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The newest Chromebook on offer from HP features an Apollo Lake processor, 8GB or 4GB or RAM, 32GB or 64GB of storage, a convertible hinge and an EMR stylus. With a spec sheet so loaded up, we expect this device to impress on many levels. Will be impressed or let down?
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[Music]
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hey folks probably paying with chrome
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unboxing today we're gonna be reviewing
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the HP x 360 Chromebook 11 now this
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device is actually aimed at the
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education sector but they'll be
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releasing one likely if HP follow suit
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for the consumer market so this is going
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to serve as our review of both of those
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devices now this device actually comes
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to us packing some interesting specs a
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it's the first production Apollo Lake
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device that we've gotten our hands on
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second has an EMR touchscreen and stylus
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input and it comes with 64 gigs of
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internal storage and 8 gigs of RAM
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so all that should add up to a pretty
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great Chromebook right well let's find
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out so first and foremost this device
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honestly kind of feels a little
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uninspired from a company that once
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brought us the HP Chromebook 13 g1 and
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it's slim design and all aluminum build
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and even going all the way back to
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probably what I would consider the first
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Chromebook that you'd really get work
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done on in the HP Chromebook 14 this
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design just feels absolutely bland and
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boring the plastic is it's cheap it
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doesn't feel good in your hands and
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overall it just looks like something
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that was built maybe three or four years
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ago I'm not really gonna pull any
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punches in this review because I think
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HP can do a lot better than what it's
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done in this device but let's look
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around this thing real quick outside you
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have some basic cheap kind of sharp
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edges that hit your palms whenever
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you're typing on it it's got a massive
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bezel that you can't help but notice as
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soon as you open the device up and the
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keyboard will talk about in a second but
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the deck of the keyboard is actually
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pretty flimsy and you can put some
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pressure on it and see it give pretty
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easily
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overall the hinge though it's 360 and
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can help it convert into other form
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factors it's really loose and if I pick
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the device up just a little bit too
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swiftly it actually Falls wide open the
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tablet mode while again is accessible
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it's probably too thick and too heavy to
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actually ever use in that way and it
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does have dual cameras a normal front
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facing camera and then the world facing
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camera but both of them are pretty bad
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and so when you hold the device in
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tablet mode and expect to be able to
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take a
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kind of like with a big awkward camera
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the shots terrible because the camera is
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not good overall the design of this
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device leaves a lot to be desired and
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for something that comes in at four
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hundred and seventy nine dollars for the
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model that we're testing it does go down
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to $4.99 for a 32 gig and eight-hour 4
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gig variation this device is not great
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especially when you consider their
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devices on the market like the Samsung
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Chromebook plus we'll talk a little bit
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more about that as we move through the
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review so when we look around the device
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we see part of this where HP actually
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did something pretty good here we have
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four USB ports total two of them are
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type a to type C and the type C's can be
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used for HDMI out that can be used for
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charging and there's one of each on each
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side of the device so that was actually
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really well done you have a micro SD
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card slot headphone microphone jack and
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a Kensington lock so the selection of
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ports around the device is actually well
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done and again aimed at an education
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market that's something that really
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needs to be done right and HP did do its
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homework here and did this device
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justice with this moving on to the
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screen we're looking at an 11.6 inch
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1366 by 768 display and honestly that
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resolution at this size isn't terrible
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but as we're starting to see high res
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displays all over the place it's
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starting to feel a little bit dated and
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on top of that the fact that though this
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is labeled an IPS display it really has
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some odd off angle viewing the colors
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don't invert or change it's just the
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brightness off angle is really bad and
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overall the display is really dim I
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would guess somewhere around 200 nits so
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you add that glossy cover over the
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screen and a dim screen and it's
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actually pretty hard to see in a lot of
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environments the colors are decent but
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the loss of rightness off-angle the
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glare on the screen it just makes for a
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poor experience using the device and
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again I have to come back to the bezel
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on this thing is just gargantuan they
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probably could have fit a 12 and a half
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to 13 inch screen in here if they would
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have cut this bezel down just a little
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bit so open to this point I've been a
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little bit tough on this device but the
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keyboard the trackpad in the
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which comes in the box are actually
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places where HP did some pretty good
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work here let's start off with a
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keyboard a good travel decent feeling
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keys and it's pretty quiet when you're
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using it again I talked about the
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keyboard flexing a little bit whenever
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you pushed on it but overall the key
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travel on this thing is actually pretty
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good and it's actually a joy to type on
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echo that for the trackpad as well the
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trackpad is nice and smooth it's pretty
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resistant to oils and the click
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mechanism is really really good as well
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so I don't really have any nags with the
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trackpad either and when we're talking
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about the pin overall there's a lot of
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people that don't like using Samsung's
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pin because it kind of feels like a
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toothpick and it's smaller than a normal
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pin HP includes a pen that's
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normal-sized and it actually has a small
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clickable capacitive part of the stylus
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up here so for apps that take advantage
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of a finger input for instance like
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squid you can actually turn this over in
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the back side of it would act just as
