HP Essential-Series 14, Intel N150, 8GB, 128GB eMMC, Silver

The HP Essential-Series 14 is a $259 budget laptop that's light and portable, but it's held back by a weak CPU, slow eMMC storage, and a low-res display. It's fine for basic browsing and document work, but not much else. If your budget is tight and your needs are simple, it works. Otherwise, spend a bit more for a real SSD and a better screen.

The Intel N150 is a 4-core, 4-thread chip with a base clock of 0.8GHz and a turbo up to 3.6GHz. In our database, this CPU lands near the bottom of the charts, one of the weakest we've seen for laptops overall. That doesn't mean it's unusable, it just means you're not doing video editing or heavy multitasking on this thing. For a handful of browser tabs and a Word doc, it'll get by. But open 20 tabs and a Spotify stream and you'll start seeing the spinning wheel.

Storage is another weak spot. The 128GB eMMC drive ranks in the bottom 5% of laptops we track. eMMC is closer to a big SD card than a real SSD, so boot times and file transfers are slower than you'd get on even a budget NVMe machine. The 8GB of RAM is also on the low side, landing in the bottom 15% or so. It's enough for light use, but Windows 11 plus a browser can eat that up quickly. The integrated Intel graphics are fine for video playback and basic display output, but gaming is essentially off the table. Our gaming score for this laptop is 10.4 out of 100, which is about as close to zero as you can get without being a calculator.

Stacked against the Apple MacBook Pro MWP72LL/A or the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 21KC00A8US, this HP is in a completely different universe. Those are premium machines with fast processors, gorgeous displays, and real SSDs. The HP Essential-Series 14 is a budget laptop that does budget laptop things. It's not a fair fight, and it's not meant to be.

Closer competition comes from other cheap Windows laptops. The ASUS Vivobook TP3407SA-DS74T and Microsoft Surface Laptop 165H both offer better screens and faster storage, though they cost more. The Samsung Galaxy Book4 Edge NP960XMA-KB1US is another step up in performance and display quality. If you're comparing this HP to any of those, the HP wins on price and portability, but loses on pretty much everything else. It's the laptop you buy when the alternatives are out of reach.

At $259, the HP Essential-Series 14 is cheap, and that's the whole pitch. You're not getting a lot of laptop, but you're also not paying a lot of money. For a student or someone who just needs a secondary machine for travel or light browsing, it's hard to argue with the price. But if you can stretch to $350 or $400, you'll find laptops with real SSDs, better screens, and more RAM. The value here depends entirely on how tight your budget is. If $259 is your ceiling, this is a functional option. If you have any flexibility, spend a little more and get a lot more.

The HP Essential-Series 14 sits in that ultra-budget laptop bracket, the kind of machine you grab for around $259 when you need something light and simple. It's a 14-inch Windows 11 laptop with an Intel N150 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 128GB of eMMC storage. Nothing flashy, but it's not pretending to be. People searching for a cheap HP laptop for basic tasks will find this one in the mix, and it does cover the basics without falling apart on day one.

For everyday stuff like web browsing, email, streaming, and light document work, this thing is fine. The N150 chip is a low-power quad-core that sips battery and stays quiet. But you'll feel the limits fast if you push it. The 1366x768 display and eMMC storage are reminders that this is a budget machine first and a performance machine never.

We've got it pegged as a compact-friendly laptop, ranking well above average for portability at 1.47kg. That's the main draw here. It's small, light, and easy to toss in a bag. Just don't expect it to do much beyond the basics.

Skip this one if you need to do anything beyond basic browsing and document work. Gamers should look elsewhere, obviously, but so should anyone who edits photos or videos, runs demanding software, or keeps dozens of tabs open. The 128GB eMMC storage fills up fast, and the 1366x768 screen is a constant reminder of the price. If you can spend $350 to $450, you'll find laptops with real SSDs, better displays, and more RAM that will feel dramatically faster. This HP is for the person who needs a cheap, light machine for simple tasks and nothing more.

Should you buy the HP Essential-Series 14? If you need a cheap, light Windows laptop for basic tasks and your budget is firmly under $300, sure. It'll handle web browsing, email, streaming, and light document work without much fuss. The Wi-Fi 6 support is a nice touch, and the port selection covers the basics.

But if you're planning to do anything more demanding, or if you care about screen quality and storage speed, this isn't the laptop for you. The 1366x768 display is rough, the eMMC storage is slow, and the CPU is one of the weakest we've tested. For $259, it's a fair deal for a very specific kind of user. For everyone else, save up a bit more and get something with an SSD and a better screen.