I recently acquired the HP Stream 7. It's truly a nice tablet and has been reviewed over and over across the web. So, I'll not be providing a full review, but just cover the basics quickly:
The HP Stream 7 is a $79 Windows Signature Edition tablet – meaning it doesn't come preloaded with vendor crapware. It comes stocked with Windows 8.1, has a 7-inch 1280 x 800 display, Intel Atom processor, 32 GB flash memory, 1 GB RAM, touts an 8 hour battery life, and comes with a year of Office 365 Personal ($69.95 value).
I snagged this specific tablet for an explicit purpose. My youngest daughter has used a Nexus 7 Android tablet for the past year or so – and loves it. She plays games, reads books in the Amazon Kindle app, and streams Netflix, among other things. When this tablet was handed-down to her, she took to it immediately. She was off-and-running without questions or problems. She can sit down and entertain herself for hours because the battery seems to last forever. I know because I'm her personal charging butler. When the battery finally gives up the ghost, she brings it to me. We have a central charging station for all of our gadgets.
The Nexus 7 has been around since October 2012, but it's still a very viable Android tablet and still sold through online channels for $199.99. The latest release of Jellybean has slowed down tablet performance quite a bit, but it still works and runs the apps she loves.
So, can the HP Stream 7 replace the Nexus 7? That's a very real question I'm looking forward to solving and who better to answer that than someone who has become accustomed to how Android works. My daughter – the guinea pig.
And, there's also a personal, more selfish reason for the swap. I'm working on an article series over at WindowsITPro using Microsoft apps on Android to see if there's really any business value, so I'd rather repurpose the Nexus 7 instead of inserting a brand new Android device into the mix.
So, I hope you'll join me in this quest as I provide periodic updates and then a final summation, proving whether or not swapping an Android tablet for a Windows tablet is a viable solution.
Some initial impressions/questions (from myself and my daughter):
Me: Nexus 7 is $199 while the HP Stream 7 is $79.
Me: HP Stream 7 performs better than the Nexus 7, which is to be expected (processor and age). BUT – it's not that much better.
My daughter: Despite HP touting an 8 hour battery life, the HP Stream 7 it clearly doesn't run as long as the Nexus 7. (She delivers the HP Stream 7 to me sooner and more often)
My daughter: How do I find and install apps? (The Windows 8.1 Live tile on the Store confused her – she couldn't find the Store app)
My daughter: After I install apps, where do I find them? (On Android, the newly installed app shows up on the desktop. For Windows 8.1 is gets shuffled off-screen into the growing apps list)
My daughter: Daddy, I like my old tablet better. (She said this after her first hour using the HP Stream 7, but stopped once I found some apps she really liked)
