HP Unveils New Chromebook Designed for Education

[btarunr]

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.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[FreedomEclipse]

great - Now little kids cant install unreal tournament on it and have a fragfest against each other during break times.

 

[cdawall]

Simple fix, dual boot linux and suck it teachers.

 

[hojnikb]

Poor stundets... Not only they have to deal with school activites, they will be force with crappy HPs aswell...

 

[RCoon]

As a purchaser of IT products for five establishments, no sane UK schools will be buying these. I'm not actually aware of any academy that buys these "xxxxx for students" products.

 

[Estaric]

My school uses chromebooks and it is good for browsing TPU and thats it lmao

 

[Frick]

As a purchaser of IT products for five establishments, no sane UK schools will be buying these. I'm not actually aware of any academy that buys these "xxxxx for students" products.

What about developing countries? I seem to recall reading an article somewhere about cheap laptops in Africa..

 

[tabascosauz]

What irks me is

"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.

 

[xvi]

cheap laptops in Africa..

Are you thinking of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project?

 

[silentbogo]

Simple fix, dual boot linux and suck it teachers.

Base model only has 16GB eMMC with 5GB dedicated to ChromeOS.

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.

 

[chlamchowder]

What irks me is

"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.

^ This

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.

 

[AsRock]

Does Chrome OS have user accounts that control other accounts on the system ?, my daughters school gave the kids ipads and dam i have not seen such bullshit.

 

[silentbogo]

Does Chrome OS have user accounts that control other accounts on the system ?, my daughters school gave the kids ipads and dam i have not seen such bullshit.

No. It's more like android device management. Just one account, but individual settings for each one. I guess that's what HP meant.
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.

 

[xvi]

Legendary quality? Legendary in what way?

I recently pulled apart a Pavilion x360. A tech said that even when brand new, he had to type very lightly on the keyboard otherwise the PC will instantly shut off. He just dealt with it until he dropped it and shattered the screen (which is when I was asked to fix it). I found a screw that was stuck between the back of the CPU socket and the back of the keyboard. Whenever someone tapped on the keyboard, it would short out some of the circuitry on the back of the CPU. The way the CPU bracket was on and how close it was to the keyboard, there's no way the screw could have wiggled its way there, it would have to come like that from the factory.

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.

 

[NC37]

Ha ha ha ha...HP and durable in the same article...HA HA HA AHA HA AHAHAHAHAHA!!!

You tell a big funny TPU

 

[Easo]

Business laptops from HP ARE durable.
But it seems consumer stuff still suffers.

 

[Frick]

Are you thinking of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project?

Might've been.

Business laptops from HP ARE durable.
But it seems consumer stuff still suffers.

Oh yes, at least the Elitebooks.

 

[WaroDaBeast]

What irks me is

"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.

So legendary that, while delicately pulling on an internal cable, the socket came off with the plug. That's on a > €800 HP Probook. That aside, the laptop does feel sturdy though.

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.