Pros
- Touch-screen display
- Variety of connectivity options
- Generous Battery Life (>10 Hours)
- Super cheap price.
Cons
- 4 GB of RAM (not upgradable)
- 64 GB of eMMC storage.
Not everyone is looking for a powerhouse when searching for a laptop. Not everyone's a programmer or a graphic designer, and many people will barely even open a spreadsheet on a laptop let alone edit it. For these people, manufacturers have developed what is popularly known as a cloudbook, Windows's answer to the Chromebook surge.
Basically, these are extremely affordable laptops with limited specs such as storage and RAM that focus more on having a long-lasting battery life, a portable design, and essentially on being devices set up to consume information and to do some light office tasks such as editing documents and so forth.
Today we're here to tackle one of such devices, the popular HP 14-fq0050nr, an affordable cloudbook that has managed to garner stellar reviews amongst users, especially amongst those buying this laptop for students. But, should you buy it? That's what we're here to find out!
Who's it for?
An entry-level laptop that due to its size, lightness, and performance is ideal for young students who require it for basic tasks such as browsing the web, text file editing, and streaming movies, or enjoying multimedia.
Also, in light of the fact that it features a touch-sensitive panel, it's also quite suitable for senior citizens looking for an easy to use laptop where they can manage their emails, keep up to date with friends, have zoom calls, and listen to music in a very intuitive way.
Design & Display
As a cloudbook, HP's focus on this laptop was to keep things simple and that includes offering up a simple design made out of plastic with a back matte finish and a slightly rugged texture to the laptop to enhance the grip on it. It's quite portable, weighing just 3.24 pounds, making it a great option for children who need a laptop to take to school every day.
The keyboard is spacious, though unfortunately there's no backlight for late-night typing sessions, and being a 14-inch laptop there's also no dedicated numeric pad on the side.
As far as the screen is concerned, we've got a 14-inch multitouch display with an HD resolution. Ordinarily, we would be protesting the fact that it comes with an HD resolution instead of a Full HD resolution. However, due to its price range as well as the fact that HP has decided to add the bonus of making this a touch-sensitive display, we actually don't mind. Also, the fact that it's an HD display also allows for better battery life.
Performance
Once you've seen one cloudbook you've pretty much seen 'em all in terms of internal and the HP 14-fq0050nr in review is no different. Specifically, we've got your run of the mill dual-core AMD 3020e processor that clocks in at a base speed of 1.3 GHz and can reach 2.6 GHz when working on more complex tasks.
In the event that you've never used an AMD processor, this would be the equivalent of an Intel Celeron N4120 processor; an entry-level processor designed to perform simple everyday tasks.
Couple that processor with 4 GB of DDR4 RAM and 64 GB of eMMC storage and you've got yourself the classic formula for a good cloudbook to perform tasks such as taking online classes, editing documents, surfing the web, and streaming movies, but don't ask for much more since this laptop features a pretty limited set of specs.
In case you were wondering,
RAM is not upgradable. However, there is a workaround to increase storage, which is to
attach either a Pendrive or an
affordable SD card to the laptop and then mount it so that you
store all your images and videos, for example, directly onto that storage device, allowing for a bit more space. It's an extremely easy configuration that should take you all of 20 seconds.
That said, there's also the option of buying a more capable laptop, such as the extremely popular
Acer Aspire A5 A515-43-R19L, which has a very similar price point yet graces us with
double the storage capacity, a
Full HD display, a
far more powerful processor and the possibility to expand the RAM to future proof the laptop. All of this while also maintaining a steady position as one of Amazon's best selling laptops since its launch. You can find out all about it in our
in-depth review here.
Battery life, Connectivity & Extras
As we mentioned previously, cloudbooks, where designed to deliver an extensive battery life and fortunately for us the HP 14-fq0050nr is no exception. More so considering the fact that it implements an HD display which helps out when it comes to preserving battery life. Specifically, HP advertises 10 hours and a half worth of battery life.
That said, we were not born yesterday and our extensive experience within this field has taught us to always reduce the claimed battery life by 30% to get a more accurate approximation (unless we're talking about a MacBook in which case they tend to be accurate). With this rule of thumb taken into consideration that would still deliver us roughly 7 hours worth of juice which is still a fairly respectable amount of time.
As for connectivity, we've got WiFi 5, Bluetooth 5, as well as a slew of I/O ports; a single USB Type-C port, a couple of Type-A ports, an audio jack, HDMI port, and an SD card reader.
What's the deal with Windows 10 in S Mode?
As you might've read, this laptop comes by default with Windows 10 in S Mode. In case you don't know what this is, it's basically a "safe" version of Windows 10 which doesn't allow you to install third party apps unless they're installed through the app store (ie: Chrome). However, it's extremely easy to disable, all you have to do is attempt to install Chrome and you will automatically be met by a message that says that you need to "disable S mode" to do so and that's about it.
Verdict: Is it worth it?
HP did a pretty good job here at offering up a cloudbook that also features a touchscreen and packs a decent connectivity suite. Ultimately, if you're clear on the fact that you want a cloudbook then the HP 14-fq0050nr reviewed is a good low-cost student or senior laptop that will do you well when performing your standard computer tasks.
However, if you think you might require more horsepower because you might use this laptop to do intensive multitasking or want to leave the door open for future possibilities then you'd be wise to go for the aforementioned
Acer Aspire A5 A515-43-R19L which we
reviewed here. It features a better processor, better storage, and
upgradable RAM as well as a
Full HD display at a very similar price point, it's definitely the better option of the two if you care about performance power.
