When I worked at Best Buy this was the most returned item in the store. It got so bad managers told us to turn customers away from the device to avoid then returns.
One surprising thing to me is the Celeron N4120 is better than the Atom processor. So, it's not the absolute cheapest and most worthless CPU they could put in the HP Stream. Still, I think a person would be better off using a base model iPad. And a person might even find mobile Microsoft office apps in Apple's App store.@@jimmy3951
@@jimmy3951 Not really.The single core performance at that price point plus the fact that it is an x86 and not an ARM makes a massive difference. One: upggradability, 2: choice of OS. Put Kubuntu or any Linux on it and it run a lot lot better.
@@domoncar6782 I'm a huge Linux guy, and yes a system like this will run better with a lighter Linux distro on it like Solus Budgie that's still using X11, and not Wayland for the compositor, but it won't be much better simply because of the EMMC storage which performs worse than most class 10 Micro SD cards, the weak Intel Celeron CPU, & 4GB of slow ram. In fact sitting in my guest room as a backup laptop, I have a old 15.6in(1366X768 720p screen) ASUS laptop I got from e-waste with an Intel Core i3 2310M hyperthreaded dual core that I upgraded to 16GB DDR3 1333Mhz RAM(24 bucks), new battery(18 bucks), and 256GB Netac SATA SSD(26 bucks) that performs better than these HP streams when running Manjaro Solus, the only thing I'm missing vs. something like an HP Stream here, is USB 3.0, and USB C, which is not a huge deal breaker in my book for something that cost me 68 bucks to fix up, that again performs better, and can handle multiple Chrome tabs even playing back TH-cam, and other content at 720p.
I bought an basic Asus for £280 and slap SSD in making it quite capable machine for basic needs like text editing watching Netflix video calls and some old games (intel celeron n4020 1,1 GHz 8GB RAM DDR4 and intel UHD 600 integrated GPU)
I have an ASUS E410 which basically the same specs I got for $100 at MicroCenter, I tossed in a 1TB NVME SSD that cost just as much as the laptop and honestly Linux Mint was this devices savior. I can actually boot Skyrim at 60fps on this thing and open several tabs in Firefox. Windows 10 or 11 should have NEVER touched these devices with how under-powered with RAM they are.
My grandmother uses one of these. These type of laptops are pretty much for 70+ year olds who wants the cheapest laptop they can find and it is the only deciding factor instead of taking performance/specs into consideration, so they can go on FB and don’t care about how many Chrome tabs they can have open or how fast/slow the computer is
Thing to consider, I work at a school, we bought these cheaper as we bought in bulk and put chrome flex on them - they work great and actually cost less than the cheapest chromebook.
The thing is that Microsoft could make a stripped back version of windows free of the bloat they include just for low end devices. But they know everyone would install that on higher end PCs too, because no-one wants that bloat. They kinda of already make a stripped back version with the LTSC build but they make it difficult for the average user to legally acquire it.
I got a machine with a similar CPU to this very cheap used and one of the first things I did was dig around the options to disable a lot of the windows spy features and it's unreal just how many they sneak into the OS. turned on by default. I mean, honestly, I have little over 1Ghz to play with. Do I really want to send information about every key press I make off to Microsoft?
They do make one, at least for 10, it's called enterprise IoT LTSC, it's what Tiny10 is based off of. Haven't heard one for 11, I think Tiny11 actually had to strip a bunch of stuff out manually.
I remember having one a decade ago in high school. It wasn okay for school reports, and making the occasional power point. I consider it like a first car, it will get you to there eventually without ac.
I have one of these that has been collecting dust on my shelf for the past 7 years. Ran out of space after a few windows updates. This thing was terrible.
I got one from my uncle when he passed away. Yes, had to do a clean windows install from a usb install media to get the latest windows updates on it and it used most of the drive. I'm guessing you have the 32 GB version, 64 GB on the new ones I think would be just enough to at least be able to install updates. I tried linux for a while and it does use less of the drive, but once the drive is full you can't really install software on external media on linux as easily as you can with windows. Linux wants all the packages and everything to be on a single drive partition with the OS. So I went with Tiny10 and it only used like 10 GB of the drive and is debloated so it doesn't max the processor for stupidly long at boot, it's actually semi-usable now but still lags and the eMMC will die at some point.
My brother in law had one of these.. the 64gb eflash storage or whatever was called was so bad it was slower than some hdds. I tried to install windows 10 and linux on it and there were no functional drivers for the crappy wlan card it had.
Is it worth it after the updates stop? We get the left over stock from the US and local vendors are advertising it to students. Since everyone has bank accounts these days and they need peace of mind online, I've been asked if they're safe and I don't feel like buying one just to answer the question.
I've been using mine for years, and these types of computers have SO MANY issues that i don't recommend getting one, but you have to work with what you buy if its the only thing you can afford. Also, this thing is clearly not made for heavy games but it could probably run most games that was released in the 2000s or 2010s.
Yes, it's why so many people are pissed at MS for the windows 11 BS "requirements" that aren't actually needed, trying to sell more license keys by forcing people to buy new hardware using security/encryption as an excuse.
if all you use it for is checking email, word processing, and filling out applications, it gets the job done. If you need to do quite literally anything else. you should get something else. And they do go on sale for close to $100 around black friday. That's when most of them sold when I worked at target, and I did try and convince people to get ANYTHING else.
A month ago, picked a Lenovo 500w Gen 3 (11" Intel) 2 in 1 Laptop for $180. It was 12" IPS touch display, Pentium N6000 processor, 128GB SSD and 8GB RAM.
You should have bought a 2015-2017 Macbook Air. You can run Windows. You can upgrade the SSD. You can easily swap the battery because it's not glued in.
@@mattstone8878 Those are great devices indeed. Though I think the M1 MacBook Airs are better. And I highly don't recommend the 2018-2020 MacBook Air. Or the 2015-2017 MacBook. Or the 2016-2019 MacBook Pro. Or the 2011-2012 Macbook Pro.
At least you did better than an HP Stream POS, but next time I would just get a refurbished Lenovo Laptop off their outlet store that still has slots for upgradable RAM, and Storage, then you can stick whatever Linux distro you want on it if you don't like Windows as Lenovo certifies many of their models in the spec sheets to be fully Linux comptable.
