About six or seven years ago, netbooks were the must-have
piece of tech (ugh! I hate that word! Why have I just used it?). These dinky
little lappies seemed to be the ideal solution for people who wanted to be able
to do basic computer-based activities while on the move - things like browsing
the world wide web, reading and writing emails, editing documents, playing
simple games – but didn’t want to have to carry a heavy and expensive
full-sized laptop around with them.
However, the decline of the netbook was as rapid as its
rise. Arguably, this was largely to do with the arrival of the iPad and
countless similar devices running Android and other operating systems. These
shiny touchy-feely tablets attracted people who wanted something for casual
usage, things like browsing the web, reading and writing emails, editing
documents, playing games. You know, the target audience of the netbook. But, in
my opinion, which is of course important because this is my blog, I don’t
believe the fall of the netbook was just because of the invasion of tablets.
And I believe that, even today, netbooks still have a place in the market. Not
quite as big a place as they once had, but there’s still a place for them.
For me, netbooks never quite got it exactly right. And
tablets don’t really tick all of the boxes that a potential netbook user might
have on their checklist of things they want in a portable device. When they
first made their bid for stardom, netbooks marketed themselves on their value. Not
value for money, just value. In other words, they were cheap. But cheap doesn’t
always mean good. In the case of early netbooks, cheap meant nasty.
Manufacturers did whatever they could to keep costs low, cutting back in many
of the areas that made normal laptops expensive. They had low-spec processors,
a small amount of memory, poor graphics and hardly any storage space. Of
course, storage could be expanded through the use of memory cards, memory
sticks and external hard drives. And there was also the idea that things could
be stored online, although the scary world of easily storing things in clouds
was still a few years away from becoming a proper reality. And despite the fact
that they sold themselves as being little laptops, they were often surprisingly
heavy and bulky. It was only really the screen and keyboard that was small. The
actual casing of the device was often quite thick. Then there was also the
issue that several of them didn’t come with Windows. Instead, they had some
variant of Linux. And although Linux is a perfectly adequate operating system
and can be well-suited to the specs of these kinds of devices, it really isn’t
something that the general public want to have to use. My mum had an Acer
Aspire One during the first netbook boom. Her first complaint about it was that
she didn’t know how to work it. It ran Limpus Lite, a Linux OS specifically tailored for low-powered netbooks. She was
used to Windows, and because things were different, she didn’t like it. But
even when she began getting used to it, Linux just isn’t as user-friendly as it
should be. And the version included on her Aspire One was quite locked down. A
bit of faffing with it, admittedly fun for somebody like me with a bit of
interest in computers, freed up some of the functionality of it, but it didn’t
still make her jump for joy. And why in the 21st Century, do you
need to type in nonsensical commands into terminal window to do basic tasks? Stuff
like unlocking certain features or even downloading other applications. And if
things went wrong, you were stuffed. Getting an error message saying that a
program you are attempting to install is unable to resolve its dependencies
means nothing to no-one – apart from Linux geeks. Leave that language in the
background, not in the main user interface. I suppose it was my own fault for
unlocking the locked-down parts of Linux. The screen resolution was also pants,
with you having to scroll left and right on websites to fully view them. Making
users scroll horizontally is a big no-no when designing websites, so having to do it because the computer you’re using just isn’t able to display web
pages properly is going to dampen the experience. I recently borrowed my mum’s old Aspire
One just to find out if it really was as bad as I remember it – it’s been in a
box since 2009 after about two weeks of usage. After I spent half an hour of getting
frustrated with it, it went back in its box. I just couldn’t get any pleasure
out of using it.
 |
| An Acer Aspire One running Limpus Lite. Yuck! |
Over time, netbook manufacturers seemed to address some of
the complaints above. They began sticking extra RAM and storage space in them,
made them look sleek, sexy and shiny, and through a special deal with Microsoft
to grab back some of the OS market share that they were losing to freebie
Linux, they installed Windows on them. But, these improvements didn’t come cheap.
