This
is my review of HP laptop - HP 14 Intel Core Pentium Gold Processor 14-inch
Thin and Light Laptop (4GB/256GB SSD/Windows 10 Home/Jet Black/1.47 kg), 14q-cs0018TU.
This
review is based on my usage experience from past 8 months - for office work
from home and for personal work including video rendering on VSDC.
Full review video link on youtube :
Physical overview:
Design is
usual with plastic body. Laptop weighs around 1.5kgs and not feather lite as
advertised but easy to carry around.
Ports availability is the first area I liked in this laptop.
On right side - you have got 2 USB 3.0 ports, 1 HDMI port and
3.5mm headphone jack.
On left - there a SD card slot and one USB 2.0 port which is
ideal for attaching Bluetooth dongle for mouse.
There is no CD or DVD drive available.
You get Bluetooth version is 4.2
For charging, you get 41W adaptor and battery
capacity is 3662 mAh.
Display
You get 14” inch HD ready WLED screen which
is having very limited viewing angles.
For me, it is fine for my work-from-home needs.
However, it is not good enough for watching movies or playing
games, due to color shifts with change in viewing angles. Display is bright
but not bright enough to be used outdoors.
This screen also bends up to 120 degrees which
is common in most of the laptops.
Speakers
are loud enough and good for attending online classes or meetings but not ideal
for listening to music considering low bass levels. Same is the case with other
laptops also with audio from in-built speakers.
Audio from
headphone jack is fair enough for voice calls or vocals but again gives very
average experience with music due to low bass levels.
Key board - It is very simple layout, comfortable
to use and easy to get used to. This key board is not having back lighting but
no complaints considering price point again.
Right below the key board, you have the track pad which
works well and consistently functional. Accidental touches are rare when typing.
Performance
This laptop comes with intel Pentium gold 4417U processor.
It is having 2 cores and clocked at 2.3Ghz base processor speed which is same
as intel i3 7th gen except 1MB extra cache which will not make much
difference in day-to-day usage.
In this laptop, you get 4GB DDR4 2400Mhz Samsung RAM and relatively
fast WD 256GB NVMe SSD storage. There is another vacant slot for RAM expansion
but not for SSD expansion.
Be it normal use like work-from-home or multi-tasking, it
did not notice any lag. Even video rendering with VSDC worked without any issue
and video rendering time is acceptable.
Gaming - I tried asphalt 9 legends
at high graphics settings and without turning on performance mode.
Surprisingly, game was found totally playable all the time without any frame
drops or lags. NVMe SSD is the hero here with gaming performance as well.
Battery life on this HP notebook is fair enough, as it lasts
for up to 7.5 hours for normal usage i.e. typical work from home tasks which
won’t utilize speakers much. Battery charging time is quick enough. It takes around
45 minutes to charge up to 50%.
Software
This laptop comes
with Win 10 home 64 bit pre-installed and there is no MS office. HP support assistant is pre-loaded and no other junk aware. No additional anti-virus or security apps also.
Pricing
This laptop is available on amazon and I got it six month
ago, for effective price of 17.7k including all discounts.
However, Amazon keeps varying price and I suggest you to buy for any price
below rs.20k.
There is another version of this laptop CS0025TU with only difference
of MS office pre-installed and I suggest you to go ahead with it, as price will
be around rs.22k.
When buying ensure that seller is either Appario retail or
cloud tail India on Amazon.in
VERDICT:
Considering all PROS and CONS, I would still recommend this laptop for work-from-home needs, students or teaching staffs and even for entry level content creators, as no other NVMe SSD laptops are available at this price segment as on Jun2020.
Amazon links to buy:
- HP Notebook CS0018TU at Amazon India: https://amzn.to/2YDwIvs
- HP Notebook CS0025TU at Amazon India: https://amzn.to/3htWIC2
- HP Notebook CS0023TU at Amazon India: https://amzn.to/2N1qK2a
- Alternative to CS0023TU –
- ASUS VivoBook 14 X409UA-EK361TS at Amazon India: https://amzn.to/2ABucxY
- More light weight high-end SSD laptop –LG Gram 14Z990 at Amazon India: https://amzn.to/2YbAe1f
