Wednesday, January 20th 2016
HP Unveils New Chromebook Designed for Education
HP Inc. today announced the HP Chromebook 11 G4 Education Edition (EE) -- a durable, lightweight Chromebook designed to meet the needs of students and educators. "The popularity of Chromebooks in the classroom offers a simple, secure, and manageable solution to enable technology-based learning," said Gus Schmedlen, vice president of Worldwide Education, HP. "With the HP Chromebook 11 G4 Education Edition (EE), we are bringing innovation, design and HP's legendary quality to students and teachers in a durable device built to survive the rigorous school environment while enabling students to achieve more both in and out of the classroom."
Because students can be some of the most demanding users when it comes to technology, HP designed the HP Chromebook 11 G4 EE with their environment in mind. At 20 mm thin and just 2.7 pounds, the fanless HP Chromebook 11 G4 EE is the thinnest rugged Chromebook for Education designed to pass MIL-STD testing. With rugged construction accents like co-molded rubber edges, the device passes HP's 70 cm drop test to help protect it from occasional bumps with lockers and drops from desks.
The spill-resistant keyboard helps keep the Chromebook safe from water-related accidents and includes smart features like a 180-degree hinge that allows the Chromebook to lay flat for easy collaboration, as well as an optional IPS panel that provides wide viewing angles, perfect for students working together on a project. And for those Google Hangouts study groups, built-in noise suppression technology makes everything sound great.
Inside, students will find an Intel Celeron processor for fast access to their applications and up to 9.5 hours of battery life to get through even the longest school day. Optional 3G/4G WWAN5 connectivity helps ensure students can connect to the resources they need inside and outside of the classroom.
The HP Chromebook 11 G4 EE is also easy to deploy and manage, thanks to the optional Chrome Management Console. Teachers and administrators can manage policies, apps and OS updates across a fleet of thousands of Chromebooks, all from a web-based admin console. In addition to device management, HP offers configurable color options (black and electric green) so administrators can quickly identify and distribute the HP Chromebook 11 G4 EE by grade, class or charging cart.
Pricing and Availability
The HP Chromebook 11 G4 EE is expected to be available in the United States in January 2016 starting at $199.
Because students can be some of the most demanding users when it comes to technology, HP designed the HP Chromebook 11 G4 EE with their environment in mind. At 20 mm thin and just 2.7 pounds, the fanless HP Chromebook 11 G4 EE is the thinnest rugged Chromebook for Education designed to pass MIL-STD testing. With rugged construction accents like co-molded rubber edges, the device passes HP's 70 cm drop test to help protect it from occasional bumps with lockers and drops from desks.
Inside, students will find an Intel Celeron processor for fast access to their applications and up to 9.5 hours of battery life to get through even the longest school day. Optional 3G/4G WWAN5 connectivity helps ensure students can connect to the resources they need inside and outside of the classroom.
The HP Chromebook 11 G4 EE is also easy to deploy and manage, thanks to the optional Chrome Management Console. Teachers and administrators can manage policies, apps and OS updates across a fleet of thousands of Chromebooks, all from a web-based admin console. In addition to device management, HP offers configurable color options (black and electric green) so administrators can quickly identify and distribute the HP Chromebook 11 G4 EE by grade, class or charging cart.
Pricing and Availability
The HP Chromebook 11 G4 EE is expected to be available in the United States in January 2016 starting at $199.
17 Comments on HP Unveils New Chromebook Designed for Education
"HP's legendary quality to students and teachers in a durable device"
I don't care much for the certification, since Dell's Education Latitudes probably have the same. Thing is, when I was in school, HP = crappy laptops that looked OK and performed OK but always started losing corners (literally, falling/chipped off) while Dells would survive all kinds of bumps and bruises. And that's not just the students at my school. Dells have a reputation for being the laptop that keeps working when you don't have money to get a MBP/MBA. HP doesn't have that image.
Dell has had their Latitude 13 on the market for quite some time now, and it runs Windows instead of Chrome. No respectable school would buy these HP for their students; half of science lab software still used today are legacy Windows (you know, the kind that provides an interface between modular components such as pH sensors and the computer). Stuff like Canvas and Blackboard can be accessed online, but the ones that are course-specific are often not.
Lenovo has better options in sub-$300 segment, like a ThinkPad E455 (A6-7000, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, 14" screen), or B40-80 (i3-4005, 4GB RAM, 500GB HDD, 14").
I really hate most of low-end Lenovo products due to quality issues, but HP is no better.
I was confused by that line too. Legendary quality? Legendary in what way? Breaking quickly and being both hot and loud?
I had two HP laptops, both of which had broken screen hinges within two years. My sister had a HP laptop that flat out broke (wouldn't even POST, had to pull the hard drive to get data back). My last HP laptop also overheated and throttled even with the fan getting really loud. Disassembling and cleaning it would let it run longer before throttling, but there was no way it could hold top turbo clocks for any sustained workload.
The only difference is that ChromeOS is always connected, so all of your "apps" are basically WebApplications, while all of your files are stored somewhere in the ether.
So the usage and fleet administration is supposedly easy, but if you have no internet - you are f#$%d. Tried ChromeOS on my desktop recently and boy, was I horribly disappointed.
For some absolutely idiotic reason, the metallic back of the keyboard had a plastic sheet as an insulator, but for some reason (perhaps to prevent it from melting?) there was a square cut out where the keyboard hovers over the back of the CPU. If that cutout wasn't there, it probably would have been fine.
You tell a big funny TPU :D
But it seems consumer stuff still suffers.
Meanwhile, my Latitude E6420 is happy with having been disassembled numerous times (switched heatsinks, then CPUs; sometimes, I clean it). That said, I do have a Dell charger on which the plastic is falling off, but then again... It got hit by a power surge, once. I don't know how badly that can damage a charger.