HP 15S - Nuclear Review

[@hungvominh2490]

The best laptop reviewer. No one review hinges and build quality and do excessive teardown like you.

[@やる]

@@hungvominh2490 Agreed

[@technological4096]

unsponsored reviews are fun

[@JoshuaG]

Not to mention, he took the time to research what each chip IC models are ❤

[@kanecitizen]

That family of HP laptops leave one and one thing only on my mind: its god awful flimsy chassis, I can still hear the plastic crackling from several timezones away

[@rchltmedia]

same as my lenovo, F.L.I.M.S.Y

[@johnsalamii]

750 for this????? i wouldn't even pay 350 for this shit

[@f0x4nn3]

yeah this really feels like it belongs in the trash school laptop corner for 300~400

[@Cobalt_Capacitor]

I really wish OEMs would do away with single-channel configurations. It just absolutely tanks performance. Hell, this isn't even limited to entry-level prebuilts and laptops. I remember my 2019 ASUS SCAR II, fully kitted out, only having a single DIMM of 2666 DDR4 RAM. It had horrendous timings too.

[@JJARCHIE]

Id rather a single stick of 16gb of ram so i can add another stick.

[@Cobalt_Capacitor]

​@@JJARCHIE Not recommended. Most laptop DIMMs are cherry-picked for specific JEDEC specs. Moreover, they're OEM-only variants, meaning finding an off-the-shelf equivalent is easier said than done. If you mix 2 SODIMMS with different JEDEC specs, you can end up with worse frequencies, timings, and stability overall. Not exactly the same rules as desktop RAM, where you can mix and tweak everything in the BIOS.

[@JJARCHIE]

@@Cobalt_Capacitor thats fair But my y520 stood the test of time with a preinstalled 4gb of 2400 ram ( samsung ) and an 8gb 2133 skhynix , its been 4 years i think. The samsung were cl18's and the skhynix was cl16

[@davitdavid7165]

My 2019 omen also had the same issue, made every game unplayable. I was a teen so it took me 3 years to chuck another stick in it and the results were insane, but at that point the hardeare was already outdated

[@NikiDaDude]

That LCD panel is impressively bad, the brightness and colour reproduction would have been considered mediocre 20 years ago, in fact I'm pretty sure the laptop I had back then had a nicer screen.

[@OnTheRocks71]

In 2004 I spent nearly two thousand dollars on a laptop because it had a pretty wild-for-the-time 1920x1200 display. I'm pretty sure that machine had a better quality panel than this.

[@psycho3324]

I recently checked out a Macbook Air 2014 with some dual core. I always derided the Air for having a TN panel, but i hadn't really looked at one up close. didn't they get that decent, it's no retina but it's also no blue tinted wishy washy garbage that is barely readable outside a dimly lit office. TN panels can look good, it must take like 3 dollars more per machine i'm sure.

[@AlexGFrank]

this level of crap is only rivaled by the likes of MSI Thin and 17" Katana/Sword chassis in modern market. Those are outright insulting for the eyes. Zenbook UX325 was the only device so far to weaponize an OLED against me, but the picture quality was okay. Honestly, i have a TN-equipped Thinkpad S440, and a 15" R61i with an extremely yellowed screen, and i'm willing to bet both of those are better, despite being shitty screens on their own

[@segarallychampionship702]

@@AlexGFrank i've had a T440 with a 1080p TN panel in it (probably replaced by the previous owner since iirc every T440 PN listed a 900p IPS display at best), it was okay to look at, just had the classic TN washed colors, but white balance was okay, without noticeable color shifts. the HP laptop I've had before that (only like 2 years older than the T440) was awful, 768p TN display with no contrast and blueish colors

[@oggilein1]

my favourite is the instructions for disassembly HP provides. part of the instructions mention using a butterknife to dislodge the plastic clips and get the back panel off

[@koan3333]

HONEY, WAKE TF UP! NEW NUCLEAR REVIEW VIDEO JUST DROPPED 🗣🗣

[@bludix_elite]

I don't know how to put it better but your channel is really enjoyable to binge watch. I'm sure that if you keep going like this you will grow more and more and people will enjoy these types of videos just as much as I do. They're especially good while eating as they're 10 minutes long. Don't stop these laptop reviews.

[@william8217]

It's 2024 and this is the only truly thorough laptop review channel. that I know of anyway.

