New HP Laptop Would Mean Windows at Chromebook Prices 215
New submitter nrjperera (2669521) submits news of a new laptop from HP that's in Chromebook (or, a few years ago, "netbook") territory, price-wise, but loaded with Windows 8.1 instead. Microsoft has teamed up with HP to make an affordable Windows laptop to beat Google Chromebooks at their own game. German website Mobile Geeks have found some leaked information about this upcoming HP laptop dubbed Stream 14, including its specifications. According to the leaked data sheet the HP Stream 14 laptop will share similar specs to HP's cheap Chromebook. It will be shipped with an AMD A4 Micro processor, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of flash storage and a display with 1,366 x 768 screen resolution. Microsoft will likely offer 100GB of OneDrive cloud storage with the device to balance the limited storage option.
The obvious /. question... (Score:5, Insightful)
But will it run Linux??
Here's the rub... (Score:3, Insightful)
2GB of RAM? (Score:5, Insightful)
Is that even enough for Windows 8.1? And I don't mean enough as in bare minimum to run the OS, I mean enough to actually run more than four applications and a browser with at least ten tabs opened.
Re:2GB of RAM? (Score:5, Insightful)
Well no, but I can see MS making. Chromebooks are sold as a browser-based solution, that's the expectation. An MS laptop will have a different set of expectations placed on it, right or wrong. If they aim to "just" provide a browser experience, they'll fail.
Re:2 GB of RAM (Score:5, Insightful)
Seriously.. my cell phone has 2 GB of ram.
Your phone costs two or three times as much as this computer.
Re:The obvious /. question... (Score:4, Insightful)
It doesn't matter in this case, since -- per the fucking summary -- the computer in question is using an AMD A4 (which is x86).
will it boot in 4 seconds or less? (Score:5, Insightful)
If they can make their 2015 machine cold boot in under four seconds, and come up from suspend in under one second, it'll be almost as good as a 2013-2014 Chromebook. Here's to hoping Microsoft can catch up.
Re:Yes they are called Netbooks (Score:4, Insightful)
They're still incredibly useful... it's just that people stopped buying them because Intel stopped making Atom processors faster/more powerful to choke the life out of the 0% profit margin netbook segment... only to have them revived as "Chromebooks" and are again eating up Microsoft and Intel's bottom line. The only reason Netbooks aren't trendy is because Google wasn't a market disruptor when Wintel made the decision to stop updating Netbook hardware. Now Google is.
Re:SSE2 and NX (Score:5, Insightful)
Low-end, not antique. Old junk like that probably won't have Win8-compatible drivers anyhow.