Welcome to a Biomedical Battery specialist of the HP Laptop Battery
It's no secret that people like Chromebooks. That can't be good news for Microsoft, which used to own the market for cheap computers with battery such as HP Stream 11 Battery, HP Stream 13 Battery, HP Stream 13-C077NR Battery, HP Stream 13-C010NR Battery, HP HSTNN-LB6M Battery, HP HSTNN-PB6J Battery, HP PE03XL Battery, HP TPN-Q151 Battery, HP Chromebook 210 G1 Battery, HP Chromebook 11 G3 Battery, HP Chromebook 11 G4 Battery, HP Chromebook 11-2199NF Battery. Not one to take this sort of encroachment lying down, Microsoft came out with a lower-cost version of Windows 8.1 that PC makers could use to build small, lightweight devices inexpensive enough to take on Chromebooks. The HP Stream 11 is among the first of these so-called Chromebook killers: an 11.6-inch laptop running full Windows and priced at just $200. For the money, it looks and performs like a netbook, with a colorful plastic shell and an Intel Celeron processor chugging away under the hood. Then again, though, you also have the option of installing traditional desktop apps, which you can't do on a Chromebook, and Microsoft is further sweetening the deal by throwing in a terabyte of OneDrive storage and a yearlong subscription to Office 365. So is this just netbooks, redux? Or does an aggressive price make all the difference?
The Stream 11 might be cheap enough to compete with a Chromebook, but that doesn't necessarily mean it performs like one. Though it uses an Intel Celeron N2840 processor similar to what you'll find in many Chrome OS devices, it feels... slower. A cold-boot, for instance, takes 26 seconds, and that's just to get to the lock screen; even after you enter your password, you're looking at another eight seconds or so until the desktop is fully loaded. Most Chromebooks, meanwhile, take well under seven seconds to boot up -- maybe 12 on really sluggish models. Either way, a half-minute boot sequence is unheard of on Chrome devices.
Web performance is a mixed bag too: the Stream 11 beats every other Chromebook in the SunSpider benchmark, but it falls far short in other JavaScript tests like Google Octane and Mozilla Kraken. That doesn't bode well, especially since two of its competitors -- the Toshiba Chromebook 2 and the entry-level Samsung Chromebook 2 -- have the same CPU, RAM allotment and screen resolution.
For many people, the fact that Windows laptops can run desktop apps (and work fully offline) means they're inherently better than Chromebooks, regardless of the price. As a bonus, the Stream 11 actually costs less than most Chrome OS devices, which could make it a no-brainer for some shoppers. And there's definitely something to that: The Stream 11 is a full-fledged Windows machine, but it's also portable and inexpensive, with a comfortable keyboard, cute design and surprisingly good audio. Oh, and it comes with a $25 Windows Store gift card, which, depending on how you look at it, could knock the price down to $175. Either way, it's a good deal for the money.
That doesn't mean there aren't any trade-offs. The display quality is a step down from most Chromebooks. And although the Stream 11 has similar specs as a Chrome OS device, and costs about the same, there is a noticeable difference in performance: The battery life is shorter than on some competing models, and the boot-up time is slower too. That isn't necessarily a dealbreaker, but I would encourage anyone considering this to adjust their expectations. Yes, you can do more with a miniature Windows laptop like this, but because of that, you also need more power for it to run smoothly. As it stands, the Stream 11 is usable, but in the way netbooks were usable, which is to say it can be a bit poky. Then again, for $200, you might be able to forgive that.
No comments:
Post a Comment