@@mattstone8878 No thanks, I don't want to be stuck in the Apple ecosystem(yes there Ashi Linux for the Apple M series chips, but It can be a pain to get running, and it's not ready for prime time yet), I like freedom of choice in my OS, and to be able to upgrade my RAM, and Storage, or to be able to replace them if something does fail.
I think that an older ThinkPad would be a better than an HP stream... I got my X280 with 8GB RAM and 256GB Storage for like 160€ - it has an i5 from the seventh gen which may be old but I bet it is certainly faster than that celeron from the HP.
hmm that resolution is HD. HD is only 720p, everyone thinks 1080p is HD but thats actually FHD. So yes that laptop does have a HD screen. Granted a bit of a cheap crappy one but its HD. Its meant for a cheap, breakable not losing much idea of a laptop. Like just kids, streaming, etc. If you dont pay the costs, lots of things only stream in HD (720p) not FHD or better. That's why it exists in 2024. But really never meant for anything past word processing at best, which is why it comes with 365. But for the cost, even 200 dollar chromebooks suck. To get good ones, youll be paying probably double that price and that's not a price that everyone can afford, especially for something given to a kid. And used market sucks for laptops, especially for cheap ones, they are usually beat to hell or used so hard things are just shit(damaged, broken, etc). I'd never give a kid a laptop that is 400-500+ for every day use, they destroy everything way too easily and not gonna toss hard earned cash at something for them to break. Rather run risk of losing say 200-250 bucks than say 350-450 for them breaking a fancier cheap laptop/used laptop just because it was "a bit faster." Cheap laptops have a use, even this one, just not a use for everyone. Even 100-150 bucks more is hard for many to afford. That's why lots are using 100-200 dollar or less smartphones that exist because they just can't afford better versions. Is it shit, yep, is it slow, yep, but it will load websites(granted slower), will word process, which is all a school kid needs or anyone who just doesn't do much on a pc.
Maybe they have sooooo many parts unique to that system that they just have to keep producing them until they can scrap the rest of them. I got a decent chromebook during Prime Days one year and it's perfect for the way my husband uses it, and he's actually that target market for this computer - really only needs an internet appliance. His iPad was fine for what he used it for, but got too old for updates and the battery wouldnt' hold a charge, but he did need something. Something told me to shy away from that HP Cheapo.
Honestly, I absolutely agree this time. Put in even the worst branded 120GB M.2 SSD, any real i3 even if it's 11th Gen and an FHD screen (bonus points for a light version of Linux like Lubuntu, I mean you are only gonna use a browser on that thing anyway) and the experience will be around 5x as good for 50% more cash.
Honestly in my opinion to be serving the budget end of the market at this point computer manufacturers need to start doing what car companies do and promote their Certified Refurbished models more heavily. A midrange or flagship laptop from 3-4 years ago with a new battery would probably run circles around these ultra budget models and honestly it would probably save manufacturers and retailers money to not have to maintain as many SKUs or deal with excess returns.
i had this thing as my 1st laptop but it had windows 10, i got it for christmas, at first i thought it was good but issues started appearing everywhere, "Not enough storage" when taking a simple photo was CRAZY, and after being stored for like 2 months its boot time went from approx 30 seconds to OVER 4 MINUTES. Why HP thought it would be a good idea to put an outdated processor in a modern laptop is beyond me. Not even roblox could run at a smooth framerate, even my old ipad 8 at the time outperformed it.
Those specs are essentially the same as the Gateway GWTC116 series and the Evolve III Maestro laptops that came out in 2019/2020. The laptop is basically a school/college laptop meant to handle very basic functions in a class environment.
I had bought a Lenovo with similar specs years ago, open box deal at a store so even cheaper. It ran Windows poorly, so I installed Ubuntu on it and it ran just fine for a couple of years until certain keys on the keyboard stopped working.
Honestly, it coming with a year of Office would be sick for college students, if it weren't for the fact that many colleges allow you to get office for free for as long as you are enrolled...
I loved my Asus EEE PC netbook after upgrading memory and storage. A perfect vacation companion to store my photos on and book hotels. At that time. It always: cheap, small, powerful. But you can only pickup 2.
I honestly forgot about HP streams. I bought one back in 2015 for college. It was relatively terrible, yes, but totally serviceable for the light workload I used it for in freshman classes at a community college.
I had a version of this a few years ago that came with a Ryzen 3 3300U (or something like that), and a 256gb SSD, I slapped an extra ram stick in there for 8gb and it was a surprisingly decent experience. It still couldn't really game much, but it was fine with multitasking to a point, I could have a half dozen browser tabs, a spotify window, and discord running and it was pretty alright.
This was my first ever laptop/pc and i remember playing minecraft at 20fps for about 3 or 4 years on it, now i'm running a system i built myself and seeing it again has brought me back to some dark times
yeah second i saw it was an HP Stream i already knew how it was gonna go. That being said if you install Linux on them they actually do perform noticeably better (Had an Asus Flip with the N4020 mounted to the wall for accessing inventory)
There is a market for laptops like this: light productivity, office work, and light web. Maybe it can be used for light media consumption. If you already have a Windows device at home, I would say to get a cheap Android tablet, like the Lenovo M11 and a keyboard/trackpad case instead of this HP laptop. If you don't have a Windows device at home, and $200 is your budget with tax, then this laptop may be all you have to get and you'll just have to take the sacrifices. As long as you know this laptop's limitations, you'll be fine. The problem is that stores are selling it to do more than it can and that's the problem.
I recently found an admittedly used Dell Latitude 3440 for $280. $100 more than this laptop in the video. *The Dell Latitude has a 13th gen i5 in it, came with 8gb ram, and a 256gb SSD.* I say this to say that even though I spent $100 more, the used market is the best option for laptops under $300 IMHO.
As a former bestbuy employee i tried to avoid selling that laptop at all cost even though we were told to push it. I always almost begged customers to spend an extra $100 for a laptop that is 4x better. The only time that laptop to me was a good deal was when they would go on sale for $110. The only thing that made it worth the money was a 1 year membership. Within 3 months it will run slower than a turtle.
