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00:00Hey guys, I'm Tom of TechJab and I bought three of the cheapest laptops on Amazon.
00:05They're all around £200, about $250 and they're all, well, as you'd probably
00:10expect, not the best laptops I've ever reviewed. And actually one of them I
00:14would definitely not recommend, but probably not the one you're thinking. So
00:17starting from over here we have this 14-inch, and I don't even know what this
00:21brand is, it's some Chinese company I've never heard of, is that as Uzda?
00:27Then we have this, another 14-inch, an Asus which I've definitely heard of
00:31before, VivoBook. And then finally over here we actually have a Chromebook. This
00:35is running Chrome OS and it is another Asus, it's the Chromebook Flip. All 14
00:41inches, all around £200, all with pretty terrible specs, but for students or the
00:45office or if you're simply on a really tight budget and don't particularly care
00:49about fancy screens or tons of performance, are any of these actually
00:53worth buying or do you need to spend more? And if you do find this video
00:57helpful, a cheeky little subscribe would be lovely. Now obviously being ultra
01:02budget laptops, we're looking at some pretty plasticky builds. We've got 1080p
01:07screens across the board and some questionable viewing angles and also
01:10some very stiff screen hinges and they're all running pretty low-end Intel
01:15Celeron processors. I know, I felt sick just saying that. However, while these are
01:20all meant for casual work, a bit of browsing, some video streaming and maybe
01:24a little bit of photo work, what actually really surprised me is how the day-to-day
01:28experience of using these three couldn't have felt more different. Which goes to
01:32show it really is worth picking your laptop carefully. Let's start with the
01:36two Windows laptops and I have to say this guy was just a bit of a punt for me.
01:41I really had no idea of this brand, I didn't really have any expectations and
01:46I figured I'd give this a damn good thrashing in this comparison but
01:50actually I really like this and in many ways it's a lot better than the Asus and
01:56actually they are a similar price and that's despite having what I can
01:59describe as a almost Comic Sans logo on the back here which doesn't scream
02:03premium but everything else I've been pleasantly surprised. And as I say the
02:07only reason I actually picked this is because the reviews were pretty good and
02:10the price was in line with these two. To give you an idea, in terms of
02:14performance the Osda packs in double the number of CPU cores, we also have
02:20twice the RAM, 8 gigabytes versus a measly 4 gigabytes and four times the
02:26storage, 256 versus 64. You can get models with more but again for the similar
02:31price this is much better value and actually the storage itself is much
02:36faster like about 80% faster as it's using an M.2 SATA rather than a very
02:40slow eMMC kind of storage. Don't worry if that doesn't mean anything to you
02:43basically this is just faster in pretty much every way. Plus you can expand the
02:48storage by up to 1 terabyte by adding a second M.2 SATA SSD via this little
02:53panel underneath. Not too shabby and as a result there is a big difference in how
02:58these feel to use. The Asus can be frustratingly slow and while the
03:02Osdas CPU is only about a third quicker in multi-core and roughly the same in
03:06single core performance it does still feel much quicker and the extra storage
03:10is a nice bonus. However by far the fastest and most responsive and just
03:15nicest to use was the Chromebook Flip which surprisingly does use very similar
03:20Intel Celeron processors but because it's running Chrome OS which is a much
03:24lighter, much simpler operating system, it's not as heavy as Windows 11,
03:28everything is just more efficient, more streamlined and much more pleasurable to
03:33use. It's just a nicer experience. The good news though is all three laptops
03:36were pretty reliable. I didn't experience any crashes or driver issues but in
03:40terms of everyday performance and the one which made me want to tear my hair
03:44out the least it's definitely a win for the Chromebook. These do have the same
03:48screen size it's just literally the smaller bezels which make this a whole
03:52lot more compact which is always a positive especially for a smaller
03:55laptop that you may be carrying around all day and I also do appreciate the top
03:59firing speakers here so they sound a little bit less rubbish than the other
