HP Stream Laptop PC 11-ak0027na | Intel® Celeron® N4120

It was time for a new “netbook” and after going Chromebooks for a while fancied a change although a huge Chromebook fan. I wanted a cheap entry into Windows 11 on a small form laptop, and this came at a great price (actually less that the cheapest Chromebook option).

The setup went smoothly and I went with a backup from a much higher spec Windows 10 desktop. This was a mistake, it was unusable as so slow. So, started again resetting and then reinstalling widows and this time went as “new PC”. I would strongly recommend doing this and building up from there.

At this price point performance is adequate and that is fair enough. The laptop is light, obviously compact and has a couple of fast regular USB’s , a USB C and HDMI support. Its also has a conventional headphone jack and a micro SD card slot, useful to extend the 64gb on board.

For me Windows 11S is too limiting but its an easy switch to “full windows” in the Microsoft Store. This means I can put my work remote access software on (which I really wanted to do from this little laptop) which is VMWare Horizon.

I took full office office off as its a bit lightweight for that and for this machine just use the web version. It will run full office just not that fast. This may seem odd as it comes with a free years 365 subscription but I already had 365 elsewhere. If you don’y you will prob want to keep full office.

I also took off all the HP bloatware, I don’t have a use case for it, other may do.

Finally on look and feel. Its looks good its a nice form and well pitched keyboard for its size. The keys are good. The touch pad is a bit average but it works. The screen is average but for the price I think quite good. Well put together and has the HP quality/family identify.

too soon to comment on battery life – I think the all day is not far off, I’ve been using on battery on and off for 2.5 hrs (including installing software and left of when not using) at its showing 75% left from starting on a full charge.

So Day2, all set up and am using it without issues. Very much as a second machine but that is why I bought it and didn’t want to spend a massive amount. Very happy for the frankly relatively very small outlay – price of a cheap Android phone..