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Getting Christmas right was never this hard for my parents
The most my parents generally had to do for a Christmas present was remember to buy batteries. Okay, maybe I'm underselling their role. One year they got me a bike, and somehow kept it hidden from me until the big day. I would've been five at the time, and it was worth it, I'm sure. I don't actually recall my reaction but it was probably joy interrupted by despair at being told I couldn't ride it indoors. Some 25 years later, and I've spent what seems like a lifetime setting up Christmas presents this year.
HP's updated Stream laptops offer better battery life for your buck
HP's inexpensive Stream laptops weren't perfect by any means, but with a starting price of $200, we were able to forgive a lot, including so-so displays, sluggish performance and sometimes-flaky touchpads. Today HP is refreshing both the Stream 11 and 13, and while neither seems to address the flaws we found in the original, they at least keep the same price, all while bringing longer battery life -- and in the case of the smaller one, a lighter design. In particular, the 11.6-inch model now weighs 2.6 pounds, down from 2.74. The 13.3-inch version remains unchanged at 3.42 pounds, and there's an optional touchscreen for the larger model as well. In both cases, you can expect better runtime: up to 10.5 hours on the 11 (up from 8:15) and 8.5 hours on the 13 (versus 7:45 on the last generation). That's important, as the Stream line competes in part against Chromebooks, some of which have no problem reaching the 10-hour mark.
Engadget's new buyer's guide picks: the Dell XPS 13, HP Stream 11 and more!
It's been a while since we updated our buyer's guide -- nothing like a bunch of winter holidays and then CES to slow us down. Fortunately, we haven't stopped reviewing stuff in the meantime and indeed, there are several top-notch gadgets we'd like to induct into our gear guides. Starting with the laptop category, we're adding HP's Stream 11 "Chromebook killer" -- a great deal for just $199. Meanwhile, at the high-end, MSI's GT72 Dominator gaming notebook replaces the older GT70. Dell's XPS 13 Ultrabook, which recently earned a near-perfect score of 90, was also a no-brainer.
HP Stream 11 review: a $200 Windows laptop meant to be a Chromebook killer
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. 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?