[@Lichohedge]

my brother had the 14" 3250u variant of this laptop and this review sums it up pretty well. plastic felt cheap, had a pretty bad 768p screen, several keyboard keys broke throughout use, and after a year, the left hinge completely snapped from the housing

[@pleasebake]

I got some variant of this chassis on a laptop I got as a gift in early 2020. They paid just under 500 bucks for it, and for that money, all they got was an i5 10210U paired with a dismal 4 gigs of DDR4 and a MECHANICAL HARD DRIVE. These laptops are straight ipoffs and use somewhat decent processors to get uneducated people to buy them up (wow! an i5!) and then take massive tradeoffs on every other department, particularly build quality. This one too didn't have a backlit keyboard, but unlike your model, it doesn't even have a USB C port. Nevertheless the laptop is so unusable in its stock configuration today that it pretty much had to be upgraded in order to be made remotely usable. The chassis stunk and the entire front display bezel ripped off after 3 years of usage, and the hinge failed numerous times. Not only that, but the battery is of horrible quality and completely died months after purchase. I'll be looking into a more serious laptop when its time to upgrade, which is probably near. (Oh yeah, and did I mention that my unit shipped with a 1366x768 display? What a crime.)

[@rovalero2]

HE'S BACK PEOPLE, HE. IS. BACK! NuclearNotebook has returned

[@daandelombaert7198]

I feel like this is the only honest tech reviewer on youtube.

[@jingarjay8754]

Finally!! I set these up somewhat regularly for customers that cant afford the more "upmarket" HP 15-fdxxxx or contemporary Asus Vivobooks and GOD I HATE THESE SO MUCH. Basically you shared all the points that I hated about this laptop. One of the more notable things was I took one of these 15s apart to add RAM, The ribbon cable connecting the motherboard to the USB daughterboard is so horrendous, completely kinked in many directions and full of dark fingerprints. It's like the damn thing went thru a battle field.

[@MrJacksonOldd]

By the way: HP also sells business oriented variants of these HP OmniBook 3 (or HP Essentials as they used to be called) laptops. It's named the HP ProBook 2 (HP 200) and it's pretty similar but IIRC (could be wrong) the chassis is somewhat less shit in quality and for some reason they have a seperate touchpad buttons.

[@MrJacksonOldd]

Do note that the current generation models from these lineups no longer have upward-firing speakers. Boo!

[@TabalugaDragon]

As for critique of USB 2.0... they exist for a reason. Many devices, especially wireless ones, don't work well with usb 3.0 for whatever reason. The connection is unstable. Whereas I had no such issues with 2.0 ports. They always worked with wireless devices perfectly.

[@smileyren]

your reviews are an absolute delight

[@TrusteftTech]

Good video of course, though I have to admit it annoys me when people complain about 1080p resolution in laptops like we are talking about 192p. I know different people different likes, but it still annoys me more than it should. Now on to the laptop, other than when I bought a netbook back in 2005 or something, every other time I bought a laptop was to be used exclusively as a desktop replacement. So the quality of the keyboard and screen would not affect me, if the price was appropriate. Having said that, seeing the horrible TN panel on this reminded me of my 2001 Compaq laptop which while a great laptop at its time, had what felt like similar panel (though 1050 resolution). I don't mind bad screens in laptops, but this quality in 2024 is unacceptable, unless it is a 300 laptop. I can't find the same exact model number here (Greece), but what looks very similar/same is at 430 euros. Considering that most people are not me (desktop replacement usage), I don't find the price acceptable. Perhaps 80 less would make it. Thanks for the video.

[@racinggameschannel]

Is it weird that id love to watch you do reviews on older computers and retro stuff for fun instead of only modern slop?

[@watynecc3309]

HES BACK

[@TabalugaDragon]

I actually prefer downfiring speakers. Not only they still sound surprisingly well, unlike upward firing speakers one can use them with the laptop docked to a monitor and screen closed. Not everybody has the capability to buy or has the need for external speakers.

[@SkittleLauncher]

Appreciate the work you do in spreading awareness of how bad retail products can be. Would be interested in your take on business/commercial grade laptops as a comparison, maybe you can review some in the future.

[@The_Prizessin_der_Verurteilung]

As someone who's owned a plethora of HP laptops, I can say from experience that the thumbnail is an accurate representation of the HP experience.

[@IndellableHatesHandles]

I have one of these. One of the RAM slots went bad and I had to replace the RAM so that I had enough to do my schoolwork. The repair has caused parts of the plastic chassis to snap and it's currently falling apart as I use it.

[@TVPC-lj7ps]

You are the gold standard for laptop reviews. Everything else seems just like sponsored garbage.

[@Ali.F]

This is an excellent review, especially for these laptops which tend to not really be noticed by other laptop reviewers. Can I suggest you do a similarly in depth review for the newer Thinkpad E14's? I'm really curious as I've heard they've improved since Gen 5.