Nope, netbooks suddenly got quite expensive, and appeared to retail for a price
similar to that of a standard laptop. One of the key unique selling points of
the netbook – its low price – seemed to vanish. At least this was the case when
I came to look at netbooks for myself, probably around 2010, 2011, I couldn’t
find one for less than £200, apart from second-hand ones, and there were very
few models still available.
Fast forward to today. Here we are in a world where everyone
who wanted an iPad or similar has got one. Companies are falling over
themselves to offer free storage of your documents online, or obscene amounts
of storage if you pay them for it. But it seems that there is still a market
for cheap, low-spec PCs. I have an iPad and a Google Nexus 7 tablet. And
although I find them brilliant for casual usage (well, the Nexus 7 was
brilliant until Lollipop came along and buggered it up), I have an issue with
them for usage that isn’t quite as casual, but doesn’t require the use of a
high-end jumbo computer. For instance, I get the train quite often to work and
back and an ideal time to write entries for this blog is when I’m on that
train. Or even at work when I’m on lunch. Unfortunately, doing so on a tablet
just isn’t really that great an experience. Okay, so I can make notes on them
and expand on them when I’m at home at a computer, but I’d still like to be
able to power up an ultra-portable laptop, tap tap tap away on a proper
keyboard, and be productive when I’m out and about. Not to pass time by playing
Candy Crush Saga. What I need is a small no-frills laptop. A netbook in other
words.
Imagine my joy then when I noticed an advert on TV before
Christmas for a laptop with an 11 inch screen, for less than £200. Yes,
imagine. I don’t need to imagine as I managed to get one, and I’ll be talking
about it in a bit. It seems that netbook-type devices have slowly been edging
their way back into the market. And until now, nobody’s really noticed. Not too
long ago, Google developed Chrome OS and manufacturers began producing
computers that ran it. These Chromebooks, as they like to be known, come in
different shapes and sizes, but it seems that the little ones are quite
popular. Running what is basically a web browser doesn’t require much computing
power. They also don’t need a great deal of physical storage space as just
about everything is done online. Applications are accessed online and documents
are also saved online. So Chromebooks can be produced quite cheaply. It’s
well-known that Google and Microsoft aren’t the best of buddies, and neither
likes the other encroaching on their territory. Through their Chromebooks,
Google are taking small bites out of Microsoft’s large share of the operating
system market. So Microsoft have retaliated.
Part of the cost of a new PC is the OEM licence for
Microsoft Windows. This is usually paid by the manufacturer and passed onto the
consumer. To encourage manufacturers to produce laptops with Windows on them,
Microsoft have released a special version of it: Windows 8.1 with Bing. The
operating system, which is almost identical to Windows 8.1 without Bing, can be
installed for nothing (or next-to-nothing) by a manufacturer if the device uses
certain low-end processors, and as of February 2015, has a screen smaller than 14
inches. As this makes the PCs cheaper to produce, it means that these savings
can be passed on to the consumer.
Enter the HP Stream series. This is a family of laptops from
HP with the Windows 8.1 with Bing operating system. The laptops come in 11
inch, 13 inch and 14 inch variants, and their cheapo operating system and
associated low specs, enables them to retail in the UK for £179, £199 and £229
respectively*. Ooooh, cheap, low-spec little computers? Sounds like we’re back
where we were about seven years ago!
