Review on HP Chromebook 11-inch Laptop with MediaTek MT8183: 4 GB RAM, 64 GB Storage, 11.6-inch HD Display, Chrome OS - Blue by Kelly Noonan

This is a long review. In summary, you get what you pay for and more. This is a very useful package at a great price. There's nothing premium, but you get a good compact computer for surfing the web. This is my first Chromebook. I've used Toshiba and Lenovo Macs and laptops in the past. I chose a Chromebook because I mainly use email, surf the web, use Zoom and watch Youtube. Everything I have to do with documents can be covered by Google. Compactness and long battery life are a big plus. I'm tired of big, heavy laptops with holes in their pockets. This Chromebook weighs 2-1/4 pounds, which is excellent. It's about the size of a magazine, so I wouldn't hesitate to take it with me anywhere. The case is made of durable plastic that is easy to keep clean. It's not as pretty as metal, but generally durable. The base plate wobbles a bit, but that's a nitpick. The battery life is as stated. Depending on what you're doing, you'll get around 10 hours or more, which is more than double any laptop I've used. The screen opens to 135 degrees (or 45 degrees in relation to the table top). I was disappointed it didn't open to a full 180 but I can work with it. Screen brightness is listed as 220 nits (lower limit), but don't let that fool you; It's as bright as my 8 year old Macbook and Lenovo laptop for work. Works well for indoor use. When you work outdoors, you need to find shade. The display quality is not the best, but quite usable. This is an IPS display that delivers the best viewing angles and color reproduction. The 11.6 inch screen is enough for watching videos and reading the news. I can type this review and read emails at the same time. It's also a touchscreen, which in my limited experience works great. The Chromebook is on my chest, it's nice to be able to flip through the pages easily with the touchscreen. I've downloaded several Android games and they work fine on the touchscreen. IMO you spend more on the touchscreen if you want to use Android apps. The keyboard is a comfortable size. I type efficiently without making many mistakes. Most buttons are where you would expect them to be. Chrome's dedicated keys don't get in the way. The keys themselves have a pleasantly positive response. equipped with a full repertoire of gestures for scrolling, zooming and searching apps. One thing I noticed is that you can only click the bottom half of the touchpad, but I usually click to click. Surprise. You are loud clear. They might seem a little tinny to music lovers, but I can listen to music for hours just using these speakers. At maximum volume, distortion is minimal. Of course, there's a headphone jack and Bluetooth capability. 32 gigabytes of storage space can be contested if you install a lot of apps. The Chrome system itself occupies about 13 GB. I put in a 128GB micro SD card that can be used as storage for Android apps that support it. For example, I can download music from Youtube Music to my SD card. Documents from the text editor and the camera app can also be redirected to the SD card. As far as the processor goes, I'm not doing anything that would stress this system yet. I usually just have a few tabs and apps open and play a few games. Keep in mind that this is the same processor found in the almost world-famous Lenovo Duet Chromebook, so no small feat. The 720p webcam is suitable for web conferences, photos or videos. A bit grainy in room lighting. People seem to hear me just fine with the built-in microphone, but it works best when you're sitting directly in front of your computer. Microphone input can be customized by expanding volume options in Wi-Fi/Battery/Time. Another cool thing: you can charge this Chromebook with a phone charger (with the right cable). This is slow and should be done when the Chromebook is not in use. With a regular phone charger I was able to get 15% per hour. This can come in handy when you're on the go and don't need to lug around the clunky power bank that comes with this Chromebook. Overall I am happy with my purchase. This is a good package to enjoy.