[@EtaCarinaeSC]

You forgot the half size arrow keys.

[@RafikExe]

Would you consider reviewing thinkbook series (not thinkpad)

[@01RIE01]

Another amazing review, thank you very much!

[@frokfrdk]

We all know what HP stands for... Horrible Products Also this review is extremely in depth, well done very much enjoyed this!

[@VanceVanced]

Hello frok mobile phones 👍

[@yasu_red]

Hinge Problems

[@misakianimated]

It's always best to get a second hand premium metal build Laptop than these plastic nightmares that will die on you in just 3 years. I have a HP 15-bs0xx and the screen just snapped off, headphone jack became loose, 2 USB ports barely working. I had to revert back my 2012 MacBook Pro that still functions 100% ok apart from the aging battery. Having Quality build has become a MUST for me.

[@skatcat743]

Your opinions are very valuable.

[@Simon-hq6rq]

How can this channel not be more famous? I don't get it.

[@jaymills1111]

I had the exact same model, just with the 3500U. This review is so uncomfortably accurate. The worst part for me, by far, was the fact that no matter what I tried, I could not reliably unlock the comically low 15W TDP for longer than maybe 10 minutes before it would force it's way back to 15W. I could get 20W for much longer without it kicking off and having a fit, but this didn't give me close to the kind of performance boost that 35W gave me. Weirdly, the temps were totally fine and managable, and my suspicion is that the skin temperature sensor was actually what eventually got too hot and forced the TDP back to stock, which was so annoying because I didn't care in the slightest that the surface was hot to the touch. The other theory I had was that the VRMs and other sensitive components were overheating, even if the CPU wasn't, but I wasn't personally able to verify this. Regardless, I find it unbelievably annoying that something I paid for gets the final say at what wattage I run it at, rather than me, the person who fucking bought it. I don't even care if it's dangerous to the components, if it breaks it would be my fault and thats FINE with me! Why does HP get to tell me what I can and can't do with my own device? I will never buy any product from HP again for this exact reason. I could forgive the bad build quality and other issues honestly, especially as a cheap laptop (when purchased used like I did I appreiate its not even cheap brand new) with half decent specs, but forcing me to run it at half the wattage the chip is rated for even though it clearly works fine at 35W just irritates me in a way that I can't properly describe. I'll break my fucking laptop if I feel like it lmfao. Oh and that screen, good god, I'm glad you talked about that, I feel better hearing someone talk about what an unbelievable shitshow that thing is! Great review. 10/10

[@InvaderChopps]

I keep wondering if it'll be a review for the HP Victus 15/16. Just because is the one I have and I'd love the roast of my laptop.

[@mememe37]

I missed your videos!

[@trastewere]

Best notebook reviews hands down.

[@thanhthanhtungnguyen8536]

good review as always

[@shocknaw]

HP does stand for hinge problem for a reason

[@Sykxezn]

nobody, i mean nobody should even by a consumer grade laptop especally if its hp and dell, buy a used macbook or thinkpad, it will treat you right

[@supercellex4D]

CPU performance on those is decidedly 14nm though, unless you go for the newer gen which is anywhere from too much for the type of person that'd be looking at consumer laptops to "why are we looking at car prices here?"

[@b127_1]

​@@supercellex4Dif you can afford this hp, you could probably find a decent used laptop with a 6 core cpu. I have an XPS 17 with the 11400h and no gpu. While it's painfully slow for anything someone would buy an XPS laptop for, it's a great time as a note taking and web browsing machine. The fans don't even turn on unless the cpu is at 100%.

[@thiefrules]

Even then, you’re not safe. M1 + M2 MacBooks die with all data being lost if a piece of dust gets lodged between two legs of one chip, and the modern Thinkpads (especially the consumer Carbon line) are built just as badly & with similar hardware/anti-repairability to this HP craptop. So I would say don’t get a consumer grade laptop, even from Apple or Lenovo. Not without looking up the specific model you want to buy

[@lebelame]

excellent internal images showing quality of manufacturing, good comments on hinges , especially the ones with TN panel, much appreciated Double thums up ! Mahalo

[@OteimPrincewill]

What happened to all the older videos? Wanted to go on a binge watch of everything?

[@tkrstevski8212]

what do you thing of 2017-2020 thinkpads?

[@yggdrasil3529]

Yh bought mine in 2021 for 600ish US. Didn't know dat they were still sellin 15S series. Its build quality is bad/terrible but it got me though my IT uni classes no problem and maintanence is simple enough. Tho i got Ryzen 7-5700 with 16gb of ram and instantly installed linux on it.

