HP 14" Intel Pentium 4GB/64GB Chromebook - Silver - 14a-na0031wm

Short version: This is a super lightweight laptop that is comfortable to use and has amazing battery life. While it's not as functional as a full PC, it runs many Android apps, and a ton of Chrome web apps. For the most part it feels like a full computer, and is versatile and easy to use. Now for the details.... The laptop is extremely lightweight. The case has a matte, almost very slightly textured, finish. It's not slick or shiny at all. The HP stickers came off very easily. The screen is pretty good. Maybe not my most favorite, because the matte texture makes it feel a little less sharp, but the non glare is super nice for having it outside. The touchpad has a nice feel, easy to click but doesn't click accidentally when you're typing, which is something I usually find to be an issue. You can set up natural scrolling for the touchpad, but in the settings it is called Australian scrolling. There's not a Delete button, but you can use Alt + Backspace to Delete things in front of the cursor. There is a row of useful keys for volume, brightness, forward/back, and so on. Hold down the power button for a moment to bring up Power and Lock options. The keyboard itself is great. It's got a good feel when you type. The keys aren't noisy, but they feel sturdy and durable (take some pointers, Apple). The letters/icons are also very easy to see on the keys, and the size of the keyboard/keys is great for my stubby fingers. My hands don't feel crowded like they do on little bluetooth keyboards. When you sign in, it takes you through the setup screens, which are almost identical to setting up an Android device. There is a notification for 100 GB Google One free for a year, which does require a payment method to activate, but it is easy to cancel from the Play Store like other subscriptions. There are no additional junk apps, which was awesome. Only Google apps, and one shortcut to the HP registration page. I approve. It took a little bit to figure out the difference between the web apps and the Play Store apps, because most of them, like Google Keep and Drive, look really nice as web apps. Since this saves storage and can have more functionality, I stick with the web apps for most of the Google products. If you use this for Zoom, the Chrome app for Zoom was great and overall felt just like using it on a full PC. The battery life is excellent. When I got it, I unplugged it at 100% and after almost 2 hours of installing programs, browsing, and video calling, it dropped 14%. I used it outside for around an hour and a half or so, with maximum screen brightness, browsing, and bluetooth music, and it dropped to 82%. The time remaining bounces all over like on any computer, so pay attention to the percentage, not the minutes left. So far, I've definitely been able to get the advertised 12 or 13 hours of it, no problem. This is cool because I won't need to charge it all the time, and I can take it to the coffee shop or wherever, and I don't have to worry about having an outlet nearby or even bringing the power cord. I use Google Drive a lot, as well as other apps for notetaking, etc, so I generally end up pulling out my phone to write things down when I'm studying away from home. This is going to change how I work. I took it outside on an overcast morning and with the screen brightness all the way up, it was quite usable. If it was sunny I don't know that I would be able to use it outside, but as long as there's some shade, it's probably fine. The webcam isn't amazing and in lower light the picture becomes very noisy and dark. It's definitely not awful, and likely will meet the need for any basic video call. With a better light, it improves a lot. In overcast light outside, the picture was just fine. Not incredibly sharp, but more than adequate to take a picture. Inside, you'll need to put a light source behind the webcam to show up without dark shadows. The sound is great for video/voice calls. I also tested music on this and the speakers sound really really great. There was a lot of depth to the sound and great volume. I'm actually super surprised at how good the sound was, better than my regular laptop for sure. I was concerned that since this isn't a regular OS that it might be basically just a giant phone or a tablet with a keyboard. But there is actually significantly more functionality than I expected. There is a nice mix of PC and Android behavior. Most apps respond to right clicking or swiping on the touchpad. I was able to drag and drop files into the Chrome browser like I would on a regular PC. You can resize windows, minimize, etc. I do a lot of typing on documents, journaling, and messaging, which is very difficult on a tablet without an external keyboard. I also rely on a lot of apps that don't have super great PC versions (usually just a stripped down website). This has the easy viewing of a PC/tablet with the same easy maneuvering I get from a PC and the app features I have on my phone. The fact that it's lightweight and has a great battery makes it perfect. One of the best parts is that Chromebooks can run Linux programs. This means that if you need a desktop program and it's available for Linux (like LibreOffice, desktop Spotify for editing playlists, etc), then you can install the deb file on the Chromebook or run the command to install in the Linux terminal. This worked great overall. Something to note is that of course that will take more space, and there's not a ton of hard drive space here. The other big thing is that there is not audio/mic capability on the Linux apps, so you can use the other features, but you're out of luck if you want to use desktop Zoom or listen to Spotify. Still, the Linux is in beta, and it's more of a bonus than their selling point, so I can't really complain about that. The security features were also an interesting thing I didn't know much about, but I am glad to have. If you search "defense in depth for Chrome OS" you'll find a lot of useful details, but basically, everything you do on the Chromebook is "sandboxed" so if you do run into something malicious, it's much less likely to infect everything on your computer. There are some other features and checks that the OS does as well to keep things running safely and smoothly. It should be noted that you need a Google account to use this laptop. It's also designed to be more cloud based, so you aren't going to be able to store a ton of files on the laptop itself (although you can use external storage or add and SD card). Much of the functionality comes from the Chrome Web Apps, which may be used without an internet connection at times (depending on the app) but will expect a connection at some point, so if you don't have consistent internet access, or are wanting a machine to use offline or with lots of storage, you may want to pass over this for a more traditional PC.