system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why can't my $199 laptop play stutter-free 1080p if my $30 Chromecast can play the same media just fine?

I'm on my second Celeron laptop (this week - returned the last one) and I am wondering if this is specific to Intel.  Are they purposefully creating a need for their high-end processors by neutering their low-end processors?

EDIT: I had to go to Staples of all places but I found an ultracheap AMD E1 series notebook and connected it to my phone's wifi hotspot (because the store had nothing available) and discovered that the AMD plays things just fine.  So you don't need to pay extra in order to play HD.
gpt
Your Chromecast is designed to do one thing- decode video. So it has dedicated silicon to decode videos. Your laptop is designed as a general purpose computer. Its processor is way better at pretty much anything that isn't decoding videos. Also, your $199 laptop has a hard drive, a screen, and a battery which all add considerably to the cost, so it's not quite fair to compare a laptop to a Chromecast on price.