HP Stream 11 (2021) Laptop Review

The HP Stream has a basic and unremarkable design, with fairly thick bezels on all four sides. It's entirely plastic, but the keyboard deck has an anodized look to it. It's available in four colors: Diamond White, Royal Blue, Pink, and Black.

The build quality is decent. The all-plastic chassis feels cheap, but it's reasonably sturdy, exhibiting only a slight flex in the display keyboard deck. Unfortunately, the plastic picks up fingerprints easily.

The hinge is sub-par. It has a good range and is decently stable, so there isn't much screen wobble when typing. However, you can't open the laptop with one finger because the base isn't weighted enough.

The serviceability is bad. It's hard to access the internals because you have to remove the feet first before removing the screws. The keyboard comes off to reveal the components, of which only the wireless adapter and battery are user-replaceable. The three-ribbon cable connecting the keyboard and the motherboard is hard to reattach once it has been disconnected. Opening the laptop and making changes to the hardware may void the manufacturer's warranty.

• HP Stream (11.6-inch) laptop
• 45W power adapter and cord
• Documentation

The HP Stream has only one display option. It's reasonably sharp, but there isn't much room for any split-screen multitasking, so it's best suited for people who only need to view one window at a time. The bezels are thick and can be distracting for some.

The display has a slow response time, causing visible ghosting and smearing behind fast-moving objects.

The display has a poor contrast ratio, typical of most TN panels. It makes blacks appear grayish, especially when viewed in a dark room. The contrast ratio can vary between units.

The screen's brightness is mediocre. It's okay for a moderately lit room, but it isn't bright enough to overcome glare in a well-lit or sunny environment. It does get very dim at the lowest brightness setting, though, so it's easier on the eyes when viewing content in the dark.

The display has a matte screen that handles reflections well. However, visibility can still be an issue in well-lit environments because the screen doesn't get very bright.

The brighter areas are mainly caused by the TN panel's poor vertical viewing angles. You have to look at the screen straight on to get the best results.

The display's horizontal viewing angle is sub-par. The gamma changes quickly as you move off-center.

The display's vertical viewing angle is bad. The image looks particularly inaccurate when viewing from below due to chroma inversion on the TN panel. You have to look at the screen directly to get the best image quality, which might be difficult in some situations.

The display accuracy is terrible out of the box. Most colors are inaccurate due to the TN panel's poor color gamut, and the white balance is also visibly off. Everything looks bluish because the color temperature is extremely cool, and the gamma is too high, making most scenes appear too dark.

The display has a poor color gamut. It doesn't even have full coverage of the commonly used sRGB color space, so most content looks dull and washed out. It also has very limited coverage of wider color spaces like Adobe RGB, DCI P3, and Rec. 2020. We don't recommend using this screen for any color-critical work or for viewing HDR content.

The HP Stream has a bad keyboard. The keys are stable, and the spacing is good, but it still feels cramped because it's such a compact laptop, making it unpleasant to type on for extended periods. There's quite a bit of travel for a laptop keyboard with scissor switches, though, and it doesn't require much force to actuate the keys. Unfortunately, there's no backlighting, so it isn't the best option for dim settings. If you want a laptop with a better keyboard, check out the HP Pavilion x360 11 (2021).

The touchpad is disappointing. It's reasonably responsive, and the clicking mechanism is okay, but its small size makes dragging and dropping items tedious.

The speakers sound relatively neutral even though they have almost no bass whatsoever. They get very loud, but there's a lot of distortion at max volume.

The webcam is bad. The image looks soft, grainy, and overexposed, with a very narrow field of view. The microphone sounds relatively clear, though there's some static noise and distortion.

The port selection is okay. All the USB ports support USB 3.2 Gen 1 (up to 5Gbps data transfer speed). Unfortunately, you can't use the USB-C for video output or charging, so you'll have to use the full-size HDMI to connect an external display and the included barrel plug for power. There's a Kensington Nano security lock on the left side.

The wireless adapter is a Realtek RTL8822CE.

