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HP Stream x360: Flippable and stylish Chromebook killer

Cheap as chips Wintel laptop in 'actually rather good' shocker

Flash and grab

Being a lightweight budget machine, there’s no disc drive and no HDD, just 32GB of flash storage. Or 17GB after system grab. That’s far from ideal but the full depth SD card slot takes the sting out. And anyway, the majority of Chromebooks have only 16GB of storage to start with.

HP Stream x360

Combo audio, USB and volume, power. Note 'foot' (right) to keep keyboard off surface when used as a tablet

Being a convertible machine there is hinge aplenty. Lenovo Yoga style, the screen can be folded right back on itself to form a fully-fledged tablet. Granted, bending the thing in half this way leaves the keyboard exposed but once the lid has passed 180 degrees the keys are disabled. The hinge mechanism is ideally weighted and feels well screwed together.

Five rubber feet on the deck keep the keys clear on the surface when you are using the keyboard as a stand.

What’s the screen like? Not half bad, actually. It has a resolution of 1366 x 768 which is fine for this sort of panel size and it is reasonably bright. Viewing angles are about what I expected for the sticker price; not great but not bad either. The panel is a bit reflective, but that’s true of many of laptop displays.

HP Stream x360

The keyboard is good for the money

I’ve no complaints about how the 10-point multitouch screen works. Taps, touches and drags were all recognised and executed first time… the vast majority of the time. The panel itself feels more glass than plastic and is impressively solid – the give around the Windows logo proving a decidedly localised affair. Judging by the lack of smudges after a few days' use it would appear to have an oleophobic coating too.

The keyboard itself is also rather good. Apparently, it’s 97 per cent full-size, which means it feels as near as dammit actually full size. There’s no backlight, which came as no surprise, but there is a caps lock light. The keys themselves are easy on the eye and finger and have a clean, precise action.

I only demand three things of a touchpad. That it is large, central and works. The x360’s ticks all three boxes so let’s move along.

HP Stream x360

Called the '360' because of the hinge rotation capability

Under the x360’s bonnet you’ll find an Intel Celeron dual-core 2.16GHz N2840 chip with 2GB of RAM. That’s a modern and efficient enough chipset but clearly no powerhouse. But when combined with Windows 8.1 and an SSD it makes for a fluid and prompt user experience.

This side of hardcore 3D gaming or editing HD video files there’s not a lot the x360 can’t do with an acceptable level of dispatch. More to the point, nothing else for a similar price is any faster.

Next page: Sloppy seconds

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