Here's our breakdown of everything you need to know about the HP Slatebook 14.
Prices: The HP Slatebook 14 is priced at $429. At the time of announcement, HP had said it would be priced at $399 but was later released at $429, $30 more than the company had said it would cost.
Deals: Click here to get an HP Slatebook 14 for $247
Pros: The HP Slatebook 14 runs a pure version of Google's Android operating system. It has an attractive design and build and has a snazzy matte black and yellow color theme, which gives it a youthful look. HP combined the hardware from the Chromebook 14 with a 14 inch 1080 pixel HD touch screen and good speakers. The SlateBook 14's speakers have Beats Audio technology and produce loud sound. The 10-point capacitive touch screen is fast and accurate. The keyboard is full-size and comfortable to use. Processor performance is quite speedy. HP promises "up to 9 hours" battery life with tests coming close to the figure.
Cons: While the resolution is full HD, the display is found lacking. Blacks and greys are not displayed well and marked with pixelation. The Chromebook 14 has far better color accuracy. The touch pad is just about usable and the responsive touch screen saves the day. It is quite uncomfortable to use Android apps with a mouse, with several movements restricted. The operating system is not well suited to regular notebook activities and lowers productivity. At $429, it is quite expensive for the value it provides, with the Chromebook 14 priced at $299. Multi-tasking is not easy and the browser can be a little sluggish.
Specs: The HP Slatebook 14 has a 14-inch 1920x1080 pixels touch screen display and weighs 3.7 pounds. It runs Android 4.3 Jelly Bean OS and is powered with NVIDIA® Tegra® 4 mobile processor with quad‐core CPU. It has 2GB of RAM and 16GB of built-in storage. The battery lasts up to 9 hours. It comes with a full-size keyboard, touch pad and integrated webcam. It is available only in black.
Talking Points: HP, once the leading PC maker, is now in somewhat troubled waters. After announcing plans to cut up to 5 percent of its work force, it has experimented with a luxury smartwatch, Chromebooks, a $199 Windows notebook and now, a laptop running Android operating system. But Android was never meant to run a laptop and the over-all response to this new project has not been encouraging. Its USP is access to Android apps and the processor is well-equipped for gaming, but you can't really tilt the 3.7-pound laptop for Android games. Windows, on the other hand, has a lot of apps too, so Android apps alone aren't quite a seller.
Conclusion: Even with the HD display and the Beats Audio speakers, the HP Slatebook 14 does not have enough to recommend it. The only advantage over the Chromebook is that there are more apps and there's greater familiarity, but the apps don't work well since the operating system was never meant to be used on a laptop. Chromebooks seem to be a far better choice, and they are much cheaper too.
