HP Stream 8 Tablet Review

[Sir Gregory Hall, Esq.]

I've owned an HP Stream 8, Windows 8.1, 32-bit tablet
for a couple months and I must say it is an impressive
little computer.

Things I really appreciate about it is the price which
is about $150 bucks, the bright, clear, and responsive
touchscreen. The good battery life (about six to eight
hours) is another plus.

But, what REALLY makes it a great tablet is that it does
not use the Android O/S which is so controlled by Google
that the user has practically no ability to configure it
to his liking.

Windows 8.1, on the other hand, gives you administrator
privileges out of the box. You can tweak this O/S to
suit your computing needs. You aren't stuck with a bunch
of crap you have no control over as is the case in the
Android O/S that treats you like you have no rights at
all on a computer you own.

About the only minus I found is, due to the 8" display the
text was very tiny and not so easy to select by touching
using large fingers such as I have. But, Windows 8.1 gives
you the option in "Personalize" to increase the size of the
text. I increased it to 150% above the standard 100% setting.

Now, in file manager, for example, the text is large enough
so that I can touch, select, move, etc. with relative ease.
I also discovered that placing the task bar on the left hand
side makes it more functional and allows one easily see and
use the various icons one places there. I chose the *small*
icon option so more would fit the space available. They are
still easy to touch. Don't autohide the taskbar, however, as
since there is no mouse pointer it will not un-hide as there
is no pointer to touch it with.

The Stream 8 is very fast. It uses four Atom processors
combined into what they call a Quad-Core. It is actually
faster in most respects than my Windows 8.1 laptop that
uses an entry level AMD E1 Dual Core processor. This could
also be due to the solid-state hard drive of the tablet.

It also has an expansion slot for up to 64GB of microSD
card memory. The built-in SD card that takes the place of
a hard drive has 32 gigs. Mine is less than half full mostly
because I store all my pictures, videos, songs and other
non-operating system related files on the microSD in the
expansion slot. Interesting, all the music apps seem to be
enabled to find songs on this external SD card. Windows
Media Player, however, one has to direct it to the SD card
or it won't find the music at all.

With my Android tablet I always felt kinda crippled when at
McDonalds or other public wi-fi hotspot because of the
limitations of the Android O/S. But with the Windows tablet,
it's as versatile as carrying my laptop with the exception
of a full-sized keyboard. The touch keyboard on the tablet
is very nice but it does confer limited space to see what
one types. It takes more scrolling to see what one types
when one types it.

If you are in the market for a small, easy to carry tablet
that has full functionality you sure could do a lot worse
than the reasonable priced Stream 8. Oh, one other caveat -
the Stream 8 has a built-in GPS so you can use it as a
navigator by downloading a free Car Navigation program such
as Navigator Free 14. You can even use it as an ocean
navigator by downloading the free OpenCPN program and some
free charts. One can navigate to one's heart's content without
a phone or Internet or wi-fi connection because the location
comes from the built-in GPS. For 150 bucks (Amazon plus free
shipping)this is remarkable.

--
Sir Gregory

[Sir Gregory Hall, Esq.]

Addendum: If you want one, check with Amazon for the availability
of the Free, 200MB/month of T-Mobile data for the life of the
computer.

This is a great feature. 200MB isn't a whole lot but you can
do hours of surfing the web, email etc. for free. Forget about
streaming videos and movies, however. But, OTOH should you
decide you want more data you are able to purchase it from
the T-Mobile webpage. There are times when you want or need
the Internet and there are no wi-fi hotspots available. This
T-Mobile data connection is good where ever there is T-Mobile
cell phone connectivity. The SIM card is for data-only. I don't
know of there is an option to exchange it for a telephone
SIM Card but it wouldn't make such a great phone anyhow. It's
a little too large. For use as an emergency phone you could
install a wi-fi phone app and use it that way over your data
connection.

The Stream 8 has, Mobile Data, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, GPS (GNSS).
Turn them all off in Settings if you aren't using them as they
consume considerable power from the battery and will shorten
your battery time.