[@kernel_inpage_error]

Now I am reconsidering my thoughts on buying one of their higher end option laptops. I know, they cut every possible edge on that one, but what are the chances of Spectre or Envy not being this level of crap in terms of build quality? Also, the battery life is horrendous. 4.5 hrs under a moderate workload borderlines cheap gaming laptop realm. And this with a rather power-efficient Ryzen chip

[@Firitesen]

My grandma got the Intel 12th gen variant when she came over to the UK for internet banking (which is funny because where she stayed also had an HP Laptop with the same design but with an i3 instead of an i5) I appreciated how much lighter it was than my HP Victus (that makes 3 HP laptops) but the TN panel was horrific as well as the bloatware and Windows 11 mandatory Microsoft account BS too...

[@Origin_unkn0wn]

i had the intel version of this laptop and the case provides so little support the motherboard started cracking so if you opened the laptop too quickly or bumbed the laptop windows would freeze and laptop would just shut off it died eventually . honestly never been happier to a piece of tech i own die

[@elliottsalt]

this series has gotta be pushing a record for the most NuNo videos published in a certain timeframe

[@abhilashyadav2274]

never clicked so fast . keep the videos coming .

[@TheAcidFruitmanArt1]

I bought a model like this but with an Athlon Gold 3150U (2c/4t) about 2 years ago. I must say it was the first laptop I've ever bought with my own money so I made the mistake of not doing research on the CPU. It did run smoothly with Linux and with 32 GB of RAM I could do a surprising amount of things, but overall I'm not very proud of my choice.

[@izaixspace]

Heh, I'm in the same boat, except I got one with an Intel Pentium Silver (N5030). Meaning I have a cap of 8gb for memory, and I don't even get a dGPU :( I regret my purchase but I'm committing to my mistake and will keep this *'til it dies from overheating!*

[@md.sifatussabbirsohan9120]

heavily underrated channel

[@miguelvirgo1160]

when are gonna do a review on the lenovo legion 5 series?

[@chic_luke]

Great content, as usual. I would also like to see some good laptops though, like Frameworks / ThinkPads / Elitebooks, just to set an example of what well-done machines act like - and criticize them where fair :p

[@NuclearNotebook]

Once we hit the bottom in the current pile of potatoes - which will be soon - I'll be working back up through some decent midrangers & the XPS and then back to some more gaming laptops for the first time in a while.

[@collinsgichuhi8255]

You know, the first half of the video had me like, this isnt so bad, its just a bad keyboard with a flimsy deck till I saw the price. I actually thought it was a HP 15S as in HP 15 Stream. I thought it was around $350 but $749? Thats literal garbage.

[@MDPToaster]

Every single HP laptop I’ve ever had has gotten, at one point had serious overheating problems

[@clay2147]

The king is back! Love your stuff ❤️

[@pham3383]

that hinge will break on the third day of use

[@davitdavid7165]

At 600$ i would like to know your thoughts on laptops like the pavilion 14 or even the 13 inch just josh posted about today.

[@Tobirobih]

I really thought HP (and others), stopped putting TN panels into laptops years ago. Oh HP...

[@fishappy0_962]

HP Hewlett Packard ❌ Hinge Problems ✅

[@shashaankduggal6112]

oh to open youtube and find my favourite laptop ripperdoc only to see he made a video on my damn laptop family

[@cosmincraciun505]

quality video. definitely worth a sub. if you get the chance to take a look at it, I'd be interested to see what you think about the lenovo ideapad pro 5, particularly the amd igpu configuration

[@NuclearNotebook]

I actually have one (Intel Meteor Lake though), it's been one of my two main machines for 6 months & I have definitely formed an opinion - a review will be coming along in the next few weeks after I get through this pile of potatoes. I'll give you a little spoiler though: it works beautifully but it's falling apart.

[@cosmincraciun505]

@@NuclearNotebook ah, i just purchased one myself and I'm struggling to find any flaws. can't wait to find out what a few months of use can do to it. thanks!

[@OnTheRocks71]

I can forgive a lot when it comes to budget machines, but a TN panel? HP should be paying people to use such a travesty. Edit: Holy shit I thought this was like a 300 dollar laptop not 700+. I think this is actually a crime.

[@smileyface8124]

at least your battery didn't expand so much that i had to deflate mine every 2 days

[@thefriendlycar2nist836]

such a good review

[@fernandoz6329]

Hell of review in the way I like it. Suscribed.

[@erikskallevold2080]

Do you think youd be able to do the XPS 9320 Plus? I think you will hate it (I do)

[@NuclearNotebook]

I have an overwhelming urge to fiddle with an XPS 13 - will most likely grab a Lunar Lake-equipped one before the end of the year.

