HP Chromebook 11-v031nr Review: Affordable But Durable

HP Chromebook 11-v031nr: At First Glance

To me, Chromebooks rarely make an outstanding impression especially knowing that they are Chrome OS devices. However, on seeing the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr in white color, my impression of Chromebooks began to change.

Its blunt edges and thickness are not the center of attraction, but the durability of this Chromebook is noteworthy. In addition to its durability, other major side attractions of this Chromebook are its display, keyboard, and webcam.

But how far can the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr compete with other modern Chromebooks? Read through the remaining sections of this eye-opening article to find out.

HP Chromebook 11-v031nr Design, Dimension, and Weight

Like most Chromebooks, the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr has a simple design but an attractive look. However, its simplicity is not surprising because Chromebooks are known to have limited features.

In a nutshell, the build material for this Chromebook’s chassis is plastic. Moreover, the plastic chassis comes in different attractive colors, specifically gray, white, and blue.

Furthermore, there’s a Verizon LTE version of this Chromebook that comes with a different design. This version comes in a glossy black or white chassis with a green, yellow, red, or blue stripe on the lid.

Despite the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr being made of plastic, the chassis is very thick and heavy. Speaking of which, it has a thickness of 18.4 mm and weighs 1200 g.

For its overall size, the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr measures 286 x 205 x 18.4 mm (W x D x H). Despite its thickness and heft, it is still more portable and lighter than some other Chromebooks.

For instance, it is more portable than the Lenovo N23 Chromebook. The Lenovo N23 Chromebook measures 292 x 208 x 21.8 mm (W x D x H) and weighs 1250 g.

Not only that, but the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr is also lighter than the ASUS Chromebook C300, which measures 330.2 x 231.14 x 22.86 mm (W x D x H). The ASUS Chromebook C300 also weighs a massive 1,397 g.

Having talked about the size of the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr, let us move on to its other design features. Starting with the smooth textured lid, you will find an HP logo at the center and a colorful Chrome logo at the top right-hand side.

Having said much about the lid, let’s now discuss what we see on opening the lid.

When you open the lid of this laptop, one of the significant points of attraction is its 11.6-inch HD (1366 x 768) resolution display. In addition, the display is supported by a single hinge that holds it firmly.

Impressively, the hinge allows you to turn the lid up to 180 degrees for more comfort of usage. Back to the display, it’s nice to have an SVA WLED-backlit display with an anti-glare coating on such a small device.

Simply put, an SVA (Standard Viewing Angles) display is a type of VA (Vertical Alignment) display that offers better viewing angles. Hence, an SVA display will maintain image quality when you view it from an angle.

Moreover, the anti-glare coating on this Chromebook’s display prevents light reflection. In short, this coating ensures that you can use this Chromebook near open windows or outdoors.

Disappointingly, the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr’s display is non-touchscreen. To make the matter worse, this display is surrounded by very wide bezels, just as it is with many HP laptops.

On a good note, the top bezel houses a TrueVision HD camera. As with all TrueVision cameras, you’ll continue to enjoy photography and video chats for as long as the place is well-lit.

However, if you use the camera in dark areas, you may not enjoy it as much as using it in a well-lit area.

In addition to that, this webcam features an integrated dual array digital microphone. The position of this microphone is ideal for picking up your voice without you stooping down during a video chat.

Having talked about the features of the webcam, let’s move to the deck of this laptop, where there is a full-size island-style keyboard. Although the keyboard is not backlit, the keys are highly responsive and make typing easier than you might expect.

Even more interesting is the keyboard’s bunch of shortcut keys for searching apps or toggling between desktops while you’re working.

One thing that HP didn’t get perfectly right here is the integrated touchpad below this keyboard. The touchpad’s sensitivity is fine in the middle, but the mouse jumps uncontrollably, especially when scrolling.

Nevertheless, the touchpad is wide and smooth.

Moving on, there are two down-firing speakers under the keyboard to the left and right-hand sides. With these speakers, HP’s target was to achieve a louder volume when this Chromebook is on a flat surface.

Thankfully, HP achieved this target to some extent. Better still, you can even get more dynamic sounds from this Chromebook when you plug in a headset.

