This is a 188 dollar laptop, and I'm about to give you

five reasons why you should pick one up.

Starting off at number one, we have the price.

At 188 dollars, the HP Stream is one of the cheapest

Windows laptops that you can buy brand new today.

Now, I took at look at the HP Stream a couple years ago,

the original model, and it was good but it had a lot

of compromises.

However, over the last couple years,

while keeping that price low, they've actually done

a fair bit to make it a better laptop.

Recently, I did a video on a 200 dollar MacBook

that I picked up off of eBay.

Now it was a good system, however it is not for the

faint of heart.

Now, not only is it going to be nearly ten years old,

but there is no warranty and no guarantee

that it's ever going to get updates.

At least with the HP Stream, you know that if something

goes wrong, you can just go yell at HP about it.

To really put the 188 dollar price tag into context,

you could pick up 15 of these HP Streams for less

than the price of a mid spec 15 inch MacBook Pro.

Now obviously, the MacBook is going to be a better

laptop.

When you consider just how much this is able

to do, for so much less, it starts to make sense

for a lot of people.

And that brings us to reason number two.

This is really all that you need.

And sure, some people do have specific things

they have to do with their laptops,

but a lot of people are rocking

a thousand dollar MacBook Air in their backpack,

and doing nothing besides watching videos

and typing some docs or emails or whatever.

And it just so happens that the HP Stream will also

do that, for less than a fifth of the price.

So, no, you should not buy the HP Stream if you plan

on doing hardcore gaming, or any kind of video editing.

However, if you're doing lighter stuff like most people do,

web browsing, watching video, playing games,

you know, on Facebook,

wait, do people still play games on Facebook?

- [Offscreen Voice] Yes.

- Okay, well if you're doing any of that stuff,

the HP Stream is going to be totally fine.

It's also still a full fledged Windows computer,

so unlike a Chromebook, you have all the advantages

of running a complete copy of Windows 10,

as well as all the disadvantages of running a complete

copy of Windows 10.

This gives you the freedom of using incredibly advanced

technology like not Google Chrome, you can install

heavy apps, such as Photoshop, if you have a lot

of patience, and you're going to get access to the full

library of thousands and thousands of Windows apps

that have been created over the years.

Number three is the hardware.

Now when you hear the words, 188 dollar laptop,

it probably doesn't fill you with confidence.

But the Stream is, well, actually not that bad.

Take the keyboard, for example.

On a lot of ultra cheap laptops, it definitely feels cheap,

and while it isn't on the most premium side

for the Stream, it has a little bit of clickiness

that does feel pretty nice.

The trackpad also isn't too bad, and that follows through

with the rest of the chassis.

Sure, it's all made of plastic, at this price point,

you shouldn't expect anything else,

but there's no real flex besides a little bit with

the screen, and the overall hardware feels pretty

decent, especially considering how light it is.

It's definitely not fancy, but you have all the basics,

including three USB ports, HDMI, a headphone jack,

as well as an SD card reader, which is important

for something that I'll get into in just a second.

One of the biggest downsides is the screen.

So, with a 14 inch 1366 by 768 panel,

it was never going to be the sharpest thing in the world,

but what really lets it down is the fact that it is

a thoroughly average TN panel.

Color accuracy isn't great, the brightness could be better,

but that being said, for 188 dollars,

it is going to be usable.

Reason number four is the performance.

It exists.

So at 188 dollars, you should expect this to be

a blistering fast PC, and surprise, surprise,

blistering fast, it is not.

Inside, you're getting a dual core Intel Celeron processor

four gigabytes of RAM, as well as a massive 32 gigabytes

of flash storage.

Nothing is what I would call snappy, but at least it works,

and a big part of that is because this guy has four gigs

of RAM, unlike earlier versions, which only had two.

As you can imagine, Windows computers really aren't

that happy with only two gigabytes of RAM,

especially with certain apps.

(coughs)

Chrome.

(coughs)

Sorry, cough, I don't know what that was.

The processor is decent enough for basic tasks.

So because it is so low powered, you actually don't

need a fan inside the Stream, which at least does make

it completely silent.

One of the bigger issues is that 32 gigabytes of storage

though.

Now, yes, you can get Windows on 32 gigs of storage,

but install more than a couple apps,

it's going to fill up quickly.

Thankfully, though, that full sized SD card reader

actually does come in handy.

Put something like a 128 gig card, for about 40 dollars,

and you actually should be pretty well set.

Reason number five is that it's practical.

So you think of a lot of the things that will make

a good laptop good, the HP Stream has them.

I mean, some of them, at least.

Battery life is a big one.

So with a 41 watt hour battery, while that may not be

impressive for a lot of laptops, this has such power

sipping internals, that even when you're completely

cranking it at 100 percent, you're going to be getting

decent battery life.

And for normal usage, you're looking at around 10 hours.

You're also getting some surprising features

at the price point, including 2x2 802.11ac Wi-Fi.

Now yes, this is not going to be as reliant on the internet

as something like a Chromebook,

but you still think about it, it's called the HP Stream

for a reason, and most of the time, you're going to

be online, so it's nice that it has solid Wi-Fi.

The HP Stream is definitely not for everyone,

but I'm continuously impressed with just how much you're

able to get for so little.

So, I'm curious, what do you guys think of ultra cheap

laptops, like the Stream?

Let me know in the comments below,

and I will catch you in the next one.