HP (Hewlett Packard) made a big splash at CES
(Computer Electronics Show) 2015 in Las Vegas, Nevada with a Mac Mini small
product.
I’m
of course referring to the now well known US$319 Pavilion
Mini and the US$179 Stream
Mini desktop PC that are super small and super cute desktop computers as
described in the article “HP Shrinks the
Desktop With 'Mini' Pavilion, Stream PCs”, published JANUARY 5, 2015
08:00AM EST BY JOEL SANTO DOMINGO, PC Magazine.
Available
since Wednesday January 14th 2015, the Pavilion
Mini and the Stream Mini are portable, always-connected Windows 8.1 PC
replacements for Desktop PC.
They're
meant to be the next evolution in the Desktop Pc but are also designed to take
on the Google Chromeboxes as stated in “HP
takes on Chromeboxes with $180, Windows-based Stream Mini PC”, published
Jan 5, 2015 5:00 AM by Gordon Mah Ung, PCWorld
and come with lots of computing muscle and Cloud Storage courtesy of Microsoft OneDrive and Dropbox.
They
represent the continuation of Microsoft partnership with HP to make the Stream series of Windows 8
computers that are cheaper and competitive pricewise when compared to the
Google Chromebook and Chromebox devices.
They're
already launched the US$200 11.6" HP Stream Notebook and the US$230
13.3" HP Stream Notebook and then a pair of budget Windows 8.1 Tablets,
the US$100 7" HP Stream 8 Tablet and the US$150 8" HP Stream 8 Tablet
as reported in my blog article
entitled “US$200
HP Stream Netbooks and Tablets – Microsoft floating Windows 8.1 on Free 1TB
Microsoft OneDrive Cloud against Google's Chromebooks”.
So
for US$180, is this a better deal than a US$179 Dell Chromebox as described in
the article “Dell
brings Google's Chrome OS to desktops with new Chromeboxes”, published Sep
4, 2014 1:41 PM by Agam Shah, PC World.
Well
for one, it’ll bring you the power of Microsoft Windows 8.1 plus the Cloud at a
cheaper price
HP Pavilion Mini and
the Stream Mini - Microsoft Windows 8.1 Desktop with OneDrive Cloud
The
specs of the Pavilion
Mini and the Stream
Mini are quite impressive as one would expect that they'd be severely
scaled down PC. Instead, they have the full computing power of
fourth-generation Intel Processors, enabling them to do wonderful thing and yet
still be a pack-up-and-go type of experience, the closest thing to portable.
The Pavilion Mini sports dimensions of 5.08 cm 14.478 cm square (2" by 5.7" square) and weighs in at about 0.765kg (1.5lb). Under the hood the Pavilion Mini revs up with a fan cooled Intel Pentium 3558U Processor that's supported by 4GB of RAM and a small 500GB Hard-drive, at least by standards measured in 1TB sizes. It only uses 45 W, so that fan may be a bit noisy.
Oh, and it has a silver chassis.
The
HP Stream
Mini is the exact same size, but its chassis is coloured blue and not
silver. Still, it's a lot faster than it's sibling, spotting a Intel Celeron
2957U Processor with support from a 2GB RAM but a super-fast 32GB SSD (Solid
State Drive).
So that's plenty fast Virtual page read and read/write Hard-drive times for the HP Stream Mini when compared to its Hard-drive totin' sibling, the Pavilion Mini.
Good to note here you get nice ports and
accessories as noted in the article “HP shrinks the
desktop into the Pavilion and Stream Mini”, published January 5, 2015 5:00
AM PST by Dan Ackerman, CNET News.
Both the Pavilion
Mini and the Stream
Mini come with the following ports:
1. DisplayPort
2. Ethernet
port
3. HDMI
port
4. four
(4) USB 3.0 ports
The
presence of the DisplayPort and HDMI port suggest that you can connect multiple
HD Monitors without the use of a Y-shaped DisplayPort adapter. Interestingly,
Internet connectivity is baked into these portable desktop replacements and
it's the superfast kind, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi. Bluetooth 4.0 assures you that
this produce is not only windows 8.1 friendly but Smartphone ready.
Good
thing it come with Wi-Fi, as the limited Storage of both of these machines means
that Cloud is a must.
Though
faster, the limited local SSD Storage means that the Stream Mini is meant for
online streaming and working on files in the Cloud. To facilitate this, HP includes 200GB of Microsoft OneDrive Storage for two (2) years
for the HP Stream
Mini and 25GB of Dropbox Storage for
six (6) months for the Pavilion
Mini.
So
do you see a US$319 Pavilion
Mini and the US$179 Stream Mini desktop PC in your future? If yes, then the
price is right for Windows 8.1 on a Steam portable Desktop PC floating into the
OneDrive Clouds!
US$319
Pavilion
Mini
US$179
Stream
Mini
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