I had a £300 version of this with an AMD A6-9225 in 2019. Because of the extra £100 than the cheapest W10, it actually ran decent for the price for a year. It should be illegal to sell e-waste laptops, as they just go into landfill in like a year or two, and when you spend more, you get like 5-10 years out of the device
I purchased a steam in 2015 as my first laptop and it actually kickstarted a lot for me. Although I remember it came with 32gb or storage and came with windows 10. I’m forever grateful to it even though if it broke down two years later
I bought a Lenovo Chromebook for about $160 a couple of years ago, and it is still my main laptop. It has a foldable display with an IPS touchscreen, 8GB or RAM, and i3 processor and I upgraded to the storage myself. There is literally no reason to buy something like this when you can get a Chromebook, I even do light gaming on Steam (Mainly Sims 4 and older games like Bioshock) and via emulation; it has been a very good machine and eye opening for how solid Chromebooks are nowadays.
i feel like at this point laptops need to be seen as just as essential as phones. it ain't even that hard to find a decent laptop for ~$500, i have a dell Inspiron that works fine for games and school, yet a lot of parents refuse to do research before handing their kids a laptop.
For lightweigth and cheaper there is nothing better than an old Macbook Air 11. Up to this day it is unbeatable in those requirements, without given up on anything.
I have an HP Stream myself, I got it from the thrift store for a few dollars. Only 32GB Storage. Windows was pretty much unusable, but Linux Mint runs great on it. I use it for watching movies and TV Shows stored on my file server.
In 2014 this made sense kind-of for those looking for the absolutely cheap laptops to use only for Word or something. 10 years later, wherein the latest Chromebooks can run offline apps too thanks to Android or Linux, and with Chromebooks having sales for only $250 for laptops with at least 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, with FHD displays, this makes zero sense. And yes, you can find Chromebooks with 4GB RAM and 64GB of Storage like the Lenovo Duet 3, but Chrome OS is far, far lighter than a fat Windows 11. Then there's the cheapest iPad that for a hundred dollars more, you're getting a hell lot more (again, to quote you, what's the use of a full fat OS if you can't run it all).
I think I can give some context to how slow a system with 4GB of RAM and a celeron is in 24'. I have a Windows 11 laptop with an i3, 16GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, and still Windows crawls into a halt sometimes. And when I used a Chromebook back in highschool, we prob spend 25%-50%(class time) just logging in. Either case, ChromeOS is demanding but Windows is very demanding.
Man I wanted a netbook SO bad when they came out. A full featured OS in something that small. Now it’s super laughable. Side note I just sold a laptop for $15 on Facebook marketplace. Bout it for $20 so I could run some update software on a laser cutting machine that’s software wouldn’t run on MacOS and I didn’t want to haul my desktop PC to the laser. I had forgotten how bad of a build quality so many budget laptops have. It was so plasticy and awful from trying to open it, to the keyboard and clicking the trackpad. I’ve been pampered by Apple products and higher end PC stuff for years. I didn’t realize that companies still made stuff that low quality.
64 GB of eMMC makes this thing less useful than a Chromebook. They often don't have more than that either, but the difference is that Chrome OS is designed to be minimal. Windows absolutely is not, and just with time that'll fill up to the point where you won't be able to install Windows updates anymore without doing a dance every time manually clearing temp data, it's just not worth the hassle. And if you dare to install programs and actually try to use it like a normal laptop, you'll run out of space immediately.
I bought an Acer Cloudbook in 2016 because my laptop died unexpectedly. Lower specs than the Stream, but came with Windows 10. It worked well for a year or two. I could even play Stardew Valley on it. But the more Windows 10 became bloated, the worse the Cloudbook became. Now, I just use it to see what Linux distros I can get to run on it.
I used to work at OD around the time these came about and they were what made me want to ro stop being a salesperson. I had no qualms about telling people it was a bad purchase, especially as long-term product, even on a tight budget. I would always push Chromebooks or even mid-level tablets for school work. The fact they're still making these in today's day and age speaks volumes about how HP and other "reputable" brands push crappy products above everything.
My grandma got my mom one of these a few years ago. I think it had full win10 installed. it had a 32gb eMMC. Windows not being in S-mode had that drive unable to install a win update in less than a year. My mom never installed anything else either. So we could not fully update the included OS 😐. I spoke with MS and I was explaining my issues with updating and they were shocked that it didn't come with S-mode instead. They even said windows 10 needs more storage than that and not sure why it was ever installed by HP like this. So, it is now running a very lite Linux version and is my garage PC. It was the worst example of ewaste.
How about a video trying to make the experience better? I assume it's mostly non-upgradeable, but some Windows debloating or trying Linux might make them at least slightly more useable.
I bought, about 6 months ago, a Lenovo with a 5500U processor, 8gb of ram, which is upgradable to 16, an NVME drive and an upgradeable wifi chip. For the same price.
Just to share a fun fact, you can get a 15 inch or 13 inch MacBook Pro from 2013/2014 and use a patcher to get a newer version of MacOS for around $200. It won’t be comparable to the newer MacBooks of the recent years, but it would definitely be better than the HP laptop 14.
One thing he didn't mention is that these cheap computers are actually very useful to people who use Linux. By putting a Linux distro on this laptop, you can get better performance and nearly triple the battery life over using it as a Windows device.
I loved my HP Stream when I got it in 2014. Was perfect for just a tiny laptop I could throw in a bag. It ran linux with xfce perfectly and 2G was *just* enough to do even HD youtube back then and light multitasking. I'm still a big fan of the netbook 11-13 inch form factor, hopefully ARM will make them more viable in the future.
I think the hardware decoding was more why youtube might work more than linux. Linux /helps/ but it can't pull off miracles. I tried linux for a while, but once the drive is full linux doesn't really let you install software on external drives, you can store documents sure, but you can't install stuff from the repo onto an external drive as easily as you can windows. I ended up going to Tiny10, and while it wouldn't work for the 2 GB model as it uses 2 GB just running it does work on the 4 GB model and I could upgrade the ram for like $11 if I /really/ wanted to, but I have other computers to use besides a stream and only have it in the first place because it was my uncles and I don't like throwing away /technically/ working equipment. It's not really good for much though. I have it setup to run an autoclicker on a clicker game just to have it doing /something/ usable, and I will say it's /very/ light on power-consumption, like ~7 watts under load with the screen on low brightness, only like 5.5 watts with the screen closed.
