HP Chromebook 15a (2023) Review: Bare minimum internet machine for students and casual surfers

Chromebooks have come a long way from being afterthought purchases for school children to actually helping with productivity on the move. While some of the more recent ones such as the HP Dragonfly Pro , Asus Chromebook Flip CX5 , and Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming Chromebook 16 offer a high-end Chromebook experience, OEMs continue to release entry-level Chromebooks aimed at the education market or first-time PC buyers. One of them is the HP Chromebook 15a — a basic, entry-level Chromebook that launched recently in India.

It features an Intel Celeron N4500 CPU, 4 GB RAM, and 128 GB eMMC storage, which are far from being impressive in 2023. The HP Chromebook 15a costs ₹28,999 (US$350) and comes with a one-year standard warranty. Is it worth a consideration at this price point? Let’s find out.

Given its budgetary constraints, the Chromebook 15a’s chassis is anything but premium. The construction is primarily plastic, but it is sturdy-enough to withstand the vagaries of daily usage by students. There is not much flex in the display or the keyboard deck.

Port selection is sparse, with just two USB 3. 0 Type-C ports and a USB 3. 0 Type-A port along with a microSD card slot and a combo audio jack.

Both the USB Type-C ports support Power Delivery and DisplayPort 1. 4-out. The microSD card reader is one of the better performing ones we’ve seen in a Chromebook, but it trails behind the one in the Acer Chromebook 514 .

The Chromebook 15a uses a Realtek WLAN card that supports 2×2 Wi-Fi 5. We observed fairly stable networking with minimal drops when connected to our reference Asus ROG Rapture GT-AXE11000 router. The 720p webcam is nothing to write home about.

The image quality leaves a lot to be desired with lots of noise and high color deviations. The Chromebook 15a sports a full-size keyboard with a numpad. However, using the keyboard in the dark is difficult as there’s no backlighting.

The key travel is not particularly deep, yet typing for brief documents remains satisfactory. Users accustomed to a traditional Windows laptop will need to familiarize themselves with Chrome OS shortcuts. The keyboard provides shortcuts for most functions including power options, notification center, brightness and volume adjustments, as well as screenshot tools.

The 8 cm x 12. 5 cm touchpad is roomy and responds well to clicks. There is no direct right click functionality, so you will have to hold down the Alt key while clicking to access context menus.

The touchpad does feel stiff and difficult to click occasionally but otherwise offers a smooth gliding experience. The HP Chromebook 15a features a 1,366 x 768 TN LED panel, which is outdated for a 2023 notebook. HP specifies a peak brightness of 250 nits for this panel, but we could measure up to 260 nits at the center.

By virtue of being a TN panel, the backlight bleed is quite minimal, and the brightness distribution is decent at 81%. However, the panel fares rather poorly in all other aspects. The 100% black to 100% white transition is reasonably quick, but the 50% grey to 80% grey response times are on the higher side.

We did not observe PWM or background flickering at all tested brightness levels, implying the display should be easy on the eyes. Our PWM Ranking table provides more comparisons across reviewed devices. With a low contrast ratio of 520:1, the panel exhibits notably poor performance, and significant deviations are apparent in both Grayscale and ColorChecker tests.

The 2D sRGB coverage is also subpar, measuring only about 57. 5% The low brightness level of the screen does not lend itself to a good viewing experience outdoors. Viewing angles are abysmally bad with extreme loss of color and brightness information.

The HP Chromebook 15a is only available with the Intel Celeron N4500 Jasper Lake processor. The Celeron N4500 is a 6 W dual-core CPU with no hyperthreading that can boost up to 2. 8 GHz.

The SoC package also includes a UHD Graphics iGPU with 16 execution units (EUs). The Celeron N4500 in the Chromebook 15a performs similar to the Snapdragon 7c in the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook and HP Chromebook x2 11 in Geekbench 5. 4 single-core.

However, these Chromebooks take significant leads in multi-core and ML performance. That being said, we do observe good gains over the Gemini Lake Celeron N4000 in the Lenovo Chromebook S340 . The Chromebook 15a puts up a good show in CrXPRT 2 and other browser benchmarks.

Unsurprisingly, it is no match for the far more powerful Core i3-1115G4 -powered Acer Chromebook 514 . Head over to our Intel Celeron N4500 page for more information and performance comparisons. PCMark for Android sees the Chromebook 15a trailing behind Snapdragon 7c-powered Chromebooks and the Acer Chromebook 514.

