If not for excel, how is Libre office word and PowerPoint compare to Office? I never tried Libre office but I can bet that there's no way you can make great looking word doc or ppt slides on it.
The question is why they can't they put Windows os on it? Of course you pay more for licensing but it is possible.
I'd take that bet. The tools in both versions of Office are pretty much the same it is just people unfamiliar with how things are done in LO that get sub par results. If you go into both with the same knowledge level, the results will be pretty much identical. Also, there is no such thing as a great looking PP presentation. Just saying.
The issue is that most people in a corporate environment is trained/familiar with Office only, so switching incur high re-training costs and impedes day-today functioning (at least during training). Is this LO's fault? No, but that just the reality
Pentium is cheap enough and they can just recycle the mobo from any laptop/box PCs they had in the past. Whereas using an ARM chip probable requires designing of a new mobo, or at least one that costs more to design/manufacture, thus negating the cost savings of an ARM chip
No, Chromebooks get 5 years. They can get up to 6.5 years if the manufacturer is willing to put more into supporting the hardware. It isnt standard though.
we tried this for approx 6000 employees with the original chromebox and chromebooks and frankly it was an unmitigated disaster although am firmly and android fan and these boxes do work the constant issues with not being able to share docs with folks on other platforms due to compatibility issues and some of the weird restrictions on file shares etc within the google ecosystem meant this just didnt work, 2 years later we are back on Windows which has its own issues but at least we can be sure other people can in the main interact
I imagine you have to be very careful about matching these with the correct end users. If you just need a platform where call center workers enter information in forms or can pull up diagnostic web pages to help customers, I'm sure they work great. If you start to stray into more productivity tasks it probably gets too restrictive for the employees. But as someone pointed out, it seems it's almost too powerful for the task it's good for, as this excess hardware capability translates to excessive cost.
I can see the use case for this. We run web applications, and for people like our help desk, the multiple tabs and web browsers easily consume 4-5GB of RAM, which is fine on a system with 8, until you need to run a remote session or something else web based that begins to suck up more RAM.
I feel like 2 screens at work is pretty standard by now. HP, why you only give us one output? Must be because they don't want to have this cannibalize sales of it's Thin Clients which have dual outputs.
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austinsguitar - Monday, October 14, 2019 - link
strap one of these one the back of a 70 dollar monitor and multiply that times 100. might be a good purchase but again. where the prices b at yo?MayDayComputers - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
Prices are definitely enterprise grade.sorten - Monday, October 14, 2019 - link
Good looking box, but why on earth would you need a 90W external brick? I can't image the i-3 U series chips are going to draw more than 25 watts.sorten - Monday, October 14, 2019 - link
OTOH, if the USB-C port supports power delivery you can skip a brick altogether.ingwe - Monday, October 14, 2019 - link
Wow yeah I missed that. No idea why that would be the case.deil - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
is this at the point where you can power the monitor with usb-c?or the box can be charged from monitor ? all in all I want 1 cable.
TheinsanegamerN - Monday, October 14, 2019 - link
Likely just using bricks left over from another line of laptops.coburn_c - Monday, October 14, 2019 - link
If an employer told me I had to use Google Sheets daily I'd probably quit.nandnandnand - Monday, October 14, 2019 - link
It supports Linux applications, so just use LibreOffice.Lord of the Bored - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
That's even worse.webdoctors - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
You obviously haven't tried Google Sheets.LibreOffice is very capable.
Anyways, most companies just have laptops for everyone.
Cliff34 - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
If not for excel, how is Libre office word and PowerPoint compare to Office? I never tried Libre office but I can bet that there's no way you can make great looking word doc or ppt slides on it.The question is why they can't they put Windows os on it? Of course you pay more for licensing but it is possible.
