A few weeks ago, Best Buy dropped the price of the HP Chromebook X360 14 down to $449. That’s a pretty good deal for a 2-in-1 Chromebook with Core i3 processor, 8 GB of memory and 64 GB of storage. I mentioned then that you can save an additional $50 with a free myBestBuy account. That same deal is back this week, reducing the cost to $399.
In terms of the HP Chromebook X360 14, I’d call it squarely in the mid-range Chromebook market: Plenty of performance for everyday basic use and enough to have a good 10 to 15 browser tabs open simultaneously.
You can also throw some full-time Android apps – I run Messages and Spotify pretty much all the time – into the mix. The device should handle light Linux use as well but if you plan to run Linux for hours a day, every day, you’d probably want to invest in something a little better.
Here’s what you get: An 8th-gen Intel Core i3-8130U with a 2.2 GHz base frequency, turbo-boost up to 4GHz; a 14-inch full HD touch display with thin bezels on the sides, 8GB of memory, 64GB of eMMC storage, 802.11ac Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. There are a pair of USB Type-C ports and one Type-A, plus a headphone/microphone jack and microSD card reader. HP says to expect 13.5 hours of run-time per charge.
Because the chip inside is a U-Series model, it can run longer at full capacity, unlike Y-Series chips found in the Pixel Slate, for example. The one possible downside? U-Series chips require fans to reduce the heat produced during those heavy-duty CPU cycles, so the HP Chromebook X360 does have a fan.
Typically, low-end Chromebooks are in the sub-$200 to $350 price range and come with relatively less capable Pentium processors and 4 GB of RAM. If your budget puts you in that price range and you can stretch a little further on price, the HP Chromebook X360 14 at $399 is a great buy.
