It looks like Acer may not be the only PC maker with an NVIDIA-powered Chromebook on the way. According to listings at a couple of different online stores, HP’s got a Chrome OS laptop with an NVIDIA Tegra K1 processor in the works as well.

nvidia tegra k1

The HP Chromebook 14 with a Tegra K1 “Logan” processor will feature a 14 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display, 2GB of RAM, 16GB of storage, 802.11ac WiFI, Bluetooth 4.0, a mic and webcam, and a 37Whr battery.

HP already offers a 14 inch laptop with Chrome OS, but that model features an Intel Celeron 2955U Haswell processor. Interestingly HP also already offers a 14 inch laptop with a Tegra chip…. but unlike the new Chromebook, the HP Slatebook 14 with a Tegra 4 processor runs Android and has a touchscreen display.

The new models were spotted first by Mobile Geeks and you can find more details by searching the web for the model numbers 14X020NR or 14X010NR or by checking out product pages at the links below.

It’s likely that an HP Chromebook with an NVIDIA Tegra K1 ARM-based processor would use less power and could offer longer battery life than the company’s current Intel-based models. But if the retail listings are anything to go by (and they might not be), the new models won’t necessarily be cheaper than the Intel-powered Chromebook 14 models, which sell for around $299.

Neobits (1) (2), Shoponize (1) (2)

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25 replies on “HP Chromebook 14 with NVIDIA Tegra K1 coming soon?”

  1. I’d be more impressed if it had a 13.3 inch screen like the Toshiba or Asus Chromebooks for under $300.

  2. That 64bit Logan processor almost sounds too powerful for a Chromebook. This should be speedier than the K1 in the Jetson board since the single-thread performance is much-much higher.

    If Nvidia’s statements about the K1/Logan is correct, this should be almost as powerful as a Core i3 Chromebook (assuming proper speedy RAM and flash).

    It is a pity that it comes with such a low-res screen. This machine deserves an fHD variant.

    1. There’s no guarantee that this will be 64 bit. I think it’s more likely that it’ll be the same 32 bit chip that’s in the Jetson.

    2. Chromebooks are currently only being sold at the value end of the market — i.e. the place where customers are very sensitive to prices — i.e. no HD screens.

        1. FHD aren’t a priority for non-tablets, and especially not for budget models…

          Sure, the Chromebook 2 has a FHD but it’s pricier than the other Chromebooks and compromises in other aspects like it’s not a IPS display and thus has limited viewing angles, it doesn’t have a full size SD card reader, and it doesn’t offer the top performance processor for Chromebooks…

          Besides, FHD isn’t everything… it’s not the highest resolution they could offer, without other aspects of screen quality it can still suck as a screen like lack of viewing angle, lack of color saturation and accuracy, whether or not it has sufficient back lighting, lack of contrast ratio, etc…

  3. The main benefit of going ARM is cost and not just for the SoC. That’s why Intel is giving Atom for free in tablets, it’s a chip designed for PCs and the total cost of the system is not competitive.
    Obviously ,in this case the GPU is also better.

    1. Subsidized, isn’t free… It’s discounted… but otherwise agree with what you stated… Though, Intel is working on changing this…

      First with the 14nm update they’re finally doing things like making it easier for OEMs to source parts from other than them and thus it’ll get cheaper for the OEMs… Second, the 14nm designs are being optimized for affordability, the Intel Braswell is specifically for improving costs and that leaves Cherry Trail for the more premium Intel tablet offerings…

      Then, with the release of Broxton at the end of 2015 they’re going to adopt a customizable and scalable architecture that shares many of the same cost benefits as ARM already does… So, we’ll see how they compare in 2016 as to whether ARM can still hold onto its cost advantage then…

      But it also depends if ARM FABs can keep up as Intel will be going to 10nm by the time we see wide adoption of 14nm for ARM and then Intel will push to 7nm before further advancing becomes uncertain…

      Intel is also working on fixing it’s other weak spot with GPU performance… the 14nm moves the ATOM straight to the same Gen 8 GPU as Intel’s Core based Broadwell will be using and Cherry Trail will at least have it scaled up to 8EUs for Value Edition and 16 EUs, meaning possible more than triple the present performance, for the higher end offerings and that should make them at least competitive, if not fully catch up, with the other top mobile graphics offerings and it’ll also be doubled again for Broxton… which should help it keep up with the next gen ARM offerings that’ll come out by then…

  4. I hope it’s easy to boot other non-Linux distros (ie. mostly works on a clean install) on this and it can default to the SeaBIOS like the Acer C720. I hear NVIDIA and individual developers are making quite a bit of progress in terms of Linux support.

