Unfortunately, this deal is no longer available
*
4046°
Posted 23 March 2015
HP Stream 7 tablet voucher for £49.99 with code @ Microsoft Store (new code!)
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deleted1193842
Joined in 2014
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About this deal
This deal is expired. Here are some options that might interest you:
Get £25 off the already discounted HP Stream 7 which makes it now £49.99!
New voucher code: PC25
PS. I've just noticed you can also get 3% cashback on Quidco.com
Signature Edition: Exclusive to Microsoft Store, the Stream 7 Signature Edition tablet is fine-tuned for fast performance from the second you turn it on. It comes protected with premium, free anti-virus software that never expires. And best of all, it comes without any annoying junkware or trialware, giving you peace of mind that your tablet is clean, fast, and protected.
- aing69
For anyone getting the jitters because of the tiny desktop mode...have a chew on this;
lovesummertrue.com/tou…us/
It makes the desktop entirely usable.
Enjoy
- wenttoabetterplace
Anyone worried about battery drain this guy has a powershell script that runs with task scheduler which automatically turns off wifi and mutes the tablet when it's put to sleep, it auto turns on when it's woken.
forums.windowscentral.com/hp-…tml
- jamiec2k
^^^^^
For anyone wanting to pay or connect their verified paypal to purchase this or anything else in the MSstore, the microsoft account, needs to match the paypal details or you will just get an error, if you do get an error trying to pay with paypal, you will need to log in to your MSaccount and DETACH your paypal account from the "payments" section, log out of MSaccount, clear your cookies and then order it again, when you are at the point of paying by Paypal, then simply readd it to the payment methods, then in will work fine
- 008
Owners Thread
hotukdeals.com/tag…299
- jazferbetay
New voucher code: PC25
PS. I've just noticed you can also get 3% cashback on Quidco.com
Signature Edition: Exclusive to Microsoft Store, the Stream 7 Signature Edition tablet is fine-tuned for fast performance from the second you turn it on. It comes protected with premium, free anti-virus software that never expires. And best of all, it comes without any annoying junkware or trialware, giving you peace of mind that your tablet is clean, fast, and protected.
- aing69
For anyone getting the jitters because of the tiny desktop mode...have a chew on this;
lovesummertrue.com/tou…us/
It makes the desktop entirely usable.
Enjoy
- wenttoabetterplace
Anyone worried about battery drain this guy has a powershell script that runs with task scheduler which automatically turns off wifi and mutes the tablet when it's put to sleep, it auto turns on when it's woken.
forums.windowscentral.com/hp-…tml
- jamiec2k
^^^^^
For anyone wanting to pay or connect their verified paypal to purchase this or anything else in the MSstore, the microsoft account, needs to match the paypal details or you will just get an error, if you do get an error trying to pay with paypal, you will need to log in to your MSaccount and DETACH your paypal account from the "payments" section, log out of MSaccount, clear your cookies and then order it again, when you are at the point of paying by Paypal, then simply readd it to the payment methods, then in will work fine
- 008
Owners Thread
hotukdeals.com/tag…299
- jazferbetay
More details at Community Updates
2368 Comments
sorted byWow must have been an extremely exciting deal
You're a bit of a tit aren't you?
(edited)
Ordered one... coz I DIDN'T need it!
(edited)
Not sure why you've done this but , ironically , you sound like the bell end and not him
Comment
I can see quite a few people seem to share your concerns so let me try to address some of them to help everyone get the most joy out of their new toys
1. Resolution - 1280 x 800 is plenty on a 7" screen is over 200PPI and not a million miles from the retina iPad at 264PPI.
2. I happen to like the Modern interface having become comfortable using it on my Surface Pro - like iOS and Android, you really have to spend a few days learning it. Watch a few YouTube videos to get going and learn the tricks of the trade.
3. I can't imagine there's a world of difference between any of the 7" tablet screen keyboards. I've had a few quirky goings on with the keyboard during my quick play that i didnt notice in all the years Ive used my Pro so it might just be a Windows glitch. Even so it's OK for basic text input. If I want to work on my memoires I'll hook up my Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.
4. I checked out the headphone socket using my Beats without any sound playing and I just about heard some incredibly indistinct hiss. This was the deal breaker test for me - if I heard any nasty hiss, I would be sending this right back. I dont even mind the little bit of light leakage as i dont plan to stare at a black screen in the dark but the sound would have irked me enough not to keep it. However it was barely audible and I'd only hear it if I plug my headphones at maximum voulume *without* music playing. Why would I do that? When I was listening to a video I wasn't aware of any issues despite trying to look for them. I guess if you go hunting for problems, you will eventually find them. Personally I think all tablet speakers are junk. All my smart devices are connected via bluetooth to a £30 Sainsbury's Bluetooth sound bar - that's the best quality sound output you can get on any device.