04:03ones. So I think in terms of being the most compact it's a win for this guy but
04:08if we come over here back to the Chromebook I do like this glossy screen
04:11and also we have this flush glass bezel unlike these slightly protruding
04:16plasticky matte bezels that we have on these guys. I think the Chromebook, this
04:20Asus Chromebook, does look the smartest but it is a bit heavier and not the most
04:25compact. And this guy has a bit of an ace up its sleeve because they don't call it
04:29the Chromebook Flip for nothing. It has a 360 degree hinge which means you can
04:34spin it right round and use it as a tablet of course it means we also have a
04:39touchscreen here and also you can use it in tent mode which I quite like for
04:43watching videos and movies and things although I'm not sure who actually uses
04:46it in this mode but you have the option or of course just a regular clamshell
04:51laptop. For literal flexibility it's a win for the Chromebook. Sticking with the
04:56Chromebook for a moment and if you are coming from an older Windows laptop
05:00then Chrome OS will be the biggest difference to consider. Chrome OS is
05:04Google's Android based interface which is designed to run on lower power
05:07hardware with the Google ecosystem and the Chrome browser at its heart. That
05:12means it gets their suite of office apps like Google Docs and Sheets built in and
05:16it's all synced with your Google One cloud storage. Plus it does run some
05:19Android apps and games although I did find a fair few weren't compatible or
05:23they just ran in a smartphone sized window. But setup is easy it took less
05:27than five minutes and this doesn't feel like a budget experience. So it's a tough
05:31one I would say unless you do need a particular app or program that will only
05:36run on Windows or if you're you know connecting some sort of office or
05:39school server or system that again only uses Windows then you may be limited to
05:43a Windows 11 device like this or indeed if you're just used to using it and
05:47perhaps you're giving it to a parent perhaps who doesn't want to try
05:51something new then again probably your safest option. But I think if you're
05:54happy to give it a go for this kind of price range of laptops I would definitely
05:59consider a Chromebook like this and if anything it's actually simpler to use
06:04than a Windows machine. Let's talk about these screens and while they all share a
06:08similar size 14-inch display the quality is not the same between them. I would say
06:13this guy the OZD I'm definitely have to figure out how to say that and the
06:17Chromebook over here are my favorites. I do quite like this glossy screen
06:20on the Chromebook although the downside that is it will pick up reflections a
06:24lot more easily but in terms of viewing angles this is a definite win over here.
06:29I mean just look at it compared to this Vivo book which is just horrible. From
06:34pretty much every angle except straight on it looks awful. It's dark, it's dim, it's
06:40not a touchscreen unlike the Chromebook. I kind of just hate it. Everything's
06:44washed out and considering the display is what you're looking at the whole time
06:47when you're using a laptop I think it's pretty important and so for me that's a
06:51big issue with this Vivo book and why I would go for one of these two instead.
06:55Both of these also offer 250 nits of brightness which is okay but it's not
07:00that bright and you will struggle to see them outdoors but thanks to all three
07:04sharing a 1080p resolution image sharpness looks identical between them.
07:08As you would expect all three of these laptops have pretty basic keyboards
07:12which means cheaper rough textured plastic keycaps with no backlighting and
07:17a slightly clacky feel. It's a close one but I would say the Asus Vivo book just
07:22about wins here followed by the Chromebook with the Ouzda feeling a bit
07:26cramped and the cheapest. And I also can't stand this rough feeling trackpad.
07:30It actually kind of feels unpleasant to use after a couple of minutes. It's
07:34pretty obvious this is one area that Ouzda have saved some money compared to
07:38the smooth glass trackpads on both the Asus machines here. When it comes to
07:43ports aka connectivity this is another area the Ouzda has cut costs and it's a
07:48shame that it doesn't even offer a USB-C port. So I think here the Chromebook wins
07:52as it's the only one with Wi-Fi 6, it has two USB 3.2s which support power
07:57delivery and display out and we do also get a micro SD card reader although in
08:01favor of the Vivo book we do have an HDMI port. But what about battery life?
