HP unveiled the Stream line of entry-level notebooks in 2014, offering low-cost laptops with Chromebook-like specifications (and price tags), but Windows software.

The laptops got a refresh in 2015, and now HP is introducing its 3rd-gen HP Stream lineup.

Prices still start at $199 for an 11 inch model. But there’s also a $220 model with a 14 inch display and a convertible HP Stream x360 which will sell for $249.

hp stream 2016_02

HP seems to be phasing out the 13 inch models it had previously offered, and replacing it with the new 14 inch version. The good news is that the x360 convertible model has a starting price that’s $50 lower than previous versions.

Here’s a quick overview of what you get from each model:

hp stream 11HP Stream 11

  • 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display
  • Intel Celeron N3060 processor
  • 4GB RAM
  • 32GB eMMC storage
  • 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.2
  • 1 USB 3.1 and 1 USB 2.0 port
  • HDMI and headst jacks
  • microSD card reader
  • 37.7 Whr battery
  • 11.8″ x 8.1″ x 0.7″
  • 2.6 pounds
  • Available starting August 24th

HP Stream 14

  • 14 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel display
  • Intel Celeron N3060 processor
  • 4GB RAM
  • 32GB eMMC storage
  • 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.2
  • 2 x USB 3.1 and 1 USB 2.0
  • HDMI and headset jacks
  • SD card reader
  • 41 Whr battery
  • 13.3″ x 8.9″ x 0.7″
  • 3.2 pounds
  • Available starting September 7th

HP Stream x360

  • 11.6 inch, 1366 x 768 pixel touchscreen display with 360 degree hinge
  • Intel Celeron N3060 processor
  • 4GB RAM
  • 32GB eMMC storage
  • 802.11ac WiFi and Bluetooth 4.2
  • 1 x USB 3.1 and 2 x USB 2.0
  • HDMI and headset jacks
  • SD card reader
  • 41 Whr battery
  • 12.1″ x 8.2″ x 0.8″
  • 3 pounds
  • Coming in September

Each laptop comes with a 1-year subscription to Microsoft Office 365 Personal, each runs Windows 10 Home, and each has non-accessible memory (you can’t upgrade the RAM yourself).

There’s also an HP Stream 11 Pro model aimed at the academic market. Its specs are pretty much the same as those for the HP Stream 11, but this model comes with Windows 10 Pro.

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34 replies on “HP Stream line of entry-level notebooks updated, prices still start at $199”

  1. I want a 13.3 inch display, damn it! I really don’t understand why 13.3 inch laptops cost more than twice as much as 14 inch or 11.6 inch laptops. The manufacturing costs can’t be that much different. There must be some kind of conspiracy causing the price gouging ‘premuim’ of 13.3 inch laptops.

  2. Does anyone know about the screens in these? I liked the feel of the first wave Stream, but not the dim TF screen. I’d love a nice IPS 11″.

  3. I’ve been looking for an inexpensive 13 inch laptop. HP is phasing out the only product I’d even consider buying, so I won’t be buying one of these.

  4. Yuck, dual-core Braswell. I’d rather have an Atom Z8500. Heck, I’d rather have an Atom Z8300.

  5. 11″ Stream w/4GB RAM & Win10? Pffft… I’ll believe it when I can actually buy it.

  6. Hmm and i thought netbook is already dead.

    If the 32GB is a replaceable SSD then it will be so much better option to buy,
    Upgrading will be PITA with only 32GB storage.
    Nowaday SSD is already freakin’ cheap why HP don’t give at least 64-128 GB

    1. Why would you think these are dead? Because you used one 4 years ago and it was slow? The modern netbooks with SSD storage are typically faster than notebooks which come with mechanical hard drives.

      Unfortunately the 32GB drive is not replaceable, and that is their biggest negative. I would agree it should be at least 64GB.

    2. Because the margins are razor thin on these boxes. I expect the 13″ got dropped because they got a better deal on 14″ monitors. They are building them to hit a specific price target, and as it is, they probably only make $10-20 per unit… spend $5 more on it and you significantly cut the profits.

  7. i wonder how much difference the memoeruy wlll make. i know the current streams cant really run chrome or edge, onlyu firefox is so so

    1. Say whuh?
      Define ‘can’t really run’ Chrome or Edge? Is that like run with multiple dozens of tabs open or what?
      My sister has been running Chrome every day on one of the first-gen HP Stream models now for 2 years with zero problems. She recently ‘upgraded’ to W10 but hasn’t tried Edge yet because it’s still kind of a POS browser.

    1. Jesus Christ, do you people ever run out of things to complain about. This is $200 ~ $250 laptop with low-end specs. What kind of miracles are you expecting? Remember when these things were meant to compete with chromebooks for people to do web browsing on? Pepperidge farm remembers.

        1. I have a netbook I never was able to get “upgraded” to Win10, and now knowing that I’d have to go through the same hassles again with the anniversary upgrade I’m glad. They really do need to make 64GB of storage a minimum for Win10 devices.

      1. I’m not expecting a 1TB SSD, but 64 GB eMMC option would be nice. Lenovo has a 14″ model with 64 GB eMMC. You have to pay more for it, but I’m fine with that. Like dwick_OR already said, 32 GB makes even installing operating system updates difficult sometimes.
        If you never plan on updating the OS, and use removable storage, you can get by with 32GB. The 4 GB RAM upgrade is a nice improvement.

