2015 HP Stream 11 Specs

HP Stream 11 Review: Low-priced HP Stream 11 wishes to be as cloud-friendly to be a Chromebook, with Home windows 8

2015 HP Stream 11 Specs-The Good The actual HP Stream 11 Laptop Review looks best for such an inexpensive laptop, battery life is extremely good, and it features a year of Microsof company Office 365 and 1TB of OneDrive on the internet storage. The Bad Even building a few tasks at a time can slow this down. The touchpad is often finicky, and the onboard 32GB SSD is actually too small with regard to even casual make use of. The Bottom Line The HP Steady stream 11 aims to be an cloud-focused notebook, much like any Chromebook, but while using added utility connected with Windows 8. Its really a rock-bottom budget notebook, so dont get those hopes up, but the battery life is actually impressive.

HP Stream 11 Release Date

The try to sell for laptops running Googles Chrome OPERATING SYSTEM, known as Chromebooks, is actually pretty straightforward. Why pay extra for the laptop running Microsofts Windows 8 os, when all you really need is having access to a Web browser? For some people, nearly everything they make use of a PC for is actually online, from webmail to web 2 . 0 to streaming audio and video.

That argument have resonated, as Chromebooks are now a huge perhaps the budget laptop marketplace, and several versions, including the the latest Toshiba Chromebook 3 and Samsung Chromebook 3, are actually quite good. But, the success of Chromebooks is actually eating into Microsofts budget laptop market write about, which is a huge reversal from several years ago when low-cost netbooks were (briefly) well-known.

Microsoft and HP are now actively promoting a brand new HP line, termed Stream. These low-cost laptops and tablets will be sold as fundamentally Chromebook-style devices, intended for low-power online make use of, but with the added utility connected with Windows 8. These systems, including the $200 HP Stream 11 (£179 in the united kingdom, and AU$299 inside Australia) are pitched as being cloud-friendly, which is a polite method of saying theyre as well underpowered to satisfactorily run a great deal of standard apps. The Stream includes codes for the one-year subscription to help Microsoft Office 365 (regularly $99, £79, AUS$79), and 1TB connected with online storage for just one year through Microsofts OneDrive service.

The Hp Stream 11 specs has a low-resolution non-touch 11. 6-inch show, runs an Intel Celeron processor chip, combined with 2GB of RAM and a minuscule 32GB connected with solid state storage space, more than half of which is consumed from the operating system and related files. For the reason that sense, it is really Chromebook-like, and not necessarily idea for nearby storage of massive files or significant applications. You can, however, use the included Facts slot to add another 16 or 32GB of space.

The reason you could choose this system over the Chromebook, which is usually a more polished (if limited) low-end expertise, is that you possibly can install Windows apps for example Photoshop, Office, or iTunes. They will not likely run great, but theyre there if you need them in any pinch.

Other products from the new Stream family include the 7-inch and 8-inch Steady stream tablets, running Intel Atom CPUs, with the 7-inch model starting at $100 (£99 in the united kingdom; only the 8-incher is currently available in Quarterly report for AU$229), and a 13-inch version with the Stream laptop, running a similar specs as the 11-inch, starting on $229, £199, AU$379. Both the 8-inch pill and 13-inch laptop versions will also be available in layouts with 4G antennas with regard to extra, which includes 200MB of month to month data.

Overall performance was roughly comparable to current-gen Chromebooks or basic Windows 8 clamshells and hybrids, faster in a few tests, slower inside others, and our hands-on time while using system clearly indicated that will not be your all-day, daily computer. The Steady stream 11 did, on the other hand, have one fantastic feature. It ran for approximately eight hours about our battery depletion test, which was breathtaking, given our humble expectations.

There are few cases where youll find lots of utility in any $199 laptop, especially one while using learning curve connected with Windows 8. But this little blue box did over we expected, which makes it a rare budget PC thats also a superb value.

Design and features

The H . P . Stream 11 appears to be nice, at least for the $200 laptop. Skipping the inexpensive glossy grey plastic of a great number of budget laptops, its instead covered which has a matte blue (or pink) style, with a delicate dotted gradient for the keyboard tray.

The actual outer surface is actually fingerprint-resistant, and our bodies is stiff ample to feel safe to visit with, although everyone who looked at our test system saw a little bit of warping on the camp, bowing the keyboard tray around the center-right. It wasnt enough for making the laptop search truly deformed, but it certainly wasnt ruler-straight.

On account of its low-power system, the system can run without enthusiasts, which helps together with weight, heat, and battery life. The actual Stream 11 weighs about a modest 3. 8 pounds (1. 3 kg), and possesses been, in our own experience quiet and cool while running.

The large keyboard appears like it was dropped in coming from a more-expensive laptop. The island-style important factors have minimal wobbling beneath fingers, and any deep enough simply click for longer-form typing. Function keys are generally reversed, as of all HP laptops, this means you can access commands for example volume and brightness controls while not having to hold down the Fn key.

The actual wide touchpad fared much less well, offering two-finger straight scrolling that labored well, but normally touchy performance, including edge-of-pad Home windows 8 gesture commands that triggered much too easily.

The 11. 6-inch screen has a 1, 366x768 local resolution, which is approximately what one would expect coming from a budget laptop, but still not great with regard to viewing HD video. The Windows 8 tile program scales well, on the other hand. The screen has a matte finish, a plus, but likewise poor off-axis viewing, again adding for the budget feel.

Remember this is not only a touchscreen, so all your current finger-tapping shortcuts inside Windows 8 with regard to flipping through applications or entering web 2 . 0 preferences wont work -- you need to use a mouse or the sub-standard touchpad as a substitute.

Connections, performance, and battery

For $199, its hard to expect regarding green pair of UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS ports, an HDMI result, SD card slot machine, and a mix audio jack. That SD card slot is specially useful if you need more than the 10GB or so of storage space you will have left after each of the OS and program files are paid for for.

Performance within a system like this is hard to measure. On one hands, this is an incredibly slow laptop, even in comparison to other budget laptops. On the additional hand, the inexpensive Chromebooks its most apt to be compared to are generally similarly limited, and in truth cant even make an effort to run the Home windows programs the Steady stream 11 may struggle with.

In extensive hands-on make use of, the Stream 11 labored well for basic tasks, as long while expectations were kept under control. Keep in head programs optimized with regard to Windows 8 commonly run smoother, so within our tests, IE was faster versus Chrome browser, and many off the built-in Home windows 8 apps, for example Weather and News, also worked very well.

Running both FOR INSTANCE and Chrome Browser windows, Excel, and streaming a Netflix video, the system creaked beneath strain. Navigating our spreadsheet was slower, and the Netflix video stuttered somewhat, although switching online version to the downloadable Netflix app from your Windows 8 request store gave us greater video playback.

In the performance tests below, youll find the Stream 11 in comparison to other low-cost Home windows laptops when running Windows apps, and also compared to a couple recent Chromebooks, running the browser-based criteria we use with regard to Chrome OS. Volumes aside, the Stream 11 labored reasonably well for tasks for example writing documents (including this particular review) and e mail.

Battery life was the most significant surprise we got from your HP Stream 11. In our video playback power supply drain test, the system ran for slightly below 8 hours, on 7: 58, extended than we anticipated and longer when compared with most Chromebooks and low-cost Windows laptops. Note that we make use of a slightly different version with the test for Stainless- OS, streaming on the internet video, versus your neighborhood video playback used by Windows systems, but the Steady stream 11 still appears to offer the best battery life with this price range.