HP 14 Laptop 2026, Athlon Silver 7120U, 4GB, 256GB SSD, Natural Silver

Cheap, light, and long-lasting, but the 4GB of RAM and sluggish CPU make it a one-trick pony. Buy it only if your budget is absolutely maxed out.

The Athlon Silver 7120U sits in the 7th percentile for CPUs, which is a polite way of saying it's one of the slowest chips we've tracked. The 4GB of RAM is even worse, landing in the 2nd percentile. That combo means you'll feel the pain the moment you open more than a few browser tabs. The 256GB SSD is a small mercy, it's not fast by modern standards but it beats a spinning hard drive. The 14-inch 1366x768 display is dim at 250 nits and covers only 45% of NTSC, so colors look washed out. Battery life is the one pleasant surprise, HP claims up to 12.5 hours of video playback, and the 41Wh cell should get you through a school day if you're careful.

Against the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon or Apple MacBook Pro, this HP isn't even in the same conversation, those are premium machines with premium prices. The more relevant comparison is the ASUS Vivobook TP3407SA-DS74T or Samsung Galaxy Book5 NP750XHD-KB1US. Both offer better screens and more RAM for not much more money. The HP wins on price alone, but the Vivobook's convertible design and the Galaxy Book's superior display make them worth the extra cash if you can swing it.

At USD 280 to USD 345, this laptop is cheap, but you're getting what you pay for. The best deal we found is at the lower end of that range, and honestly, that's the only price where this makes sense. Paying over USD 300 for 4GB of RAM and a 7th percentile CPU feels like a bad trade. If you can stretch your budget by USD 50 to USD 100, you'll find much better options.

The HP 14-em0111dx is a budget laptop that knows exactly what it is: a cheap machine for light tasks. The AMD Athlon Silver 7120U and 4GB of RAM won't impress anyone, but at this price, it's not trying to. The one thing to know? It's fine for web browsing, email, and streaming, but don't expect it to multitask or handle anything demanding.

If you need to run anything beyond a web browser and Office apps, this isn't it. Go get a used ThinkPad or a Chromebook with 8GB of RAM instead. You'll thank yourself in six months.

The HP 14-em0111dx is a stopgap laptop for people who need something now and have almost no budget. It'll handle basic tasks, but the 4GB of RAM and weak CPU mean it'll feel old within a year. If you can save up a bit more, do it. If you can't, this will get you through.