5. No HDMI - yep, that's an unnecessary oversight especially as these would make great TV boxes. If push came to shove you could always use a USB to HDMI connector but for me that's too fiddly but maybe enthusiasts can give it a go. I have seem Youtube videos where people have plugged in a docking station and turned it into a fully fledged PC.
6. Battery drain. Ive read something about this online. Im not sure if Ive read this is a widespread problem or fairly isolated. I think it might have read there was a fix. I actually took my Stream to bed last night in place of my surface pro. The battery had drained by this morning but I had over ridden the power management to 'Maximum performance' over 'maximum battery'. To be honest, my first gen surface Pro is too big and heavy to carry outside the house and it only gives me 4-5hrs of charge (which is why its always plugged it). If I get the same from the stream 7 I might be fine with that. I will however suggest everyone should purchase one of those pocket sixed external batteries. They're the size of a bar of chocolate and I originally bought one to keep my iPhone alive when it had battery draining issues. I now use it for my LG G2 which effectively quadruples the battery life to nearly a week. I will no doubt use if on the stream too to keep it topped up when I take it out and about.
7. Bluestacks is a horribly inefficient program that I would only use again on a powerful PC with plenty of ram. In fact it wont run on a machine with less than 2GB of ram unless you hack it. The Stream 7 will NOT effectively emulate android. The only use I ever had for bluestacks was getting Whatsapp running on my PC but even that was a pain. *However* Whattsapp now works natively on a Windows 8.1 Chrome browser which will run on the Stream 7. I'm not a fan of chrome on tablets. It even manages to bring my Surface Pro to its knees despite it having 4GB of Ram and a core i5 processor. God only knows how it will maul the Stream. I'm not at all a fan of Internet Explorer on the desktop but on Windows 8.1 tablet it's fast, effective, runs elegantly, natively and is smooth. For once I'd stay stick with that stock browser. 1 GB is paltry for Windows BUT it will allow you to run the email, internet, music, media and a coupe of simple applications very smoothly. This device benchmarks between an iPad 4 and an iPad Air - I don't remember anyone calling those devices slouches!
This is a Windows 8.1 PC through and through and so although MS have created Modern UI, added a great mail and internet client, great media player that uses the system's resources effectively the temptation is always going to be there to push this machine a lot further than it was ever designed to go.
Fact is, it does what it is supposed to very effectively when used as its designed to. I splashed on high end iPads back in the day and grit my teeth and bore it when Apple told me Flash sucks, no body needs file manager, no body needs USB, no body needs an SD card reader, no body needs stereo speaker, no body needs a camera, etc etc etc. This device has a huge number of compromises too. Not one of them comes close to the barriers iPad still puts up for me.
Windows 10 is expected to be even more tablet resource friendly. It will free up resources and for once might truly be worth upgrading to - AND IT WILL BE FREE.
I think for the VAST majority of Stream 7 users this will be the first time they use a Windows 8.1 tablet. It's going to be a learning curve. You think you know it, you think you've found problems and then you'll discover a new trick and you'll find yourselves breezing through tasks as effectively as you might currently do with Android or iOS.
Yes, there is a Desktop mode. My advice is DONT USE IT! It should only be used in scenarios where you have no other choice. Its not a terrible experience but its not tablet optimised so yes all the icons and buttons are tiny. And everyone will suffer from fat fingers on a screen of that size. The chances are most people will be used to the slick desktop experience that the Atom and its 1GB wont be able to match so naturally people will feel it's 'slow', when actually the fact there is a desktop on a pocket-able tablet like the Stream 7 is a miracle of engineering and delivery to market.
Of course you can add Steam, stream files, iTunes, Firefox, Chrome, Photoshop, all your beloved windows applications but then you really can't complain about the performance.
It's a £50 pocket PC. Me personally, Im gonna format it, tweak it, tune it, overclock it, install other OS on it, hook up a keyboard, mouse, try to get video-out from it, stick emulators on it, plex, Chromecast, etc etc and have a huge load of fun with its. It's just gonna be a toy to be played with. I was always fascinated by Raspberry Pi but too unsure if I had enough technical knowhow to make the most of it. This tablet sorts all of that. Plus being windows I can cheat somewhat too!
Enjoy your Stream 7's people!
Excellent price! Ordered.
Full Windows 10 (x86) will only be available on new/future 8" tablets which will have Windows 10 pre-installed. Smaller tablets with Windows 10 will run the mobile edition (which is basically the same as Windows Phone).
