HP Chromebook 11a: Handy little machine

The machine can be used by students and office tasks as well

Whether it is online learning for the kids or the adults require a thin and light machine for light office work, the choice is there these days.

Although there are expensive machines that are thin and light, one may not need that kind of computing power for light tasks. And this section of the inexpensive laptop market is thriving too. It is the Chromebook. Here we are talking about a device from Hewett-Packard (HP) -- the Chromebook 11a.

Open the laptop and the keys are well laid out with enough space between the keys even for those adults who have bigger fingers. The top row has the usual brightness, volume up/ down keys and the power key as well. The keys have a bit of stiffness to them but were certainly not uncomfortable to type on, even for kids. Below the keyboard is the touchpad that is fairly large and quite responsive too.

The screen has slightly wide bezels and the top has the 720p webcam and the mics. The screen to body ratio is 73.80 per cent.

The display, which is a touchscreen, is quite impressive for a device at this price point. For 4K videos played on the device, the colours looked natural and skin tones looked very real. The audio, though not great, is very much acceptable again for a device at this price point.

On the left side is a USB Type-A port, on the right side is a USB Type-C port (that supports power delivery and DisplayPort), 3.5mm audio socket and a MicroSD card reader.

The 11a is powered by the MediaTek MT8183 processor with a base frequency of 2.0 GHz with MediaTek integrated graphics. It has 4GB of LPDDR4x RAM with 64GB of onboard storage and expandable with the help of the MicroSD card.

Now, with these specifications, what can it do? A lot actually. Firstly, the Chrome 64 operating system is a breeze to use. It is just like using a bigger Android device and thanks to our familiarity with smartphones, using the 11a is not a problem. Apps like Office can be used online and there is hardly any need to install them and use up precious storage space.

Even with several tabs open, the machine did not show any signs of lagging or getting throttled. It performed with the same ease. Of course, it is not for the hardcore gamer or people like that because this machine is not meant for this section of people.

On the 11a, Zoom calls went off pretty well too.

On a full charge, the battery easily lasted the whole work day of about eight hours with juice left. This was with regular office tasks like browsing the web, emailing and CMS work. Even with a bit of light YouTube viewing later in the day, there was still some charge left. So, no complaints as far as the battery is concerned.

The HP Chromebook 11a is priced at Rs 21,999.

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