Asus Chromebox

The final Chrome device I've ordered has finally arrived. I am typing this post with it. As you can see from the picture, it just comes with the unit and the power cable. No keyboard or mouse is provided. I don't expect to for the price which is less than USD $120 before shipping.

It has 2GB RAM with a 16GB SSD and a Haswell Celeron 2955U CPU. I''ve upgraded the RAM to 4GB as my experience tells me this will have the biggest impact on performance. Technically this has the exact same hardware configuration as my original HP Chromebook 14.

Upon boot up, the first thing I noticed is that it is not as smooth as the HP. It has the exact same specs but the HP somehow boots up faster and launches programs faster. Another thing I've noticed is that the ASUS will sometimes stutter when I have music running in one of the tabs via Google Play Music. It's not always but I never get this with the HP. So what accounts for this? I suspect ASUS has cut corners and installed a much slower SSD. But this does not account for the stutteriness of Google Play Music where music is streamed from the network and not stored locally. Maybe it's stored to SSD first during streaming before it gets played? I don't know. 

I'm not terribly happy as a result. I was hoping for the HP's performance level when I bought this. Compared to the HP and the ACER which do not have a large performance difference between them, the ASUS can be noticeably sluggish in comparison.

Other than that, there is nothing much I can say about the device other than it is a nicely built unit. The power button is a bit sticky so you are left wondering if you have turn it on when you press it. Luckily it has a white LED indicator to show that it has turn on. It does not have a VGA port, only HDMI, so I have to use an adapter to use it with my current HDMI-less monitor. The unit is also easy to upgrade as you only have to remove its rubber feet to access the screws which allows access to its internals. 

Maybe I should have bought the HP Chromebox instead?

Further Impressions on the HP Chromebook 14

Time to give further impressions on the HP Chromebook 14, now that I have lived with it for a while.

I still hate the keyboard with a passion. I don't know why in other reviews they say the keyboard is good to quite passable. I find them very hard to type on with its shallow keys and non-tactility. I guess I've been spoiled by my Topre keyboards.

Display-wise I'm just OK with it. It's something that I can live with for the price.

Sound is also passable. It's relatively loud enough for me that I can do away with external speakers.

The touchpad is also tolerable. There are no multi-touch gestures but it is on the whole responsive and do not get in the way while I'm doing stuff.

Performance-wise I am more than happy with the HP. It does not slow me down at all with any tasks that I put it through, whether playing FHD videos on YouTube or editing documents or general web browsing.

Currently I have my Leopold FC660C keyboard attached to it to compensate for its poor keyboard. I have also attached a mouse to do the navigation onscreen. I still prefer the mouse over any touchpad. I do not miss the use of multi-touch gestures. I still find the mouse faster.

So that's it. I'll add on if I find anything new. Ask me any questions you may have and I'll try my best to answer them.

UPDATE 1 : Want to hear something funny? Now that I'm using the HP with an external keyboard and mouse, I'm actually wishing that the HP is a tablet instead of a notebook. I wish it had the retractable stand of the Microsoft Surface or Surface Pro so that I can prop it up while using the keyboard and mouse. I also find myself wanting a touchscreen on the display.

So why not just use an Android tablet? I do after all have a Nexus 10 with QuickOffice already installed and that is a lot more capable than what is provided by Google Drive. The thing is, I've tried attaching the Nexus 10 to a mouse and keyboard. But when you actually use it, you find that a lot of things that you are used to on the Chromebook are missing. The way you navigate the Nexus 10 is also very different and it straight away reminds you that it is really geared towards touch and gesture-based input. Chrome OS on the other hand basically invites you to use the keyboard and mouse. I can't put my finger on why that is. It just is. You are a lot more productive in Chrome OS.

The other issue is that Chrome OS comes with a fully functioning Chrome browser. Or rather IT IS the Chrome browser. Chrome on Android, on the other hand, is a lot more limited and you are restricted in many ways, on what you can actually do. Most websites also do not scale very well. It is fine for consumption but the minute you try to be productive, a lot of things fall apart. I guess this is the same problem that the iPad faces.

Day 2 on the Chromebook

I like the convenience of just grabbing hold of the HP and start doing work almost immediately. It starts up within literally seconds. Love that.

Almost as immediately I begin to miss the back lighting on my other keyboards. Really wish this HP had one. I also miss terribly the dedicated HOME/END/DELETE/PAGE UP/PAGE DOWN keys. I never realise that I depend on them so much that I miss them on the HP. At the rate I'm going I suspect I might be Chromiuing (is that a word?) away on my other notebook with its more conventional keyboard arrangement. Am I too old to adapt?