    1. Don’t hold your breath. Tegra K1 is ARM, so I don’t think it will be booting any x86 distros.

      1. Linux isn’t limited to working on just x86 hardware and thus the real question is how well they’ll support Open Source drivers as that’s the main thing keeping most GNU/Linux distros from being a option on most ARM devices…

        1. I was referring to SeaBIOS (as was the OP I was replying to), pretty sure that doesn’t run on ARM (please correct me if I am wrong). I’m sure this will run Crouton just fine.

          1. Not really, SeaBIOS was mentioned but the main thing being talked about was being able to boot another OS besides the default…

            The firmware for ARM usually just needs to be completely replaced to do the same and that’s just a bit harder than working with SeaBIOS and basically holding onto the option of still running the original Chrome OS…

            Though, ARM does limit what other OS you could boot instead…

      2. I am running Kubuntu 14.04 on my Jetson TK1 board. It runs great! LibreOffice start in < 1s cold – faster than my top-of-the-line Desktop and Laptop! Chromium works great, as does my Logitech webcam.

        All is not roses though due to 3rd party support: skype, adobe anything, etc. tend to be stuck in x86 land. Finally, NVs driver is still in Beta, so the x server is not as stable as it should be.

        But the core experience is indistinguishable from x86. I think the Raspberry Pi has helped a great deal.

        1. Are you using an image provided by NVIDIA or did you install it yourself? Jon asked about booting some ARM version of a Linux distro installation media and simply installing the distro like how you would on x86 hardware. Tired8281 answered that by saying it doesn’t normally work that way for ARM hardware. You usually have to prepare a full install image on another computer and then boot from it or clone it onto the ARM device’s local storage. That’s not really an easy thing to do and most people need to rely on the OEM to povide updated images.

          1. Its NVs Linux for Tegra (L4T) which comes preinstalled. So you are right – I didn’t have the installation pain :/

    2. It’s likely not going to be easy. Here’s how to do it with another Chromebook using an Exynos SoC:
      https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Samsung_Chromebook_%28ARM%29

      I believe using the SeaBIOS is limited to x86 hardware. There isn’t a standard way to initialize ARM based hardware which is one of the several reasons why ARM is a pain to use. The other big issue is after you’ve booted into Linux is related to drivers. As you’ve said, there’s been work to support the K1 but it’s still work in progress. So the easiest method is to boot into ChromeOS and run your distro of choice in a chroot. Not exactly ideal but at least the overhead of having ChromeOS running simultaneously should be low.

      I personally just stay away from ARM for non-smartphone devices. I’ve been transitioning to Silvermont based Atoms for my SBCs and I’ve had a lot less issues than with ARM based SBCs.

  5. HP Slatebook has a Tegra 4 processor, not a K1.

    But it is strange that Android vs ChromeOS get different hardware designs. It should be a software install issue.

    1. Are you talking about using the Tegra K1 vs the Tegra 4? If so, then it’s better to use the more powerful K1 for both marketing purposes and a general better user experience.

    2. Not really strange, mind that while Android may be also based on the Linux kernel that its licensing allows for proprietary changes and the use of things like Closed drivers…

      While most GNU/Linux (desktop Linux) distros is primarily Open Source and tends to avoid anything proprietary and closed… eliminating direct support for any hardware that doesn’t fully support Open Source drivers…

      It doesn’t help that ARM is still a very hardware fragmented platform and most devices heavily use Closed drivers and is one of the reasons why GNU/Linux has seen very little adoption on ARM based devices…

      Chromebook’s OS is based on the GNU/Linux Ubuntu and thus has more in common with the desktop Linux distros than the mobile OS Android… Providing factors like Chrome generally requires more resources to run well than Android and the differences in hardware has, at least initially required Google to cripple some performance features in the version of Chrome OS that runs on ARM…

      So, adoption has been slow and a lot depends on which company makes the hardware and how far they are willing to work with Google but obviously there’s reasons why most Chromebooks are still x86 based…

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