HP Gives Fanless Stream Notebooks A Sub-$250 Refresh

HP has outed a fresh batch of its Stream notebooks, targeting back-to-school shoppers and bargain hunters with sub-$250 budgets. The new HP Stream 11 will be one of the cheapest notebooks in the company's 2016 line-up, with a $199 sticker when it hits shelves on August 24. That gets you an 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 display and Intel Celeron N3060 dual-core processor.

HP pairs it with 4GB of memory and 32GB of flash storage, together with WiFi a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.2. Admittedly the 2.57 pound notebook isn't going to blow anybody away with its performance, but you can't knock the battery life, with HP estimating up to 10 hours and 45 minutes of use from a single charge.

Ports include a USB 3.1, one USB 2.0, HDMI, and a combo headphone jack/microphone input, together with a microSD card reader. There's also a webcam, Dolby DTS Studio Sound, and a fanless design with no moving parts.

If 11.6-inches is too small for you, HP also has a larger version, the HP Stream 14. That – unfortunately – keeps the 1366 x 768 resolution but spreads it across a 14-inch panel, but otherwise the specifications are the same: same Celeron chip, same Intel HD Graphics 400, and same 32GB of internal storage.

What you do get extra is a second USB 3.1 port, while the memory card slot will accept full-sized SD cards rather than just microSD. Overall weight climbs to 3.17 pounds, while the price rises twenty bucks to $219 when the Stream 14 goes on sale come September 7th.

Like the Stream 11, it'll be available in a choice of three colors: blue, white, or purple.

Finally, there's the HP Stream 11 x360, which borrows styling cues from the company's much more expensive HP Spectre x360. It'll go on sale in September, priced at $249 – fifty bucks less, HP points out, than the previous generation model – with an 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 touchscreen.

Like the other Stream notebooks, it uses Intel's Celeron N3060 dual-core with 4GB of memory and 32GB of storage, plus it gets a memory card slot, single USB 3.1 port, two USB 2.0, HDMI, and a combo audio jack. Connectivity includes the same WiFi a/b/g/n/ac and Bluetooth 4.2.

HP isn't talking battery life specifics from the Stream 11 x360 at this stage.