HP made a brand new Chromebook, this time collaborating with Chrome OS god, Google. With the images of the new Chromebook 13 floating around the web, you may notice its prestige hinting a lot at the Apple MacBook Air in terms of design. Further, as far as the 13’s higher-end build, we can definitely thank Google for that. Google is the one who made the Chromebook Pixel, one of the nicest Chromebooks in its class.

A high-end HP Chromebook means we should first take a look at its body (how superficial of us, huh?). You’ll be pleased to know the Chromebook 13 has an “all-metal body made of brushed aluminum”. Weighing 2.86 pounds, you can definitely consider this thing light. But, because it measures just 12.9mm thick at a 13 inches in size, while its portability is no burden, there have been lighter bodies out there. The MacBook Air, however, isn’t one of them. As Cnet says, HP’s new Chromebook is both thinner and lighter than its competitor.

Since HP is directly targeting Apple’s MacBook Air, looks and feels aren’t the only items we need to pay attention to. First of all, the Chromebook 13’s 13.3-inch display comes with “either full HD”, says News Factor, or an amazing 3200 x 1800 QHD+ resolution (comparable to Apple), yet no touchscreen option (many found a touchscreen highly functional on the Chromebook Pixel). Configurations for RAM go up to 16GB, and storage sits at 32GB. As far as CPUs, drum roll please, HP says its new machine is its first to run Intel’s latest 6th generation Core M processor, and integrated Intel HD 515 graphics.

As far as accessories go, HP offers a compact docking station containing the oh-so important USB Type-C, which provides up to “two displays, external storage drives, and other peripherals”, but for a an extra $199. Finally, the new model has 802.11ac dual-band wireless, a webcam, headphone jack, microSD, and a good 11 ½ hours of battery life thanks to that Intel Core M (comparable to the MacBook Air).

Wow. All these comparisons, if you can call them that, and the price difference is phenomenal. Usually, the discussion of Chromebook pricing usually dwells around the sub $400 range. But since HP put itself in the battlefield with Apple and Google, let’s see where everyone stands. The Chromebook Pixel is more than double the cost of HP’s own high-end Chromebook, at $1,299; same goes with the MacBook Air, which starts at $899. At $499, HP has a lot of what competitors have. There’s not much to argue about that. Like all Chromebooks, the big deciding factor for the consumer is whether they can function using just Chrome. Since the design is better than cheap Chromebooks, we’ll probably continue to see these in the education sector more than the business sector. Oh, and for sitting at home typing on your blog. It’s good for that too.