How the next HP x360 Chromebook Plus could be the one to beat

Of all the Chromebooks on the market, there is one line that I’ve felt has been right on the verge of greatness for years and has been held back by silly hardware choices along the way. That line is the x360 14c family of devices from HP, and it’s almost painful to see them get so close to the ideal Chromebook year in and year out while still managing to cut the wrong corners each time.

Before the current model (the Chromebook Plus version we’ve had since last fall) showed up, there were a few before it over the years. While the x360 14c generally came with a stellar build quality, fantastic keyboard/trackpad, exceptional speakers and fast internals, the screen was always an issue.

The previous models stuck with 16:9 screens at 250 nits and they were always pain points that you can see us talk about with each version in each review. To have a device that is so good at most of the Chromebook experience miss the mark on the screen each time is painful, and when the new version arrived, I thought that issue was finally behind us.

Instead, HP finally moved to a 16:10 screen while keeping the frustrating brightness limitations. Additionally, they moved away from the previous chassis materials and chose something far less robust for the bottom half of the Chromebook Plus x360 14c. Fix one thing, cut a new corner on another, I suppose.

What I’d love to see in the next one

You can see why this is frustrating, right? The things HP is skimping on could easily be fixed. On the screen front, there are quite a few capable, nice 14-inch, 16:10 screens out there in use on other Chromebooks right now. The Acer Spin 714 and Lenovo Flex 5i come to mind, and both of those devices match or beat the x360 14c price point.

And as far as the chassis goes, I have no doubt HP knows how to build a Chromebook that doesn’t bend under its own weight. The previous x360 14c models did this just fine and the Dragonfly Pro is one of the most rigid Chromebooks I’ve ever held. If anyone can fix the wobbly, bendy chassis issue, it’s HP.

And that’s it! All HP needs to do is firm up the current x360 chassis and put a 300+ nit screen in it. Bump up the internals and keep all the rest and you have a recipe for the best overall Chromebook Plus device on the market.

When I look at the current model on a desk or in photos, it is truly painful that it isn’t better. It’s a gorgeous device with a fantastic keyboard, trackpad and speakers that has plenty of power under the hood and an aesthetic to match. But the dim screen and weak-feeling lower chassis just break the entire experience, and I hate to see it.

HP has shown the ability to fix this sort of stuff in other devices, and I have no doubt they can figure this out. I’m expecting a new x360 14c this fall, and I hope so much that they’ve heard our calls for a brighter screen and firmer build quality. If they have and they deliver a device with these slight upgrades, I think they could cement themselves at the top of the Chromebook Plus pile in Q4 this year. Here’s hoping!