The HP Stream 14 laptop works well for casual app gaming. This 14-inch laptop can manage your basic word processing, email, and web browsing needs very well, but it doesn’t have much of a chance against other low-cost laptops because of its weak CPU, small storage, and faded display.
HP Stream 14 a good laptop for gaming YouTube video review
Pros & Cons
Pros
- Long battery life
- Decent build quality
- Includes one year of Microsoft 365
- Solid battery life
- Passable keyboard
Cons
- Subpar display
- Minimal storage capacity
- Audio quality average
HP Stream 14 gaming laptop Specs
- Item: HP Stream 14 gaming laptop
- Processor Intel Celeron N4020
- Processor Speed 2.8 GHz
- RAM (as Tested) 4 GB
- Boot Drive Type eMMC Flash Memory
- Boot Drive Capacity (as Tested) 64 GB
- Screen Size 14 inches
- Native Display Resolution 1366 by 768
- Touch Screen
- Panel Technology LED
- Screen Refresh Rate 60 Hz
- Graphics Processor Intel UHD Graphics 600
- Wireless Networking 802.11a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth
- Weight 3.24 lbs
- Operating System Windows 10 S
- Tested Battery Life (Hours: Minutes) 7:33
Price
The HP Stream 14 is a budget machine aimed at students looking for a low-cost option $299 that favors affordability over all else.
Compare HP Stream 14 gaming laptop
| HP Stream 14 | Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 1.6GHz Intel Celeron N3060; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 128MB (dedicated) Intel HD Graphics 400; 32GB eMMC storage |
|---|---|
| HP Stream 11 | Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 1.6GHz Intel Celeron N3050; 2GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 144MB (dedicated) Intel HD Graphics; 32GB SSD |
| Lenovo ThinkPad 13 | Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 2.3GHz Intel Core i3-6100U; 4GB DDR4 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 128MB (dedicated) Intel HD Graphics 520; 128GB SSD |
| Samsung Galaxy TabPro S | Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 0.90GHz Intel m3-6Y30; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 128MB (dedicated) Intel HD Graphics 515; 128GB SSD |
| Microsoft Surface 3 | Microsoft Windows 10 Home (64-bit); 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z8700; 4GB DDR3 SDRAM 1,600MHz; 32MB (dedicated) Intel HD Graphics; 128GB SSD |
Reviews – HP Stream 14 a good laptop for gaming
Design
With each keyboard and touch on the trackpad, the plastic build gives off a hollow feeling and gives somewhat. The HP Stream 14 measures 0.7 by 12.7 by 8.8 inches (HWD) and weighs 3.24 pounds, which is comparable to other 14-inch laptops in its price range. It is surprisingly durable for such a lightweight device. Other 14-inch systems in this price range, such as the Lenovo Ideapad 100S-14, which weighs 3.2 pounds and dimensions 13.3 x 9.3 x 0.7 inches, are comparable in size and weight to this one.
Does the HP Stream 14 have HDMI port as a good laptop for gaming?
The majority of the ports on the HP Stream 14 are located on its right side. These include an HDMI port, two USB ports, a USB-Type C port, a headphone/microphone audio combination jack, and a power connection port. With merely an SD card reader and two indicator lights—one for power and the other for the SD slot—the left side is notably more minimalistic.
HP Stream 14 Display
Even by current standards, the 1,366 by 768 pixel LED screen of the HP Stream 14 is really mediocre. The screen reflected light and glared from everything, even though the 0.2-inch bezels appear narrow around a large amount of screen real estate. The display’s average brightness of 186 nits made it appear quite dim as well. While that is comparable to the IdeaPad 100S-14 (188 nits) and better than the Inspiron 14 3000 (135 nits), we would prefer a display that is brighter than 200 nits.
The HP laptop’s sRGB color gamut output is 81.5 percent, which is almost the same as the Lenovo Ideapad 100S-14 (84 percent) and Dell Inspiron 14 3000 (81 percent).
Storage
The HP Stream 14 model (14-dq0010nr) that we examined is the newest in a long line of really affordable HP laptops. It has a Celeron N4020 processor, 4GB of RAM, and 64GB of eMMC flash storage in addition to integrated Intel UHD 600 graphics.