The HP Stream (model number starting with 11-ak) is available with the following CPUs:

• Intel Celeron N4000 (2 cores/2 threads, 1.1GHz to 2.6GHz)
• Intel Celeron N4020 (2 cores/2threads, 1.1GHz to 2.8GHz)

They're both dual-core CPUs with no hyperthreading; the only difference is that the N4020 is newer and runs at higher clock speeds, though the difference in real-world usage isn't noticeable in most instances. Both CPUs can handle basic tasks like web browsing, text formatting, and video playback; however, they aren't powerful enough for moderate or heavy workloads like video editing or 3D modeling.

The Intel UHD Graphics 600 is an integrated GPU on the Intel Celeron N4020 and the Intel Celeron N4000 CPUs. It's designed for light productivity tasks and media consumption. It isn't powerful enough for graphically demanding tasks like 3D rendering or gaming, though it can likely handle easy-to-run puzzle games from the Windows Store.

The HP Stream is only available with 4GB of RAM. This amount of RAM is barely enough for the operating system and will cause stutters and slowdowns, even in light workloads with only a few browser tabs open.

You can configure this laptop with 32GB or 64GB of storage. Regardless of your usage, it's best to get a 64GB model because 32GB is barely enough for the operating system and will cause issues with Windows updates in the future.

The HP Stream's overall score in Geekbench 5 is terrible. The Intel Celeron N4020 CPU and its UHD Graphics 600 integrated GPU are only powerful enough for everyday tasks like web browsing and video playback. The Intel Celeron N4000 CPU will perform even worse.

This laptop performs terribly in the Cinebench R23 benchmarks, as expected for a low-power Celeron processor. The Intel Celeron N4000 will perform even worse due to its slower clock speeds.

The Intel Celeron N4020 isn't ideal for 3D rendering. It takes more than an hour to render the BMW scene in Blender. We can't run the GPU rendering test because Blender doesn't support the Intel UHD Graphics 600 integrated GPU.

The integrated GPU performs terribly in the Basemark GPU benchmark. It can likely handle some easy-to-run puzzle games but don't expect to run any remotely graphically demanding titles.

The eMMC storage drive's performance is disappointing. Its slow read and write speeds make booting up the system, launching apps, and transferring files feel slow and sluggish.

This laptop can't run Borderlands 3. The game crashes on startup, even at the lowest settings.

This laptop can't run Civilization VI.

The HP Stream can run CS:GO, but it's unplayable because its integrated GPU can only reach frame rates in the single digits, even with the lowest graphical settings.

The laptop can run Shadow of the Tomb Raider at the lowest graphical settings, but it's unplayable because it can only push out a single frame per second on average.

The keyboard only gets mildly warm around the number 0 key, though not enough to cause discomfort. There's no fan noise since this is a fanless device.

The HP Stream ships with Windows 10 in S Mode, a stripped-down version of the operating system designed for low-power laptops. Windows 10S has fewer features and background processes, making the system feel more responsive, but you can only install apps from the Windows Store. You can switch out of S Mode if you need to install apps from other sources, but this change is a one-way street, meaning you can't go back to S Mode once you've activated the full version of Windows. There are a couple of pre-installed software applications, including:

• Dropbox: Access to Dropbox cloud storage. This app is only for Windows S Mode.
• HP Jumpstart: Guide for new users. Includes device registration, special offers, and tips on using the device.
• HP Documentation: Warranty information, user guide, as well as safety and regulatory information.
• HP Support Assistant: Helps with system updates and troubleshooting of common issues. Connects user with HP Virtual Agent for further troubleshooting.
• HP System Event Utility: Allows users to program special function keys or shortcuts, like for turning the wireless on and off, and adjusting the screen brightness.
• McAfee Personal Security: 30-day trial of McAfee antivirus software.
• Netflix: App for the video streaming service.
• Simple Solitaire: Solitaire game.
• Walmart: Link to Walmart website. This is only on units sold at Walmart.