For the past week or so, I've been testing out a $199 HP Stream 11
laptop – perhaps the least expensive Windows laptop I've ever tried.
What impressed me is that using it feels pretty much like using a
standard laptop, not a crippled netbook of years past. It clearly isn't
as powerful as more expensive notebook computers, but for people who
primarily work with Web-based applications or documents and files that
are stored in the cloud, it's a surprisingly nice alternative. (And the
deal is even better if you like Microsoft Office 365 – it includes a
one-year subscription to the Personal version, which can run on one PC,
one tablet, and one phone and usually sells for about $70.)
In general, it feels like an alternative to a Chromebook, a system that runs Google's Chrome OS and is designed for Web applications with an emphasis on Google's own tools. Those have become very popular lately, particularly in education, so this class of machine has become Microsoft's way of competing. It runs "Windows 8.1 with Bing" which is effectively Windows 8.1 in which the default search engine in Internet Explorer is set to Bing (although you can change this, just as in other versions of Windows).
As the name implies, the Stream 11 has an 11.6-inch, 768-by-1,366-pixel display. It's not the brightest display I've seen, and I did notice some color variations when viewing it from an angle. And it certainly doesn't have a touch screen. In short, you can find a better screen pretty easily, but it's sufficient, and works fine when it's in front of you on a desk or in your lap.
The laptop runs on a 2.16GHz Intel Celeron N2840 processor, a dual-core version of the Bay Trail platform, and comes with 2GB of DRAM. In other words, it's pretty much an Atom processor, but with 64-bit processing, a burst frequency of 2.58GHz, and a TDP of 7.5 watts, which would be a lot for a phone but is much less than most notebook processors. It's not as fast as a Core processor – you wouldn't be happy running very complex models, high-end gaming, or sophisticated photo or video editing on this unit. (On my largest big data Excel spreadsheet, it took about 3.5 hours, compared with 83 minutes on a CoreM-based Yoga 3 Pro.)
I did notice that it wasn't as snappy at loading Web pages as a higher-end system, and sometimes it took a second or two to get the whole page in. But everything did load, and I was able to open half a dozen tabs in the browser, including playing Internet video, without incident. The Office apps ran quite well – Word was just fine, and Excel ran smaller spreadsheets just fine– you'd be hard pressed to notice any difference in speed on any machine. Again, I've certainly used faster machines, but I was quite impressed by the speed for the money. This didn't feel like the old netbooks.
Testing Internet streaming, I got about 6 hours of battery life with the screen at half brightness, which is good for a lightweight notebook.
There isn't much local storage – it has 32GB of flash storage, and after
downloading Microsoft Office (again using the Office 365 bundle), I had
only about 14GB left. (I've seen Chromebooks with less, but here you
will be able to download applications, which will take some space.) It's
clearly designed for people who will store their documents and files in
the cloud, and Microsoft is hoping you will use its Office 365, which
includes 1TB of OneDrive storage.
And it felt good to carry around. It is available in blue or magenta, with a gradated color finish inside. The plastic is obvious, but it felt quite solid. It includes two full-size USB ports (one that supports USB 3.0), an SD card slot, and a full-size HDMI connector, along with Bluetooth and 802.11n Wi-Fi support (higher-end machines use the newer 802.11ac standard, but I didn't notice any real difference in typical use). The white keyboard stands out against the blue background nicely on the unit I used, although I would have preferred larger function keys (hard given the small size) and keyboard backlighting. It's not the best keyboard I've used, but I didn't expect it would be.
And that pretty much sums up the Stream 11. Sure, it isn't as good as the higher-end laptops, but at this price, you don't expect it will be. Compared with an old netbook or even a new Chromebook, you get a lot more power and flexibility. (Chromebooks are simple, but designed for only Web applications. You can do all of that plus Windows applications on these low-end Windows devices.) I usually look at notebooks and phones that cost a lot more than this -- what impressed me the most was just how good a $199 device can be these days.
In general, it feels like an alternative to a Chromebook, a system that runs Google's Chrome OS and is designed for Web applications with an emphasis on Google's own tools. Those have become very popular lately, particularly in education, so this class of machine has become Microsoft's way of competing. It runs "Windows 8.1 with Bing" which is effectively Windows 8.1 in which the default search engine in Internet Explorer is set to Bing (although you can change this, just as in other versions of Windows).
As the name implies, the Stream 11 has an 11.6-inch, 768-by-1,366-pixel display. It's not the brightest display I've seen, and I did notice some color variations when viewing it from an angle. And it certainly doesn't have a touch screen. In short, you can find a better screen pretty easily, but it's sufficient, and works fine when it's in front of you on a desk or in your lap.
The laptop runs on a 2.16GHz Intel Celeron N2840 processor, a dual-core version of the Bay Trail platform, and comes with 2GB of DRAM. In other words, it's pretty much an Atom processor, but with 64-bit processing, a burst frequency of 2.58GHz, and a TDP of 7.5 watts, which would be a lot for a phone but is much less than most notebook processors. It's not as fast as a Core processor – you wouldn't be happy running very complex models, high-end gaming, or sophisticated photo or video editing on this unit. (On my largest big data Excel spreadsheet, it took about 3.5 hours, compared with 83 minutes on a CoreM-based Yoga 3 Pro.)
I did notice that it wasn't as snappy at loading Web pages as a higher-end system, and sometimes it took a second or two to get the whole page in. But everything did load, and I was able to open half a dozen tabs in the browser, including playing Internet video, without incident. The Office apps ran quite well – Word was just fine, and Excel ran smaller spreadsheets just fine– you'd be hard pressed to notice any difference in speed on any machine. Again, I've certainly used faster machines, but I was quite impressed by the speed for the money. This didn't feel like the old netbooks.
Testing Internet streaming, I got about 6 hours of battery life with the screen at half brightness, which is good for a lightweight notebook.
And it felt good to carry around. It is available in blue or magenta, with a gradated color finish inside. The plastic is obvious, but it felt quite solid. It includes two full-size USB ports (one that supports USB 3.0), an SD card slot, and a full-size HDMI connector, along with Bluetooth and 802.11n Wi-Fi support (higher-end machines use the newer 802.11ac standard, but I didn't notice any real difference in typical use). The white keyboard stands out against the blue background nicely on the unit I used, although I would have preferred larger function keys (hard given the small size) and keyboard backlighting. It's not the best keyboard I've used, but I didn't expect it would be.
And that pretty much sums up the Stream 11. Sure, it isn't as good as the higher-end laptops, but at this price, you don't expect it will be. Compared with an old netbook or even a new Chromebook, you get a lot more power and flexibility. (Chromebooks are simple, but designed for only Web applications. You can do all of that plus Windows applications on these low-end Windows devices.) I usually look at notebooks and phones that cost a lot more than this -- what impressed me the most was just how good a $199 device can be these days.
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