7" tablets which are currently running full Windows 8.1 will be treated the same as 8" tablets and up, so full Windows 10 (x86) will be available when it is released.
Upgrades:
Full Windows 8.1 (x86) > Full Windows 10 (x86) (screen size doesn't matter)
Windows Phone 8.1 > Windows 10 Mobile Edition
Future 8" or larger tablets will have Full Windows 10 (x86)
Future 7" or smaller tablets will have Windows 10 Mobile Edition (the same as Windows Phone)
What a TW*T. You Inconsiderate fool.
What a horrendous prat you are. Truly if anyone needed to know why online is getting more expensive and why customer service is getting worse.. it's right here folks. Behave like this and you deserve to get castrated.
* Default onscreen keyboard is poor - enable the "standard" one instead (activate using the keyboard selector in the bottom right of the onscreen keyboard - it's the 4th icon).
* If you prefer the desktop interface like I do, Classic Shell is a must.
* Run "HP Support Assistant" from time to time (no icon for it - search for it, it *is* installed), which has some HP-specific updates and diags.
* BIOS updates are tricky to find - the latest one is here, but beware that it lowers the screen refresh rate from 60 to 53 in a desperate attempt by HP to resolve the headphone buzzing issue.
* Yes, you can disable the annoying and pointless pre-login screen...
BTW, I'm having patchy wi-fi issues with my Stream 7 and I'm not the only one it seems. None of the suggestions I've seen for fixes work, so I'm a bit stumped on this at the moment.
(edited)
In case any use to others, the update process I’ve done is:
update the Intel HD graphics driver - Intel Driver Update Utility
wifi, Bluetooth, bios etc - Hp Stream 5701na Drivers
Win update - Change PC settings > Update & recovery > Windows Update > Check Now
Win 7 start menu Classic Shell - Classic Shell
Disable Connected Standby (via regedit. Set Power Option - screen off after x minutes)
Backup image Macrium Reflect (free) - Macrium Reflect
Everything’s working ok so far after the updates and mods, impressed with it for the £’s. If anyone's thinking of getting a Bluetooth device, Bluetooth Mouse, XMouseButtonControl, mouse paired by clicking L, R and wheel buttons at the same time.
(edited)
This might help CFC
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Nature of humans. You don't want something until you can't get it anymore.
Muppet. If I was Andy I'd have cancelled your order. Customer service is hard enough without petulant entitled behaviour like that.
(edited)
Not sure if this transcript is a joke? If real then Andy the rep. certainly earns my respect for responding with patient courtesy in the face of unwarranted hostility.
I was all to happy to change the way I computed but there were some things I just needed to be able to do that I couldn’t on my shiny iPad. People forget how restricted early iOS devices were. How we were gouged for minor memory upgrades and port connectors that quite frankly should have been built in or included for free. Emailing photos to yourself was a real thing and the only way to transfer them to your device if you didn’t have a PC with iTune (and I had just sold mine!). Want to upload your CV or photos on your £600 iPad 2? How very dare you! I still love Apple and their toys but only because I ended up buying a Pro that took care of those needs. iPads can't replace PCs and Ive learned that the expensive way. Now I use them for the entertainment devices that they are and its great.
How does the HP benefit from this experience? I think it's important to use everything within it's constraints rather than wishing it was something more than it is. Nobody edits photoshop files on a 7" tablet so the fact that photoshop won’t run great on the HP is a moot point. It’s a PC but it works well as a tablet. Even so I think if media consumption (movies, music, internet, emails style of light computing) is your thing then no doubt about it, buy a nice Android tablet. If you have the budget and are invested in the iOS ecosystem, definitely consider an iPad. Personally, as much as I try to get away from PCs, work and personal tasks means I will always need to have one either at home, work or tucked away somewhere - I just can't escape them. My phone is Android and I prefer them. Im not a fan of iPhone even though I have one. They've gone from the pioneering and revolutionary Einstein of technology at launch to the Barbie device that makes its way in the world by getting thinner, prettier and dumber each generation. If you have an iPhone you have an iphone. They're all functionally the same so quite frankly there isn’t any need to upgrade them until they break.
Back to the HP. Still disregarding the price, what are the compromises I am prepared to make. For me top of the list of deal breakers was battery life. I’ve managed to squeeze out around 6hrs of general use so for me that was a big plus. The screen bleeds a bit and the headphones hiss a little but it doesn’t detract from my real everyday use. It's not my only computing device. It has managed to supplement my PC and my smartphone in the way I thought iPad would but never did.