Never thought I'd say this. But I usually have a strong threshold for cheap devices with their cheap ass screen and poor keyboards. What I couldn't tolerate is their poor performance and usually that is related to their poor storage speeds. Usually I would just put in an SSD in them and watch them fly.

I'm very comfortable around the Chrome browser so my problems seems to be mostly hardware-related. I'm beginning to see the rationale for better hardware for Chromebooks. You can only build something so cheap. The Chromebook Pixel would too be expensive. Maybe something more in the middle? I've yet to see one. Right now it seems to be 2 extremes. One is too expensive and the other is too hardware crippled (I'm not talking of performance here which is fine). But I guess it would be a harder sell since cheap always wins and the middle of the line would be more for those who are already familiar with Chromebooks and can live with them but just want something better hardware-wise.

But are there many of us? I guess when the cheap Chromebooks start flooding the low-end and people begin to get comfortable with them, there will be some (like me) who will start clamoring for better hardware. I wonder if we have reached that mass yet. Hopefully there will be 1 or 2 manufacturers who will build such a device to test the viability of that market.

Is it there yet?

It's here! It's here! The HP Chromebook 14 in Snow White is here!

The HP Chromebook 14 is finally here! I'm typing this post with it right now.

Shipping from BHPhotoVideo in the US to Singapore took less than 4 days! I'm impressed. I can really recommend them although shipping is incredibly expensive and I got hit by VAT which makes it a double whammy!

Out of the box the down cursor key came loose and I'm trying very hard to get it back into place. Not very successful though. Still trying.

First impressions are the build quality is ok. Feels plasticky on the inside but I've no complaints about the outside. The feel of the top lid is silky and smooth. I like it.

The screen quality not so much but I guess for the price it's forgivable. It's actually kinda blurry but I guess I've been spoiled by the sharp FULL HD screen on my Thinkpad T530 even though that is also not an IPS panel. The HP is also not very bright.

The keyboard also hardly impress. Once again I think I've been spoiled by the excellent Thinkpad T530 keyboard. The screen I can live with but the keyboard is really a......meh

I immediately got confused by the keys arrangement. While typing this post I immediately miss the HOME and END keys and especially the DELETE key. I never thought I'm going to miss them this much. Still early times though and I hope I can adjust.

Did I mention that the keys sucks? Still can't get over that. Currently that has been the biggest disappointment so far.

Performance-wise it is plenty fast enough. Not as fast as my Desktop with its Core i7-3770 or the Thinkpad T530 but for what I will use it for I have no complaints. The sound volume is also plenty loud enough unlike my Thinkpad T530 which has pathetic tiny sound. The sound quality is not fantastic but for the price I'm not complaining.

Geez....I can't get over this damn keyboard.

MUST....REALLY...GET...USE...TO...IT....I....JUST....MUST.....

Still working on that down cursor key.

I will post more impressions once I get to play with it some more. It is really too early to form any lasting impressions (except that damn keyboard).

UPDATE 1 : Finally managed to get the down cursor key fixed. What a major pain in the arse. Here's the funny thing. Although I hated the keyboard, I could still type relatively well with it. I did after all typed this post on the keyboard. Take that as you will.

UPDATE 2 : The screen is beginning to grate on me. There is this milky haze all over it especially at lower brightness. It's contributing to that blurriness that I mentioned before. Another pet peeve is that I would always put it to full brightness but every time I rebooted it will go back down 2-3 notches. Why can't it remember where I left it before the reboot? But to be perfectly honest its a relatively small issue.

UPDATE 3 : I forgot to say anything about the track pad. It's not terrible but it's not exactly fantastic either. It's tolerable. Usable at least and the relatively big surface area helps quite a bit.

UPDATE 4 : The battery life has been decent so far but not anywhere near the advertised 9.5 hours so in a way I'm kind of disappointed. I expected better. A lot better. I don't think this will last all day. Maybe half or two-thirds of the way if you are lucky. I guess this is due to me putting this to maximum brightness all the time. Anything lower and my eyes suffer. I heard that it has a maximum brightness of only 200 nits or so. That might explain it. Maybe the battery needs to condition some more before I can make a final judgement. I'll update if there are any improvements.

UPDATE 5 : I tested the 4G Mobile on the Chromebook with a 1GB 3G data plan that I got free with my home fibre broadband. It works straight out the box!