Hey guys
This is Austin.
So can you get a decent laptop for under $250?
On one hand you could get the Asus Chromebook C300
A 13-inch laptop running Google's Chrome OS
On the other you've got the new HP Stream 13
A full-blown Windows 8.1 laptop
That also comes in at 230 dollars
Crack open the Chromebook
And you'll find the laptop itself
Along with a compact power adapter
Unwrap the c300 and you'll see a brushed plastic finish that looks a bit like actual metal and
Absolutely gets coated in fingerprints.
The design itself is basic but nice enough
It measures in at less than an inch thick and just over three pounds.
Move over to the stream and you'll see it comes with a bigger two piece power adapter
Along with a link to redeem a Windows Store gift card that isn't
Quite live yet. There's also a year subscription to office 365
Which usually costs $100 a very nice addition on a $230 laptop. Unwrap the stream itself
And it is very very blue. Right now
you have the choice between blue and pink which gives a serious contrast with the all-black look of the chrome book. the stream is a
Bit thinner however
It's also noticeably heavier
Which probably has more to do with the build quality than anything else. Open up the lid on the Chromebook
And you'll find a 13.3 inch display with a resolution of 1366 by 768
The resolution is basically what you expect at this price point
But the colors are poor and the viewing angles are just bad
Look at the screen at anything besides straight on and everything washes out quickly and on top of that
There's some stress behind the panel on my unit causing very noticeable warping on the screen
while the size and resolution are the same the display in the stream is a notch above
The screen assembly feels much more robust and the viewing angles are better too- not amazing
But a big improvement
When you first boot up a Chromebook, it's very straightforward
You jump on Wi-Fi and log into your Google account if you already used Chrome
It will grab your sync information including bookmarks apps etc on the stream
It's typical Windows with a fairly short setup, but you'll have to spend a while downloading updates.
You'll also find some bloatware including McAfee and some HP software all which can be cleared up easily enough with Ccleaner
With only 17 gigabytes of free space out of the box every little bit helps
Where the Chromebook has a full sized SD card slot the stream opts for microSD instead
Which allows you to add an extra 32 gigabytes for less than $20
Which is basically a necessity. The keyboard on the Chromebook is pretty solid
there's a
subtle bulging of the spacebar which gives you a comfortable position to type on and since it's running Chrome OS the layout is slightly tweaked
Including a search key instead of capslock. The strain keyboard is decent, but it's a bit
Mushier than on the Chromebook and sports an extra row of keys on the right side which can be an annoyance since the home
Button is right beside backspace the trackpad is unfortunately just disappointing
It's not particularly accurate
And it doesn't always pick up a tap on the first try. Not only is the trackpad on the Chromebook bigger
But it's also much nicer to use. It tracks nicely and supports multi-touch gestures much better than on the stream
Including swiping with two fingers to go back or to scroll. Interestingly both laptops are almost identical
Inside. The Chromebook sports a dual-core intel pentium n2830 clocked at up to 2.4
gigahertz
2 gigabytes of RAM a 32 gigabyte SSD and 802.11 AC
Wi-Fi. The stream slightly improves on this with a processor that can run up to 2.6 gigahertz but drops down to
Wireless-n for Wi-Fi. The low-power Pentium allows both laptops to be fanless which combined with SSDs makes them completely silent
Performance-wise the Chromebook seems to handle the modest specs fairly well
Playing HD flash video with no problem and with up to 6 or 7 tabs
Everything stays nice and smooth move over to the stream, and it holds up reasonably well however
It's clear that running full Windows 8.1. Is a bit more demanding in return you're getting a more
Fully featured operating system basically any Windows application will work on the stream
Which is a huge plus.
While you really won't be using this as a hardcore gaming
PC the stream can handle lighter games like League of Legends on low settings on the other hand Chrome OS is much simpler. If you've
never used a Chromebook before it's essentially a lightweight operating system
That's entirely built around the Chrome browse. For normal web surfing this works great and a lot of apps
I use on the desktop are available including Spotify
TweetDeck and pocket casts
You can also download apps from the Chrome Web Store the work offline like sunrise calendar and even some Android apps like duolingo and vine
Are now available. Flash games will work, but even games designed for chrome like Bastion don't always run that smoothly.
Unfortunately if you want to be running full Windows apps on the Chromebook
You're out of luck although on the flip side that also means that you don't really have to worry about viruses or bloatware
Battery life is definitely a highlight for both laptops with such low powered processors
You'll easily get a full day of use out of them, and then some. If you really think about it
It's kind of crazy that you can get a decent laptop for about the same price as a 7-inch tablet. While the build quality
Definitely leaves something to be desired the dual core Pentium
And two gigabytes of RAM works well on the Chromebook and the better keyboard and especially trackpad make a big difference in everyday use
The screen gives you a much more usable screen more durable build and most importantly full windows
Performance isn't amazing but being able to run Windows apps is a huge plus
So would you pick up the Stream or Chromebook? Definitely be sure to let me know in the comments below.
Anyway I've got to give a big shout out to Play VS
for making this video possible
Play vs.. Is a cool new app. That's all about playing games while supporting your favorite sports team
There's a whole list to choose from which are surprisingly fun
You've got everything from kicking field goals to an endless runner. My favorite part
Is that they're nice and simple perfect for playing when you've got a couple minutes free.
Best of all you earn points by playing against your friends
Which you can use to redeem actual prizes like game consoles event tickets and more just by playing
Definitely be sure to check it out in the link in the description and give it a try play vs.
Is totally free. Anyway guys, thank you so much for watching, and I will catch you in the next one