* prices were correct as of February 2015
So, is the netbook back? Have HP got it right this time
round? Well, they’re definitely a lot closer to hitting the mark. After seeing
the TV commercial for the HP Stream, I decided to plump for the 11 inch
version. I already have a 17 inch laptop with pretty decent specs, so if I need
screen space and a bit more oomph to power whatever it is I’m doing, I’ve
always got that. In my eyes, the HP Stream would be the little alternative I
could pick up and use for anything else, and take on days out with me, and not be hampered
by the limitations of tablets. I ordered directly from HP just before New Year
as I’m eligible to get a little discount from them (I should note that I don't work for them though!), and was given a delivery
date of a two weeks later. A couple of days before it was due to arrive,
I received an email from HP telling me it had been delayed by a week, and was
given a voucher code for 20% off accessories. As it happened, the laptop turned
up only one day late, so the voucher code was a bit of a bonus. In fact, the HP
Stream 11 is just a whole streamload of bonuses, as we shall discover when I
decide to mention them.
HP have decided to release their Stream-branded laptops in
two colours: blue and pink. One for the boys, one for the girls. Perhaps. Being
a boy, I went for the blue option, but was a bit wary of what it would actually
look like. Turns out I needn’t have worried. The colour of the laptop itself is
striking, but it doesn’t look tacky. It’s quite a deep blue, and I feel it suits
the device quite well. The HP Stream isn’t going to appeal to your serious
corporate type, but it’s not designed to do so anyway. That’s not to say it
can’t be used for serious business. It’s just that you might look a bit odd
whipping one out in front of the board of directors, unless you’re one of those
wacky types who likes doing crazy things to be ironic. But, the blue does suit
the device, and doesn’t cheapen it like I feared it might. The casing is
plastic, but is like a matt plastic, which again prevents it from looking and
feeling cheap. Also making the laptop look deceivingly more expensive than it
actually is, is the shiny silver HP logo on the back of the lid, and the words
Hewlett Packard printed at the back of its base. Oh yes, it’s a nice looking
thing.
Things are equally as attractive inside. The blue theme
continues around the screen and keyboard, although around the keyboard there is
a polka dot effect and a gradient from dark to light blue. This sounds like it
would be awful, but again, it actually works quite well here. The keys are a
nice bright white with clear dark grey lettering printed on them. A trackpad
and the power button are also situated near the keyboard. The bezel around the
screen, which is quite wide, houses a webcam at the top and another HP logo at
the bottom.
The sides of the laptop are home to all of its ports and
slots, one for power, one for an SD card, two for USB, one for HDMI and one for
headphones. With the lid down, the laptop looks quite sleek and thin. It’s by
no means a Macbook Air, but it’s a step up from the bulky netbooks of old.
But of course, looks aren’t everything. What matters is how
usable this computer is as a computer. And, fortunately, it’s very usable. As
has been mentioned already, installed on the HP Stream is Windows 8.1 with
Bing. Although Microsoft have discounted the cost of the OS, they haven’t
slimmed it down in any way. All they have done, and the reason that it has
“with Bing” in its name, is that Bing has to be set as the default search
engine. That’s it. The manufacturer isn’t allowed to change it. But you can,
and you more than likely you will. That’s if you can figure out how to. It
seems that Microsoft have done a little something in Internet Explorer which
throws up an error if you try to go into the “Add Search Providers” option and
add another search provider from the list that appears. There are other ways of
doing it, a quick Google will reveal how. Well, you'll be stuck with having to a quick Bing first to find out. Or you can just install Chrome and set Google, or whatever
other provider of search that you wish to use, in that. But other than that,
there is no other difference between Windows 8.1 with Bing and Windows 8.1
without it.
Powering up your computer for the first time takes you
through the usual Windows set up, and to me seemed quicker than usual. The only
thing to be careful of is a little section about your privacy settings,
featuring options about what you do and don’t want to share with Microsoft
and/or HP. It’s no different to what you get on any other Windows 8 PC, so
there’s no need for me to go into it in any detail. Once you’re up and running,
you may notice a few bits of crap cluttering up the already limited space on
your hard drive, so it’s best to get removing the junk before you start using
your computer for real, just in case you accidentally remove something you
shouldn’t and need to start again.
