News of the HP Stream notebook first surfaced a couple of months ago and the device is now finally official, but it costs more than previously expected.

Microsoft reportedly has its eyes set on the low end of the market, and the HP Stream was described back in July as a "Chromebook killer." That implied a powerful performance at a budget-friendly price point, which drew plenty of interest.

HP was expected to take the wraps off its new Stream device at the IFA 2014 trade show last week, but the company ultimately postponed its announcement until Monday, Sept. 8.

The HP Stream was widely expected to come with an attractive $199 price tag, which would've indeed made it a "Chromebook killer" considering that most Chromebooks cost more than that. Nevertheless, the HP Stream is now official and will cost notably more - the device goes on sale on Sept. 24 with a $299 price tag.

When it comes to specifications, the HP Stream packs an AMD A4 Micro-6400T quad processor, with an impressive Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) that can rival Intel's dual-core Celeron lineup. Other specs of the HP Stream include 2GB of DDR3L/1600 RAM, 32GB of solid-state disk (SSD) storage, and microSD support for additional memory. HP is also throwing in 100GB of free Microsoft OneDrive storage for two years, as well as 25GB of Dropbox storage for six months. Microsoft's Office 365 is also on board, but only as a 30-day trial.

The HP Stream is thin and light, sporting an innovative design with flash memory and no fan, "built for cloud computing on the go." The laptop's 14-inch display has a resolution of 1360 x 768 pixels, but it's not touch-enabled. The HP Stream further comes with HDMI out, one USB 3.0 port, two USB 2.0 ports, an audio jack combo, and Miracast support for wireless streaming to compatible devices. Beats Audio, meanwhile, aims to provide a superior experience. Connectivity options consist of a 1x1 Wi-Fi 802.11b/g/n and Bluetooth adapter. Lastly, the device comes with a 32WHr battery which, according to HP, will deliver six hours and a half of battery life. On the software side, Windows 8.1 runs the show.

For more details on the new HP Stream, head over to the company's website at this link, where you can also sign up to receive more information about the product's availability.