Got my significant other through undergrad back in 2013-2016. Needed Google docs and notepad basically. Back then you could get it on sale at like 100-150 during black Friday. This replaced her dying 17" MacBook. She was happy with it as it was way lighter, battery life was ridiculous and she commuted to and from school. I'm going to have to dig it out and run Linux on it maybe
The specs on this thing are basically the same as the school laptops we had in high school and middle school. It should honestly be illegal for Celeron laptops to even be sold to anyone else but schools, they're legitimately the worst CPUs ever made lol.
The one thing you have to remember about these devices a large amount of the people that are buying them or at least get them bought for them have not experienced anything better so they don't know that it's bad
Important to point out that this price segment, outside of Chromebooks, almost never has USB-C/USB-PD charging. While Google mandated it years ago, Microsoft never has - so it's another corner they can and will cut. It saves them probably no more than a dime on the Bill of Materials, but if they sell 200,000 of these, that's $2 million! As an additional 'benefit' to HP, it means that a destroyed power cord will likely be a new machine purchase.
One of the schools I would tutor at. They would buy those for the students. They had online text books and it would make it earlier for the schools so the students wouldn’t have to carry a bunch of books Others would do the same but with android tablets and iPads
I believe over at Microcenter they have a 14" Gateway Windows 11 laptop with a Ryzen 7 3700U, 16gb of memory and a 1TB SSD for like $300 which is an alright and could play some games well enough.
I actually bought the original Stream 13 for school after watching your video (has it really been 10 years? Seesh!) and it worked fine for a few years, until a version of Windows 10 completely destroyed the performances (I think it was 1703 or 1709, but don't quote me on that). 2GB of RAM was pretty terrible, but it was workable. It's crazy that that laptop is still being sold today with barely more RAM and CPU, it's just a scam at this point.
My only usable computer is an old ASUS Laptop with literally 3 GB of ram while even my phone has 12 GB and I can't even browse the web with such a slow machine
man I forgot about netbooks... I got one for Christmas in 2009 or 2010 it was my first pc I didn't have to share with my whole family and I definitely pushed the limits of what it could handle doing lol
I remember buying a windows tablet at half the cost of included office subscription and the tablet was decent at what I got it for too! sure, win10 would choke at 1gig of ram but 8.1 worked just fine
i have a china exclusive version of this laptop but it costed 900 dollars on taobao and has 16 gb of memory 1 tb ssd and a core i5. Mine is a sleeper version of the hp stream
I work at a computer repair shop and i have to BEG people not to get em. plenty do, THEN come to and ask if the laptop was a good purchase, ask me BEFORE please
The thing he doesn't realize if you haven't used a laptop that is faster then you don't realize its slower. I know people that use older laptops and they think its just fine cause they've never used something faster and haven't got used to not waiting for things.
I had an OG HP Stream untill like a couple years ago and it fully met my needs! It could play downloaded videos (I mostly used it for watching videos in bed) and some retro games. Web browsing was a struggle, but it ran parsec just fine, so I usually just used parsec to stream a web browser running on my desktop pc (a little latency is fine when you're just browsing TH-cam).
I use the HP equivalent of the Lenovo IdeaPad from 2021 and aside from the battery it still runs strong. I can play Valorant at 60fps 1080p with no issues and it handles video editing decently well. And if you really only have a budget of 200$ and you needa large display, just do what I did. Get a Lenovo Tab M10 3rd gen and pair it with a Bluetooth keyboard and a stand. I use it dail4for college and it lasts the entire day with battery to spare, all while having a FHD+ panel that also has 100% srgb coverage
Public school is why they sell. Tablets are required at my daughter school and they stay at school. But homework has to be turned in by email. I bought one for her cuz all it needs to do is email. I know couple parents who bought them just for email and Don't want another screen to eat up family time. The less power it has the less they'll want to use it lol.
I’m sure some parents pick this as baby’s first laptop, but I think old people are the real reason these devices are still on the market. As a former Best Buy employee, I can tell you they get a lot of elderly customers looking for the cheapest laptop available, usually declaring to the salesperson that they’re not a gamer. Anyway GamePass would probably work fine if you stick to cloud gaming.
When I worked at Best Buy this was the most returned item in the store. It got so bad managers told us to turn customers away from the device to avoid then returns.
Thomas Crooks is back.
This thing is legit weaker than a $200 smartphone wtf
It’s probably weaker than an iPhone 5s from 2013 which is WILD
One surprising thing to me is the Celeron N4120 is better than the Atom processor. So, it's not the absolute cheapest and most worthless CPU they could put in the HP Stream. Still, I think a person would be better off using a base model iPad. And a person might even find mobile Microsoft office apps in Apple's App store.@@jimmy3951
@@jimmy3951 Not really.The single core performance at that price point plus the fact that it is an x86 and not an ARM makes a massive difference. One: upggradability, 2: choice of OS. Put Kubuntu or any Linux on it and it run a lot lot better.
@@domoncar6782 3 bigger screen which we knows wins over majority non tech savvy people lol.
@@domoncar6782 I'm a huge Linux guy, and yes a system like this will run better with a lighter Linux distro on it like Solus Budgie that's still using X11, and not Wayland for the compositor, but it won't be much better simply because of the EMMC storage which performs worse than most class 10 Micro SD cards, the weak Intel Celeron CPU, & 4GB of slow ram.
In fact sitting in my guest room as a backup laptop, I have a old 15.6in(1366X768 720p screen) ASUS laptop I got from e-waste with an Intel Core i3 2310M hyperthreaded dual core that I upgraded to 16GB DDR3 1333Mhz RAM(24 bucks), new battery(18 bucks), and 256GB Netac SATA SSD(26 bucks) that performs better than these HP streams when running Manjaro Solus, the only thing I'm missing vs. something like an HP Stream here, is USB 3.0, and USB C, which is not a huge deal breaker in my book for something that cost me 68 bucks to fix up, that again performs better, and can handle multiple Chrome tabs even playing back TH-cam, and other content at 720p.
I'm kinda in the mood to go out and buy an HP Stream...
Buy an HP 14 Laptop and upgrade the ram to 16gb.
I have one totally would recommend
I bought an basic Asus for £280 and slap SSD in making it quite capable machine for basic needs like text editing watching Netflix video calls and some old games (intel celeron n4020 1,1 GHz 8GB RAM DDR4 and intel UHD 600 integrated GPU)
same
I have an ASUS E410 which basically the same specs I got for $100 at MicroCenter, I tossed in a 1TB NVME SSD that cost just as much as the laptop and honestly Linux Mint was this devices savior. I can actually boot Skyrim at 60fps on this thing and open several tabs in Firefox. Windows 10 or 11 should have NEVER touched these devices with how under-powered with RAM they are.
