Chromebooks have captured the lower end of the laptop market, dominating at smaller 11-inch screen sizes and making strong inroads into larger 13 and 14-inch screens as well, all while keeping prices at around $300 or £200.HP makes Chromebooks in both 11-inch and 14-inch sizes, but the company also feels there's room for a similar device -- one designed primarily as a cloud-based PC -- but that doesn't run Google's limited Chrome OS.
HP's answer is the HP Stream, a 3.7-pound (1.7kg) clamshell laptop with Windows 8, a 14-inch 1,366x768-pixel screen, and a $299 price tag in the US. UK and Australian prices and availability are yet to be announced, but $299 converts to roughly £185 or AU$320.
While probably the least expensive Windows 8 clamshell you're likely to find, the system includes specs that might make even a very casual computer user cringe, at least if you were planning to use it as you would a standard laptop. Instead of installing and running apps, and storing large amounts of data, the Stream is meant to operate almost as a Chromebook would, accessing remote cloud-based apps and services, but with the ability to perform normal Windows 8 functions (such as running software apps) in a pinch.
The CPU is a 1.6GHz AMD A4 chip, coupled with 2GB of RAM and 32GB of SSD storage, of which maybe about half would still be accessible after accounting for the Windows 8 system files. The low-end parts at least allow the Stream to have a fanless design, which helps with battery life and system noise.
Making it feel a little less budget-minded, the system will come with Beats-branded audio -- making it perhaps one of the final HP products able to take advantage of the expiring deal between HP and Beats (the latter now a part of Apple) -- and a 100GB online storage account from Microsoft OneDrive.
The HP Stream should be available early in the fall, starting at $299. HP has said an upgraded model with 64GB of onboard storage may available shortly as well.
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