HP 2023 14-inch Chromebook: Great on Paper, but Don’t Trust It with Anything You Care About

The HP 14-inch Chromebook—!HP 14-inch Chromebook—shows up looking ready for anything: slim, lightweight, dressed in muted gray so it can crash any setting without embarrassment. It’s convenient to haul around, and nobody will roast you for your taste (unless they inspect the screen, more on that in a sec).

You’ll Notice: Pretty Meh Screen and Keyboards That Make You Miss Paper

That 14-inch display? It’s not winning any awards. At 1366 x 768 pixels, everything is a bit fuzzy, and color isn’t exactly popping. If you’re even a tiny bit picky about visuals—photos, design, even movie watching—prepare for a letdown. Extended work sessions get tiresome; my eyes started petitioning for hazard pay after a few hours of staring at docs and Google Sheets. Keyboards have passable layout but the keys feel lifeless. Working at a bright café, the faded lettering can push your patience further. Get ready to spend a few minutes fidgeting for an angle that doesn’t make your wrists grumpy.

Handles the Basics, But “Multitasking” Will Haunt It

The real kicker: performance. The Intel Celeron N4120 isn’t here to impress. You get 4 GB of RAM, which is enough for email, YouTube, or a couple tabs—but the minute you push it (opening a stack of tabs or trying to use, heaven forbid, an Android app for light photo editing), everything hits the brakes. The Chromebook turns into a one-lane traffic jam. Want to run pro design tools or edit big files? Don’t even try.

Storage is minimal, too—64 GB of eMMC that fills up way too fast if you try to install anything beyond Chrome extensions. Google’s banking on you living out of the cloud, and if not, guess who’s micro-managing their digital life just to keep this thing from choking?

Chrome OS: Simple, but Very Limited

Setup is fast, and if your life revolves around Google Apps, things generally roll along. But don’t expect actual desktop software. Anything outside browser tabs and watered-down Android apps is essentially a non-starter. Power users, skip this whole section: you’ll outgrow the OS halfway through your first work session.

If you’re a student and your college requires lockdown browsers or proctored exam apps—don’t gamble. Chromebook is basically banned from half the testing platforms people need for serious courses, and you’ll be ripping your hair out scrambling for a borrowed Windows laptop come exam day.

Ports: Not Bad. Bluetooth: Absolutely Unreliable

This Chromebook lands a small win with its port lineup—USB-A, USB-C, HDMI, SD card slot—so no dongle nightmares. The battery gets through a day of classes and some cafe loitering, which is a pleasant surprise.

Bluetooth, however, is a tire fire. Frequent dropouts mean Bluetooth headphones, mice, or keyboards are wasted on this machine. Zoom calls with wireless buds? Don’t risk it, unless you enjoy technical difficulties as a personality trait.

Reliability? Roll the Dice

Here’s the dealbreaker. These Chromebooks are notorious for random hardware failures, sometimes before you’ve even had them for a semester. We’re talking devices that flatly refuse to turn on, often as early as four months in. Warranty support is a maze, so don’t buy this if you need a laptop that won’t pick the worst possible time to ghost you.

Should You Go for It?

You’re fine if you just want a cheap way to check Gmail, read the news, or stream a little Netflix. If the idea of living in Chrome tabs and purging your downloads weekly doesn’t make your left eye twitch, this is decent as a backup, travel beater, or kid’s laptop. Battery and weight are solid for tossing in a bag.

But if you expect: - Smooth multitasking - Reliable Bluetooth for your accessories - A trustworthy machine for exams or anything you actually care about - A screen that won’t make your vision worse

You’ll regret this purchase.

Verdict

If you need a digital notepad and nothing else, go for it. Otherwise, there are better ways to spend your money than waiting to see which comes first: low storage warnings, Bluetooth rage, or the day it just won’t wake up. In short: use it lightly, never trust it fully, and for anything important, look elsewhere.