One of the first things you’ll notice, and probably the
first thing to disappoint you, is that the screen quality on the HP Stream
isn’t amazing. It is high definition, but the matte screen seems to give it a
bit of a filmy layer over the display, affecting the clarity and making things appear
slightly washed out. The colours are also not particularly vibrant and the
display itself can be quite dim. I use mine on its brightest setting, which
isn’t too bad, but in certain scenarios it could do with being brighter. Of
course, setting brightness to the max affects battery life, so don’t expect the
Stream to run all day if you like things nice and light. Issues with clarity
are more obvious when doing things like word processing, browsing the web.
Watching videos and viewing photographs isn’t too much of an issue, although I
could imagine it potentially being more of one on the models with larger
screens. The viewing angles are also not too great. Although this isn’t really
too much of a problem if you’re using the computer at a desk, it can be if it’s
on your lap and you shuffle around a bit. I used my HP Stream on a train (to
type some of this as it happens!), and found that the tray table and angle of
the seat in front of me prevented me from opening the screen as much as I would
have liked, so made it difficult to get a good view of what I was typing. However,
the resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels means that documents and websites are
displayed at a suitable resolution, so there’s no scrolling left and right to
view the entirety of whatever it is you’re looking at. The screen isn’t awful,
but it isn’t great. That said, the matte finish means there’s no reflection on
it, so it’s not all bad.
The keyboard is almost full-sized, and, unless you happen to
have a full-sized keyboard around to compare, you’d be hard-pushed to tell the
difference. Something that I like, which my 17.3 inch laptop lacks, is the fact
that the HP Stream has its own function keys, rather than having them shared
with the numeric row of keys. Typing on the keyboard is a pleasure, and I feel
that I can type at my usual rate, approximately two words per minute, just as
well on the HP Stream as on other keyboards. A lot of PC reviews mention
something about travel when talking about keyboards. I’m not sure what that
means, but I’ll say that this laptop’s keyboard has good travel, and hope that
that’s a good thing. As with the casing, the keyboard doesn’t feel cheap, and
compares well with what you’d find on more expensive computers.
As for the trackpad, this isn’t quite as brilliant. I’ve
never been a big fan of trackpads, preferring to use a mouse instead, and used
some of my 20% off accessories voucher to purchase a wireless one for this
device (thanks HP!). The trackpad on the HP Stream doesn’t change my opinion about
them either. Windows 8 is all about swipes and gestures and stuff. If you don’t
have a touchscreen device, which is the case with the HP Stream - although I believe that there is a touchscreen version of the Stream 13 - you can do
some of the gestures using the trackpad. Swiping from the right brings up the
“charms” menu (grrrr!), and I’m sure swiping from other places does other
things. But it’s a bit hit and miss when it works, and to be honest, wasn’t one
of Windows 8’s best features, so you’re unlikely to want to do it anyway. The
problem is, it’s sometimes possible to accidentally bring up a menu by the
trackpad misregistering an action as a swipe. Additionally, it doesn’t always
register what you have intended to do. Tapping the trackpad itself to open an
application sometimes appears to make the computer think you’ve tapped
elsewhere. You can however physically push down the bottom of the trackpad –
pushing down on the left is a left click, pushing down on the right is a right
click. I find it much easier to use this method to open applications and select
particular parts of a screen, even though you sometimes need to give it a good
push down, although I will always use my mouse where possible.
Just like the netbooks of old, the specs of the HP Stream
aren’t the greatest. It has an Intel Celeron N2840 processor, 2GB of RAM and a 32GB
eMMC hard disk. The problem with the HP Stream is that, as it runs full
Windows, it is theoretically able to attempt to run whatever Windows
application you want to throw at it. Attempt is the key word here. Unfortunately, a lot
of Windows applications require better specs than the Stream possesses to run
well. Expect too much of it, and the Stream will disappoint. For day-to-day productivity
and web browsing, the Stream is brilliant. But if you want to start editing the
next Hollywood blockbuster or even play about with multi-layered photos in
Photoshop, you’ll be sitting twiddling your thumbs while the Stream decides
what to do. Opening up multiple tabs in your internet browser, or having
several applications running at the same time, will also cause things to slow
to a crawl. Saying that though, for the purposes I purchased my Stream for,
I’ve never really experienced any speed issues in regular use, and actually
find it a nippy little thing. I tested loading up a load of stuff simultaneously just for
the sake of this review, but it doesn’t reflect how I would actually use it.
