Pros: Lightweight, Intel Celeron N3050 CPU, 32 GB of SSD storage, 14 inch screen, Windows 10, low price point.
Cons: Not a gamers laptop, only has 2 GB of RAM.
It's no secret that the budget laptop market is in its peak. Cloudbooks are selling at ridiculously low price points and chromebooks continue to lead the pack as best sellers within this category. With that in mind, today we'd like to talk to you guys about one of the most promising new cloudbooks within such segment, the HP 14-ac159nr.
The HP 14-ac159nr is a stylish new cloudbook that sets itself apart thanks to its modern design, its extremely low price tag and, of course, its integration of the Windows 10 operating system straight out of the box. If you wanna know more you're in luck since all you have to do is keep reading to find out everything you need to know on this in depth review of the HP 14-ac159nr.
HP 14-ac159nr Full Review of a stylish cloudbook
Screen and Design
We're gonna kick things off by talking about the screen. A peculiar trait within the new cloudbook since it bets on the 14 inch format, placing itself between the typical 13 inch chromebooks and the more traditional 15 inch laptop format. The screen is composed of a WLED-backlit display that sports a standard resolution of 1366 by 768 pixels. Nothing new under the sun here but what did you expect at such a low price?
As far as design goes, we're pretty attracted to this model. It has an elegant blue tone that makes it both modern as well as flashy. It doesn't have a fully fledged keyboard, meaning that we don't have a dedicated numpad but other then that its keys are well separated with a chiclet design that makes typing a pleasant experience.
The new cloudbook isn't particularly heavy either, packing a a weight that goes slightly beyond the 4 pounds and gracing us with a relatively thin design thanks to its 0.94 inches.
Celeron Processor, 2 GB of RAM and an integrated graphics card
We can't say we're surprised with the key features on the HP 14-ac159nr. However, we do appreciate that it doesn't come with the standard N2840 CPU but instead goes one step further by introducing the N3050 processor into the mix.
Don't get me wrong, it's still a pretty basic CPU but it's less basic than the N2840 model we see on dozens of models flying around. In regards to the processors specs, we're looking at a standard dual core model that runs at 1.6 GHz increasing such speed to 2.16 GHz when need be thanks to it's turbo function.
To accompany the CPU, the HP places 2 GB of DDR3L SDRAM. Obviously this is coming up short for the most demanding of users but for those of us who want this cloudbook to browse the internet, edit spreadsheets, update our blog and watch HD movies, we should be more than covered.
Finally, in regards to the graphics card, the newly launched cloudbook comes with an integrated Intel HD graphics card. All in all, what we've come to expect on any laptop below the $300 price point. It's not a particularly bad graphics card but it's obviously not gonna be your go-to choice if you wanna play games or edit high resolution videos.
Storage and Battery Life
One of the key aspects of both cloudbooks and chromebooks is that both types of notebooks feature SSD storage units and of course the HP 14-ac159nr wasn't going to be the exception to that rule. In effect, the new HP cloudbook sports a 32 GB SSD storage unit which, though it might be scarce for some, consider that this laptop was not meant for mass storage but rather to be a fast notebook on the go. If you want to have some extra storage you're welcome to use an external drive or even plug in an SD card in a permanent fashion to have all your files quickly accessible.
As far as battery life is concerned, there's no official "word" from HP. However, taking into account that the newly launched cloudbook features a 3 cell battery, we could expect battery life to be somewhere north of the 4 hours, more so when you consider that there's no mechanical drive and no DVD reader.
Ports and Stuff
We're getting towards the end of our review and it's time to talk about the ports. In this case we've got quite a few more than we expected.
Specifically there's 1 USB 3.0 port, 2 USB 2.0 ports, an HDMI port to connect the laptop to a TV, a VGA port to do the same with older TV models an ethernet port to log onto the internet with a more stable connection, the aforementioned SD card slot and, of course, WiFi with a b/g/n standard connection.
As is expected, HP did not disregard the Skype users of the world and it implemented an HD webcam onto the HP 14-ac159nr and the OS is Windows 10 in its 64 bit version.
Wrapping things up; Is this laptop worth buying?
Obviously it's hard to say if a laptop is worth buying or not since the answer to this question will depend greatly on the user profile. That said, after doing our in depth review of the HP 14-ac159nr we can state that if you're an intense gamer then this laptop is not for you, if you're a movie watcher and casual browser who likes to do some word editing then this laptop will more than fit you everyday needs.
For a price as low as it has (check price here) we believe that it's a pretty good deal. It's not a powerhouse laptop nor does it aim to be such, but if you buy it for what it is you'll hardly be disappointed.