HP Stream 14 mini review

ultralaser

ultralaser

ultralaser

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Hi,

I've just picked one of these up and as there isn't much information online review wise I thought I'd share some observations.

Essentially it seems like an attempt by Microsoft and HP to rival the Chromebook. It has a AMD quad core unit running at 1GHz (E2 3700) which includes an R3 APU. Alongside this is 2GB DDR3 and some sort of 32GB SSD drive.

TL;DR summary:
+ Silent operation.
+ Adequate CPU
+ Nice clean design
+ Above class average keyboard, decent track pad
+ Above average sound.

- Below par screen (others report a blue tint to the screen but I don't notice this on my model)
- A little low on RAM (2GB).
- Not much hard disk space left after windows installed.
- Windows 8.1

This was more of an impulse buy, I've been looking at getting one of the Chromebooks as a cheap linux machine but having seen this I thought it might be ideal.

The nice is nice, in my opinion probably the best looking of the chromebook / netbook price range devices on the the market. The keyboard is surprisingly good, I'm able to type at a decent speed, the feedback is reasonable and the trackpad is a good size and multitouch works well.

Boot up performance is swift thanks to the SSD, and whilst windows seems to perform well with the quad core CPU it's not without the odd slow down here and there, and when multitasking lacks RAM. Ports are decent, a microSD slot for expansion (which you'll need with the limited disk space), 3 USB slots, HDMI and a headphone slot. The audio is strong thanks to HP's beats audio system, though the volume is lacking.

HD video playback seemed fine with CPU usage around 50% when using HD playback on Netflix.

I've not really used it long enough to comment accurately on the battery life.

There's a more thorough review by Notebook Check here
http://www.notebookcheck.net/HP-Stream-14-z050ng-Notebook-Review.128817.0.html
 
I'm quite tempted by one myself, having had a play on a display model I thought it was very nice, the only issue was that the trackpad felt loose, like it hadn't been seated properly,how does your feel? Also, which colour did you get? Would love some decent photos of the green one :)
 
Recently got the smaller Stream 11 for the missus.... she's very happy with it so far and doesn't whine at all, like when she tries to use my Macbook Air or HP Chromebook 11. I'd say that's a win, however it looks to others!
 
I'm considering picking one of these up to use for making notes and browsing the web when I'm not at my desktop.

Currently deciding between the HP Stream 11, Toshiba CL-10B Cloudbook, Acer ES1-111M and the Asus X205TA. All pretty similar except that the Asus uses the Bay Trail T Atom instead of the Bay Trail M Celeron, but it apparently performs about the same (real world) and has 12 hours battery life instead 5-6, weighs less than 1kg and has a nicer screen. I'll post some more thoughts when I've got one.
 
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Only had a few days with the Stream 11, but have had 6 months with the HP Chromebook 11. Would be happy to pick up either of these to be honest.... got a feeling I won't get near the Stream though, once I finally hand it over to the missis.
 
I bought one, have had it for a good few weeks now and it's a great piece of kit. The only issue I have with it at all is that it seems to struggle to load heavy webpages and stay responsive, adblock plus helps a lot though and it's only very occasionally I run into issues.

It boots nice and fast, it's responsive and feels great. Very very pleased with it.
 
I got mine today too. I went with the Asus EeeBook X205TA in the end and my initial impressions are... awesome. For £179.95, this thing is really really great. The screen, the keyboard, speakers, even the trackpad - all have been a pleasant surprise.

The only time it's appeared to struggle with it's relatively underpowered Intel Atom Z3735F is when I set OneDrive to make all my files available offline.

It really does remind me a lot of the 1005 EeePC that I had a number of years ago, but in a good way. Shall see how the battery life is next week when I go home for Christmas with it.
 
MichaelAwkward said:
I got mine today too. I went with the Asus EeeBook X205TA in the end and my initial impressions are... awesome. For £179.95, this thing is really really great. The screen, the keyboard, speakers, even the trackpad - all have been a pleasant surprise.

The only time it's appeared to struggle with it's relatively underpowered Intel Atom Z3735F is when I set OneDrive to make all my files available offline.

It really does remind me a lot of the 1005 EeePC that I had a number of years ago, but in a good way. Shall see how the battery life is next week when I go home for Christmas with it.
Click to expand...

I get a good 10 hours battery life from it. Can't really ask for more from a £180 laptop!:D
 
Hi OP, can you give Minecraft a go on this please, might get one for the boy if it runs ok.

cheers
 
Are there any of these new £200 laptops that can play it, or am I looking at an i3 igpu min?

cheers
 
Hi,

I'm thinking about getting one of these machines but have a question about the internal micro sd card reader slot, i hope someone who has got one of these can answer...?

i will need some additional space for storage and am wondering at what speed the internal card reader will work at?
I.e is it worth me buying a good UHS1 card? Will it be able to manage or use high read/write speeds?
I appreciate UHS2 cards will not work, but would they be able to go at a better speed than UHS1?

many thanks
 
Thanks for the reply,

I can see the uhs2 cards have an extra set of connectors so I know these won't work in the internal reader (at full speed).

I want to use the internal reader to save having bits sticking out of the pc...

Hence my pondering whether it's worth spending on a decently quick uhs1 card? Or again will the card reader be limiting and in which case I could save a lot of cash by purchasing a normal micro sd card...

Any thoughts?

The uhs2 cards do look interesting though!
 
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