Josh Hendrickson
Chromebooks usually get most of the attention, but Chrome OS comes in various form factors like the All-in-One Chromebase. HP’s latest Chromebase looks like the standard all-in-one at first, outside the conical stand. But give the display a gentle nudge, and it’ll convert to portrait mode.
The rotating display consists of a 21.5-inch IPS touchscreen with a 1920X1080p resolution. You can push it from landscape to portrait, which HP says “allows for better viewing to read, to scroll through lengthy webpages and social posts, or to be more productive when taking notes, or creating and editing documents.” It also tilts up to twenty degrees for better viewing angles.
While it has narrow bezels, HP did fit a 5-megapixel camera in along with a slider that disables the camera, microphones, or both. The microphones, in particular, enable Google Assistant speakers. And naturally, you can connect a Bluetooth keyboard or mouse.
Look below the display, and you’ll find another unique form factor—a cone-shaped display that houses the speakers, processor, hard drive, and RAM. The HP Chromebase contains either an Intel Pentium Gold (2.4GHz) or Core i3 (2.1GHz) processor and between 4 and 16 GBs of RAM. The RAM itself is user-accessible, so you could start small and add more later. The SSD comes in your choice of sizes between 128 GBs and 256 GBs. It also supports Wi-Fi 6 for futureproofing.
HP says the Chromebase All-in-One Desktop will release sometime in August on its website, Best Buy, and Amazon. Depending on your processor, RAM, and storage choice, the price will start at $599 and top out at $769.
