Which laptop is better? I'm trying to find a good one for under $400

[Sabres39]

Walmart has an HP Sparkling Black 14" Pavilion TouchSmart 14-b109wm Laptop PC with Intel Celeron B877 Processor, 4GB Memory, 500GB Hard for $348, link: http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Sparkli...Windo/28503695

Or the Acer Sleekbook 11.6" V5-122P-0862 Touch Laptop PC with AMD A4-1250 Processor, 4GB Memory, 500GB Hard Drive for $328, link: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Acer-Sleek...ows-8/24766509

How do the processors compare? Which is a better laptop for the money? It's mainly for word processing and the internet. Any other suggestions? Thanks!!

I also hope to be able to download music with it.

 

[frozentundra123456]

Depends on what you want to use it for. That A4-1250 is a very weak Kabini SOC with only a 1ghz processor and no turbo. It is really a netbook processor. The celeron would definitely be faster. On the other hand the Acer will be more portable, and probably have better battery life, although Kabini is not particularly good in battery life for such a low performance processor.

Neither seems an outstanding deal, as I got a HP laptop at best buy with a 2.4 ghz i3 for around 370.00 on sale, but of the two, I would go with the celeron.

 

[Enigmoid]

The celeron is going to be significantly better. 1 ghz dual core kabini will be painful.

 

[Sabres39]

I might get neither then. So what do I look for in a decent processor? If I look at specs, how can I tell what is good? I'm not a gamer so I don't need something blazing fast for $1400. I'd prefer to not spend more than $550 at my upper limit. It's solely for torrenting, Internet, and word processing. Maybe some PowerPoint too.

 

[Ravynmagi]

Definitely avoid anything with an AMD A4. Preferably something with at least a Core i3 should still be possible at under $400.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Dell-Black...ystem/25582170
I think Best Buy still sells this same model in their stores if Walmart doesn't have it in store.

 

[frozentundra123456]

for that budget you should be able to get a full size laptop with an i3 or possibly even an i5 at the top end of that budget. The i3 has hyperthreading, which will help with threaded workloads, and the i5 will have both hyperthreading and turbo boost. The laptop I got my wife is an i3, 2.2 or 2,4 ghz and is plenty fast. I am talking about full power chips here, not ulv ones. If you want superlong battery life, you will have to give up some performance and pay more.

The other alternative is a full power AMD A8 or A10 APU. They will have better graphics than intel, although the lead is less pronounced in mobile than in the desktop. They will have slower cpu performance and IMO tend to run hotter.

Honestly any of these will be more than adequate for basic usage. Just be careful to steer clear of the A4 and A6 kabini or intel atoms chips for a full size notebook.

 

[Bateluer]

Walmart has an HP Sparkling Black 14" Pavilion TouchSmart 14-b109wm Laptop PC with Intel Celeron B877 Processor, 4GB Memory, 500GB Hard for $348, link: http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Sparkli...Windo/28503695

Or the Acer Sleekbook 11.6" V5-122P-0862 Touch Laptop PC with AMD A4-1250 Processor, 4GB Memory, 500GB Hard Drive for $328, link: http://www.walmart.com/ip/Acer-Sleek...ows-8/24766509

How do the processors compare? Which is a better laptop for the money? It's mainly for word processing and the internet. Any other suggestions? Thanks!!

I also hope to be able to download music with it.

I think you can find a better CPU in that price range than either the Celeron or A4, but you'll likely pay for it with a crappy screen.

The A4 wouldnt be a pleasant experience. I have the A6 V5 122P myself and its not very speedy. And if you leave the 85GBs of Acer crapware installed, I'd have to label it as unusable for even the most basic tasks. I installed an SSD in mine and did a clean W8 install.

Might I direct the OP to one of these?

Dell Inspiron 11 - $349
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store...750sLV-Touchscreen-Laptop/productID.288729300

Lenovo IdeaPad S210
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store...d-S210-Touchscreen-Laptop/productID.288025900

The Dell is a Celeron 2955U and the Lenovo is an i3-3217U. These should both run rings around the Walmart laptops, and as they come from the MS Store, there's no bloatware installed.