My grandmother uses one of these. These type of laptops are pretty much for 70+ year olds who wants the cheapest laptop they can find and it is the only deciding factor instead of taking performance/specs into consideration, so they can go on FB and don’t care about how many Chrome tabs they can have open or how fast/slow the computer is
I wouldn't buy this for even my worst enemy, no one in the world deserve a Celeron in 2024
U could get a used laptop that is 5x better
@@arpro89 exactly. or even an used optiplex or something. i doubt ur granny cares about the fact that you can carry it around
@@-aku2805Some people like to take their PCs with them when they travel, but at that point I'd just say get them an iPad and be done with it
Thing to consider, I work at a school, we bought these cheaper as we bought in bulk and put chrome flex on them - they work great and actually cost less than the cheapest chromebook.
That doesn't mean they should be sold at Best Buy
@@mkkohls they should make it to school only, not to be sold by retailers.
@@Kenzie_Delvey they can't anymore. Chrome books made a monopoly with many American states
Yeah but think about performance. Time is important for kids
@@JeskidoYT they should at least bump the specs from a emmc 5.1 to an ssd and 128 min and the ram should be 8 gigs
6:23 Austin the laptop chiropractor
You know it’s good when there’s celery inside... from 2019. Even if you refrigerated it, yikes.
hah
and the celery is discontinued lmao
Austin Evans finally stopped using an entire can of hairspray🙏
lol
Austin without hair products looks like he's been going though some things 😂
@@Mr_Mcfeely yeah covid, its on his threads
The ozone layer likes this comment
@@C_C-who uses threads? 💀
Nothing against the rest of the crew, but this style of solo Austin content has been incredibly refreshing to see!
The thing is that Microsoft could make a stripped back version of windows free of the bloat they include just for low end devices. But they know everyone would install that on higher end PCs too, because no-one wants that bloat. They kinda of already make a stripped back version with the LTSC build but they make it difficult for the average user to legally acquire it.
I got a machine with a similar CPU to this very cheap used and one of the first things I did was dig around the options to disable a lot of the windows spy features and it's unreal just how many they sneak into the OS. turned on by default. I mean, honestly, I have little over 1Ghz to play with. Do I really want to send information about every key press I make off to Microsoft?
They do make one, at least for 10, it's called enterprise IoT LTSC, it's what Tiny10 is based off of. Haven't heard one for 11, I think Tiny11 actually had to strip a bunch of stuff out manually.
Solo Austin is back!!
I remember watching your video on that blue HP Stream back in the day and here we are today😅
I remember having one a decade ago in high school. It wasn okay for school reports, and making the occasional power point. I consider it like a first car, it will get you to there eventually without ac.
HD = 720p full HD / FHD = 1080p
I have one of these that has been collecting dust on my shelf for the past 7 years. Ran out of space after a few windows updates. This thing was terrible.
I got one from my uncle when he passed away. Yes, had to do a clean windows install from a usb install media to get the latest windows updates on it and it used most of the drive. I'm guessing you have the 32 GB version, 64 GB on the new ones I think would be just enough to at least be able to install updates. I tried linux for a while and it does use less of the drive, but once the drive is full you can't really install software on external media on linux as easily as you can with windows. Linux wants all the packages and everything to be on a single drive partition with the OS. So I went with Tiny10 and it only used like 10 GB of the drive and is debloated so it doesn't max the processor for stupidly long at boot, it's actually semi-usable now but still lags and the eMMC will die at some point.
E-waste straight from the new box.
Yep a 2006 or 2008 MacBook Pro is way better
I really enjoy this kind of video style. It's changes up things compared to your regular "table content" :)
In Geoff Peterson's voice:
"Windows 11 aśśmöde"
180 new is indeed very little but you can get a thinkpad for that price. And not even an insanely old one, you can get a t470s for that
Exactly. And thinkpad laptops are insanelly upgradeable.
My brother in law had one of these.. the 64gb eflash storage or whatever was called was so bad it was slower than some hdds. I tried to install windows 10 and linux on it and there were no functional drivers for the crappy wlan card it had.
I have a windows chromebook from 2016💀
Same 😂
I have 3 and they are great
Is it worth it after the updates stop? We get the left over stock from the US and local vendors are advertising it to students. Since everyone has bank accounts these days and they need peace of mind online, I've been asked if they're safe and I don't feel like buying one just to answer the question.
@@hamzasultan96 Yes it’s worth it. My windows chromebook can run a windows 11 vm
I've been using mine for years, and these types of computers have SO MANY issues that i don't recommend getting one, but you have to work with what you buy if its the only thing you can afford.
Also, this thing is clearly not made for heavy games but it could probably run most games that was released in the 2000s or 2010s.
This thing supports windows 11 but my $1k custom built pc from 5 years ago doesn’t? Huh?
Yes, it's why so many people are pissed at MS for the windows 11 BS "requirements" that aren't actually needed, trying to sell more license keys by forcing people to buy new hardware using security/encryption as an excuse.
if all you use it for is checking email, word processing, and filling out applications, it gets the job done. If you need to do quite literally anything else. you should get something else. And they do go on sale for close to $100 around black friday. That's when most of them sold when I worked at target, and I did try and convince people to get ANYTHING else.
A month ago, picked a Lenovo 500w Gen 3 (11" Intel) 2 in 1 Laptop for $180. It was 12" IPS touch display, Pentium N6000 processor, 128GB SSD and 8GB RAM.
When your phone outperforms this thing:
That wallpaper brought back a lot of memories 😅
What makes Chromebooks better in my opinion is that ChromeOS is designed to run on a low end machine, and as a result, it runs smoother
6:23 the laptop wasn't even clipped in properly 💀💀💀💀💀
I almost bought this thing because I was in the market for a light work device. I went with an android tablet with a keyboard attachment instead.
You should have bought a 2015-2017 Macbook Air. You can run Windows. You can upgrade the SSD. You can easily swap the battery because it's not glued in.
