If you’re looking for an inexpensive computer that does pretty much everything that you need, the HP Chromebase All-in-One might be worth your time. It’s a Chrome OS-based machine, with one key difference over other Chrome devices — it’s designed to sit in one place. It’s a computer with a full HD touchscreen display, an included mouse and keyboard, and a set of pretty powerful speakers in the base.
If you’re a student looking to pick up a computer for school or college work, then this is an excellent choice that equips you with the basics you need for work and study. It comes with a Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, and it won’t cost you an arm and leg to get either. HP sells them in Ireland, and for what you get, it’s a pretty great deal.
Given that this is an all-in-one computer, that means that everything is, well, all-in-one. There is no tower or anything that sits on the ground — all of the important hardware is inside of the display and in the base that it sits on.
About this article: HP sent us the HP Chromebase All-in-One with 8GB of RAM and i3-10110U for review. The company had no input into the contents of this review.
HP makes this an excellent choice for students
The best part of this entire package is the display. The HP Chromebase All-in-One has a full HD touchscreen display that gets plenty bright. It looks good, feels good to use, and even better, has automatic rotation support. If you’re viewing long-form documents that would benefit from the monitor being in portrait mode, you can rotate it around easily and use it in that way. It will automatically rotate for you so you don’t need to go messing about with system settings or anything like that, and you can leave it up like that for as long as you want.
Being touchscreen as well, the display opens up additional levels of accessibility. For people who may have impaired motor skills, the ability to touch a screen to interact with it helps a lot. Not only that, but sometimes it’s just easier to touch the screen to do something rather than fiddling with the mouse. You can scroll up and down content with your fingers easily, again aiding you in note-taking or other work that you may be doing. I found that when I was doing development work, it was great to use my laptop beside the Chromebase and to have the Chromebase showing documentation while in portrait mode.
It’s not the most high-quality, but it gets the job done and is great for pretty much anything you can think of. I was able to watch YouTube during downtime and enjoy both the speakers and the display in tandem, which means this would also be great for watching tutorials and other forms of visual media, too. There’s a Disney Plus app for Chrome OS for example if you download it from the Google Play Store.
Even better is that the HP Chromebase All-in-One has built-in privacy protections, too. There’s a slider at the top that allows you to physically block the camera if you’re worried about that kind of thing, and it also switches off the microphone on a hardware level so that it’s physically impossible for the computer to hear what’s going on around you.
The HP Chromebase All-in-One’s Chrome OS is what you make it
If you’re looking for apps to install on your Chromebase, then look no further than the Google Play Store. If you have an Android phone, you’ll already be familiar with it, and the HP Chromebase All-in-One benefits hugely from it. While Chrome OS is limited in some ways, you get all of the versatility of the Google Play Store. If you’re technically inclined, too, then you can even install Linux applications on your device. That means you can use it as a full-fledged computer with all of the freedom that you’d expect from another machine.
However, if you’d prefer to keep things locked down (especially for younger children), then you don’t have to delve into any of that. You can set up a child’s account on the device through Family Link, and the Google Play Store can be restricted, too. It’s whatever you want to make it, and I’m a big fan of that. I liked playing around with it and getting the most out of what I could, but I can entirely understand as well why someone would prefer to lock down this device and use it either with children or even just as a walled garden to do work in.
You get a mouse and keyboard too
If you’re wondering about a mouse and keyboard for this particular device, then don’t worry, because they actually come in the box! They work over Bluetooth and can be set up as part of the overall device set up process. They come with batteries too so you don’t need to worry about that, and they’re pretty comfortable to use. The keyboard especially I’m a fan of, as it was nice to use to type out my review over on XDA-Developers. I’m generally somebody who cares a lot about keyboards and mice, and the keyboard itself was one that I was impressed by.
As for the mouse, it wasn’t great, but those are a little bit harder to get right. I found the sensitivity way too high (even after turning it down in settings), and it felt too small to hold in my hands. What’s more, it felt cheap and hollow, meaning that it didn’t feel great to move it around a lot on the screen. It’s completely fine for most users, and given that it’s free in the box, there’s not a lot to complain about.
The HP Chromebase All-in-One is an excellent addition to your smart home or classroom
I feel that the HP Chromebase All-in-One is a great addition to a smart home in particular, largely thanks to the utility that it can have for someone who may be studying or simply working from home. While it’s not viable for everyone, for someone like me who’s a writer, it definitely is. It’s great for working on and can help me feel free of distractions, and for the price too, it’s really not a bad option. I could definitely see the utility in schools purchasing a number of these for a computer room too, especially as they’re cost-effective and can be easily remotely managed.
If you’re looking to pick one up, you can purchase one from selected retailers such as Currys starting at €839.