So it's nice to have but by no means is it essential. Same could be said about my iPad. That cost £600. This costs £50. I'm quite proud of my 8GB Sansa clip from a few years ago. I thought that was “great” value for £30 when I consider how many hours of use I have had from it. The HP is a steal at £50 but to me it only represents “very good” value based on how much and how effective use I think I will get from it for the price I paid.
Price is what you pay - value is what you get out of it. £50 is too much to pay for the HP if it does everything your other devices do but less effectively and it ends up in a cupboard. To get any real value out of the HP you need to appreciate it's limitations and work with them. I did that with my iPad and I enjoyed it a lot more because of it even if ultimately I ended up ditching them for the Pro.
There are some interesting new devices coming up on the horizon. The new Clovertrail Atom looks interesting and pared with 2GB of ram it should make for a very intersting Windows 10 experience. They will likely cost £100-150 in the budget space but these are still many times the price of the HP. No doubt Android and iOS will have something up their sleeves too by then. For some people it might more sense to wait for this new technology but gone are the days where 'family PCs' were a £1000 investment. Modern computers are as cheap as chips and no longer the long term investment they used to be. They're very capable. The only ‘problem’ the £49.99 HP sets is a benchmark and expectations. Now if a well specced, well-built Windows tablet comes in at a very reasonable £99.99 people are still going to complain that it’s not £49.99 like the HP.
Intel have just reported a loss of $4.2bn loss from it's mobile division. MS will probably have lost similar money on the back of 'Windows with Bing'. These losses are why these tablets are so cheap. I doubt that they'll continue to want to lose money therefore I doubt we are likely to see Windows tablets at this price point in future. Regardless of the price, it still comes down to how much value you personally can squeeze out of this. For me, not only will I be keeping the HP, it’s cemented my decision not to sell my Pro 1 and buy a Pro 4 this year.
To get the most out of the HP, it’s not enough to look at its use in isolation. It’s important to look at your PC, smartphone and the HP and re-assess how you use them all. Make them complement each other so they don’t double up functions or step on each other’s toes. That way you’ll not only end up getting the most out of the HP but the most out of the devices you already own.
(edited)
Or you could just use the zoom function
Some good double entendres there
I installed Chrome and Steam on it and then immediately tried to stream Torchlight 2 to it from my main PC - it worked perfectly with the bluetooth mouse I have with very little input lag and a great frame rate. I've not tried my wireless Xbox controller yet, but can't see it not working with the USB OTG connector. Might even give the bluetooth PS3 controller a whirl.
General use and scrolling through websites is fine - better I would say than the Sony Xperia Z2 which is, by all accounts, the 'best' full size Android tablet out there and cost over £350.
I've also tried it with an HP USB docking station I had sitting about and connected a monitor, mouse, keyboard and network cable to it. The Stream recognised and installed all of the drivers, except for the displaylink one but once I found it only it installed and worked fine. So now, plugging in a single cable turns it into a full desktop PC. The only downside of course is that it cannot charge at the same time.
I'm still not entirely sure what I'm going to use it for, other than as a toy/spare kids tablet, but I still can't help but be totally floored by the fact that it cost less than £50. If Windows 10 is the step-up that everyone suggests it might be, then I can't see why MS can't wipe the floor with Android at this point.
We supply the tools to distract our kids and then complain when things go wrong .
I too am guilty as charged., should we not take time out to reflect on what we are really doing by buying these for our kids or even ourselves when we could be spending quality time with our loved ones .
Just my thoughts on the way tech has spoilt us. We all need to watch Web Addict on Netflix if you subscribe to it. In China the medical profession recognise Internet addiction disorder and they treat young kids in rehab centres just like alcohol or drug addiction. Most of the kids developed behavioural problems secondary to being addicted to the Internet . The government was supportive of parents affected by such problems. The UK has still to acknowledge there is a problem. Heard of many concerned parents who have difficulty managing this Internet overuse by their children. As parents we need to address this and tackle it head on.. China has taken the lead will we follow.
(edited)
No. Hope that helps.
Add me to the list
Really? A quadcore processor is not good enough to watch YOUTUBE now? I can watch HD youtube videos on my 4 year old crappy budget laptop... surely you are joking
Wow, you build PCs, forgive me for being so arrogant of your supreme knowledge in this field. Notebookcheck is a reputable site for hardware specifications, if you worked in the industry, you should know this. Please do entertain me by arguing with me, I love watching people fall flat on their own ego
Just ordered one X)
Wow, way to make yourself look like a prat.
You tried to be entertaining and edgy knowing that the chat transcript would be posted on here, dreaming of your post to be liked by many members of this site but it backfired.
info: Thank you for choosing Microsoft Store. An Answer Tech (Microsoft sales specialist) will be with you shortly.
info: Privacy Statement
You are now chatting with 'Mariah'.