@@mattstone8878 Those are great devices indeed. Though I think the M1 MacBook Airs are better. And I highly don't recommend the 2018-2020 MacBook Air. Or the 2015-2017 MacBook. Or the 2016-2019 MacBook Pro. Or the 2011-2012 Macbook Pro.
At least you did better than an HP Stream POS, but next time I would just get a refurbished Lenovo Laptop off their outlet store that still has slots for upgradable RAM, and Storage, then you can stick whatever Linux distro you want on it if you don't like Windows as Lenovo certifies many of their models in the spec sheets to be fully Linux comptable.
@@CommodoreFan64 Or buy a something with an M1 if you can stretch
@@mattstone8878 No thanks, I don't want to be stuck in the Apple ecosystem(yes there Ashi Linux for the Apple M series chips, but It can be a pain to get running, and it's not ready for prime time yet), I like freedom of choice in my OS, and to be able to upgrade my RAM, and Storage, or to be able to replace them if something does fail.
I think that an older ThinkPad would be a better than an HP stream... I got my X280 with 8GB RAM and 256GB Storage for like 160€ - it has an i5 from the seventh gen which may be old but I bet it is certainly faster than that celeron from the HP.
Slap Debian with XFCE onto it and it'll run like a dream.
hmm that resolution is HD. HD is only 720p, everyone thinks 1080p is HD but thats actually FHD. So yes that laptop does have a HD screen. Granted a bit of a cheap crappy one but its HD.
Its meant for a cheap, breakable not losing much idea of a laptop. Like just kids, streaming, etc. If you dont pay the costs, lots of things only stream in HD (720p) not FHD or better. That's why it exists in 2024. But really never meant for anything past word processing at best, which is why it comes with 365.
But for the cost, even 200 dollar chromebooks suck. To get good ones, youll be paying probably double that price and that's not a price that everyone can afford, especially for something given to a kid. And used market sucks for laptops, especially for cheap ones, they are usually beat to hell or used so hard things are just shit(damaged, broken, etc). I'd never give a kid a laptop that is 400-500+ for every day use, they destroy everything way too easily and not gonna toss hard earned cash at something for them to break. Rather run risk of losing say 200-250 bucks than say 350-450 for them breaking a fancier cheap laptop/used laptop just because it was "a bit faster."
Cheap laptops have a use, even this one, just not a use for everyone. Even 100-150 bucks more is hard for many to afford. That's why lots are using 100-200 dollar or less smartphones that exist because they just can't afford better versions. Is it shit, yep, is it slow, yep, but it will load websites(granted slower), will word process, which is all a school kid needs or anyone who just doesn't do much on a pc.
at this Budget buy used. you can find good options (atleast better than the hp stream) for that price.
Buy used then. Why would you lower your standard to "budget" options when you can have better experiences with yesterday's fine offers?
Didn't know you could buy a laptop at a 24 hour fitness :O
I want a video on that
Maybe they have sooooo many parts unique to that system that they just have to keep producing them until they can scrap the rest of them. I got a decent chromebook during Prime Days one year and it's perfect for the way my husband uses it, and he's actually that target market for this computer - really only needs an internet appliance. His iPad was fine for what he used it for, but got too old for updates and the battery wouldnt' hold a charge, but he did need something. Something told me to shy away from that HP Cheapo.
Honestly, I absolutely agree this time. Put in even the worst branded 120GB M.2 SSD, any real i3 even if it's 11th Gen and an FHD screen (bonus points for a light version of Linux like Lubuntu, I mean you are only gonna use a browser on that thing anyway) and the experience will be around 5x as good for 50% more cash.
Honestly in my opinion to be serving the budget end of the market at this point computer manufacturers need to start doing what car companies do and promote their Certified Refurbished models more heavily. A midrange or flagship laptop from 3-4 years ago with a new battery would probably run circles around these ultra budget models and honestly it would probably save manufacturers and retailers money to not have to maintain as many SKUs or deal with excess returns.
i had this thing as my 1st laptop but it had windows 10, i got it for christmas, at first i thought it was good but issues started appearing everywhere, "Not enough storage" when taking a simple photo was CRAZY, and after being stored for like 2 months its boot time went from approx 30 seconds to OVER 4 MINUTES. Why HP thought it would be a good idea to put an outdated processor in a modern laptop is beyond me. Not even roblox could run at a smooth framerate, even my old ipad 8 at the time outperformed it.
Those specs are essentially the same as the Gateway GWTC116 series and the Evolve III Maestro laptops that came out in 2019/2020. The laptop is basically a school/college laptop meant to handle very basic functions in a class environment.
2:15 i love the crumpled up piece of trash next to It
That's so strange I've never seen this laptop here in germany.
But it looks like we're not missing much.
I had bought a Lenovo with similar specs years ago, open box deal at a store so even cheaper. It ran Windows poorly, so I installed Ubuntu on it and it ran just fine for a couple of years until certain keys on the keyboard stopped working.
Honestly, it coming with a year of Office would be sick for college students, if it weren't for the fact that many colleges allow you to get office for free for as long as you are enrolled...
I loved my Asus EEE PC netbook after upgrading memory and storage. A perfect vacation companion to store my photos on and book hotels. At that time.
It always: cheap, small, powerful. But you can only pickup 2.
I honestly forgot about HP streams. I bought one back in 2015 for college. It was relatively terrible, yes, but totally serviceable for the light workload I used it for in freshman classes at a community college.
Still feeling under the weather? Hope you gwt well soon man. Thnx for the upload
i mean, i got an old hp probook with a 6th gen i5, i can guarantee you that it's more useable than that hp stream
I had a version of this a few years ago that came with a Ryzen 3 3300U (or something like that), and a 256gb SSD, I slapped an extra ram stick in there for 8gb and it was a surprisingly decent experience. It still couldn't really game much, but it was fine with multitasking to a point, I could have a half dozen browser tabs, a spotify window, and discord running and it was pretty alright.
