HP updates one of the best budget laptops, the Stream 11
A new screen and slimmer body make this an even better bargain.
- Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
One of our favorite low-cost laptops is getting a welcome update. The HP Stream 11, a no-frills, $199 11-inch laptop, won our admiration last year by offering a full version of Windows 8 in a simple plastic shell that somehow managed to be reasonably useful for everyday computing while also offering decent battery life. It's become a go-to recommendation for budget shoppers.
The new version of the Stream makes only modest changes, but with new low-cost competition from the likes of the Intel Compute Stick and the Lenovo 100S , it's good to see the Stream keep up.
The plastic chassis looks and feels very similar, but it's actually slightly thinner and lighter, dropping from 2.8 pounds to 2.6 pounds. The colors -- blue, purple and silver -- are bold and help the otherwise cheap-feeling design stand out.
One of the reasons the original Stream worked where so many budget laptops failed was its keyboard. Not extraordinary by mainstream laptop standards, the large keys and minimal wobble represented a best-case scenario for an 11-inch laptop under $200. The keyboard looks unchanged on this new version, so it should be fine for everyday typing and social media.
New for the 2015 version is an updated Intel Celeron processor. It's not going to feel fast enough for all-day, every-day computing, but for occasional sessions of coffee shop Web surfing, classroom note-taking, or even streaming HD video, it works well enough.
With just 32GB of SSD storage (and even less left free after the Windows 10 files), there won't be a lot of room to store media or big apps, so this is more of an online streaming and cloud device. There's just enough connectivity, with a single USB 3.0 port, microSD-card reader and an HDMI output.
The 11.6-inch HP Stream 11 starts at $199 in the US on October 18, and a similarly configured 13.3-inch version is $229. International prices and release dates have not been announced yet.