That said, let’s talk about the ports on HP Chromebook 11-v031nr.

On the left-hand side, you’ll see a micro-USB charge port that doubles as a Slimport video-out. On the same side, you’ll get one USB 3.1 Gen 1 port and a headset jack.

Turning to the right-hand side, you get a charging port, a MicroSD card slot, an HDMI port, and one USB 3.1 Gen 1 port. Regarding these ports, it is fair to say that the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr has a decent amount of them, considering its size.

In addition to these ports, this Chromebook is good for wireless connectivity. Specifically, it features Bluetooth 4.0 and Intel’s (2×2) 802.11b/g/n/ac WiFi with MIMO wireless technology.

For clarity, a 2×2 WiFi can transmit data to two devices simultaneously as if they were on different networks. Also, it can receive data from two devices at a time.

Additionally, the MIMO wireless technology maintains a wireless connection, so you don’t suffer signal losses or drops.

In summary, the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr has got a good look, and in terms of sturdiness, we cannot complain about that as well. Besides that, it’s also portable.

Therefore, I will conclude this design review section by rating the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr an eight out of ten.

HP Chromebook 11-v031nr: Processor (CPU) Performance

The type of processor on the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr is an Intel Celeron N3050 CPU. This CPU has two cores or processing units.

Specifically, each CPU core is like a person doing a job. Therefore, with more people doing a job, the faster the job gets done.

However, with just two cores on this CPU, the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr is only powerful enough to perform basic computing tasks. For example, sending emails, web browsing, or playing media files won’t be a problem.

That said, the Intel Celeron N3050 has a base frequency of 1.60 GHz and a boost frequency of 2.16 GHz. Also, it has 2 MB of cache memory.

At this point, I will share this Chromebook’s result in a WebXPRT 3 test performed by notebookcheck.net. To shed more light on this, a WebXPRT 3 test measures a computer’s JavaScript engine’s performance.

Typically, a higher score in this test translates to better performance. From the test, the Intel Celeron N3050 of the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr scored 41.1 points.

However, it only succeeded in making a tie with the Dell Chromebook 11, which runs on a less powerful Intel Celeron N2820 processor. In other words, the Dell Chromebook 11 also scored 41.1 points in the same test.

In summary, the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr’s CPU isn’t the most powerful processor. Besides, its speed is suitable for most Android applications but not all.

Based on this, I will conclude this section by rating this laptop a seven out of ten.

HP Chromebook 11-v031nr: Memory (RAM) Performance

The HP Chromebook 11-v031nr comes with only one RAM slot, which houses an LPDDR3-1600 SDRAM. For the RAM capacity, this Chromebook ships with a standard 4 GB in this single slot.

Sadly, the standard 4 GB is also the maximum memory size supported by this Chromebook. Unfortunately, this implies that you cannot upgrade the RAM on this Chromebook above 4 GB.

Meanwhile, 4 GB of RAM should be good enough for light multitasking. Specifically, with 4 GB RAM, you can browse with anything less than 10 Chrome tabs at a time without experiencing a slowdown.

However, you may start to find this 4 GB of RAM wanting in the near future. This is because newer Android applications used on Chromebooks continue to grow in memory requirements.

In the meantime, let’s find out how well this RAM can perform in an Octane V1 test performed by notebookcheck.com. Octane V1 is a benchmark test that measures the speed that Chromebooks load webpages.

As with the previous benchmark, a high score in this test also indicates a high performance. Consequently, the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr scored 5323 points in the test.

In comparison with the Microsoft Surface Pro 1st generation, the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr performed better. Specifically, the Microsoft Surface Pro scored 5124 points in the same test.

As a result of its performance in the benchmark test, I believe that a seven out of ten won’t be an underrating for this Chromebook’s memory performance.

HP Chromebook 11-v031nr: Storage Options and Performance

HP equips the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr with eMMC storage. In terms of size, it comes with 16 GB storage which is also the maximum supported storage size.

Perhaps, you already know that Chromebooks are usually not generous when it comes to their local storage size. As a matter of fact, the 16 GB storage space available on this Chromebook will be insufficient for storing all your multimedia files locally.