I bought the Ryzen version of this (3250U), upgraded to 16gb of RAM and I'm quite satisfied with it
This was my first ever laptop/pc and i remember playing minecraft at 20fps for about 3 or 4 years on it, now i'm running a system i built myself and seeing it again has brought me back to some dark times
Petition to have this be Austin's daily driver laptop for 3 months
yeah second i saw it was an HP Stream i already knew how it was gonna go. That being said if you install Linux on them they actually do perform noticeably better (Had an Asus Flip with the N4020 mounted to the wall for accessing inventory)
There is a market for laptops like this: light productivity, office work, and light web. Maybe it can be used for light media consumption. If you already have a Windows device at home, I would say to get a cheap Android tablet, like the Lenovo M11 and a keyboard/trackpad case instead of this HP laptop. If you don't have a Windows device at home, and $200 is your budget with tax, then this laptop may be all you have to get and you'll just have to take the sacrifices. As long as you know this laptop's limitations, you'll be fine. The problem is that stores are selling it to do more than it can and that's the problem.
I recently found an admittedly used Dell Latitude 3440 for $280. $100 more than this laptop in the video.
*The Dell Latitude has a 13th gen i5 in it, came with 8gb ram, and a 256gb SSD.*
I say this to say that even though I spent $100 more, the used market is the best option for laptops under $300 IMHO.
As a former bestbuy employee i tried to avoid selling that laptop at all cost even though we were told to push it. I always almost begged customers to spend an extra $100 for a laptop that is 4x better. The only time that laptop to me was a good deal was when they would go on sale for $110. The only thing that made it worth the money was a 1 year membership. Within 3 months it will run slower than a turtle.
I had a £300 version of this with an AMD A6-9225 in 2019. Because of the extra £100 than the cheapest W10, it actually ran decent for the price for a year. It should be illegal to sell e-waste laptops, as they just go into landfill in like a year or two, and when you spend more, you get like 5-10 years out of the device
I purchased a steam in 2015 as my first laptop and it actually kickstarted a lot for me. Although I remember it came with 32gb or storage and came with windows 10. I’m forever grateful to it even though if it broke down two years later
Hey Austin, the order number was still visible in the top left of the Amazon invoice you showed at the start of the video.
Hell, even Surface book 2's are $150-$180 on ebay and are so much better
I bought a Lenovo Chromebook for about $160 a couple of years ago, and it is still my main laptop. It has a foldable display with an IPS touchscreen, 8GB or RAM, and i3 processor and I upgraded to the storage myself. There is literally no reason to buy something like this when you can get a Chromebook, I even do light gaming on Steam (Mainly Sims 4 and older games like Bioshock) and via emulation; it has been a very good machine and eye opening for how solid Chromebooks are nowadays.
While it might suck to run windows, it'd probably run Debian or Arch just fine.
i feel like at this point laptops need to be seen as just as essential as phones. it ain't even that hard to find a decent laptop for ~$500, i have a dell Inspiron that works fine for games and school, yet a lot of parents refuse to do research before handing their kids a laptop.
For lightweigth and cheaper there is nothing better than an old Macbook Air 11. Up to this day it is unbeatable in those requirements, without given up on anything.
I have an HP Stream myself, I got it from the thrift store for a few dollars. Only 32GB Storage. Windows was pretty much unusable, but Linux Mint runs great on it. I use it for watching movies and TV Shows stored on my file server.
In 2014 this made sense kind-of for those looking for the absolutely cheap laptops to use only for Word or something. 10 years later, wherein the latest Chromebooks can run offline apps too thanks to Android or Linux, and with Chromebooks having sales for only $250 for laptops with at least 8GB of RAM and 128GB of storage, with FHD displays, this makes zero sense.
And yes, you can find Chromebooks with 4GB RAM and 64GB of Storage like the Lenovo Duet 3, but Chrome OS is far, far lighter than a fat Windows 11. Then there's the cheapest iPad that for a hundred dollars more, you're getting a hell lot more (again, to quote you, what's the use of a full fat OS if you can't run it all).
I think I can give some context to how slow a system with 4GB of RAM and a celeron is in 24'. I have a Windows 11 laptop with an i3, 16GB of RAM, 256GB SSD, and still Windows crawls into a halt sometimes.
And when I used a Chromebook back in highschool, we prob spend 25%-50%(class time) just logging in.
Either case, ChromeOS is demanding but Windows is very demanding.
Man I wanted a netbook SO bad when they came out. A full featured OS in something that small. Now it’s super laughable.
Side note I just sold a laptop for $15 on Facebook marketplace. Bout it for $20 so I could run some update software on a laser cutting machine that’s software wouldn’t run on MacOS and I didn’t want to haul my desktop PC to the laser. I had forgotten how bad of a build quality so many budget laptops have. It was so plasticy and awful from trying to open it, to the keyboard and clicking the trackpad. I’ve been pampered by Apple products and higher end PC stuff for years. I didn’t realize that companies still made stuff that low quality.
64 GB of eMMC makes this thing less useful than a Chromebook. They often don't have more than that either, but the difference is that Chrome OS is designed to be minimal. Windows absolutely is not, and just with time that'll fill up to the point where you won't be able to install Windows updates anymore without doing a dance every time manually clearing temp data, it's just not worth the hassle. And if you dare to install programs and actually try to use it like a normal laptop, you'll run out of space immediately.
I bought an Acer Cloudbook in 2016 because my laptop died unexpectedly. Lower specs than the Stream, but came with Windows 10. It worked well for a year or two. I could even play Stardew Valley on it. But the more Windows 10 became bloated, the worse the Cloudbook became. Now, I just use it to see what Linux distros I can get to run on it.
I used to work at OD around the time these came about and they were what made me want to ro stop being a salesperson. I had no qualms about telling people it was a bad purchase, especially as long-term product, even on a tight budget. I would always push Chromebooks or even mid-level tablets for school work. The fact they're still making these in today's day and age speaks volumes about how HP and other "reputable" brands push crappy products above everything.
My grandma got my mom one of these a few years ago. I think it had full win10 installed. it had a 32gb eMMC. Windows not being in S-mode had that drive unable to install a win update in less than a year. My mom never installed anything else either. So we could not fully update the included OS 😐. I spoke with MS and I was explaining my issues with updating and they were shocked that it didn't come with S-mode instead. They even said windows 10 needs more storage than that and not sure why it was ever installed by HP like this. So, it is now running a very lite Linux version and is my garage PC. It was the worst example of ewaste.
How about a video trying to make the experience better? I assume it's mostly non-upgradeable, but some Windows debloating or trying Linux might make them at least slightly more useable.
I bought, about 6 months ago, a Lenovo with a 5500U processor, 8gb of ram, which is upgradable to 16, an NVME drive and an upgradeable wifi chip. For the same price.