Death666Angel - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
I'd take that bet. The tools in both versions of Office are pretty much the same it is just people unfamiliar with how things are done in LO that get sub par results. If you go into both with the same knowledge level, the results will be pretty much identical. Also, there is no such thing as a great looking PP presentation. Just saying.Retycint - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
The issue is that most people in a corporate environment is trained/familiar with Office only, so switching incur high re-training costs and impedes day-today functioning (at least during training). Is this LO's fault? No, but that just the realityIronchef3500 - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
hehezepi - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
Office365 is available for chromebooks.Ironchef3500 - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
+1SanX - Monday, October 14, 2019 - link
Why not use cellphone chips like Snapdragon, Kirin or Helio ? Use dual-chip if not enough power. The box will be still 3 times cheaperstephenbrooks - Monday, October 14, 2019 - link
Maybe the ultimate evolution of this is docking your company phone to a screen?Retycint - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
Pentium is cheap enough and they can just recycle the mobo from any laptop/box PCs they had in the past. Whereas using an ARM chip probable requires designing of a new mobo, or at least one that costs more to design/manufacture, thus negating the cost savings of an ARM chipcacarr - Monday, October 14, 2019 - link
With 16 GB RAM and the i3, would make a nice Crostini box -- fire up some GNU/Linux apps. I want one.Flunk - Monday, October 14, 2019 - link
Sounds like ultimate punishment-level PC hardware. The best way to tell your employees that their time isn't worth anything.nandnandnand - Monday, October 14, 2019 - link
This is more performance and RAM than most people even need.BedfordTim - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
I was mystified by the RAM. Which application uses that much RAM and next to no storage?zepi - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
Chrome, Office applications, Outlook?PeachNCream - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
It takes a lot of RAM to run software that can perform so much on-the-flying spying on behalf of Google all at once.inshabby - Monday, October 14, 2019 - link
"automatic software updates through June 2024"5 year lifespan? Lol
nandnandnand - Monday, October 14, 2019 - link
Wow, don't Chromebooks get 6.5 years?I guess the plan is to charge for updates after 2024.
TheinsanegamerN - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
No, Chromebooks get 5 years. They can get up to 6.5 years if the manufacturer is willing to put more into supporting the hardware. It isnt standard though.Beany2013 - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
Enterprises typically refresh their hardware every three to five years, so it's fine for them.alufan - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
we tried this for approx 6000 employees with the original chromebox and chromebooks and frankly it was an unmitigated disaster although am firmly and android fan and these boxes do work the constant issues with not being able to share docs with folks on other platforms due to compatibility issues and some of the weird restrictions on file shares etc within the google ecosystem meant this just didnt work, 2 years later we are back on Windows which has its own issues but at least we can be sure other people can in the main interactalufan - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
just had a thought looks like someone needs to shift lots of low end hardwarehaukionkannel - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
Very strange... we have very good experiences from chromebooks... Is chromebox so much worse?flgt - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
I imagine you have to be very careful about matching these with the correct end users. If you just need a platform where call center workers enter information in forms or can pull up diagnostic web pages to help customers, I'm sure they work great. If you start to stray into more productivity tasks it probably gets too restrictive for the employees. But as someone pointed out, it seems it's almost too powerful for the task it's good for, as this excess hardware capability translates to excessive cost.TheinsanegamerN - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
I can see the use case for this. We run web applications, and for people like our help desk, the multiple tabs and web browsers easily consume 4-5GB of RAM, which is fine on a system with 8, until you need to run a remote session or something else web based that begins to suck up more RAM.TheinsanegamerN - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
Chromeboxes are just as capable as chromebooks. If what you do is web based, they are fantastic.MayDayComputers - Tuesday, October 15, 2019 - link
This announcement must just be for their low end offerings. They already have a 7th gen i5 and 8th gen i7 model for $689 and $969 respectively.https://store.hp.com/us/en/mdp/chromebox-244004--1...
khaydin - Wednesday, October 16, 2019 - link
I feel like 2 screens at work is pretty standard by now. HP, why you only give us one output? Must be because they don't want to have this cannibalize sales of it's Thin Clients which have dual outputs.tigrente - Wednesday, October 16, 2019 - link
The Chromebox has dual video outputs - HDMI and USB-C.