Hp 14 4gb Ram 64gb Storage Laptop Reviews
There'southward no shame in shopping for a budget laptop, so long equally you hunt for ane with your expectations checked. The HP Stream 14 ($249 equally tested) is a budget machine aimed at students looking for a low-cost option that favors affordability over all else. This 14-inch laptop (HP also makes an eleven-inch version) can handle your basic e-mail, word processing, and web browsing needs with relative ease, but its sluggish CPU, paltry storage, and washed-out display don't give it strong odds in the low-toll-laptop stakes. It's serviceable if yous are on the strictest of laptop budgets, but it won't have long before you hit the limits of what the HP Stream 14 is capable of. Chromebooks and a few competing cheap models will be better alternatives for almost folks in this price range.
The Price Is Right, at Least
The latest in a long line of dirt-cheap HP laptops, the specific HP Stream 14 model we tested (xiv-dq0010nr) features 4GB of RAM, 64GB of eMMC flash storage, Intel UHD 600 Graphics every bit role of the CPU, and a Celeron N4020 processor. HP offers variations, bachelor from various retailers, that feature slightly different prices and component configurations. For case, there is currently a variant of our review model with a bear upon screen, every bit well every bit an AMD-based configuration available on Amazon for $360.
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(Photo: Molly Flores)
At 0.vii by 12.vii by 8.8 inches (HWD) and 3.24 pounds, the HP Stream 14 is virtually the same size as other 14-inch laptops in its price range. While information technology is lightweight, it also sports a surprisingly sturdy build. It's a reasonably thin laptop that's easy on the eyes, and the textured surfaces of both the inside and outside of the auto give it a rugged façade (though I'd advise against dropping the HP Stream 14 if you lot tin help information technology). Two rubber grips underneath the laptop do a fine task of keeping the laptop steady. It might lack the classier design of slightly more than premium budget models like the MSI Modernistic 14, but that likely won't matter too much to shoppers on a very strict spend diet.
(Photograph: Molly Flores)
The keyboard is equally sturdy as the residual of the laptop, even if sustained typing is a little noisy. The keys are also well-spaced, so accidentally pressing the wrong primal shouldn't be a problem, at least non owing to the layout. The touch pad is wide and responsive, though there is no manner (such as a keyboard shortcut) to disable information technology without going into the organisation settings.
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(Photograph: Molly Flores)
The speakers, located at the top of the keyboard and underneath the laptop, agree up against scrutiny pretty well. They are loud and articulate, though the bass is lacking, equally it often is in budget machines. When pushing them to max volume, I heard occasional crackling dissonance that wasn't persistent but definitely marred the enjoyment of music. Nosotros'd keep book levels (and expectations) pocket-size.
(Photograph: Molly Flores)
Budget laptops tend to lack the latest and greatest display technology, merely the HP Stream 14's i,366-by-768 pixel LED screen is pretty subpar even by these standards. While the 0.two-inch bezels wait trim around plenty of screen space, the screen caught reflections and glare from everything, and I could barely picket a YouTube video without being distracted by the reflection of my own face up (and not in a Narcissus kind of manner, simply more along the lines of, "Oh my gosh, I tin can barely encounter what I'm watching"). When you practice finally find an angle that works, you'll notice that colors are dull and text looks a fiddling smeary, as if the panel were covered with a thin coat of Vaseline. A 1,366-by-768 native resolution tin can be passable at screen sizes like eleven.6 inches, but in a panel this size, it's more than an inch too far.
(Photo: Molly Flores)
As far equally ports go, the HP Stream xiv'southward right flank is adorned with the lion'south share, including a headphone/microphone sound philharmonic jack, two USB ports, a USB-Blazon C port, the power connector port, and an HDMI port.
(Photo: Molly Flores)
The left side is noticeably more sparse, with just an SD carte du jour reader and two indicator lights—1 for power, and one for the SD slot. A 720p webcam, Bluetooth 4.two, and Wi-Fi v round out the balance of the HP Stream xiv's connectivity complement. Certainly, no surprises hither.
A Disappointing Display
When you come across an Intel Celeron chip listed in a laptop'south spec list, you're likely to experience basement-level performance. Couple that with 4GB of RAM and 64GB of storage, and you'll discover that the HP Stream xiv won't handle even moderately complex tasks without some amount of hassle. (Hither's how to choose the best laptop processor).
Still, I expect that HP doesn't await you to run demanding apps or games locally, but rather use options similar deject gaming services to stream them (information technology is in the name, after all). That would crave a stable internet connection wherever you lot become, something that isn't ever accessible when you're on the move.
(Photo: Molly Flores)
The HP Stream 14 runs Windows ten Southward Fashion, a version of Windows that limits users to the Windows Shop for app downloads. Information technology can be easily removed (and elevated to total, unrestricted Windows 10) past inbound the Windows Store and making a few changes, though, which is exactly what we did to get our benchmark tools onto the computer.
One more than bit of maintenance is recommended, beyond upgrading to full Windows x: bloatware cleaning. Plenty of preinstalled apps take up too much of the computer's precious 57GB of available infinite, including Netflix, Dropbox, LastPass, and McAfee Antivirus. HP's preinstalled configuration utility, myHP, also constantly sends notifications reminding yous to install updates. Thankfully, all of it tin and should be uninstalled. On the upside, the HP Stream fourteen too comes with a i-year subscription to Microsoft 365, giving users access to Microsoft'due south suite of programs.
