I’m usually big on keeping things positive here on the site and blog; I normally won’t even do a review unless I have something good to say. But this time I felt it necessary to make an exception. For a while now I’ve been keeping on the lookout for a good, small writing laptop. I ended up with an HP Stream Notebook, which ended up being a mistake.

My first oversight was hastily selecting a laptop with a great price as I passed it in Wal-Mart without doing the research. Needless to say, I learned a lot.

It really is a shame because in so many ways I love the Stream Notebook. It has the majority of the features I’d been looking for:

It’s super lightweight.
The battery life is amazing.
Works perfect with Microsoft word as well as One Drive for auto back up.
Runs (or ran, as I’ll get to later) very fast.

However, there is a huge fault with the hardware in the Stream, and it’s two-fold. First, the hard drive is only 32 gb. What’s more the internal memory is not upgradable. This is a major problem because, although you can add an SD card, operating system cannot be moved to external storage. This leads to the real killer: the hard drive is not large enough to hold Windows updates! Even after moving all files and programs over to the SD card and uninstalling all of the unnecessary pre-installed software, there is just not enough room.

In short time things got worse. The Notebook is bogged down due to the lack of memory and can’t even be used as a web browser without constantly deleting files. And even then, it’s painfully slow to the point that it’s not worth the effort. I wish I could have back the time I spent searching for a solution.

I decided that when my four year old daughter is old enough and ready for a tablet that can run MS Word (and little else, I must add), I’ll give it to her.

If you’re stuck with one of these notebooks like I am, however, I did find one solution to at least make it usable. Using Splashtop Personal Remote Access I’m able to jump onto my desktop PC, essentially making it a way to use the desktop anywhere in the house. It’s not super convenient, but it actually works well and is free.

In conclusion, anyone looking for a reliable laptop/notebook for writing should stay away from the HP Stream Notebook. Save your money and put it toward something better.

But hey, at least mine has cool stickers!

-Clint