If you’re looking for a cheap, no-frills laptop to carry everywhere, the HP Stream 11 is the one we’d recommend. But soon there may be an alternative pick: the Lenovo IdeaPad 100S.
Oh, we can’t say for sure till we’ve put them both through their paces, but the Lenovo IdeaPad 100S is definitely shooting for the same budget notebook audience — and I wouldn’t be surprised if it hits the mark. For just $US190, this Windows 10 machine is thinner at 18mm, notably lighter at 1kg, and comes equipped with a surprisingly decent matte 1366 x 768 screen and a quad-core Intel Atom Z3735F processor.
The 11.6-inch system (not to be confused with the 14-inch IdeaPad 100S) sadly still comes with just 2GB of memory, which we’ve found to be the limiting factor in many a cheap machine, but if Lenovo gives it a decent keyboard and trackpad and avoids filling it with software bloat, it could be a fantastic deal.
Ports-wise, you’re looking at two USB 2.0 sockets, an HDMI port, a 3.5mm headset jack and a microSD card slot. Unlike the HP, there’s no full-size SD here.
Look for it in October of this year.
