Display quality
Are our eyes going to melt?
We looked at resolution, colour quality including gamut, brightness measured in nits and give our general impression of the display for day-to-day viewing. The Chromebook R 13’s 13.3-inch, 1080p panel shows crisp images, but with unimpressive colour and brightness. Furthermore, it only managed 64 per cent of the SRGB spectrum: it’s accurate but just not punchy. This isn’t helped by the average 254 nits brightness that it managed.
The Flip C434 has an eye-catching 14-inch 1080p touch screen, which is fairly bright and vivid, if short of groundbreaking. Tiny bevels are nice but that gloss screen will be reflective as hell if you use it outside. The 14-inch display covers a decent 93 per cent of the SRGB colour gamut, according to our colorimeter and manages an above average 286 nits brightness. With a responsive touchscreen we’d say this is a competent display.
Google has taken a balanced approach to the Go’s display. It’s gone with a balanced 13.3-inch size that balances portability and usability, and opted for a now standard 1080p resolution. This does help maximise the battery life, while still offering touchscreen capabilities, which helps deal with pesky Android apps that expect touch interaction. Colour is excellent at 108 per cent of the standard SRGB spectrum, while brightness is a shiny 368 nit, way above the average 265 nits.
HP deserves a hearty round of applause for offering a 1080p display on such an affordable laptop. The 14-inch panel isn’t particularly bright or vivid, but almost anything is better than those outdated 1,366x768 panels. So colours don’t really burst off this display and darker tones or gradients can get a little muddy, but it’s all perfectly usable. The display covers 71 per cent of the SRGB color gamut and is also on the dim side when compared with other budget competitors at 220 nits.
The Yoga Chromebook C630 enables you to experience Chrome OS in luscious 4K (there is a 1080p version) resolution for the first time. While the pixel-packed panel is gorgeous, 1080p displays on some competing laptops are brighter and more colourful. It’s vivid with strong colours covering 107 per cent of the SRGB colour gamut, making it good but not the best, while the 260 nit brightness left us wanting more from its touchscreen.