HP Chromebook 11 LTE Slips Out With Verizon 4G
HP's Chromebook 11 has quietly landed on Verizon's LTE network, with the 4G-enabled laptop going on sale at a $100 premium over its WiFi-only sibling. The Chromebook 11 LTE, spotted at Best Buy, uses the same Samsung Exynos 5 Dual processor and 11.6-inch display as the model we reviewed back in October, but adds the ability to get online more readily while on the move.
That's courtesy of an onboard modem supplied by Altair Semiconductor, Android Community reports. Unusually, the chip apparently has no 3G support for when outside of 4G networks: Altair supposedly stripped that out so as to reduce costs.
The omission could be an issue if you wander out of 4G coverage, though the upside is the price. The Chromebook 11 LTE comes in at $379 for the 16GB model, a $100 premium above the WiFi-only version, though there's reportedly a $50 rebate on offer if you hook it up to a Verizon shared data plan.
Otherwise, it's the same 2.3 pound, 0.7-inch thick notebook with 2GB of RAM, a 1366 x 768 screen, Bluetooth, two USB 2.0 ports, and a VGA webcam.
Google's Chrome OS is obviously highly web-centric, and though more recent updates have enabled things like local caching for times when the notebooks aren't online, being able to connect without worrying about WiFi hotspots and such could certainly help reduce the headache. HP had previously confirmed it was working on an LTE version of the Chromebook 11, though had only said it was due sometime in 2014.