Back in July during the Worldwide Partners Conference, Microsoft COO Kevin Turner held up an HP notebook touting it as a Windows 8.1 device that would compete at the low end of the market. The internet quickly jumped on this and labeled this device as the ‘Chromebook killer.’
HP has now opened up the can of worms giving us all an idea of how powerful this notebook will be and how much it will cost. Turns out, the HP Stream, the device’s official name, will cost $299. HP was supposed to showcase this device during the IFA 2014 event last week, but ended up holding off until today.
The HP Stream runs Windows 8.1 on a 14-inch HD (1366×768) display. The device is 18mm thick and weighs roughly 3.8lbs with 2GB of RAM, 32GB of onboard storage, and 100GB of free OneDrive storage for two years. The device also features an SD card slot, 2 USB ports, HDMI port, audio jack, and microSD slot. The device features an A4 AMD Mullins processor and HP touts a 6.5 hour battery life.
HP will sell the device at a starting price of $299, rather than $199 as expected. If this device was intended to be a Chromebook killer, a price tag of $299 might still work, but the expected price of $199 would have been better. Either way, the HP Stream is much cheaper than the Chromebook.
We’ll have more on the HP Stream as details emerge. The device goes on sale September 24th.
Further reading: Chromebook, Microsoft, Windows 8.1
