Not to be left behind by its competitors, Samsung and Acer, HP now has a Chromebook available in Australia, too.
Creatively, it’s called the HP Pavilion Chromebook, and it’s packing Google’s Chrome OS (duh), along with very similar specs to the Acer Chromebook C7: dual-core 1.1GHz Intel Celeron processor, 2GB of RAM and a 320GB hard disk with and additional 100GB of Google Drive cloud storage.
The 14-inch screen makes the Pavilion the largest Chromebook currently out on the market, compared to the 11.6-inch screens on the Acer and Samsung models. The Pavillion also has HDMI-out.
For the uninitiated, a Chromebook is a cheap laptop from Google that is built by a third-party manufacturer — in this case, Acer and Samsung — running Google’s own operating system, named ChromeOS.
ChomeOS isn’t like your ordinary operating system. It’s based entirely around a web browser, with very little emphasis placed on files actually being stored on your physical drive. You don’t install software on a ChromeOS machine, you install apps from the Chrome Store. You don’t open Office on the Chromebook, you run Google Drive and Google Docs. It’s essentially a cloud-based laptop. They aren’t pitched as replacements for your existing laptop, rather they’re designed to be a secondary device for people who want more out of their mobile computing experience than a tablet can offer without having to spend too much.
You can pick up the HP Pavilion Chromebook from Harvey Norman for $398. [Harvey Norman]