Don’t be put off thinking that all you can do with the Stream is type
documents. The beauty of Windows is that there are many many applications out
there that don’t require much to get them going, which for retro gaming fans
like me, includes computer and console emulators. I’ve also found that websites
with online video like YouTube and Twitch run surprisingly well, even when
plugged into a TV set through a HDMI cable.
While the processor and RAM can’t be upgraded on the HP
Stream, it is possible to add to the storage space. The device has a 32GB hard
drive, but you’ll find that about half of it is taken up with the Windows
operating system itself and a partition which I assume contains files to restore
things. You’ll probably begin with 17GB of usable space, but this will
quickly deplete as you begin installing other applications. One such
application that you’ll be likely to install shortly after taking possession of
your HP Stream will be Microsoft Office. Why? Because it’s free! The HP Stream
comes with a year’s worth of access to Microsoft Office 365 Personal. Office
365 is basically the full Office suite of applications (Word, Excel, Powerpoint
and so on), but sold on a subscription basis instead of as a one-off. A year’s
subscription is usually about £60. The applications themselves get installed on
your PC, meaning that you can use them offline. You are also able to save any
documents onto your PC too. However, doing so eats into your valuable storage
space. So, what Office now comes with is the ability to save documents in the
cloud (this is standard on all current versions of Office, not just Office 365).
When you set up your PC, you are asked to set up a Microsoft account. This gives
you a OneDrive account, usually with the default allowance of 25GB of space,
which is fairly generous. Any documents you choose to save to the cloud can go
into your OneDrive account. However, once you activate your Office 365 voucher,
you’ll find that the allowance shoots up to 2TB, and Microsoft have recently
announced that they’ll be doing away with the storage cap completely. So,
technically you’ll have unlimited space to store whatever you want, and this
isn’t just documents you create in Office. It’s a generous offer, and goes some
way to solving the problem of a lack of storage space on the PC itself. Of
course, this is partly the reason the HP Stream exists and why providing a large
capacity hard drive isn’t essential. Microsoft want to encourage people to use
their cloudy offerings as standard, to compete with similar offerings from
Google who want the same from their Chromebook. However, you’re not limited to
online-only with the HP Stream. Apps are stored on the device and documents can
be saved to it too. It’s just that you can get a lot more space if you choose
to store things in the cloud. Additionally, you can increase the storage
available to you on the Stream with an SD card, USB memory stick or external
hard drive. Just remember that if you save something to OneDrive, you need to
be online to retrieve it!
HP also appear to throw in a bit of temporary extra storage
with Dropbox via one of the shortcuts on the desktop, so that’s even more
cloud-based storage for you to do what you want with it. How exciting. Of
course, if storing your private and personal documents online isn’t your bag,
then perhaps this won’t be the device for you.
The downside to all this temporary subscription stuff? It’s
temporary. Of course, you can extend your subscriptions to Office 365 and/or
Dropbox, but this costs pennies. If you choose not continue you memberships
after their free periods are up, you’ll still have some use of them. The amount
of storage in your OneDrive and Dropbox accounts will return to their default amounts.
You’ll still be able to access files that are stored prior to the reduction in
space, but you won’t be able to add additional ones until you've deleted enough to get you below the maximum space allocation, The Office installation on
your computer will be limited to being read only, although you will still be
able to access the online version of Office, and you can also now edit Office
documents through Dropbox too. So all is not lost. And you may decide that
Microsoft’s Office 365 is actually a good enough product to keep paying for, in
which case the HP Stream has served its purpose, both for you and for Microsoft
too.
