The HP Fortis line of laptops are affordable notebooks for the education market that are designed for use in the classroom thanks to features like reinforced ports and corners and spill-resistant keyboards.
HP launched the line last year, and now the company is updating the HP Fortis family with two new 11.6 inch notebooks: the HP Pro x360 Fortis 11 G11 with Intel Alder Lake-N processor and Windows software options and the HP Fortis X360 11 Chromebook G3 with Intel Jasper Lake and Google’s ChromeOS.
Those are big names for small laptops, but in a nutshell both models feature 11.6 inch touchscreen displays and 360-degree hinges that allow the notebooks to be used in laptop, tablet, tent, or stand modes.
The Windows model also supports an optional pressure-sensitive pen, which can fit into a spot above the keyboard when it’s not in use. HP also offers an optional 4G LTE modem for the Windows model as well as support for an M.2 2230 PCIe SSD and HDMI and Ethernet ports.
By comparison, the HP Fortis x360 11 Chromebook G3 has fewer ports, less powerful processor options, and no pen or cellular options. But the Chromebook does have a lower starting price of just $339 (the Windows laptop starts at $479)
Both of HP’s new Fortis-branded laptops for the education market should be available this month.
| HP Pro x360 Fortis 11 G11 | HP Fortis x360 11 Chromebook G3 | |
| OS | Windows 11 (or Windows 10) | ChromeOS |
| Display | 11.6 inches 1366 x 768 pixels 250 nits Touchscreen HP Slim Pen AES pen (optional) | 11.6 inches HD IPS LCD Touchscreen Corning Gorilla Glass |
| Processor | Intel Processor N100 Intel Processor N200 | Intel Celeron N4500 Intel Celeron N5100 Intel Pentium Silver N6000 |
| Memory | Up to 16GB DDR4-3200 onboard (not upgradeable) | 4GB or 8GB LPDDR4X onboard (not upgradeable) |
| Storage | 64GB eMMC 128GB /256GB M.2 2230 PCIe SSD | 32GB or 64GB eMMC |
| Ports | 1 x USB Type-C (5 Gbps) 2 x USB Type-A (5 Gbps) 1 x HDMI 2.0b 1 x Ethernet 1 x 3.5mm audio | 2 x USB Type-C 2 x USB Type-A 1 x 3.5mm audio |
| Wireless options | Intel AX211: WiFi 6E / BT 5.3 Realtek 8852CE: WiFi 6 / BT 5.3 Intel XMM 7560 4GE LTE Cat 16 | WiFi 6 Bluetooth 5.2 |
| Battery | 42 Wh | 47 Wh |
| Charging | 45 or 65W power adapters | ? |
| Camera | 720p front-facing 5MP wide-angle world-facing (optional) | |
| Audio | Stereo speakers Dual microphones | Single mic |
| Dimensions | 297 x 204 x 21mm (11.7″ x 8″ x 0.8″) | 295 x 205 x 21mm (11.6″ x 8.1″ x 0.8″) |
| Weight | 1.47 kg (3.2 pounds) | |
| Starting Price | $479 | $339 |
The lack of AMD processors in this size laptop seems like a big oversight
You know, if the various manufacturers who made these rugged education laptops made the same exact things with a 13 of 14 inch 1080p display and just asked retailers to sell them normally, I’m sure a lot of people would buy them. Not everyone is buying all the macbook lookalikes that every non-education laptop is because they want a mac but “need windows for” something, they buy them because they want a more common laptop with a more midrange processor and all there is is macbook lookalikes.
They’d need to offer better processor options because not everyone has or can afford a powerful desktop. But not having to worry about dropping your laptop, and still getting all the external hardware features these have would be nice.
Agreed. Just maximise the screen size for this form factor and make it FHD. Then add more powerful CPUs and higher ram as options. I used to have an older Lenovo 11e and it was compact and usable. The number and variety of ports in this laptop is great and I like that it also uses USB-C for changing.