People may be interested in the Dell Chromebook 11 because of its attractive design and good battery life. It’s a popular laptop with teens and adults who don’t need the power or performance of a traditional laptop.
Chromebooks have become popular in the education sector. Google confirmed that schools bought one million in the second quarter of this year.
Hardware is expensive, which makes Chromebooks much less expensive. Dropping it or losing the device can actually save a parent money in the long run.
Dell offers two Chromebooks: a 2GB model at £179; and a 4GB model at £199 (ex. VAT). But although Dell markets its Chromebook 11 as ‘for education,’ it’s too good to leave to children.
Pros
- Virtually indestructible
- 360-degree hinge design
- Portable
- OK battery life
Cons
- The screen is small and low res
- The keyboard could be better
Key Specifications
- Review Price: £412
- 11.6-inch, 1366 x 768 resolution touch screen with Gorilla Glass
- Intel Celeron N4000 CPU
- 4GB / 8GB RAM
- 32GB / 64GB storage
- Up to 13-hour battery life
- Chrome OS
Design
The Dell Chromebook 11 looks professional and has no distracting logos. It is a functioning computer that offers great performance, such as its chrome logo for the design aesthetic. But that’s intentional, as Dell’s built this convertible Chromebook to be as rugged as possible. Dell says that it meets MIL-STD specification, a standard set by the US military that you don’t normally see on consumer products – the LG Gram 14 and the Samsung Galaxy Tab Active 2 being other exceptions.
The designers of this Dell Chromebook 11 have created a laptop for reading and browsing the Web. The lid curves down to create a comfortable spine for the user as well as a re-imagined hinge, an effortless device to use and flip open to reach all areas of the screen.
The Chromebook 11 has a matte, non-reflective plastic that prevents fingerprints from appearing all over the device. When you open the case, the design looks very high quality. Just around the inner edge of the lid is a raised partition that provides a snug fit to keep dirt and dust from getting inside. On the side of the case, there are lowercase letters, which makes it look casual.
Display and Audio
The 11.6-inch Chromebook has a native resolution of 1,366 by 768 pixels (135ppi). The bezel is sizable—about 2cm. I found it difficult to distinguish darker colors. On the plus side, the device has the good audio quality and produces loud output when needed. The only issue is that the fan can sometimes be too loud. Build quality is good: an apparent target with this device.
Processor
The Chromebook 11 has a 1.4GHz dual-core processor and is an Intel HD Graphics integrated part. It has either 2GB or 4GB of RAM, whichever your preference is. It has 16GB of internal storage and an SD card slot, plus two USB 3.0 ports, an HDMI connector, and an audio jack. There’s no wired Ethernet port. For wireless connectivity, it has dual-band 802.11a/b/g/n wi-fi and Bluetooth 4.0.
Performance
The Dell Chromebook 11 is 32% faster and snappy in general use. For the record, its average score on the Sunspider 1.0.2 JavaScript benchmark was a respectable 340ms. It achieved a Browsermark score of 2,564. Its score is better than 51 percent of the systems that RightWare has tested.
Keyboard
The Crafted Keyboard is a keyboard designed for the internet. The keyboard has a custom Google search button that replaces Caps Lock and a set of web-centric keys in place of the traditional function keys.
Battery Life
Battery life varies depending on how you use the device. Estimates for the three-cell 51 Watt-hour battery vary from 10.3 hours (25% brightness, system idling) to 3.5 hours (100% percent brightness, running a demanding workload). You can expect this laptop to last for around 7 hours on average.
Software
The 4GB Chromebook boots quickly and wakes up in just a couple of seconds. It is also the lightest laptop out there. It is tied into the Google ecosystem, but it makes the user experience very good with its fast boot time and powerful multitasking. The search giant’s reputation will be reassuring for some, and for others, it might make them feel slightly claustrophobic.
This device is built with the knowledge that Wi-Fi is always on and ready to access. When you’re away from your home, you can still connect to the internet. But if that’s what you do then you likely won’t find much to complain about. Chomebooks are designed with connectivity in mind and that’s how the Chromebook is able to operate so well.
Enterprise users can’t rely on the Office software for Desktop, and for that matter it won’t have a traditional desktop equivalent. Chromebooks have a more lightweight operating system, and the 1.4GHz Celeron processor keeps everything moving along nicely to keep costs down. Chrome doesn’t exert lots of pressure on top-tier hardware, which means Chromebooks can be cheap but not compromised. This also helps with battery life — most machines have ten hours and we found that they perform fairly well.
Final Thoughts
If you need a reliable laptop that can handle being dropped for your child, or if you are a college student in need of an affordable laptop with a tough build. With a long battery life and amazing durability, the device is powerful enough for basic essay writing and web browsing, and has an amazing keyboard.
If you need more processing power than a notebook, your only option is a desktop computer running Windows or Mac OS X. But even people who don’t choose Chromebooks as their primary device can consider the price.