It’s already been mentioned that the HP Stream isn’t the
most powerful of computers, and if you try to throw too much at it, it’ll just
laugh at you. Internally that is. You can’t actually see or hear it laughing.
In fact, it’s pretty much a silent computer as it doesn’t have a fan. Hmmm, I
quite like how I linked from talking about the computer laughing at you to
mentioning its silent fan there. I’d claim it was deliberate but it was just me
spotting the opportunity and jumping on it.
Despite its lack of fan meaning that the HP Stream can
operate without anybody knowing it’s even on, it does pump out some volume from
its speakers. A surprising amount of volume too. The speakers are under the
laptop, which does baffle me to an extent. Surely it would muffle the sound if
you're using the laptop with a cushion on your lap (can’t recommend this though –
might make it overheat! At least you won’t get burnt legs though). But the
sound is actually quite clear and crisp and loud. It uses HP’s DTS Studio
Sound. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing, but it seems to work well in this
case. There isn’t much depth and bass to the sound it produces though.
Before I distracted myself by talking about its fan and
sound, I mentioned that the HP Stream is no super computer. If you’re into your
games, as I’d expect you would be if you’re reading this blog, the HP Stream
will struggle with many of the more demanding (and not so demanding) current
games. It’ll just about cope with Minecraft, although that’s with the most
basic of settings. But, as this blog is primarily about old games, you’ll find that
the HP Stream is perfectly suited to old stuff. EA recently offered Theme
Hospital for free as part of its Origin service, and that runs perfectly on the
Stream. Emulators can be hit and miss, but this is more than likely down to
problems with settings or the emulator’s lack of Windows 8 support than the
computer itself. I’m still yet to get a Mega Drive emulator working properly on
my Stream. Kega Fusion refuses to go into full screen, although works fine
otherwise. Gens will work in full screen but the diagonals on my control pad
won’t work, which hampers many games (although that might be an issue with my
controller though). As for other systems, ZXSpin also doesn’t appear to like
full screen, whereas emulators like ElectrEM and VirtuaNES work great and MAME
is amazing. There are so many emulators out there though that there’s more than
likely at least one for each system you wish to emulate that will work fine on
the HP Stream. It’s just a case of downloading and trying them.
In a way, the HP Stream lends itself perfectly to retro
gaming. Despite the fact that back in their day, computer games could take
forever to load, old games do have that element of being easy to jump into for
a quick game. As the Stream lacks the space or the power to cope with games that
demand it, it sort of forces you to play older games. As it loads up pretty
much instantly and is so portable, you can be into a game within seconds. And,
unlike tablets, you’re not just limited to playing console games, either with
touchscreen controls (urgh!) or with a controller plugged into it if you have
the right accessories. Nope, you can also play hundreds and hundreds of computer
games with a proper keyboard. And it is actually such a pleasure to play them
on the Stream. I’ve been whizzing around Acorn Electron Chuckie Egg more in the
last few weeks than I have for years. It’s as if it’s a dedicated retro
computer, er, computer.
It’s worth also mentioning the Windows Store. Although there
are nowhere near as many apps as there are in the equivalent online bazaars for
Apple and Android devices, there are still more apps than you’d ever need, and
all the main ones are there (Facebook, Netflix, etc). And as Windows 8 was
designed with tablets in mind, tablets which run on lower specced processors
like that of the Stream, a great many of the apps also work fine on it. Ok,
some are probably designed for touchscreen, but this may change as Microsoft
appear to be refocusing on Windows as a desktop operating system, with the
forthcoming Windows 10 reinstating some of the features that Windows 8 removed.
Whether the HP Stream will be able to cope with Windows 10 remains to be seen.
