.

Easy access to Google applications, social networks and websites is promised, with documents and photos stored on 100GB of free Google Drive storage for two years. Of course, to access these files, users must be connected to the Internet.

Google has pitched Chromebooks as internet-connected devices that can be cheaper and faster than traditional laptops, but critics have often cited offline work as particularly difficult.

However the idea appears to be ganing some traction. Acer has said that Chromebooks have accounted for between five and ten percent of its total US shipments since 2012, while one in three TechWeekEurope readers said that they would buy one today, according to our recent poll.

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