Dell Chromebook 11 Review – School laptop with ‘raise finger’ LED
Dell’s Chromebook 11 is aimed at use in schools and other educational settings. It is therefore not the most beautiful, thinnest or lightest laptop. The 11.6″ screen has poor viewing angles, but it is matte, which many users prefer over a mirrored screen. In addition, the screen can flip 180 degrees. Dell has made the Chromebook sturdy, with rubber edges and a solid hinge. The most A special feature is the notification LED in the cover, which students can use to ask for the teacher’s attention.This Chromebook has an advantage for educational applications, but there are better alternatives for home use.
Pros
- Firm
- Spill resistant keyboard
- Matte screen
Cons
- Mainly aimed at education: there are better alternatives for home use
- Bad viewing angles
While competitors such as Samsung, Acer, HP and Toshiba have several generations of Chromebooks to their name, Dell is taking it easy with the laptops with Chrome OS. In 2013, the company already announced a Chromebook, but it was never released in the Benelux. Now there is the new Chromebook 11, but with this the group focuses on a limited part of the market: the part for education.
In Chromebook reviews, we regularly write that consumers should be well aware of what they are getting into. Chrome OS is not much more than a browser and the question is still which consumers are ready for this. The advantages of the operating system are much more evident for schools; the software is light and secure, requires little maintenance, can be shielded well and is easy to manage. In addition, Chromebooks are of course not expensive. It is therefore logical that Dell comes with an educational laptop. Competitors’ Chromebooks can of course also be used in the classroom, but Dell has really adapted the design and added a few extras.
Appearance, keyboard, touchpad
The Dell Chromebook 11 is not really beautiful. Dell builds on the design of the Latitude 13 Education with the model. It is a somewhat boring, black laptop with a thick hinge and wide screen edges. The device is sturdy. The entire laptop is made of solid plastic and the hinge in particular feels solid. There are thick rubber strips along the edges of the body and the screen, which prevent damage and can slightly break a fall from the table. This is a sensible design choice, which can extend the lifespan, which we think is not a luxury when used in busy classrooms. The surface is matt, which should prevent greasy student finger prints from being too visible.
What is also not a bad choice is to make the keyboard and touchpad resistant to liquid. Students who drop their drink cartons or students who spill coffee do not immediately destroy the laptop. The keyboard has small keys that type fine, but are not above average. The housing does not bounce during heavy typing, thanks to the solid body, which stands firmly on a surface.
The touchpad works surprisingly well. Unlike the Latitude 13 Education, on which this Chromebook is based, the mouse buttons are integrated. The surface responds accurately and is large enough, partly because it extends to the edge of the laptop. With both keyboard and touchpad, you can work well for a long time, for example on workpieces.
Screen
The screen of Dell’s Chromebook 11 has a diagonal of 11.6″. The resolution is 1366×768 pixels, which gives a sufficiently sharp image. Dell has opted for a TN panel to keep costs low. are bad, which makes copying difficult on the other hand.The color reproduction of TN panels is not as good as that of IPS screens, which you see more and more, even in cheaper, small laptops.
The image is matte, which can be an advantage. This way, students do not suffer from annoying reflections in the classroom when sunlight falls. The maximum brightness is not very high at 243cd/m2 ; even with the brightness set to maximum, it can be difficult to read the screen outdoors. The screen can be folded 180 degrees. Sometimes this can be practical, but it is more important that the hinge is not overloaded if someone bumps into it.
Battery life
The battery life of the Dell Chromebook11 is average. We’ve added the browsing test to illustrate this. The laptop lasts seven hours and fifteen minutes. For a longer battery life, the brightness should be lowered to a value below the 180cd/m 2 we use .
The indication LED
One of the features with which this Chromebook should distinguish itself is the LED in the cover of the screen. With Dell’s simple Activity Light app, students can make the LED glow blue, red or yellow. Blue equals ‘raise your hand’, red means the user has a question and yellow is the discussion light, although teachers can make other arrangements.
The LED can be a useful addition. It prevents a student from having to keep his finger in the air until the teacher notices him or her, which can improve productivity. The disadvantage is that the LED is not very clearly visible; Raising your hand will work better if you have urgent questions. Either way, it’s a simple and interesting addition.
Hardware and connections
The processor is a Celeron N2840, an economical Intel dual-core based on the Bay Trail-M platform, which is used in more recent Chromebooks. By default it runs at 2.16 GHz and at peak times it can tap 2.58 GHz. It is a chip that is used for cheap laptops, which need a long battery life, because the performance is not that high, but neither is the consumption. It is fast enough to handle most browsing actions smoothly, but if you as a user have a large number of tabs open or visit heavy javascript sites, the chip will have a hard time.
Furthermore, the Dell has 4GB DDR3 memory and flash storage with a capacity of 16GB. Both are standard for Chromebooks. There is little storage capacity, as Google assumes that users store data online. In addition, Google Drive will soon no longer be the only option; the online storage alternative Box will also receive direct integration into Chrome OS. Incidentally, the storage memory can be expanded via the SD memory card reader. There is also a USB 3.0 port and a 2.0 variant, and connecting to external screens is possible via HDMI 1.4.
As far as internet connection is concerned, there is a network card with support for dual-band WiFi-AC, which is the latest WiFi generation and with which this will not be the bottleneck in terms of internet connection speed. There is also support for bluetooth 4.0.
Conclusion
The Chromebook 11 from Dell is a somewhat boring, but very solid laptop. Dell focuses specifically on education and this Chromebook also has some advantages for use in the classroom. It is sturdy and the rubber edges provide the necessary protection, while the keyboard is resistant to liquids. The use of a matte screen is also nice for working in class and the keyboard and trackpad are fine. The notification LED is an unspectacular but useful addition. However, the viewing angles and color reproduction of the screen are not the best and the Chromebook is also not very fast, but that probably does not matter for simple educational applications.