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your finger would which means it's an
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eraser so it's kind of nice when you're
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taking notes if you need to erase just
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turn it over and actually erase with it
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so the Pens actually pretty good it's
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not the most robust feeling thing in the
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world it kind of feels like a Bic pen
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kind of like plasticy feel but riding
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with it was pretty good now I have to
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say with inking taking notes with this
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device for instance the pen responds
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really well the screen responds really
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well but the resolution on the screen
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because it's kind of blocky and
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pixelated actually takes away from the
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actual feeling of writing and it makes
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it feel very very digital versus feeling
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analog like Samsung does because of the
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high resolution display on the
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Chromebook pro and plus but overall this
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is a decent pen in the pen input and the
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way the screen responds is actually
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pretty good so all the external bells
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and whistles don't really mean much if
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the device isn't perform well and the
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opposite is true as well if it's lacking
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a bunch of bells and whistles but really
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performs well you can kind of forgive
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some of those things unfortunately this
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is another place where the HP really
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struggles we're looking at an atom in
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3350 there is a 3450 which is a beefier
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processor but that's not what's in this
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HP here and while this one has eight
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gigs of ram and 64 gigs of internal
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storage there's also an option for
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little bit less money that has four gigs
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of RAM and 32 gigs of internal storage I
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would say even though we tested the one
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with 8 and 64 I'd say that if you've got
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the lesser one it wouldn't make that
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much of a difference in performance
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because this chipset kind of struggles
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over all I know speedometer is the new
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go to benchmark but we still look at
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octane scores as well and the octane
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scores on this were barely any better
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than brass well I actually went back and
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looked at some of the brands well
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devices that we tested and they were
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getting close to 9000 and that's just
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about all I got out of this Apollo Lake
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chip and this is the next generation
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from Intel and the seller online so I
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was really disappointed with that
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because I noticed on the day-to-day it
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didn't really feel like it was moving
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very fast it didn't feel like it was
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actually an upgrade at all over a
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Braswell and that's pretty unfortunate
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to see a generation jump and not to see
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any real performance improvements that
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was kind of a bummer and overall I don't
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think those performance improvements had
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anything to do with ran because I used
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the Chromebook Pro from Samsung on a
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daily and it's got four gigs of RAM and
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I never noticed so I don't think
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upgrading RAM is that big of a deal in
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this device so if you are looking at
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buying it you're possibly going to get
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it for your schools definitely stick
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with the four gig 32 and lastly I have
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to mention again the price so for the 32
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gig 4 gig of ram version of this device
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you can get it for about 399 the one
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we're testing again 8 gigs of ram 64
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gigs of internal storage is 479 for that
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price point you can easily go and buy a
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brand new Samsung Chromebook plus and a
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lot of times the pluses on say almost
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down to $400 so you're looking at the
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same internal specs from a ram and
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storage perspective and the device looks
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a ton better it has a much better
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display in all the upsides that come
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along with the Samsung Chromebook plus
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vs. this device and it probably is going
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to end up being cheaper it's not a real
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hard decision to make it needs to be
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mentioned as well that Android apps
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actually work out of the box with this
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device and while they're not running on
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the latest build of Android they do work
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without any extra setup steps in the
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beginning so when soon as you log in
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you're going to be met with the Play
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Store and the ability to go ahead and
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start
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stalling your Android apps and honestly
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they run pretty well on here it doesn't
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take a ton to run Android apps and so
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the performance with Android app so it's
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actually relatively good with this
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device so to wrap things up this becomes
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a really difficult device to recommend
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to basically anyone with devices like
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Samsung's Chromebook plus a lot of times
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that are cheaper than this device and
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performed just as well if not better
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have better screens much better build
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quality and all the same features it's
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difficult to say why you should buy this
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over that especially given the fact that
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we've shown some videos and talked about
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some stuff on the site that Samsung's
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Chromebook plus is actually really
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really durable I mean guys are jumping
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on it and walking all over it and all
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this kind of stuff and it stands up to
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those things so saying that this is a
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education device and it can withstand a
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bunch of bumps and all that kind of
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stuff seems a little silly when you
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start talking about devices that look
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and perform like Samsung's and are the
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same price and then think about the fact
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that acer has a device coming out in the
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c7 71 probably in the next few weeks
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that's kind of the successor to the c7
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20 that's going to start the base model
10:06
of it we'll start with a seller on 3855
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you that will run circles around the
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seller on in this device and it's going
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to start out at 279 329 if you add the
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touchscreen in so you're coming in a
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hundred to 150 dollars less than this
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device and it will run circles around it
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and outperform it I hate to knock
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devices
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I hate to do reviews whenever we have to
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be harsh on devices but some devices
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especially for manufacturers the size of
10:32
HP need to have harsh reviews done of
10:35
them
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this device is just not up to snuff and
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for the price I can't recommend anyone
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buy it guys if you like this and you
10:43
like videos like this give us a thumbs
10:45
up subscribe to the channel and until
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next time we'll see
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[Music]
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