There’s no shame in shopping for a budget laptop, so long as you hunt for one with your expectations checked. The HP Stream 14 ($249 as 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 11-inch version) can handle your basic email, 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-cost-laptop stakes. It’s serviceable if you are on the strictest of laptop budgets, but it won’t take 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 most 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 (14-dq0010nr) features 4GB of RAM, 64GB of eMMC flash storage, Intel UHD 600 Graphics as part of the CPU, and a Celeron N4020 processor. HP offers variations, available from various retailers, that feature slightly different prices and component configurations. For instance, there is currently a variant of our review model with a touch screen, as well as an AMD-based configuration available on Amazon for $360.
At 0.7 by 12.7 by 8.8 inches (HWD) and 3.24 pounds, the HP Stream 14 is about the same size as other 14-inch laptops in its price range. While it 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 machine give it a rugged façade (though I’d advise against dropping the HP Stream 14 if you can help it). Two rubber grips underneath the laptop do a fine job of keeping the laptop steady. It might lack the classier design of slightly more premium budget models like the MSI Modern 14, but that likely won’t matter too much to shoppers on a very strict spend diet.
The keyboard is as sturdy as the rest of the laptop, even if sustained typing is a little noisy. The keys are also well-spaced, so accidentally pressing the wrong key shouldn’t be a problem, at least not attributable to the layout. The touch pad is wide and responsive, though there is no way (such as a keyboard shortcut) to disable it without going into the system settings.
The speakers, located at the top of the keyboard and underneath the laptop, hold up against scrutiny pretty well. They are loud and clear, though the bass is lacking, as it often is in budget machines. When pushing them to max volume, I heard occasional crackling noise that wasn’t persistent but definitely marred the enjoyment of music. We’d keep volume levels (and expectations) modest.
Budget laptops tend to lack the latest and greatest display technology, but the HP Stream 14’s 1,366-by-768 pixel LED screen is pretty subpar even by these standards. While the 0.2-inch bezels look trim around plenty of screen space, the screen caught reflections and glare from everything, and I could barely watch a YouTube video without being distracted by the reflection of my own face (and not in a Narcissus kind of way, but more along the lines of, “Oh my gosh, I can barely see what I’m watching”). When you do finally find an angle that works, you’ll notice that colors are dull and text looks a little smeary, as if the panel were covered with a thin coat of Vaseline. A 1,366-by-768 native resolution can be passable at screen sizes like 11.6 inches, but in a panel this size, it’s more than an inch too far.
As far as ports go, the HP Stream 14’s right flank is adorned with the lion’s share, including a headphone/microphone audio combo jack, two USB ports, a USB-Type C port, the power connector port, and an HDMI port.
The left side is noticeably more sparse, with just an SD card reader and two indicator lights—one for power, and one for the SD slot. A 720p webcam, Bluetooth 4.2, and Wi-Fi 5 round out the rest of the HP Stream 14’s connectivity complement. Certainly, no surprises here.
A Disappointing Display
When you see an Intel Celeron chip listed in a laptop’s 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 14 won’t handle even moderately complex tasks without some amount of hassle. (Here’s how to choose the best laptop processor).
However, I expect that HP doesn’t expect you to run demanding apps or games locally, but rather use options like cloud gaming services to stream them (it is in the name, after all). That would require a stable internet connection wherever you go, something that isn’t always accessible when you’re on the move.
The HP Stream 14 runs Windows 10 S Mode, a version of Windows that limits users to the Windows Store for app downloads. It can be easily removed (and elevated to full, unrestricted Windows 10) by entering 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 bit of maintenance is recommended, beyond upgrading to full Windows 10: bloatware cleaning. Plenty of preinstalled apps take up too much of the computer’s precious 57GB of available space, including Netflix, Dropbox, LastPass, and McAfee Antivirus. HP’s preinstalled configuration utility, myHP, also constantly sends notifications reminding you to install updates. Thankfully, all of it can and should be uninstalled. On the upside, the HP Stream 14 also comes with a one-year subscription to Microsoft 365, giving users access to Microsoft’s suite of programs.
