HP Chromebox CB1-014 Desktop PC Review

HP Chromebox Desktop CB1-014
via Amazon

White HP CB1-014 is one of the latest small and lightweight Chromebox desktop computers to use with an external monitor or your large screen HDTV through the HDMI or DisplayPort connection for mainly internet use and helping you complete your tasks with web based Google Chrome applications. It comes with built-in security features and is not much prone to viruses or trojan attacks and boot-up time is only seconds.

HP Chromebox has a 1.4 GHz Intel Celeron 2995U processor (2MB Cache), 2GB DDR3 SDRAM- PC3-12800 memory at 1600 MHz that can be upgraded to 4GB, 16GB Solid State Drive and Chrome operating system (no Windows or Apple OS X). SSD makes sure that the computer starts very fast and wakes up from hibernation quickly as well as speeding up the overall performance, although it may seem small everything on ChromeBox is web and Cloud based so you won’t feel the lack of a large hard drive much. It is suitable for viewing and editing text documents and spreadsheets, photo editing, chatting with people, playing songs and videos and play online games- you’ll find the most useful Google products integrated to help you do all these. 2GB RAM is also adequate for multitasking at this level and you won’t be experiencing delays or freezing.

On Chrome OS there is no Skype, Microsoft Office or some other programs or apps you may be used to on Windows, but you will do all of that efficiently on the Chrome based applications- some are built-in and thousands more you can find online free of charge through the Chrome Web Store. Graphics card is the entry level integrated Intel HD graphics that shares the memory with the CPU but both the main processor and the graphics processor are more than adequate at this price level. Connectivity options include 4xUSB 3.0 ports, 802.11a/b/g/n Wireless LAN, Bluetooth 4.0, 10/100/1000Base-T Gigabit Ethernet with RJ-45 for wired connection, 1xHDMI port, Multi-format SD card reader, 1xHeadphone jack and 1xMicrophone jack. There is no keyboard or mouse included in the package.

HP Chromebox Desktop CB1-014 weighs only 1.04 pounds with the measurements of 9.06 x 4.33 x 7.48 inches, so it is highly portable- lighter than the majority of laptops. It comes with some great features that are common for other Chromebox desktop PCs, such as backing up your files automatically to the cloud so your files will be safe online, comes with built-in security features that protect you from viruses and malware at all times, the Chrome OS will upgrade itself automatically and you will have the latest version without having to do it manually. It comes with a 12 month limited hardware warranty as well as good customer service by HP on the phone (toll-free) or online. HP Chromebox is an Energy Star qualified machine so it offers high energy efficiency, saving you on power bills.

Conclusion: HP Chromebox CB1-014 desktop is not like your typical Windows computer, it is different in many ways and should be considered if you use the computer mainly for internet and basic daily stuff and are looking for flexibility, speed, portability in a compact package. Don’t expect top of the range graphics, audio or a super powerful processor with large amounts of memory and hard drive with which you can carry out complex multimedia tasks or you can play the most advanced games, but is ideal for day-to-day things that you do mostly on the internet. The solid state drive offers speed, integrated security features keep you safe from viruses, you have all the connectivity ports you’ll need most and you get to run things smoothly on an everyday basis. If you are bored with Windows system and would like to try something different and are on a budget, it is well worth having a look.

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