HP 2024 Premium 14" Micro-Edge Portable Laptop Student Business Review

The HP Thin 2024 is a laptop that makes some serious trade-offs to hit a sub-$300 price. It's built around a Celeron N 4-core CPU and 8GB of DDR4 RAM, specs that land it in the bottom quarter of our performance database. The 192GB eMMC storage is even lower, sitting at the 9th percentile. So you're getting a machine that's fundamentally limited from the start. But it's also incredibly light at 1.47kg and scores a 78th percentile for compactness. This isn't a laptop for doing much. It's a laptop for doing a few specific, simple things, and being easy to carry while you do them.

Let's be clear about what 'performance' means here. The Celeron CPU is in the 23rd percentile. That means for basic web browsing and document editing, it'll work, but you'll feel it chug if you have more than a few tabs open. The integrated Intel UHD Graphics are actually a relative bright spot at the 42nd percentile, but that's only because it's not trying to be a gaming machine. Gaming is its absolute weakest area at a 4.4 out of 100. The 8GB of RAM is a major bottleneck, ranking in the 10th percentile. In 2024, that's barely enough for Windows 11 and a couple of apps. The 1366x768 display is the real killer, though. At the 3rd percentile for screens, it's a dim, low-resolution panel that feels like a step back in time.

The value proposition is razor-thin. At $269 to $299, it's one of the cheapest new Windows laptops you can find. But you pay for that low price in major performance compromises. You're getting a CPU, RAM, and storage setup that all rank in the bottom 25% of all laptops. For a student or business user (where it scores 19.1 and 17.4 out of 100, respectively), it's a tough sell unless your budget is absolutely fixed. You're trading every bit of future-proofing and comfort for that initial low cost.

Compared to the other 'top competitors' listed, this isn't a fair fight. The Apple MacBook Pro M4 or ASUS Zenbook Duo are in a different universe. A more realistic comparison is against used or refurbished business laptops from a few years ago. For around $300, you could often find a used ThinkPad or EliteBook with a better 1080p screen, 16GB of RAM, and a more powerful older Intel Core i5 or i7 CPU. The HP Thin wins on being brand new and ultra-light, but loses on every performance and screen quality metric. It's a choice between new hardware with bottom-tier specs or older, more robust hardware that's used.

I can only recommend the HP Thin 2024 in one very specific scenario: you need the absolute cheapest, brand new, ultra-portable Windows machine possible, and you will only use it for web browsing, email, and maybe some very light document work. The 8GB RAM and terrible screen are immediate deal-breakers for most students or professionals. If your budget is $300, I'd strongly suggest looking at the refurbished market first. This laptop's 78th percentile compact score is its best feature, but everything else—from the 23rd percentile CPU to the 3rd percentile screen—holds it back too much for general use.