In general, system performance is fine as long as you don’t push the device beyond casual web browsing and document work. Any amount of additional stress can immediately expose the dual-core CPU’s weaknesses and the whole experience starts feeling sluggish. Chrome OS does offer a Linux VM, but it is not possible to access low-level kernel functionality with it.

HP could have very well opted for an older generation Intel Core i3 or AMD Ryzen 3 chip while still keeping the costs low, instead of resorting to a dual-core Celeron CPU that is essentially only suitable for firing up Chrome. The 128 GB eMMC storage feels anemic, shows inconsistent sequential reads and writes, and even lags behind the 64 GB eMMC flash in the IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook. Storage can be expanded via the microSD card slot.

HP also bundles a one-year 100 GB Google Drive subscription with the laptop. The 16-EU UHD Graphics iGPU in the Celeron N4500 takes a good lead over the Adreno 618 in 3DMark Sling Shot and GFXBench onscreen tests. However, it’s performance is underwhelming in offscreen runs.

Games such as Asphalt 8 can be played, but not at their highest settings. More information and benchmarks can be found in our Intel UHD Graphics (Jasper Lake 16 EU) page. We measured a maximum of 37.

8 °C on the top and 33. 6 °C on the bottom under load. Thus, the Chromebook 15a can be safely used on the lap for extended periods without risk of injury.

The onboard stereo speakers are reasonably loud at 72. 8 db(A). Bass response is practically non-existent, but the highs are well-pronounced.

Users can get a better audio experience by utilizing the 3. 5 mm headphone jack or Bluetooth 5. The Chromebook 15a is equipped with an energy-efficient, low-wattage processor that has modest power requirements.

We recorded up to 14 W under maximum load, which is quite economical when compared to Gemini Lake-powered Chromebooks. Needless to say, the ARM-powered Chromebooks in the comparison exhibit an even more frugal energy consumption. The Chromebook 15a’s 47.

3 WHr battery isn’t the most enduring, but it should help sail through a typical day at school without having to reach for the charger. In contrast, the Chromebook x2 and the IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook demonstrate longer run times despite having smaller battery capacities, thanks to the highly efficient Snapdragon 7c. The bundled 45 W USB-C power adapter takes about 1.

5 hours to fully charge the device. The HP Chromebook 15a tries to present an affordable option to students, elders, and to those who just require a cheap tertiary internet device but cuts way too many corners in the process. Construction wise, the Chromebook 15a gets the basics right and should be able to withstand a young student’s careless handling.

The 2×2 WLAN card provides decent networking without serious speed drops. Input devices are sufficient for educational use — just don’t expect to draft your next magnum opus on this. The Chromebook 15a’s display is among its biggest let-downs.

The subpar TN panel is visually unimpressive with its drab colors, dim illumination, and terrible viewing angles. The absence of PWM is the only saving grace. The HP Chromebook 15a brings the ease and simplicity of Chrome OS to students and casual web surfers.

It tries to offer a budget-friendly internet journey but takes too many detours. ” The performance is fine for online tasks, including juggling a multitude of tabs. Support for Linux and Android raises expectations for using more robust apps, but unfortunately any moderately demanding task can make the Chromebook 15a gasp for breath due to its feeble SoC.

Power consumption is thrifty, with respectable Wi-Fi battery run times. However, ARM-powered Chromebooks such as the Lenovo IdeaPad Duet 5 Chromebook and the HP Chromebook x2 11 have a clear advantage in this regard. Purchasing a viable sub-₹30,000 (sub-US$350) laptop can be challenging, but there are quite a few options on the market such as the Core i3-1115G4 -powered Acer One, Ryzen 3 3250U -powered HP 255, and local picks such as the Core i3 10th gen-equipped Infinix INBook Y1 Plus.

All these offer more capable processors, better graphics, more storage, and may be even reasonably good displays on paper, making it hard to recommend the Chromebook 15a. HP might have its rationale, but we all deserve better entry-level devices in 2023. The tested variant of the HP Chromebook 15a-na0008TU is currently retailing on Amazon India for ₹28,999.

A variant of the same device (Chromebook 15a-na0012TU) with no perceivable differences is also available for a lesser price of ₹25,990. An Intel Pentium N6000 variant of the Chromebook 15 with 8 GB RAM is available for US$329 from Amazon US while a Pentium N200-powered SKU can be had for US$279 . .