A little more than a year back, I got my first Chromebook, the Acer C720. Since that time, aside from gaming, it has been my most utilized PC for ordinary web utilization: Ebay, Amazon, Facebook, Google+, Wordpress, Netflix, Youtube, and so on. I even made sense of how to utilize Crouton to introduce Linux (Ubuntu) on it, so that I could introduce Steam for neighborhood gaming and Steam Streaming. While the Acer doesn't have an extraordinary screen, or even a decent screen, and it feels sort of, well, shoddy generally, at the cost it was an incredible quality.
With the arrival of the HP Stream 11, I think Windows has a gadget that hits a comparative worth/execution crossing point. I've just possessed it one day yet taking into account starting impressions, this is an incredible worth and a simple suggestion for a LOT of utilization cases.
SPECS
The HP Stream 11 is a 11.6" Windows 8.1 Laptop, controlled by an Intel Celeron N2840 processor at 2.16 GHz. It has 2 GB of RAM and a 32 GB SSD, neither of which can be redesigned. It is evaluated for 8.5 hours of battery life, contingent upon execution and brilliance settings obviously.
The screen is a 1366x768 superior quality LCD screen, which has a matte covering for against glare. This is essentially the same screen as the Acer C720. Which is to say, the screen is really awful. The matte covering takes a generally low-determination undertaking and makes it substantially more dull and quieted. That said, it is sufficiently serviceable and has nice shine considering the value point. Simply know going in that your tradeoff for picking this over a likewise estimated $200 Windows Tablet is that the screen on a tablet will probably be IPS and fundamentally better regarding clarity and review points. Be that as it may, this matte covering does help all that much with glare in overhead and outside lighting circumstances.
To the extent ports, the Stream 11 has 2 USB ports (one 3.0 and one 2.0), a full-estimate SD opening, and HDMI. It has a solitary combo earphone/mic port.
It additionally has two down-terminating speakers that put out respectable sound at the cost point.
SETUP
Setting up this gadget wasn't too terrible. Windows 8 has progressed beyond anyone's expectations in the course of recent months. In December 2013 my wife's HP obliged a few hours of redesigns, and upgrading my Surface Pro (first Gen) from Windows 8.0 to 8.1 was exceptionally troublesome; there was a point where the overhaul hung, and I needed to do a considerable amount of examination to move beyond it.
Contrast this to the HP Stream 11: It took 10 minutes to get from unpacking to an utilitarian Windows desktop. Once there I evacuated Norton, introduced Avast, introduced Chrome, and introduced Steam, and afterward introduced 35 Windows overhauls (33 obliged and 2 discretionary). This took 22 minutes, in addition to an additional 12 minutes of handling after I rebooted, for an aggregate time of 34 minutes. The framework took care of every one of them without any accidents, hangs, or issues.
Drivers for adornments like my USB Logitech Mouse and Dell Printer were attachment and play without any issues.
Execution
This processor/RAM setup controls a considerable measure of 2014's Chromebooks, and hence it has Octane benchmarks like gadgets like the Asus C200 Chromebook and Toshiba Chromebook 2. My own Octane scores were in the 7,500-8,000 territory. As a state of correlation, the Acer C720 and HP Chromebook 11, with 2 GB of RAM and an Intel Celeron 2955 processor with Haswell structural engineering have benchmarks in Octane of around 11,000. You're taking a gander at around 20% lessening in execution.
All in all, most sites load rapidly, however more escalated destinations like The Verge hang a bit while different pictures and features load. When pages are stacked, everything parchments easily. I read a few individuals griping about Chrome being an issue on this gadget yet it ran fine for me. I had IE with one tab, Chrome with three tabs, and Steam transparent website pages were running fine. I likewise tried Google Docs and that ran easily.
Boot time to the log-in screen speaks the truth 10 seconds, in addition to another 5-7 seconds of stacking after you enter your log-in accreditations. Not at all like Chrome OS, when you hit the desktop a Windows gadget is as yet preparing and stacking out of sight, so the full boot takes somewhat more - yet despite everything i'd say the entire procedure is under 30 seconds and to hit the log in 10 seconds is great.