Mariah: Thank you for contacting Microsoft Store Chat! My name is Mariah. How can I help you today?
You: morning, i ordered a HP stream 7 on Tuesday morning and i still haven't had an email to say its on the way..order status is 'in progress'...
Mariah: Yes you won't see anything else on the page until it's delivered.
Mariah: It's with UPS now and they are due to deliver it either later today or on Monday
You: i see..should I not receive a tracking number?
Mariah: Well that's up to UPS. Normally you should get one but since thousands of people have ordered this, it seems that UPS just put them on the trucks to deliver since it takes a lot of time
Mariah: So a few got tracking numbers but most didn't after a time.
You: i see that makes sense...thank you
Mariah: As they have only until Monday to get it out.
Mariah: Good luck in getting it before the weekend though.
You: more likely on Monday?
Mariah: Yes to be honest with the volumes of product shipped it's more likely to be Monday.
Mariah: as it also gives them the weekend to 'catch up'
Mariah: We weren't expecting that promo code as it was an error to have so many, so now everyone is scrambling
Mariah: But don't worry, it will be honored no matter what.
You: I understand...Would just be nice to have some sort of confirmation that its on the way from UPS. But can see why everyone is scrabbling it was a hell of a deal!
You: thanks for your time
Mariah: Yes indeed. have a good rest of the week!
Quite a statement to make! My Stream 7 turned up and whilst it's a nice device for 50 quid, I'm under no illusions that it has a fair number of shortcomings at that price and I frankly expected those when I bought it:
* Resolution is only average (same as a 3 year old Nexus 7 2012).
* Modern tile interface remains pretty horrible, but I'll agree that's subjective. *Really* don't like the lack of a permanent taskbar in it (I like to see wi-fi/battery/clock all the time in all apps or the home screen without touching the screen to see them).
* Onscreen keyboard has so many flaws it's incredible - especially in desktop mode - that it's probably the worst one I've ever seen on a tablet. List of atrocities includes: doesn't auto-pop up when there's a text caret in desktop mode, long-hold to get numbers requires a second move of the finger to select the number (ludicrous), no other shifted chars meaning far too much use of &123, landscape mode means keyboard often covers the caret and you're typing blind - it doesn't auto-move the window like Android does, which is crucial.
* Mono fairly tinny speaker plus some users having nasty headphone interference.
* No HDMI (don't care myself, but some people do).
* Issues with huge battery drain if you supposedly "sleep" (some workarounds out there).
* 1GB RAM really limits multitasking or running anything large (even Bluestacks needs 2GB RAM) and the paucity of RAM meant HP installed 32-bit Windows on a quad core 64-bit CPU, which isn't ideal (though Android has taken a long time to get to 64-bit because of ARM not doing anything for years in that area).
I think if you approach the Stream 7 from a pure tablet point of view, iOS and Android give a slicker experience and have a lot more (and better polished) tablet-oriented apps available. However, if you have legacy (small!) Windows apps you'd like to run, then it's certainly worth a punt. There's too many issues to ever make this tablet your primary device, but if you accept its limitations are mostly due to price (well, some are Windows 8.1's fault, IMHO), then it's not a bad little machine. Me? Once Linux becomes usable on it (some hardware not quite working yet), I'll be looking to install that because I'm not a fan of Windows 8.1 Modern at all.
F%^k off to Harrods, that's my new catchphrase I'm getting a T-shirt printed with that on.
Tip #1
Secure Boot will protect your tablet from rootkits or other malware that attempts to replace your boot loader. For some reason this tablet will come with Secure Boot disabled by default, which is weird. I've found out how to enable it though.
i.imgur.com/28d…png
1. Shutdown Windows
2. Plug in an OTG cable and connect a USB keyboard to it
3. Hold volume up and the power button to access the BIOS
4. Select "Secure Boot Option"
5. Set "Restore Secure Boot to Factory Settings" to Enabled
6. Press F10, select yes and then ok
There's nothing to suggest that F10 saves your settings in the Secure Boot menu and when I asked Exertis a week ago about Secure Boot they didn't have a clue how to enable it.
Tip #2
The Intel Atom CPU's in the Linx tablets support what's known as Connected Standby. It basically means that they'll go into a low power state and should still receive updates like an Android tablet or phone would. This is great, but it can use up the battery.
howtogeek.com/189…st/
You can disable Connected Standby and also add all of the normal power options back by editing the registry a little.
1. Open up regedit
2. Navigate to HKLM\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Power\
3. Set CsEnabled to 0
4. Reboot