HP 14-BS043NA 14" Intel Celeron 4GB RAM 500GB HDD Laptop or Acer Swift 1 14 Inch Pentium 4GB 64GB Laptop

[angela.campion]

Wondering which one would be best to buy my son for playing occasional games like sumdog, thnaks

 

[GreyCatz]

Is this the game you're talking about?
https/www.sumdog.com/city

... and are these the computers under consideration?
HP:
https/www.tesco.com/direct/hp-14-bs043na-14-intel-celeron-4gb-ram-500gb-hdd-laptop-silver/122-9216.prd?source=others
Acer:
http/www.argos.co.uk/product/6536781

If yes to all of the above, then throw a dart - they'll both be able to handle a Flash-based browser plug-in like SumDog. And if SumDog is the only game your son will be playing, it really makes no difference which computer you pick.

A few considerations, though:
- If your son is very 'active' - by that I mean clumsy - the extra .3 kg of heft in the HP could very well save the day as well as the computer.
- If your son's daily schedule and gaming interests go even slightly beyond SumDog, the Acer will offer a faster WiFi standard (ac) and a better CPU.
- While the Acer certainly has the looks, and the sleek chassis to match, it only offers 64GBs of storage, which will fill up very quickly. Not a big problem, with all manner of cloud-based solutions available today, but it does require constantly moving files around.
- Going by online reviews, user experience, and customer feedback the Acer brand is considered low on build-quality and low on customer support. This means that the Acer Swift is likely to malfunction sooner than the HP, and when it does calling Acer's support line isn't going to help an awful lot. HP's support isn't too popular with online users, either, but the laptops themselves are generally better built than Acers.

 

[angela.campion]

Is this the game you're talking about?
https/www.sumdog.com/city

... and are these the computers under consideration?
HP:
https/www.tesco.com/direct/hp-14-bs043na-14-intel-celeron-4gb-ram-500gb-hdd-laptop-silver/122-9216.prd?source=others
Acer:
http/www.argos.co.uk/product/6536781

If yes to all of the above, then throw a dart - they'll both be able to handle a Flash-based browser plug-in like SumDog. And if SumDog is the only game your son will be playing, it really makes no difference which computer you pick.

A few considerations, though:
- If your son is very 'active' - by that I mean clumsy - the extra .3 kg of heft in the HP could very well save the day as well as the computer.
- If your son's daily schedule and gaming interests go even slightly beyond SumDog, the Acer will offer a faster WiFi standard (ac) and a better CPU.
- While the Acer certainly has the looks, and the sleek chassis to match, it only offers 64GBs of storage, which will fill up very quickly. Not a big problem, with all manner of cloud-based solutions available today, but it does require constantly moving files around.
- Going by online reviews, user experience, and customer feedback the Acer brand is considered low on build-quality and low on customer support. This means that the Acer Swift is likely to malfunction sooner than the HP, and when it does calling Acer's support line isn't going to help an awful lot. HP's support isn't too popular with online users, either, but the laptops themselves are generally better built than Acers.[/quotemsg

Yes, they are the laptops in question. I know HP has a slightly better reputation but when it comes to the tech part of it I thought the Acer might be slightly better because of the processor, quad core processor as opposed to dual core ? (I know very little about this). They are both roughly the same price right now with the offers that are on. (on a budget). Unless you could recommend another around the £200 mark. Many thanks GreyCatz

 

[GreyCatz]

Well, you're right about the CPUs - a quad-core will offer better overall performance compared with a dual-core - and simply going by specifications, the Acer is difficult to ignore. It is the lighter option with good battery life and a faster WiFi standard. But, to be perfectly honest, in this price range - not to mention the intended use - the difference in CPUS will be negligible.

My biggest concern is the very modest storage capacity. I stand by my earlier comment that it's not a 'deal-breaker', but your son will need to use storage solutions such as OneDrive, DropBox or similar cloud-based offers very intensively (or carry an external HDD with him).

Right now, with the 2 laptops next to each other, the Acer is the definitely the more attractive machine. My comment about brand reputation is an attempt to gauge your situation a year from now: It is not a dead-certainty that the Acer will fail (and HPs will fail, too), but there is an increased risk that it will compared with other brands. Your son needs to be very careful with the Acer, while the HP is more likely to survive the odd bump or drop.

At around £200 to £250 you're looking at Chromebooks or gutted-out PCs that will just barely run Windows. Chromebooks aren't bad, but they are fundamentally designed to compete with smartphones rather than full-sized Windows machines.

 

[angela.campion]

Thank you for helping me choose. Final question, I have just seen this one, HP 15-ay013na 15.6 Inch 1.6GHz 4GB 1TB Laptop Black - Inc Bag, Mouse & McAfee. Would this be any better? Going by your advice, make, speed, storage?
Many thanks GreyCatz

 

[GreyCatz]

Thank you for helping me choose. Final question, I have just seen this one, HP 15-ay013na 15.6 Inch 1.6GHz 4GB 1TB Laptop Black - Inc Bag, Mouse & McAfee. Would this be any better? Going by your advice, make, speed, storage?
Many thanks GreyCatz

The only place I could find this HP was on Amazon UK, but sadly it's not available anymore so I don't know what the price was. It comes with the same CPU as the Acer and significantly more storage.

If you can find one priced (roughly) the same as the earlier HP, it certainly is worth considering. If it's more expensive, well, you do gain more storage but 500GBs is a very decent volume - and 1TB isn't really going to be useful unless your son decides to store hundreds of games on it.

As for the slightly better CPU (N3710), it's certainly nice to have if it comes with the package, but not worth an increase in price.

I hope this makes some sense.

 

[angela.campion]

Thank you for helping me choose. Final question, I have just seen this one, HP 15-ay013na 15.6 Inch 1.6GHz 4GB 1TB Laptop Black - Inc Bag, Mouse & McAfee. Would this be any better? Going by your advice, make, speed, storage?
Many thanks GreyCatz

The only place I could find this HP was on Amazon UK, but sadly it's not available anymore so I don't know what the price was. It comes with the same CPU as the Acer and significantly more storage.

If you can find one priced (roughly) the same as the earlier HP, it certainly is worth considering. If it's more expensive, well, you do gain more storage but 500GBs is a very decent volume - and 1TB isn't really going to be useful unless your son decides to store hundreds of games on it.

As for the slightly better CPU (N3710), it's certainly nice to have if it comes with the package, but not worth an increase in price.

I hope this makes some sense.

 

[angela.campion]

Excellent, I found it on the Argos site but its sold out. However the Ebay Argos outlet has them, brand new for £229 http/www.ebay.co.uk/itm/HP-15-ay013na-15-6-Inch-1-6GHz-4GB-1TB-Laptop-Black-Inc-Bag-Mouse-McAfee-/361965622337. Think i will take your advice and go for this one. Many thanks for all your help (a relieved mum).