Chromebooks have carved out a big chunk of the super-cheap laptop market for themselves. Microsoft and PC makers realize this, which is why the two are teaming up to create new Windows laptops that are super affordable, and targeted right for the price points where Chromebooks make their homes.
Enter the Stream from HP, which you can get for a lot less than what a high-end graphics card goes for. The new HP Stream laptops are the smaller siblings of the Stream 14, which the company announced during IFA earlier this month.
Related: HP reveals $300 Stream 14 laptop
HP hasn’t exactly provided a wealth of details on these new units, but here’s what we know. The HP Stream comes in two sizes, 11.6 inches, and 13.3 inches. They’re both powered by Celeron processors, include 32GB of eMMC flash memory, and have HD displays. They’re also fanless, so they should work pretty quietly when in use.
Microsoft rips a page out of the Chrome OS playbook and supplements the Stream’s 32GB of storage with 1TB of Microsoft OneDrive space for a year. Google usually includes just 100GB of free Google Drive storage with its Chromebooks, but offers it for two years. You’ll get Office 365 Personal for a year as well.
Interestingly, HP offers 200MB of free 4G data with the 13.3-inch version of the Stream, which replenishes each month. You don’t need to sign up for a contract either. There’s no word on which carrier is handling that though. Also, it’s unknown why the 13.3-inch model got this optional extra, and why the 11.6-inch variant didn’t.
HP says that the 11.6-inch Stream will offer 8 hours and 15 minutes of HD video playback before the battery knocks out, while the 13.3-inch model will last for 7 hours and 45 minutes under the same conditions.
The 11.6-inch and 13.3-inch HP Stream will be available in Orchid Magenta and Horizon Blue, both of which are pictured above. The 11.6-inch HP Stream will start at $200, while the larger 13.3-inch flavor will start at $230. Both will begin shipping sometime in the beginning of November.