Testing the HP Stream 14: A Basement Dweller
It might sound like I’m being tough on the HP Stream 14—after all, it is a budget laptop, and you shouldn’t expect a laptop in its price class to deliver high-end graphics and exceptional audio, or have any other notable features. But we’d in remiss if we didn’t put the HP Stream 14 through the wringer. To do that, we put it up against four other budget laptops, including the Lenovo Ideapad 1 14, the Dell Inspiron 15 3000 Series (3511), the HP Laptop 14-dq2020nr, and the Lenovo IdeaPad 3 15ADA05, in a budget benchmark brawl see how they fare. (See how we test laptops).
Productivity Tests
Budget laptops like 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 can handle on these relatively forgiving workflows, we use UL’s PCMark 10. This wide-ranging benchmark suite simulates a variety of Windows programs to give an overall performance score for office workflows—think web browsing, word processing, and the like. A number between 4,000 and 5,000 is what we look for here in a solid mainstream machine, but in a budget laptop, numbers can be much lower.
In the HP Stream 14’s case, much lower, clocking a score of 1,292, almost 1,000 points below the Lenovo IdeaPad 1 14. Unfortunately, we couldn’t run the PCMark 10 Storage Test because most of the budget laptops didn’t have the horsepower to do so. The Stream 14 steadfastly refused.
Things didn’t get better in our next test, Maxon’s Cinebench. It’s a multi-core benchmark meant to exercise all of a processor’s cores and threads—the more powerful the chip, the higher the score. Given that the HP Stream 14 is only equipped with a dual-core Celeron, expectations were low—and rightfully so. The HP Stream 14 didn’t even break 550 points.
The dreary numbers continued as we ran Primate Labs’ Geekbench Pro, another CPU stress test 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 a couple of apps at one time while using it.
What about video encoding? At this point, you might be able to guess, but the HP Stream 14 is not meant for this kind of work. To see how ill-equipped the machine is, we ran HandBrake 1.4, an open-source video transcoder for converting multimedia files to different resolutions and formats. The HP Stream 14 was fighting for its life in this test, taking almost two hours to complete the benchmark. High-end laptops tend to do it in well under 10 minutes.
Graphics Tests
We aren’t able to get our 3DMark test to run on some extreme-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 be said for the other laptops in our comparison (thus we haven’t charted those results here), but rest assured that the numbers were as ho-hum as you’d expect. Budget laptops equipped with integrated graphics chips have come a long way, but still can’t really play games well, and definitely can’t handle anything too graphics intensive.
In GFXBench’s 1440p Aztec Ruins test, the HP Stream 14 maintained an average of 7 frames per second during the tests. Surprisingly, the 1080p Car Chase test ran at an average of 33 frames per second, so there’s some hope for the machine if you decide to play something simple. Really simple.
Battery and Display Testing
Thankfully, the HP Stream 14’s graphic and processor shortcomings didn’t completely torpedo our battery testing benchmark. To test laptop batteries, we play a locally stored copy of the open-source Blender classic Tears of Steel on a loop at 50% brightness and at 100% volume (though in the HP Stream 14’s case, it had to be played off of an external drive because of the limited storage space). We also place the laptop on Airplane mode, disconnecting it from the Wi-Fi entirely.
The HP Stream 14’s battery came in last again, dying about five hours earlier than most of the bunch, though it was neck-and-neck with the Dell Inspiron 15 3000 Series (3511). That’s especially disappointing given the low screen resolution; higher-res 1080p panels have more pixels to push for a higher power draw, all else being equal. Yet the Stream 14 could not 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 test every laptop’s screen-brightness output levels at 50% and 100% brightness. We also measure gamut settings for the three 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 budget 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 pace with both the Inspiron and the IdeaPad 3. That said, the screen output was underwhelming even at top brightness, put next to a mainstream or business laptop. As for color-coverage testing, the results were quite similar across the whole test group, suggesting these are all screens cut from the same (display) cloth.
Verdict: You Can Do Better
With half of the main system memory and a fraction of the storage that we recommend in any budget Windows laptop, the HP Stream 14 does not impress. Perhaps it doesn’t need to, depending on your reference point. For the price, you’re getting a functional laptop with Windows 10, which already places the HP Stream 14 above most Chromebooks on that merit alone.
Still, in this price range, you can’t do much worse, but you can do better. In fact, for just $100 more, you can grab the much superior budget option, the Lenovo IdeaPad 1 14.