It may be able to cope with it, it just might not have the space to install it
though! As another incentive to draw you into the Windows Store to find out
what it has on offer, HP/Microsoft also throw in a £20 voucher to be spent in
the store on apps, games, movies, whatever they have going.
Have I covered everything yet? Keys? Screen? Mousepad?
Usability? Camera? Ah! The camera! Yes, the HP Stream has a webcam. It isn’t
the greatest, being a bit grainy and not displaying images in the highest of definitions,
but if all you need it for is chatting to your mum on Skype, it’s perfectly
adequate. And Skype, which is preinstalled, does run well on the device. It might also be worth mentioning that your year long subscription to Office 365 Personal also gives you 60 minutes of Skype talk time. Of course, video calling to other Skype users is free, so i'm not sure what the 60 minutes actually does. I think it lets you phone people's phones from your Skype account.
As for the battery, I've found that it usually lasts for between five to six hours between charges. I doubt that you'll be using the computer for long periods of time so this is pretty good going.
So, all in all, as you’ve probably gathered seeing as this
review has gone on longer than some of the essays I wrote at university many
decades ago, I like my HP Stream 11. Yes, it has its faults. The screen could be
better, and I find that I don’t tend to use the trackpad when I can avoid it
(although that’s more down to me not liking trackpads). Apart from that, for
the purposes that I wanted the Stream for, it does exactly what I want it to
do. It fills that gap that tablets can’t, gives me the ability to be both
productive and have fun, and is small and light enough to be taken on journeys
with me. I probably wouldn’t use it as my main PC, but that’s because I have
other requirements for my main PC which the HP Stream just wouldn’t be able to
meet. But similarly, just as that other PC satisfies certain requirements, the
HP Stream satisfies other ones better. I can’t lug my main laptop onto a train
and carry it around with me all day. It also just doesn’t feel as immediately
available as the Stream does. For many people though, it could serve as their
main computer, as it can do a lot of everyday tasks, and it is available in
larger sizes too.
Is it a Chromebook killer? Personally I think it’s better
than the Chromebook, just because of the fact that Windows is more versatile. You have access to a
much wider range of applications, and the fact that it doesn’t require you to be
online pretty much all of the time gives you much more freedom as to how you
can use it. Here in the UK, the Chromebook isn’t as big a deal as it is in
places like the USA, so it’ll be hard to see if the Stream has any real effect
on Chromebook sales. Over in the USA, the Chromebook appears to be most popular
in schools. As there is meant to be an education variant of the HP Stream 11 on
its way, it looks like HP are working on behalf of Microsoft to get Chrome out
of the classroom.
Does the HP Stream signify the return of the netbook? This
is more difficult to answer. The netbook was the right idea at the time of its
original appearance, but just didn’t really work. I think a lot of people
purchased netbooks with higher expectations of what they were capable of. What
they ended up with disappointed them, and they just didn’t enjoy using them. As
soon as tablets like the iPad came along, which were undeniably much more of a
pleasure to use, people abandoned their
netbooks. It’s still true that tablets tick a lot of the boxes for many people,
and there isn’t a need for them to return to netbooks. But for others, tablets
are just a bit too casual. They need something in between a tablet and a
full-on all-singing all-dancing PC. And this gap can be filled by modern
netbook-like devices, devices like the HP Stream. The market for them isn’t
anywhere near as big as it once was, as it will continue to be dominated by
tablets and even large screen mobile phones, but there is definitely a market.
As a device by itself, the HP Stream is a great purchase.
When you consider that part of its cost includes the one year subscription to
Office 365 (worth £60), plus £20 to spend in the Windows Store, you’re actually
getting a laptop with full Windows for around £100. And a good looking,
easy-to-use, fairly nippy little laptop too. I can’t recommend one enough. As a standalone device, providing your needs aren't too great, it's well worth considering. And as a
companion device to whatever else you have, it’s almost perfect.
Phew! That took a long time to write! The computer is probably obsolete by now.