 

[Sabres39]

I think you can find a better CPU in that price range than either the Celeron or A4, but you'll likely pay for it with a crappy screen.

The A4 wouldnt be a pleasant experience. I have the A6 V5 122P myself and its not very speedy. And if you leave the 85GBs of Acer crapware installed, I'd have to label it as unusable for even the most basic tasks. I installed an SSD in mine and did a clean W8 install.

Might I direct the OP to one of these?

Dell Inspiron 11 - $349
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Dell-Inspiron-11-i3137-3750sLV-Touchscreen-Laptop/productID.288729300

Lenovo IdeaPad S210
http://www.microsoftstore.com/store/msusa/en_US/pdp/Lenovo-IdeaPad-S210-Touchscreen-Laptop/productID.288025900

The Dell is a Celeron 2955U and the Lenovo is an i3-3217U. These should both run rings around the Walmart laptops, and as they come from the MS Store, there's no bloatware installed.

Hmm.. thanks guys. I really like that Lenovo the person linked above me.

So to get this straight, in order of weak processors from the top it would go:

AMD
Celeron
Intel i3
Intel i5
Intel i7

Could anyone add to that list? I'm assuming there's more processors out there...

 

[Bateluer]

Hmm.. thanks guys. I really like that Lenovo the person linked above me.

So to get this straight, in order of weak processors from the top it would go:

AMD
Celeron
Intel i3
Intel i5
Intel i7

Could anyone add to that list? I'm assuming there's more processors out there...

With these laptops, we're looking only at the low end mobile AMD parts, the A4 specifically. The A4 1250 is the very bottom of AMD's product line, any slower and you've entered their tablet/embedded product lines. AMD has several respectable APUs and CPUs, just not in your 400 dollar budget.

Your list for the Intel parts is generally accurate, but can get a little muddy between core generations and different models.

And nope, for x86, its just AMD and Intel. You could get a Chromebook, which might interest you, which would open up some ARM based devices. Or an Android AIO.

 

[Sabres39]

With these laptops, we're looking only at the low end mobile AMD parts, the A4 specifically. The A4 1250 is the very bottom of AMD's product line, any slower and you've entered their tablet/embedded product lines. AMD has several respectable APUs and CPUs, just not in your 400 dollar budget.

Your list for the Intel parts is generally accurate, but can get a little muddy between core generations and different models.

And nope, for x86, its just AMD and Intel. You could get a Chromebook, which might interest you, which would open up some ARM based devices. Or an Android AIO.

This should be my last question. Where does something like the AMD elite quad core: http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Silver-...Syste/25139243 fit into the scale? Is it a higher or lower end of AMD? Would Intel i3 still be better?

 

[Bateluer]

This should be my last question. Where does something like the AMD elite quad core: http://www.walmart.com/ip/HP-Silver-...Syste/25139243 fit into the scale? Is it a higher or lower end of AMD? Would Intel i3 still be better?

AMD, and Intel, usually have OEM specific models, and I think the A8-5550M is such a sku, but Googling it gets some hits.

http://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=AMD+A8-5550M+APU



From the whole chart, http://www.cpubenchmark.net/mid_range_cpus.html

- The A8 5550M scores a 3019 whilst the i3-3217U scores a 2,294.
- The 5550M is a 35W sku, the i3-3217U is a 17W sku
- The 5550M's Radeon HD IGP is likely more powerful than the HD4000 IGP on the i3 sku
- The 5550M also has 4 cores to the i3's dual core, hyperthreaded, and will likely perform better in multithreaded applications though at the expense of battery life.

From what you described, I'm pretty sure that the A8 5550M, the i3-3217U, and the Celeron 2955U will fit your needs fine. The Celeron B877 and AMD A4 1250 wouldn't provide a good experience.