      2. It would cost a pittance for HP to upgrade the storage to 64GB’s. In real world conditions, it’s something worth complaining about because anyone that actually tries to upgrade to the windows 10 anniversary version ends up with a headache and it’s all due to the tight fisted 32GB’s of storage space. Going through Windows update means I have to clear out around 15GB’s of space to do the upgrade. With Microsoft’s installation media tool, I can get that down to 8GB’s if I plug in an external usb drive. For me, even doing that, it still fails upon installation. So, the only way for me to get the upgrade was to use the media creation tool to download the Windows 10 ISO and reinstall the whole damn O.S, drivers and then files. All due to the fact that they were as stingy as shit with only offering 32 Gb’s of storage and continue to do so with the next gen of the stream as well. What you call frivolous complaining, I call it justifiable practical complaining based on real world conditions.

        1. You guys are complaining about a $250 laptop. I’m not saying 32 GB isn’t tiny. If you’re only going to spend that much on a computer, I would think you would be okay with going through the hassle to do a windows upgrade.

          1. So, the lower the price, the more hassle one deserves. Based on that logic, I should have zero hassle with my $2200 Razer blade laptop with its $400 razer core external box running the $400 GeForce GTX 980 graphics card and uses a thunderbolt usb-c connection. Problem is the graphics boost connection is sporadic, turning a high FPS game into a stuttering mess and it all happened after the Windows 10 anniversary update. I don’t care if it’s a $200 computer, or a $3000 laptop setup, there should be accountability when something as simple as an O.S can’t receive upgrades because, in the case of the Stream, the manufacturer and Microsoft didn’t think that far ahead when they decided on Windows 10 low end specs. You could say, no big deal, don’t upgrade then, but there’s security issues to be concerned about and without the anniversary version installed, there will be no future security patches for Windows 10. They didn’t even offer an upgraded option that would have eliminated this issue if users were given the option to pay an extra $10 or $15 to double storage. Point is there shouldn’t be this amount of hassle to perform an upgrade on any Windows 10 computer. Microsoft, HP and other manufacturers have got enough resources and manpower that it’s hard for me to believe that no one would have thought that a computer starting with only 32gb’s of eMMC storage would eventually have upgrade problems. eMMC storage is dirt cheap, so there’s no excuse for why a 3rd gen stream should continue to have only 32gb’s of space.

          2. That is a poor analogy when you use a software bug compared to a hardware limitation set by a manufacturer. If you’re expecting software updates to be perfect every time, I don’t know what year you just time-jumped from but that is not how any of this works. Welcome to the real world. Do you complain about a $80 Walmart bike using non-standard parts that can’t be upgraded? Do you complain when the Big Mac meal from McDonalds is served to you by a waiter?

            Upgrading with low storage space is not impossible to fix with software change. Microsoft did that for the November update to use external storage. Apple did it with their iPhones by automated back up and and restore to create temporary extra space. Sounds like the majority of your complaint is about how Windows has made the upgrade hard rather than the fact that the storage is too low to upgrade.

            Point is. You get what you pay for. I have a 16gb Acer Chromebook that I boot Ubuntu off of a 64 gb USB 3 flash drive that has almost no protrusion. The chromebook cost me $199. If you’re only willing to spend this little bit of money, you’re going to have to put in the extra work.

            If I was HP and I was to sell this product, I wouldn’t put more than 32gb in either. People are only paying $200 ~ $250 a piece for this machine are you willing to go through the trouble of providing support when people have upgrade issues?

          3. Homer, if someone only has $250 just buy a refurb with a higher-line Core 2 Duo or i3 and be done with it. He or she would be much happier with their computer that way.

          4. Core 2 Duo’s are getting pretty long in the tooth now… I would only risk it in a thinkpad or other similarly rugged laptop. And you are going to have something much heavier, and with a tiny battery life.

          5. I do agree, Bill. My desktop is a 3.16GHz Core 2 Duo and still does what I need it to do but I haven’t used one in a laptop. If someone has $250 they can at least get an refurb with an i3 in it, maybe even an i5 as sdelfin said. A higher speed Core 2 Duo would probably still run circles around the $199 HP special, though.

          6. I’ve seen refurb Thinkpads with ivy bridge i5 processors. You can do pretty well with that budget.

    2. It would definitely be useless for me. Just in programs alone (not including data) I would be short about 20GB — and I don’t use a computer for business anymore.

      Homer, I don’t think it is nitpicky to expect a laptop to have at least a 250GB SSD/HDD. Even the ability to install one would be nice, the cheap HP laptops come with an eMMC and not enough room to install a standard 2.5 inch laptop drive. The processors are also crap — talk about slow. I wouldn’t even buy one for my four year old niece to watch Peppa Pig on, anyone buying one of these for that age group may as well buy an Android tablet and leave it at that if this is all the money they can afford to spend. Forget about these for my older niece and nephews, I probably wouldn’t go any lower than an i3 for them (and my brother bought an i3 for my minor nephew recently anyway).

      1. I get the feeling most people here do not see practical use cases for these machines. My gf teaches lego robotics and programming to kids, they have a set of these 1st gen laptops and are perfect for writing code and loading the code onto the hardware. They don’t need extra storage space, they don’t need fast processors or fast storage. That use case is perfect for this. Do they need latest Windows and securities? No. It’s a classroom set of laptops. Can they do that with an Android tablet? Not at all.

        Like I said, I’m not saying you shouldn’t have 250 gb on a laptop, I’m saying you shouldn’t expect 250gb on a bare-minimum machine that isn’t meant for practical use cases of a laptop.

  8. Looks like great Mint machines. If it ain’t a gaming box, Windows is a net minus.

    1. I hear you about Mint (assuming it can be installed), but there are plenty of old Windows games that will run nicely on this. I’m thinking of one to run mostly GOG games.

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