Testing the HP Stream fourteen: A Basement Dweller
It might sound like I'k being tough on the HP Stream 14—later on all, it is a budget laptop, and you lot shouldn't expect a laptop in its price class to evangelize loftier-end graphics and infrequent audio, or have any other notable features. Simply we'd in remiss if we didn't put the HP Stream xiv through the wringer. To do that, nosotros put information technology up against 4 other upkeep laptops, including the Lenovo Ideapad i xiv, the Dell Inspiron 15 3000 Serial (3511), the HP Laptop fourteen-dq2020nr, and the Lenovo IdeaPad three 15ADA05, in a budget benchmark brawl come across how they fare. (Encounter how we test laptops).
Productivity Tests
Budget laptops similar these tend to fall into the hands of college students and frugal shoppers who'll likely engage in general computing tasks. To figure out how much the laptop tin can handle on these relatively forgiving workflows, we use UL'south PCMark x. This wide-ranging benchmark suite simulates a diversity of Windows programs to requite an overall operation score for office workflows—think web browsing, word processing, and the like. A number between 4,000 and 5,000 is what nosotros look for here in a solid mainstream motorcar, only in a budget laptop, numbers can be much lower.
In the HP Stream 14's case, much lower, clocking a score of one,292, almost 1,000 points below the Lenovo IdeaPad 1 14. Unfortunately, nosotros couldn't run the PCMark x Storage Exam because nigh of the budget laptops didn't have the horsepower to do and then. The Stream xiv steadfastly refused.
Things didn't get amend in our side by side test, Maxon'southward Cinebench. It's a multi-core benchmark meant to exercise all of a processor's cores and threads—the more than powerful the fleck, the college the score. Given that the HP Stream 14 is only equipped with a dual-core Celeron, expectations were depression—and rightfully so. The HP Stream 14 didn't fifty-fifty break 550 points.
The dreary numbers continued as nosotros ran Primate Labs' Geekbench Pro, another CPU stress examination meant to simulate real-world applications. The HP Stream 14 came in dead last again, owing its poor performance to its Celeron processor. Forget about running more than than a couple of apps at in one case while using it.
What nigh video encoding? At this indicate, yous might be able to guess, just the HP Stream fourteen is not meant for this kind of work. To run across how ill-equipped the machine is, we ran HandBrake 1.4, an open-source video transcoder for converting multimedia files to unlike resolutions and formats. The HP Stream 14 was fighting for its life in this test, taking almost 2 hours to complete the benchmark. High-stop laptops tend to practice information technology in well under x minutes.
Graphics Tests
We aren't able to become our 3DMark test to run on some farthermost-budget laptops, but we were able to get our GFXBench 5.0 benchmark up and running on the HP Stream 14. The same couldn't exist said for the other laptops in our comparison (thus nosotros haven't charted those results here), but residuum bodacious that the numbers were as deadening as you'd look. Budget laptops equipped with integrated graphics chips take come a long mode, but still tin't really play games well, and definitely can't handle anything also graphics intensive.
In GFXBench'southward 1440p Aztec Ruins examination, the HP Stream xiv maintained an boilerplate of 7 frames per second during the tests. Surprisingly, the 1080p Car Hunt exam ran at an average of 33 frames per second, so there's some hope for the machine if yous decide to play something unproblematic. Actually elementary.
Battery and Brandish Testing
Thankfully, the HP Stream 14's graphic and processor shortcomings didn't completely torpedo our battery testing benchmark. To test laptop batteries, nosotros play a locally stored copy of the open-source Blender classicTears of Steel on a loop at 50% brightness and at 100% volume (though in the HP Stream 14'due south instance, information technology had to exist played off of an external drive considering of the limited storage space). We also place the laptop on Airplane mode, disconnecting it from the Wi-Fi entirely.
The HP Stream fourteen'due south battery came in last again, dying virtually v hours before than most of the agglomeration, though information technology was neck-and-neck with the Dell Inspiron 15 3000 Series (3511). That'southward specially disappointing given the low screen resolution; college-res 1080p panels accept more pixels to push for a higher power describe, all else being equal. Still the Stream fourteen could non capitalize on that.
The one test that didn't end in defeat for the HP Stream 14 was the display test. Using Datacolor's SpyderX Elite calibrator tools, we examination every laptop'southward screen-brightness output levels at l% and 100% brightness. Nosotros also measure gamut settings for the 3 most relevant color spaces for laptop users: the sRGB, Adobe RGB, and DCI-P3 standards.
The HP Stream 14 posted on-par numbers (for a upkeep laptop, that is) in the brightness tests, besting both Lenovo laptops at the 50% brightness setting, while at the 100% setting actually overtaking the HP Laptop 14-dq2020nr and keeping step with both the Inspiron and the IdeaPad 3. That said, the screen output was underwhelming even at height brightness, put next to a mainstream or business laptop. As for colour-coverage testing, the results were quite similar across the whole test group, suggesting these are all screens cutting from the same (display) material.
Verdict: You Can Do Better
With one-half of the main system memory and a fraction of the storage that we recommend in any budget Windows laptop, the HP Stream fourteen does not impress. Perhaps it doesn't need to, depending on your reference bespeak. For the price, you're getting a functional laptop with Windows 10, which already places the HP Stream 14 above nearly Chromebooks on that merit alone.
(Photograph: Molly Flores)
Withal, in this toll range, you can't practise much worse, only you can exercise better. In fact, for just $100 more than, y'all can take hold of the much superior upkeep option, the Lenovo IdeaPad 1 14.
HP Stream 14 (2021)
The Bottom Line
The HP Stream 14 might be a proficient match for students on a very strict budget, only don't look to use this laptop for anything outside of bones schoolwork or the least demanding of everyday tasks.
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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/hp-stream-14-2021
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