[@erikskallevold2080]

@@NuclearNotebook We are 7 employees at work who have been issued an XPS 13 each. After 1 year: 2 have broken speakers 1 does not turn on anymore 1 has a black screen, but works otherwise Mine broke after 3 months (broken touchpad). It has been at the dell service center since Nov 2023 😅 Of course businesses only have 1 year warranty, so that is 4 bricks and 1 MIA.

[@rajvirvirdi8074]

holy shit this is 750 dollars???? i legit thought it was a max 300 dollar laptop that is so unfortunate

[@Bassemreefat]

keep them vids coming

[@zbigniew2628]

Does it work after removing whole lid with screen and battery? I may look for cheap one and use it as emulation device after selling lid with screen and battery and maybe other stuff 🤣 I see used one for ~170$ with ryzen 5625U, which isn`t selling coz guy put HP 15 Ryzem in title.

[@snakeythehotboy8549]

I was shocked to look at that 750 dollar price tag, these are destined to be E waste

[@iiisaac1312]

HP stream if they gave it a ryzen instead.

[@davitdavid7165]

I dont know ehy they bothered with a tn screen when they already have a 15 inch ips 1080p 60hz 250nit display with terrible collors that they have been putting in their 15 inch gaming laptops for at least 6 years

[@LouiesWorkshop]

I expected this laptop to be less that $400. $750 IS UN-FUCKING-ACCEPTABLE! I had a similar unit from a while ago that I put a Samsung SSD and 16GB Ram into with an A9-9420. The build quality sucked and the thing was the slowest machine ever on even Arch and Ubuntu linux.

[@proudesthelsian8387]

peak.

[@3mar00ss6]

I'd rather use Samsung dex 💀

[@IrrationalDelusion]

My unit with Ryzen 5 5500U had garbage touchpad with actuation force of 90 grams maybe. This one immediately begs to be put into trash.

[@tkrstevski8212]

good

[@やる]

WOOOO

[@The11devans]

I really wonder what dumpster these laptop manufacturers find their displays from. Or maybe they have time machines, and travel back to 2010 to save $3 on a monitor instead of just getting one with 100% sRGB coverage. There's no response times in this review, but I guarantee it's around 30ms, these crappy screens are all the same. On a side note, TechteamGB makes an open-source response time testing tool that could be good if you want to add that to your test suite. Even LTT has used it.

[@Damglador]

Wtf, you can buy an insanely powerful ThinkPad for this price, this is a robbery

[@myr1494]

ahhhh HP ..... Hinge Problem

[@cyan1337]

lol, typing from my siser's old hp laptop and this thing is a tank, not even a flex. unfortunately many of my peers in college have bought is exact hp 15s or similar hp laptop.

[@eda2000-r8h]

New vid babeeeeeee

[@dualdime9361]

Yippie another nuclear notebook upload!!!! RAHHHHHH

[@404hopenotfound]

what you expect its a cheap hp laptop the hinge well be broken in a year of normal use

[@sim_jimpson]

bro my 6 year old suface book 2 gets better battery life than this i love these reviews

[@Igigog]

Imagine a comment just for the sake of a comment

[@retired-s5h]

For 750 dollars (42,000 Indian rupees) this laptop is a joke, there are far better options especially in Asus.

[@Vegeta_ble441]

IdeaPad slim 1 😡😤

[@whiteroach3]

This just sounds like a $300 laptop with $450 markup. Yuck.

[@TheDiabolocraft]

Another E waste special, great

[@rchltmedia]

TN & shitty plastic + flimsy hinges should be outlawed. i'm also the victim of this nonsense except, it's lenovo. meanwhile my acer E1 with god awful intel n2820, still holding up.

[@itaresam]

Peak entertainment 🙏

[@sladewilson2595]

i despise the15s with passion

[@VZekrap_8438.]

In VN these things can range from about 13 to 17 million dongs (about 529 to 692 US dollars), which is not so good but can be acceptable. But 750 US dollars for this crap! That is just literal garbage 🙂

[@muhwyndham]

This laptop is yucky. $350 laptop on my country can give you vibrant 1200p ips display with room to spare for ryzen 5 4th Gen, baller igpu and (albeit soldered) 8 GB of fast lpddr 5

[@Renton.drives]

LOL this is the one HowToBasic Destroyed in his how to remove ads video. This laptop deserves it I think the 1998 thinkpad 560x had a better screen than this blurry steaming pile of garbage

[@BarniDeDino]

Somehow theres something worse you can waste your 700 dollars on than the ps5 pro💀

[@isbestlizard]

Oh boy 1080p tn panels I remember them... such a shit laptop