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How is it that everything is a subscription these days? At work, I

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spend hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on software. And then in my

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personal life, I'm expected to subscribe to everything from cloud storage to

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healthy junk food to toothbrushes to get the aforementioned junk food out of my

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braces. Do you guys remember the one for coins for laundry? Just $14.99 a month

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for $10 in quarters. And if you want my two bits, that right

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there is the problem. I'm always paying way more than if I just bought the stuff

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outright in the first place. This whole you'll own nothing and you'll like it

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philosophy has infected everything. And now HP, not content with subscription

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printer ink, wants me to subscribe to my gaming laptop, TOO. IS NOTHING SACRED? I

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mean, I shouldn't be too surprised, though. We were already in the middle of

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a video on HP's subscription program for non-gaming laptops when we got this ad

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for the Omen gaming subscription program. So, of course, now we've got to

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take a look at what they're offering. Even though we've only got hands-on with

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one of the consumer subscription laptops. To be clear, not all

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subscriptions are inherently bad or evil. I get a ton of value out of

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YouTube Premium, for instance, and I fully recognize why services that have

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ongoing costs need to have ongoing fees.

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And in fact, on the surface, HP's

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program here doesn't look like that bad of a deal. But I've been burned before,

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and I can't help but feel like there must be something hiding under the

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surface. like this segue to our sponsors. [music]

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[music] So far, looks like a totally normal

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laptop, sir. HP currently includes four different

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options in their consumer subscription program, ranging from about $35 to $85 a

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month for the unit we've got here. And you know what? It's a nice little

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machine. The Elite Book 6 G1 Q14 AI has

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an 8 core ARM Snapdragon X plus 32 gigs of RAM, a 512 gig SSD, and a 14inch 1920

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x 1200 display. Let's just see how much crap they've preloaded on it. Oh, good

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lord, the taskbar.

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With HP's addition of their AI companion, three of the eight items down

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here are AI tools. That's three too

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many. And even worse, HP's AI companion

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app will pop up periodically telling me how much it respects my privacy. HP, you

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can right off with that. To their credit, though, the system tray is

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refreshingly empty. HP Wolf Security is

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in here. Uh, that's their endpoint security offering, which I don't know a

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ton about, but they make all the right noises in their marketing materials, and

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it seems to be pretty light on system resources. Then the script says to ask

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if y'all have any experience with it to share, but I'm actually going to jump in here. Jordan, I tried to remove it from

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my Daily Driver HP laptop. And what I discovered is that if you uninstall its

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various pieces in the wrong order, it falls into a circular dependency death

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spiral where every component of it claims that another component needs to

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be uninstalled first. And poor Easy Rider 750 here was only able to resolve

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a similar issue with a full system reformat. So, uh, Let's see what else we

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got here. Office 365 trial. Um, that's

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probably fine. The heck is mobile plans and operators. Oh, that's right. This

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thing has 5G. And the data plan is actually included in our monthly

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subscription fee. That totally makes sense then. So, overall, as far as major

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brands go, not great, but not terrible.

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Still, there's got to be a gotcha, right? Let's have a look at the terms

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and conditions. Overall, the program seems pretty straightforward. You pick

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your laptop, you add your optional peripherals for a modest additional

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monthly fee, of course, and you consent to a soft credit check, which I believe

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means that HP does not see your score or personal credit information and that it

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shouldn't impact your credit score. But then again, [music] I'm Canadian and our

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financial system is based on maple syrup, so your mileage may vary.

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Assuming you pass the check, you pay your first monthly fee and then a few

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days later, your machine shows up in the mail. Then you start your 30-day money

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back trial, which was a pretty pleasant surprise for me. It's exactly what it

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sounds like. Don't like the machine in the first month? You send it back on

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HP's dime and get a refund. However, if

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you keep it longer than a month, you are locked in for at least one year. So,

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let's take a quick look at the math on that. MSRP on this model is $3,000.

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And at $85 a month, we're going to pay about a third of that MSRP during our

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one-year lockin period. That's not terrible, especially when we consider

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that it includes the data plan for this model, but it's not amazing either. What

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happens after a year? Well, that's where things get a little bit more

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interesting. You can cancel without any penalty and return the laptop. You can

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carry on paying monthly to use it, which is probably what they're hoping you'll

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do, or you can upgrade to a new laptop.

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That's where things get pretty interesting. Also, as part of the

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subscription, HP provides 24/7 live support with next-day replacement if

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something can't be fixed over the phone, and they give you assistance with data

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transfers and secure data removal if you move to a different machine or you need

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to send one back to them. All of this makes for what is honestly a pretty

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appealing sales pitch. for the right

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kind of customer. If for instance you are a frequent upgrader, this is kind of

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like having an extended warranty, a service plan, a data plan, and a device

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rental all rolled into one. As long as

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you continue paying your fee and you take advantage of those periodic

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upgrades, you'll have a modern working computer at a price that is about the

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same as rolling a 2 to threeyear upgrade cycle on your own.

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On the other hand, [clears throat] you will never own this machine

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regardless of how long you pay for it. This was another surprise and this time

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not a pleasant one. I kind of figured that like a lease, there might be an

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option to buy it out at the end of the term, but no, it must go back to HP when

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you're done. That means no gifting your old laptop to granny, no repurposing it

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as a media server, no selling it for a few extra bucks on marketplace, and on

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top of that, while HP does seem to expect [music]

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normal wear and tear on these units, there's no coverage for accidental

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damage. So, it's you break it, you buy it rules, and HP reserves the right to

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lock down the unit remotely in the event of non-payment. That makes the math we

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did before a little bit more complicated and a little less favorable. What if you

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just spent the $3,000 upfront? Sure, in

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the first couple of years, you will have overpaid compared to your friend who

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subscribed, but then you are the master of your destiny. You decide when to

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upgrade, and when you do, you get to sell the unit you own and recoup some of

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your costs. The question is, how much?

