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HP joins the Windows tablet camp

Eli Blumenthal
Special for USA TODAY
HP's new Windows tablet.

NEW YORK — As Microsoft prepares to show off what's next for Windows for the first time later today, PC makers are getting ready to prep for the holiday season and one of the big themes for this year are cheaper Windows devices. Earlier this month Toshiba and Acer announced new Windows tablets priced under $150 and now HP is joining the group, unveiling this week its new 7-inch Stream 7 and 8-inch Stream 8 tablets.

Both of HP's new Windows 8.1 tablets will run on quad-core Intel processors with 32GB of storage (upgradeable to another 32GB through a microSD card). And while the new tablets aren't designed to be complete laptop replacements, the devices will come with a one-year subscription to Microsoft's Office 365 service, which includes Office as well as 60 minutes of Skype calls and 1TB of storage on the company's OneDrive. The Stream 8 will also have support for T-Mobile's 4G LTE network, allowing you to take advantage of T-Mobile's offer of 200 MB of free, no-contract data every month for the life of the device.

As with the Toshiba and Acer tablets the most interesting thing with HP's devices however are their price. The Stream 7 will be priced at $99.99 while the Stream 8 will be $149.99 when they hit store shelves in November.

In addition to the tablets HP also introduced two new low-cost Stream laptops, the 11.6-inch Stream 11 and 13.3-inch Stream 13. Both laptops come with non-touch HD displays (you can add an optional touchscreen to the Stream 13), Intel processors and 32GB of storage, though the latter can also be expanded through an SD card. Similar to the tablets HP and Microsoft will also be including a year of Office 365 and 1TB of OneDrive storage. HP will be offering the Stream 11 for $199.99 and the Stream 13 for $229.99 beginning in November.

The cheaper price for Windows devices will be key for Microsoft as it enters the holiday season and looks to fend off Google's Chromebooks. According to research firm NPD Group, during the recent back-to-school shopping season sales of Chromebooks running Google's rival Chrome OS soared, up 32 percent in 2014 while accounting for more than "5 percent of notebook sales, and 18 percent of all sales of notebooks under $300."

Follow Eli Blumenthal on Twitter@eliblumenthal

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