But don’t forget that Chrome OS is not meant to store most of its data on a local drive. This is why Chromebooks come with 15 GB of Google cloud storage by default.

Also, Chromebooks offer additional 100 GB of Google cloud storage and the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr isn’t an exception to that. In addition, this cloud storage is free for 12 months.

To activate the additional 100 GB of Google cloud storage, follow the steps in How to Get 100GB of Free Google Drive Space on a Chromebook guide.

That’s not all, the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr offers one MicroSD card reader for storage expansion.

In total, you get three different storage options on this Chromebook and that should be enough for your storage requirements.

But then, is storage size all that matters? Certainly not, the read and write speed of a storage drive are also important.

At this point, I would have provided the read and write speeds of this Chromebook from the CrystalDiskMark test. Unfortunately, this test doesn’t support the eMMC storage type that comes with the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr.

Nevertheless, the storage options and sizes of this Chromebook give enough reasons to rate the laptop an eight out of ten.

HP Chromebook 11-v031nr: Graphics Card Performance

Speaking of graphics configuration, the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr features an integrated Intel HD Graphics 400.

An integrated GPU like Intel HD Graphics 400 shares the same system memory as the processor. This is because the GPU has no dedicated VRAM, which is its first limitation.

Hence, the integrated GPU on this Chromebook will not be suitable for graphics-intensive tasks, which is not surprising for a Chromebook anyway.

When it comes to clock speed, the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr’s GPU has a base frequency of 320 MHz. Thankfully, you can boost the GPU’s frequency to a maximum of 600 MHz.

Performance-wise this graphics card should run Turboprop Flight Simulator 3D and other games with ease.

Now let’s see how far this Chromebook’s GPU can go in rendering complex graphics. To do that, we will consider its score in a 3DMark test.

This test measures how well a GPU can render graphics in 3D games. In this test, a higher score indicates a better performance of the GPU.

Commendably, the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr got a total of 450 points in this test. That’s slightly above the 420 points scored by the ASUS L410 with Intel UHD Graphics 600.

On the other hand, the HP Chromebook 11’s result is below the 461 points scored by the Toshiba Portege Z20t. Well, that shouldn’t surprise you because the latter uses a better Intel HD graphics 530.

With these comparisons, you can see that the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr’s GPU is reasonably good. Hence, I will conclude this section by rating this HP Chromebook an eight out of ten.

HP Chromebook 11-v031nr: Battery Life and Performance

The HP Chromebook 11-v031nr runs on a 2-cell, 43.7 Wh Li-ion battery. According to HP, this battery can last for up to 11 hours in mixed usage.

That’s mouth-watering battery life, isn’t it? But then, it’s always better to verify such claims.

Therefore, we will ascertain this claim through a battery test performed by lifewire.com. From the test, the battery lasted for good 13 hours on basic computing tasks.

In addition to that, it took 10 hours of continuous YouTube video streaming before the battery ran out of power. Considering the outcome of the battery test, it is safe to say that the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr has long battery life.

In addition to the long battery life, it takes just an hour and a half to charge this laptop’s battery. Therefore, I think HP got it right with the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr’s battery.

In conclusion, the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr’s battery life is satisfactory, offering above the 8 hours you get normally from most Chromebooks. In addition to that, it also charges fast.

Based on these achievements, I choose to rate this laptop a nine out of ten in this section.

Frequently Asked Question

Conclusion

I remember how my reservations about Chromebooks changed after seeing the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr’s sleek design. Now that I have reviewed this Chromebook, I’ve got even more convincing reasons to remain interested in it.

Firstly, its wireless connectivity is similar to that of a standard laptop computer. Also, its SVA display panel offers a superb viewing angle.

Additionally, with its long battery life and fast charging, this Chromebook will still be a competitor for modern Chromebooks. However, I am not pleased with it being a non-touchscreen device.

Nevertheless, if you need a Chromebook you can use for a whole day without having to plug it to power, the HP Chromebook 11-v031nr is for you. However, keep in mind that it is not a convertible laptop, and you will always use the keyboard and mouse for input.

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