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Well, we found this model on Facebook Marketplace for about a,000 Canadian or

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$750, which oh well, that's a bit of a double

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whammy, isn't it? First, it means that the catchup point to your friend who

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subscribed is actually even sooner than the initial math would suggest. And

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second, it means that at $3,000 MSRP,

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this laptop is probably a pretty bad deal. maybe even intentionally so to

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make renting it look like a more appealing option. To really drive this

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point home, if I wanted this laptop for three years, it would actually cost me

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less to subscribe for one year, then cancel my subscription, send the unit

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back, and then buy the one that I saw on marketplace. Now, in theory, the

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counterpoint to this is that I could just trade in and upgrade, and then I

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wouldn't have this laptop. I'd have a better one. But that assumes that HP is

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going to be on top of updating the models that they include in the program.

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And it assumes that they have a new one that I actually like. They have made no

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promises about that. But to their credit, we have seen at least one update

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cycle in the consumer program in the eight or so months that we've had our

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eye on it. Man, this is ending up pretty complicated, isn't it? But wait, there's

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more. This subscription program is limited to the US and limited to one

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laptop or household. So, no, you can't

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kit out your medium-sized business on the cheap or even your duggarized

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family. Okay, Whale Land, our old school all

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weekend gaming event is back and it's just around the corner. If you want to

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play games with your friends, not to mention some members of the LMG team,

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grab your tickets now at the link down below. We'll be hanging out on February

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21st and 22nd. Just head over to whaland.com to get your tickets or click

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the link down below. How about the gaming program then? Well, we haven't

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got our hands on a demo for this one, but it appears that it's been quietly

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running for several months now. Obviously, you get more powerful

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hardware. I'm talking Ryzen 7 and Core Ultra CPUs as standard along with

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discrete NVIDIA graphics up to a 16 gig RTX 5080 and up to 32 gigs of RAM, a

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terabyte of storage, and large screens with faster refresh rates. But equally

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obviously, you pay more for it. Somewhere between $50 up to $130 a

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month. The terms of the program all look pretty similar, but it looks like HP has

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masked their math a little bit differently on these ones because the

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gaming models have you paying just shy of half of the MSRP in the first year,

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no matter which model you pick. I'm not

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completely sure what that means. Did they find the three-year payback wasn't

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profitable enough? Do they expect gamers to be harder on these machines, making

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the betock returns worth less? Do they expect the usable life cycles to be

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shorter for performance reasons? It's hard for us to know for sure, but what's

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clear is that they're after a faster return on their hardware investment.

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With all that said, they're still not a terrible deal if you would be a frequent

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upgrader anyway and you're on the ball about getting a new machine on your

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subscription the moment that you're able to. Doing some quick math, the second

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best gaming laptop is $80 a month. You go ahead and throw in a Game Pass

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subscription for what is it? 20 bucks a month. That's $1,200 a year for solid

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performance in hundreds of games. You'll own nothing, but you might at least have

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the perception of being happy about it. And if we're being honest, it's not like

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buying these games means you own them anymore. Anyway, with that said, with

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that 2-year payoff period, the gaming models will turn into a bad deal a lot

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faster than the consumer models if you aren't the kind of person who would be

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upgrading every single time that new hardware comes up. and especially if you

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get lazy and you don't upgrade your subscription. Also, I just straight up

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cannot recommend this one to anyone who typically resells or reuses their old

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hardware. A 2-year-old gaming laptop is still a very capable little piece of

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kit, and it would be nice to still have around when you start paying for your

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new one. Bottom line, subscriptions like this, they don't seem quite so crazy

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anymore. Have we all just been Stockholm syndrome into acceptance? I'm not sure.

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But as long as we don't end up with abusive cancellation policies and we

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maintain the ability to buy the same hardware outright if we want to, I don't

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mind having the choice to have a subscription. By the way, HP, those last

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two things, those were dystopian. Those were not suggestions. Now, if you'll

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excuse me, I need to go renew the subscription to the heated seats in my

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car. Uh, while I'm gone, by the way, feel free to check out this message from

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our sponsor. Now, here's a [music] time for shoe.

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It's called Bessie. It stops your little socks from getting messy. Your toes

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ain't [music] cozy, not a frosty froz. The shoe is waterproof, so it stops the

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osmos.

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Well, [music] bestie is the name. It's better for when

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the weather treats you with disdain. From rain [music] to snow to puddles of

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sludge to keep your little guys dry so you can make it to brunch.

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You tired of switching shoes every [music] time you decide to fight the

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climate and lose. Call Bessie for work or play. You want to [music] get some

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gear with no delay. To protect your feet

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on the street, protect your feet. Bessie [music] on the street, protect your

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mind. Don't realize the right shoe for you ain't

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man. It ain't hard to get a discount either. [music] 15% off the lake. Leave the rest in

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Beaver. treat your feet to something they have earned with a one-year

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warranty and 30-day returns. [music]

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If you guys like this video, check out our recent look at GeForce Now. It's

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renting a gaming PC without the blackjack

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or the gaming PC.