Just to share a fun fact, you can get a 15 inch or 13 inch MacBook Pro from 2013/2014 and use a patcher to get a newer version of MacOS for around $200. It won’t be comparable to the newer MacBooks of the recent years, but it would definitely be better than the HP laptop 14.
One thing he didn't mention is that these cheap computers are actually very useful to people who use Linux. By putting a Linux distro on this laptop, you can get better performance and nearly triple the battery life over using it as a Windows device.
I loved my HP Stream when I got it in 2014. Was perfect for just a tiny laptop I could throw in a bag. It ran linux with xfce perfectly and 2G was *just* enough to do even HD youtube back then and light multitasking.
I'm still a big fan of the netbook 11-13 inch form factor, hopefully ARM will make them more viable in the future.
I think the hardware decoding was more why youtube might work more than linux. Linux /helps/ but it can't pull off miracles. I tried linux for a while, but once the drive is full linux doesn't really let you install software on external drives, you can store documents sure, but you can't install stuff from the repo onto an external drive as easily as you can windows. I ended up going to Tiny10, and while it wouldn't work for the 2 GB model as it uses 2 GB just running it does work on the 4 GB model and I could upgrade the ram for like $11 if I /really/ wanted to, but I have other computers to use besides a stream and only have it in the first place because it was my uncles and I don't like throwing away /technically/ working equipment. It's not really good for much though. I have it setup to run an autoclicker on a clicker game just to have it doing /something/ usable, and I will say it's /very/ light on power-consumption, like ~7 watts under load with the screen on low brightness, only like 5.5 watts with the screen closed.
Got my significant other through undergrad back in 2013-2016. Needed Google docs and notepad basically. Back then you could get it on sale at like 100-150 during black Friday. This replaced her dying 17" MacBook. She was happy with it as it was way lighter, battery life was ridiculous and she commuted to and from school. I'm going to have to dig it out and run Linux on it maybe
The specs on this thing are basically the same as the school laptops we had in high school and middle school. It should honestly be illegal for Celeron laptops to even be sold to anyone else but schools, they're legitimately the worst CPUs ever made lol.
The one thing you have to remember about these devices a large amount of the people that are buying them or at least get them bought for them have not experienced anything better so they don't know that it's bad
Day 5of asking Austin for ps5
Important to point out that this price segment, outside of Chromebooks, almost never has USB-C/USB-PD charging. While Google mandated it years ago, Microsoft never has - so it's another corner they can and will cut. It saves them probably no more than a dime on the Bill of Materials, but if they sell 200,000 of these, that's $2 million! As an additional 'benefit' to HP, it means that a destroyed power cord will likely be a new machine purchase.
I have the same one but higher end! I never knew how low end they could possibly get!
Ps mine has an 11th gen Intel core i5 and 8gb ram and 256gb ssd
We need another Lamar collab!
One of the schools I would tutor at. They would buy those for the students. They had online text books and it would make it earlier for the schools so the students wouldn’t have to carry a bunch of books
Others would do the same but with android tablets and iPads
I believe over at Microcenter they have a 14" Gateway Windows 11 laptop with a Ryzen 7 3700U, 16gb of memory and a 1TB SSD for like $300 which is an alright and could play some games well enough.
I actually bought the original Stream 13 for school after watching your video (has it really been 10 years? Seesh!) and it worked fine for a few years, until a version of Windows 10 completely destroyed the performances (I think it was 1703 or 1709, but don't quote me on that). 2GB of RAM was pretty terrible, but it was workable. It's crazy that that laptop is still being sold today with barely more RAM and CPU, it's just a scam at this point.
My 2016 Lenovo thinkpad has the same resolution but blows this thing away with 7th gen I5 and 8 gigs of ram, plus I added a fast enough ssd to it!
My only usable computer is an old ASUS Laptop with literally 3 GB of ram while even my phone has 12 GB and I can't even browse the web with such a slow machine
man I forgot about netbooks... I got one for Christmas in 2009 or 2010 it was my first pc I didn't have to share with my whole family and I definitely pushed the limits of what it could handle doing lol
I remember buying a windows tablet at half the cost of included office subscription
and the tablet was decent at what I got it for too!
sure, win10 would choke at 1gig of ram but 8.1 worked just fine
i have a china exclusive version of this laptop but it costed 900 dollars on taobao and has 16 gb of memory 1 tb ssd and a core i5. Mine is a sleeper version of the hp stream
I recognized that 24 hour fitness 👀
La Habra lmao
Basically, this is for people who only use the web. They may be college students who don't game and simply use it for Office and to stream.
I work at a computer repair shop and i have to BEG people not to get em. plenty do, THEN come to and ask if the laptop was a good purchase, ask me BEFORE please
The thing he doesn't realize if you haven't used a laptop that is faster then you don't realize its slower. I know people that use older laptops and they think its just fine cause they've never used something faster and haven't got used to not waiting for things.
I had an OG HP Stream untill like a couple years ago and it fully met my needs! It could play downloaded videos (I mostly used it for watching videos in bed) and some retro games. Web browsing was a struggle, but it ran parsec just fine, so I usually just used parsec to stream a web browser running on my desktop pc (a little latency is fine when you're just browsing TH-cam).
I use the HP equivalent of the Lenovo IdeaPad from 2021 and aside from the battery it still runs strong. I can play Valorant at 60fps 1080p with no issues and it handles video editing decently well. And if you really only have a budget of 200$ and you needa large display, just do what I did. Get a Lenovo Tab M10 3rd gen and pair it with a Bluetooth keyboard and a stand. I use it dail4for college and it lasts the entire day with battery to spare, all while having a FHD+ panel that also has 100% srgb coverage
Public school is why they sell. Tablets are required at my daughter school and they stay at school. But homework has to be turned in by email. I bought one for her cuz all it needs to do is email. I know couple parents who bought them just for email and Don't want another screen to eat up family time. The less power it has the less they'll want to use it lol.
my work still uses pagers which became popular in the 1980's. So yeah that beats the stream
I’m sure some parents pick this as baby’s first laptop, but I think old people are the real reason these devices are still on the market. As a former Best Buy employee, I can tell you they get a lot of elderly customers looking for the cheapest laptop available, usually declaring to the salesperson that they’re not a gamer. Anyway GamePass would probably work fine if you stick to cloud gaming.