CHROMEBOOK
It has power and battery life to spare, but this slim laptop ultimately disappoints due to its dim screen
HP Pro c640 Chromebook
PRICE £859 (£1,031 inc VAT) from store.hp.com/uk
Although Chromebooks have long been regarded as cheap and simple alternatives to Windows laptops, Google has sought to carve a space in enterprises for its Chrome OS-powered machines. HP has been at the forefront of this move, building Chromebooks for those who seek more than a laptop that does the basics. Its latest device is cast from this mould, combining a top-of-the-range Intel Core i7 processor with 16GB of RAM and a 1080p touchscreen, as well as useful security features and an encouraging collection of connectivity options.
What you don’t get is excitement: the Chromebook’s straight-laced, silver-coated aluminium exterior isn’t exactly unattractive, but jaws won’t drop when you lift it out of a case. An expansive keyboard sits between two speaker grilles, all positioned above a spacious glass-coated trackpad. The two halves are joined by a 180˚ hinge that means you can lie it flat on a surface, but look to the Asus Chromebook Flip C436F ( see issue 311, p64) if you’d like a convertible.
The Flip C436F also makes the Pro c640 seem portly. At 1.5kg, the c640 is heavier than most 14in laptops and 400g fatter than the Flip C436F. HP still describes the Pro c640 as “the world’s thinnest 14in business Chromebook”, which at 16.5mm may well be true – but quietly ignores the presence of many slimmer consumer Chromebooks. Once again, I reach for the Flip C436F and its 13.7mm depth. With a thick black border around the screen, it’s also obvious that HP could have squeezed a 15in screen into this chassis without increasing its footprint. Sadly, the 14in touchscreen IPS panel is disappointing with a perfect storm of poor brightness and colour accuracy.
At 255cd/m2, the matte display is far dimmer than you’d expect from a premium device; the latest
Dell XPS 13 ( see issue 317, p50) hits a peak brightness of 566cd/m2, and most decent enterprise laptops clear the 300cd/m2 hurdle. Similarly, an astonishingly bad 53.3% coverage of the sRGB colour gamut explains why colours appear dull to the naked eye. It sadly can’t be salvaged by a respectable 1,276:1 contrast ratio. It isn’t all bad news, with the backlit and water-resistant keyboard proving to be one of this laptop’s highlights. It has well-spaced and comfortable chiclet-style keys that are just as soft as they are snappy, making word processing a treat. HP has coated the touchpad with glass, which is normally good news. Here, though, it sometimes feels as if the cursor skids and slides around because the surface is so slippery. The real problems arise with click-and
“Where the HP Pro c640 Chromebook excels is battery life, lasting an impressive 12hrs 38mins in our looped video test”
drag and multitouch functions, such as pinch to zoom and Mac-style twofingered right-clicking. It doesn’t help that clicking requires more force than you’d expect.
This Intel Core i7-10610U CPU inside is based on the Comet Lake architecture, with a base frequency of 1.8GHz and maximum turbo boost of 4.9GHz. HP combines it with 16GB of RAM and a 128GB SSD. While this sounds strong on paper, Geekbench 5 showed the performance levels were slightly disappointing for a Core i7 chip, producing a decent single-threaded result of 1,068 and a below-average multithreaded score of 3,601. This is only marginally stronger than the Core i5 chip fitted into the Samsung Galaxy Book Ion ( see issue 311, p62).
Where it excels is battery life, lasting an impressive 12hrs 38mins in our looped video test. Even though the standard for battery capacity in premium and high-power machines has improved, you’ll still struggle to find one that hits 11 hours let alone exceeds 12 hours. That said, the exceptionally durable Galaxy Book Ion lasted 13hrs 3mins.
HP also regains honour by squeezing in so many ports, including two USB-C and two USB-A 3.1 Gen 1 ports, in addition to an HDMI 1.4 output, microSD slot and 3.5mm jack. Support for Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5 ensures users benefit from the best possible level of connectivity too.
The HP Pro c640 boasts a fantastic battery life and an exceptionally comfortable keyboard, but there are several black marks such as that poor display and fiddly trackpad. These issues can be mitigated with an external monitor and mouse, but for the amount this Chromebook costs you should certainly be demanding more.
Four-core 1.8GHz (4.9GHz burst) Intel Core i7-10610U vPro processor Intel UHD graphics 16GB DDR4-2666 RAM 14in IPS touchscreen, 1,920 x 1,080 resolution 128GB eMMC SSD 2x2 Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5 2 x USB-C 3.1 2 x USB-A 3.1 HDMI 1.4 3.5mm audio jack 720p webcam 60Wh battery Chrome OS 325 x 205 x 16.5mm (WDH)
1.5kg 3yr RTB warranty