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CNET’s Cheapskate scours the Web for great deals on PCs, phones, gadgets and much more. Questions about the Cheapskate blog? Find the answers on our FAQ page.
Woot
Prime Day, Shmime Day. Here’s a deal that proves we don’t need a single, frustrating day for great bargains; they happen all. The. Time.
The HP Stream was one of the big PC-success stories of 2014, offering a Windows-powered answer to Google’s increasingly popular Chromebooks. For $199, you could have an adorable little laptop running full-blown Windows 8.
Today, you can have it for even less. While supplies last (and I fear they won’t last the morning), Woot has the refurbished HP Stream 11 for $134.99, plus $5 for shipping. They’re available in your choice of blue or magenta — and they’re cute as the dickens.
Of course, cute don’t pay the rent, and these are far from powerhouse PCs. Rather, they’re for basic fun and productivity: Web, word processing, music streaming, Netflix and so on. Don’t expect to run Photoshop or keep 20 browser tabs open and you won’t be disappointed.
Indeed, I think it’s important to recognize these for what they are: Around-the-house PCs you grab when you need to fire off a quick email, run a Web search or, ironically, access your Google Docs account. With just 32GB of solid-state storage, you can’t store a ton of documents or media, nor even install a lot of extra software.
So, yeah, it’s a Chromebook, just one that happens to run Windows instead of Chrome OS. And for many a user, that’s preferable, if only because it’s comfortable and familiar. Read CNET’s review for a more detailed rundown of the system’s pros and cons.
These being refurbs, they’re backed by a 90-day warranty (from Woot, not HP). That’s about the only negative with this deal, which is otherwise spectacular.
If you own an HP Stream 11, hit the comments and let your fellow Cheeps know if they should bite — or wait for the next Chromebook deal.
Bonus deal: One of the most dirt-cheap smartphone options just got a little dirt-cheaper. The Motorola Moto E with 4G is now just $129 at no-contract carrier Republic Wireless. And if you’re really trying to cut costs, the original Moto E (3G) is just $99. (My advice: scrape together the extra $30.) Furthermore, the company’s new service plans will refund you for any unused data; the company claims the typical customer will end up paying around $15 per month.
