The Chromebook concept is a cheap, low profile laptop that runs on Google Chrome OS. The manufacturers worked around such a tight price point that they had to make some compromises on the machine itself.

For the first time with Chromebook 11, a Chromebook is not only about affordability but also performance. Even high end computer users will be delightful to use the new Chromebook 11. The design is simple and clean with a solid light body and a genuinely good keyboard. The IPS screen colours are vibrant and fresh. It is a simple-to-use, beautifully made mobile computer.

And the fact that it only costs AUD $364, this makes you feel you've got a special secret of a gem. While everyone else pays two to eight times as much, you get to do pretty much the same things on your Chromebook.

The specs are the usual 16GB storage with a built-in SSD (no SSD slot), several USB 2.0 ports, 2GB RAM and an ARM processor. It has a 1366x768 screen, 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi (a 4G model will be available soon) and Bluetooth 4.0 VGA webcam. It's ordinary but the resolution is already remarkable for an 11-inch laptop, comparable to what the 11-inch MacBook Air has.

The power connection is just a Mirco-USB port so you can pretty much plug it wherever you go. A 15.75W mains charger is included but you can plug it into any USB port. However, as with most USB ports and chargers, it won't charge the device quickly. The Micro-USB is also the video-out port. SlimPort is based on DisplayPort standard and this means greater flexibility in the future. SlimPort also doesn't need external power, unlike MHL.

With Chrome OS, everything the user does has to be done through web apps, which can be quite restrictive but most things are done through a web browser anyway and the rest could be transferred to equivalent web apps without too much disruption. Web apps are already becoming capable. Moreover, not all web apps are useless without a web connection; some apps actually work offline.

Chrome OS still has room for improvement -- maybe an ecosystem or printing directly to a Google Cloud Print-enabled printer among other things. Nevertheless, for most of the computing we do, it's actually on par and sometimes even better than traditional PCs and tablets. Steve Jobs once said Apple doesn't know how to make a $500-computer that's not a piece of junk, but HP has managed to make this Chromebook 11 and it's definitely not a "piece of junk".