Speed
In place of a real solid-state drive, the Stream 14 has 32GB of eMMC storage, which is flash memory that resembles an SD card. Nevertheless, it did well on the Laptop Mag File Transfer test, transferring 4.97GB of mixed media files in 3 minutes and 28 seconds. Despite having a same storage configuration, that comes out to 24.7 MBps, which is slower than the Ideapad 100S-14 (43.49) and the Inspiron 14 3000 (69.72 MBps).
Keypad
White tile keys on the HP Stream 14 have a travel of 1.32 millimeters and require 72 grams of force to register a keystroke. The touch pad is responsive and large, but it cannot be disabled without accessing the system settings (there isn’t a keyboard shortcut for that). The touchpad is the same bright-blue color as the surrounding chassis and is 3.7 by 2.5 inches.
Does the HP Stream 14 have good speaker for gaming?
The speakers, which are situated beneath the laptop and on top of the keyboard, withstand close inspection really well. They sound clean and loud, but as is often the case with low-cost devices, the bass is weak. I occasionally heard cracking noise when I pushed them to maximum level; it wasn’t constant, but it did negatively impact my ability to enjoy the music. We would maintain reasonable expectations and volume levels.
Battery life
mThe HP Stream 14’s battery lasted the longest, lasting around five hours longer than the majority of the group, although being closely matched by the Dell Inspiron 15 3000 Series (3511). That’s especially disappointing considering the low screen resolution; all other things being equal, higher-quality 1080p panels have more pixels, which should translate into a higher power draw. However, the Stream 14 was unable to take use of it.
Setup
During setup, you’ll be prompted to establish a Wi-Fi connection, link to an existing Microsoft account (or create one), select which settings you want Cortana to have access to, specify your region, and accept license agreements. Although it should only take you ten to fifteen minutes on paper, it took me a bit longer due to a few minor processing glitches (I’ll go into more detail about that in the performance section).
HP Orbit apps
A few practical tools and apps, such as HP Orbit, which enables file sharing between your laptop and smartphone, are preinstalled by HP. Sadly, it also includes a ton of bloatware, such as an assortment of WildTangent game trials and apps from Priceline.com and Amazon, which you should probably uninstall straight away.
Is the HP Stream 14 a good laptop for gaming?
Users using Windows 10 S have additional options when it comes to the apps they can use, including a variety of lightweight gaming and web browsers. When buying their first laptop, first-time users can get acquainted to the Windows operating system and will know better what they need in a model than what they want.
You can (and should) put a microSD card into the laptop’s available slot to prevent overcrowding it with personal files; a 128GB microSD card can be purchased for less than $20 these days. Your files can be kept on a cloud service. Although there are alternative options like Dropbox and Google Drive, Best Buy offers the HP Stream 14 with a free one-year subscription to one terabyte of Microsoft OneDrive storage.
HP Stream 14 gaming lalptop alternative
Acer Swift Go 14
Acer Swift Go 14 is our current top choice for the title of “MacBook killer” among 14-inch laptops. Of course, there will always be one device that claims to be the finest. It meets all Ultrabook criteria and is crammed full of high-performance components. Even better, it has one of the brightest OLED screens we’ve seen and is reasonably priced.
The 13th generation Evo-certified Intel Core i7 processor, Intel Iris Xe graphics, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage provide the Swift Go 14’s remarkable performance. Nevertheless, many will be mesmerized by the Swift Go 14’s brilliant 2.8K, 14-inch OLED display, even with its superior internal technology.
The only possible reason it doesn’t live up to the “MacBook killer” label is its lackluster lifespan. Using our Laptop Mag battery test, which involves continuous web browsing at 150 nits over Wi-Fi, MacBooks last 15 to 18 hours. Regretfully, the Acer Swift Go 14 managed to last for a mere 8 hours and 5 minutes. Ouch!
But the extremely bright display of the Acer Swift Go 14 is what really sticks out as being beyond rationality. Its DCI-P3 color gamut coverage of 175.7 percent is almost unbelievable. It’s amazing how this laptop outperforms the competition given the category average of 107.5%. Although a MacBook is frequently better in this area, its brightness of 395 nits is still rather good.
Furthermore, this does a really good job at simulating the gorgeous MacBook keyboard, in case you’re concerned about losing it. This keyboard has an LED lighting and black matte keys, resembling a 60% Wiisland design. It felt touch and silky, letting you compose your review without being constrained by squishy keys.
