HP Fortis G1i 11", Intel N150, 8GB, 64GB eMMC

A tiny Chromebook with a big portability score and a storage situation that feels like 2015. Buy it cheap for a kid, or skip it entirely.

The Intel N150 is a 4-core chip running at a sleepy 0.8GHz base clock, and it shows. This thing is built for basic web browsing and Google Docs, not much else. What surprised us most is how far behind the storage falls. 64GB of eMMC puts it in the 4th percentile, which is one of the worst we've seen. ChromeOS is light, but that's still tight for offline files and Android apps. The 8GB of LPDDR5X RAM is a small mercy, keeping a handful of tabs alive without constant reloads.

Stacked against something like the Lenovo Yoga 7 or ASUS Zenbook, the Fortis G1i looks like a toy. But those are full Windows laptops at much higher prices. The real comparison is against other budget Chromebooks, and even there, the 64GB storage and weak display hold it back. The Dell Latitude XPS 13 and MacBook Pro M1 Pro are in a completely different universe. If you need a cheap, small Chromebook for a kid, this works. If you need anything resembling a daily driver, look elsewhere.

Pricing is all over the place. In the US, we're seeing listings from USD 330 to USD 469, and in Canada it swings from CAD 666 to CAD 1,099. The best US deal we found is at the lower end of that range, and honestly, that's the only price where this makes sense. Paying anywhere near the top of that spread is a mistake. At USD 330, it's a passable school machine. At USD 469, you're getting fleeced.

The HP Fortis G1i is a Chromebook that knows exactly what it is: a cheap, rugged-ish machine for classrooms and kids. The one thing to know? It nails the compact form factor, landing in the 100th percentile for portability in our database. But that tiny footprint comes with some serious compromises under the hood.

If you're looking for a laptop to handle anything beyond Google Docs and web browsing, this isn't it. Go grab a used Lenovo Yoga 7 or a refurbished Windows laptop instead. You'll get a real screen, real storage, and a CPU that doesn't wheeze when you open ten tabs.

The HP Fortis G1i is a single-purpose machine. Buy it if you need a cheap, compact Chromebook for a student who lives in Google Classroom and nothing else. The 100th percentile compact score is real, and the port selection is genuinely useful. But the storage, screen, and CPU are all bottom-tier, and the reliability numbers don't inspire confidence. Get it at the lowest price you can find, or don't get it at all.