I had no issues introducing Avast, Chrome, and Steam on the gadget. I tried Steam Streaming on my neighborhood system from my desktop PC and had the capacity play Wolfenstein: The New Order at a brilliant FPS. I additionally attempted a couple recreations running mainly including Pacman DX, Luftrausers, and Towerfall Ascension. These kept running without issue. I would feel that numerous outside the box amusements ought to keep running on this, particularly those of the 2D mixed bag, yet 3D gaming execution will presumably be loathsome. You don't have much space to store present day diversions, at any rate. As a Steam Streaming gadget however, it works fine. What's more, it ought to have the capacity to handle most copying of frameworks up through the PS1/Sega Saturn/N64 era and additionally a considerable measure of good retro amusements on GOG.
Strangely, the remote pace I got utilizing tests on this gadget spoke the truth 10-15% slower than the same tests on my Moto X or Acer C720 joined with the same system, from the same area. That said, the association didn't drop at all for the four hours I had the PC running. (On the off chance that intrigued: I have 50 Mb down and up by means of FiOS. My initially speed test demonstrated this was just getting 28 up and 25 down, yet a re-test subsequent to rebooting later demonstrated 37 up and 36 down)
I haven't had the gadget sufficiently long to test the battery yet I would expect 8 hours is really sensible, remembering that brilliance and what you're accomplishing for that time assume a noteworthy part.
Construct QUALITY
This is a blended sack. As noticed the screen is the low purpose of the gadget. It isn't terrible to the point that the gadget isn't usable, however it is really awful. On the off chance that you can live with the C720, you can live with this, yet you won't care for it.
The Stream 11 comes in at under 3 lbs of weight (2.8 lbs), feeling a tad heavier than my C720. Substantial contrasted with present day 10" tablets, yet at the same time moderately light.
One protestation I have is that this gadget just comes in two shading choices, Blue or Magenta. While I like the blue - it looks preferable in individual over it does in pictures - the unlucky deficiency of an unbiased shading like white, dark, or dim is weird. The little size and blue shading does make this look more like a youthful grown-up toy than an undeniable Windows 8.1 gadget. That said, it is sensibly durable in the hand, feeling and looking basically like a contracted form of the HP14 Chromebook.
Shockingly, the trackpad on the HP Stream 11 is NOT keeping pace with the HP14 Chromebook. While the HP14 is a $300-$380 gadget (contingent upon specs), I don't think it is irrational to anticipate that the touchpad will be on the same level of value as the HP14 or C720. It isn't. I've utilized more regrettable, however I without a doubt will lean toward a mouse with this, while on my Chromebooks I think about a mouse as absolutely discretionary. Through utilization, I've improved with it, however at first I was having some major snags recently relocating documents into organizers, for occurrence.
The console basically feels like a contracted HP14 Chromebook console. Keys are a touch squishy and don't have a huge amount of travel, however it is expressed as 97% full sizes and my WPM spoke the truth the same not surprisingly.
Additional items
All alone, this is a really convincing gadget for $200, yet HP tosses in a few treats.
You get an one-year membership to Office 365 Personal (one PC + one tablet). This does not come introduced on the gadget; you get a recovery key that must be utilized before the end of 2016. I really cherish this, as you can reclaim the membership on another gadget on the off chance that you decide to do as such. This is a $70 esteem. Despite everything i'm debating whether to recover this key for my Stream 11, so I didn't test MS Office, however taking into account how it runs Google Docs and Sheets, I would expect they'll run fine and dandy gave you don't have a huge amount of different applications going in the meantime.
You likewise get a $25 Windows App Store blessing card.
At long last, you probably get 1 TB of MS Cloud stockpiling for a year, which is really insane if exact. As I have no requirement for that yet - I have 150 GB of Drive stockpiling from my Moto X and Chromebooks - I haven't tried it, yet it is an extremely pleasant extra.
These offers contrast really well with those Google gives you with Chromebooks (12 GoGo In-flight passes, 60 days Google All Access Music passes, and 100 GB Cloud Storage for a long time).
Last THOUGHTS
I'll have to invest some more energy with this gadget before I know without a doubt how I feel about it, however initial introductions have been really ideal. I didn't anticipate that it will run Windows 8 so well, or have such a short boot time. The Chrome execution was vastly improved than I'd expected in view of what I read somewhere else, and Steam Streaming worked splendidly.
While despite everything I wish there was a nonpartisan shading alternative like Black or Gray available, which would improve me feel much about recommending to developed grown-ups that this is a genuine processing gadget, this is a not too bad looking gadget with construct quality and Windows 8 execution above desires at this cost point. For understudies or those looking for a ultraportable go down PC, I think you'll be wonderfully astonished with this PC.