08:05Well after six hours of my standard full-screen video test the Ouzda had run
08:10out of power completely. Not great. The Vivo book with its slightly lower
08:14powered processor managed just under nine hours but it was the Chromebook
08:19that absolutely smashed this test lasting over 13 hours. And in general use
08:23this thing is gonna easily last you a full day whereas the other two you may
08:27have to bring your chargers with you. You're probably wondering how am I
08:31playing Baldur's Gate 3 on this laptop? Well this laptop isn't really running
08:36it. I'm streaming this through GeForce Now which really is the only way of
08:40gaming on any of these laptops particularly the Windows ones I've got
08:43back here. Obviously with an Intel Celeron processor unless you're playing
08:47Age of Empires 2 on low settings you're not really gonna run anything natively
08:49on the laptop so your best bet is to stream. GeForce Now, Xbox Cloud and it
08:54actually works really well. Obviously you do need a fast and reliable internet
08:58connection and also with Chromebooks specifically you do have access to some
09:02Android apps as well. They don't all work extremely well but it's a nice extra
09:06option to have. The thing is though even if you are just spending a couple hundred
09:10pounds it is still a couple hundred of your well-earned pounds and warranty and
09:14support is an important thing to consider. And obviously with a no-name
09:18brand like this while you can rely on the retailers return policy, I bought
09:23this on Amazon for about 200 pounds it's actually currently on a deal, you'll have
09:27that 30-day return policy but beyond that I'm not overly confident you're
09:32gonna have a ton of support or warranty from Osda. They do actually have a
09:36little email that they include in the box which you could reach out to but I
09:39wouldn't hold my breath on that. So that is one reason you may want to pay a
09:43little bit more for a better known brand that has global warranties and better
09:47support or at least a better track record. So yes this is cheaper for the
09:51specs but there is a compromise in that regard. As for the webcam, well they're all
09:57pretty ropey to be honest and I would definitely recommend buying a separate
10:01external webcam and plugging it in via USB. You'll get much better quality but
10:05between the three inbuilt cameras, definitely a win for the Chromebook. Much
10:09wider field of view, a higher frame rate, it looks quite a bit nicer than these
10:14two and the VivoBook isn't even HD, it's 480p, it's a VGA webcam which is pretty
10:20unforgivable in this day and age. So between the three, Chromebook wins but they're all
10:24kind of terrible. Okay let's wrap this up. Which one of these three would I actually
10:29buy? Well I reckon this one. Yes it doesn't have those Windows apps and
10:35programs and that may be a deal-breaker for you but at this price point, around
10:39£200, £250 there-ish, I reckon a Chrome OS, a Chromebook like this is your
10:45best bet. These are okay. I think between them I would definitely go with the
10:49UZDA which can surprise me. I thought this was gonna be terrible because I've
10:52never heard of it but actually the specs, the compact design, it's much nicer to
10:57use than this, albeit it does obviously lack that sort of support and warranty. I
11:01think the VivoBook is... no, no, I was gonna say okay. I can't recommend this. It's
11:07pretty rubbish. It's also been out for nearly a year now so we may have an
11:10updated version soon but I think my takeaway would be if you can stretch
11:14your budget to maybe £400-ish then you've got much better options for
11:18Windows laptops, much more capable machines. But at this price point, while
11:22none of them are terrible, I would get myself a Chromebook. So for me it's one,
11:26two, three. But what do you reckon? Which one of these would you go for if you had
11:30a couple of hundred quid to spend? Let me know in the comments below. Hit that
11:33subscribe button if you enjoyed the video and want more laptop reviews from
11:36me and I'll see you next time right here on The Tech Chat.
11:38Boosh! That's my script. Don't look at that!
11:46Stop it!