Traveling with an HP Stream 11 Pro G3 Computer

Almost three years ago, I shared a post describing my choice of a travel (non-gaming) computer, a 2014 HP Stream 11. This notebook computer has been trouble free and accompanied me on several international trips. The Stream 11, with its 11.6 inch display, was fast enough to run MS-Office applications, met my web browser needs, had two USB ports, included an SDXC memory card slot and an external monitor connector and weighed about 2.5 pounds. However, I ran into a hurdle when attempting to upgrade its operating system from Windows 8.1 to Windows 10. The 32GB of electronic storage, wasn't large enough to permit this upgrade. Windows 8.1 and MS Office applications left only about 4GB of free storage. The remaining storage was too small to download and install Windows 10. Moreover, careful removal of old Windows 8.1 update files was constantly required just to free enough storage to keep current with Windows 8.1 updates. As a side note, there is no capability to replace Stream's electronic storage with a larger solid state drive (SSD).

Of course, three years later, HP now offers a new Stream 11 Pro G3 model that has more memory (4GB rather than 2GB), a faster and more power thrifty Celeron N3060 processor and 64GB of electronic storage (double the storage of the base Stream 11). The downside of the Pro G3 notebook computer is that it runs the "PRO" version of Windows 10. The "PRO" software version has additional features over Windows 10 "home" version and, thus, requires more storage. Nonetheless, the Pro G3 notebook is left with  about 24GB of unused electronic storage after the additional installation of MS Office. There's only so much that can be done within a 24GB storage constraint. So, the use of an SDXC memory card is still recommended for storing documents and photos. For this reason, I add a 128GB card when using a Stream notebook computer.

The computer remains a budget friendly model as searching the Internet can yield an offering within a $200 to $260 price range. This price is similar to a Chromebook portable computer. As a travel computer is often a theft target, I like to keep my travel laptop as inexpensive as possible while still functional. The loss of a $200 computer is much more acceptable than a loss of a $1,300 MacBook (though there's no question that a MacBook offers better performance and more features).

I'll be giving this computer a try and see if it meets or exceeds my experience with the older, but certainly dependable, Stream 11 base model.