HP Stream 11 (11-d020nr)

The HP Stream 11 (11-d020nr) ($ 199.99) is a compact budget laptop that one of the first witness we offer Windows 8.1 with Bing. The laptop with low cost is an early shot at a Microsoft-backed bullet cheap system designed to compete against the Chromebook, which came to dominate the budget category. On a basic Intel Celeron processor and lots of extras from Microsoft, such as 1TB of storage and OneDrive free Personal Office 365 for a year, there's plenty to like about the Stream. Even compared to the Asus Transformer Book T100TA (64GB), our Editors Choice 'for entry level tablet hybrid, and one of the most portable system entry level Windows we tested, Stream 11 is compelling with lower prices and extras. The Stream 11 get the most competition from larger sibling, the HP Stream 13 (13-c020nr), budget ultraportable laptop Choice our editors', which offers all the performance and affordable 11-inch system , but with a larger display, and a couple of quirks in the Stream of 11.

At this price range, though, you can not ignore competition from Chromebooks. Many models like Asus and HP C200 Chromebook Chromebook 11 rings up at similar prices, while offering top-C720P Chromebook Acer 2600 a more compelling package with touch screen and more subdued design.

design
The Stream 11 has a slim, fanless design, with a chassis measuring just 0.8 by 11.8 by 8.1 inches (HWD). While the plastic body is pretty plain, it screams out with a paintjob Magenta Orchid, like the bright pink color of Acer Aspire E3-111-C1BW. The system is also available in a somewhat muted the Blue Horizon.

Boasts 11.6-inch 1366-by-768 resolution, with a coating that prevents glare coming from a display glass surface. It offers no ability to touch. Image quality is good, but not great, as one might expect in this price range. Using turned up the light, you get decent visibility, but bright colors appear slightly washed out. The light down the left darker colors muddled and poor visibility. You'll also get significant color change when viewing the display from any angle but go on. This is all especially disappointing when considering the gorgeous In-Plane Switching (IPS) display offering similar priced HP Chromebook 11.

There are a couple of downward facing speaker on the underside of the laptop. They do not produce the best sound output, but decent volume, and the overall quality is enhanced with DTS Studio Sound. Again, the most telling comparison is own Chromebook HP 11, which we praised for having some of the best sound quality of any budget-friendly system. The sound Stream 11, on the other hand, was only passable.

The keyboard is almost full size, with white chiclet-style keys that provide a nice contrast to the bright pink-chassis. Apart from a few little quirks common to HP keyboard, such as half the size of the arrow keys, and smaller Esc and Delete keys, the layout is standard. And, like the Chromebook, ditch the Caps Lock key completely, the 11 Stream has Caps Lock and an indicator light to tell you when it's on. While the keyboard is very good, the touchpad is not as stable, requiring a fair amount of configuration to be useful. The touchpad was initially little oversensitive to anything approaching its edges, registering every movement as a swipe for moving apps or access menus. You can correct this by turning off the edge swipes the Synaptics control panel. Hopefully, a future driver update will fix this issue so that both the availability and support moves are available. Elite also note that these issues are not a problem with HP Stream 13 (13-c020nr).

Features
The port selection, as in the rest of the laptop, is pretty basic. On the right, you will find two USB ports (one USB 2.0, USB 3.0), a full-size HDMI-out port, and a headset jack. On the left is the power connector and an SD card slot. Unlike the space of half deep cards seen in most of the Chromebook, the Stream 11 lets you enter the card almost every way, just by staying out enough to let you pull it out when you're done that. This is a great change from the shallower spaces always leave me nervous about snagging the card to something. The Stream 11 is equipped with Bluetooth 4.0 and 802.11n Wi-Fi, which is slower than the standard 802.11ac offered their current Chromebooks, but it's pretty useful anyway.

Laptop with 32GB solid-state drive (SSD) for local storage, which is twice the 16GB you'll find offered in 11 or HP Chromebook Samsung Chromebook 2 (XE500C12-K01US), but did not come close to matching the 500GB hard drive found in the Acer E3-111-C1BW. To make up for the limited storage, you also get a full 1TB of Microsoft OneDrive cloud storage (free for 12 months), a significantly larger space than Google Drive 100GB offered systems Chrome.

In addition to the abundant distribution of cloud storage space, the Stream 11 also has a free year of 365 Personal Office, which includes Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and OneNote, with built in OneDrive inclusion. As OneDrive offer, subscription Office requires activation within the first 6 months after purchase. Those two offers that alone is pretty good, which makes the rest of the pre-installed something sort of a bummer. There are common apps, such as Netflix and Skype, with some HP-branded apps, such as HP Connected Drive (HP's own cloud storage and sharing app), Connected HP Photo and HP Connected Music.

The Stream 11 runs Bing Windows 8.1, a version with a low cost of Windows available to manufacturers making cheap devices. Get this free version of Windows to put the laptop, and you get a complete copy of Windows, minus the extra $ 90 to $ 150 which is usually added to the price to cover the cost of a license. The only condition is that manufacturers are not allowed to install competing web browsers to the system, especially Google Chrome. It is played by Microsoft to restore the low price space currently dominated by the Chromebook and Chromebox, and it's not a bad deal. If you want your Chrome browser after you buy a laptop, you are free to install it. Covered HP Stream 11 with one-year warranty.