Toshiba Satellite P50-C-18K vs HP Envy 13-d061sa?

[C00kiez]

I was doing some research into buying a laptop on PC world and have narrowed down to 2 options in the £650 price bracket, the HP Envy 13-d061sa and the Toshiba Satellite P50-C-18K. They have mainly the same specs (i5-6200U processor, 256GB SSD drive, etc. etc.). However, the HP Envy has a 13.3” screen with 3200x1800 pixels, 8GM RAM and no listed graphics card, while the Toshiba Satellite has a 15.6” screen with 1920x1080 pixels, 16GB RAM and a NVIDIA GeForce 930M graphics card.
Is the worse resolution on the Toshiba made up for by its graphics card? I would be using the laptop I choose for some gaming (TF2 mostly) and also just general school work (writing essays, doing research online etc.)
Any opinions and an explanation of the difference made by the graphics card would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Calculagator]

The tradeoffs are entirely a matter of personal opinion. The HP screen is a "retina" style screen while the Toshiba has a more standard screen. You can't really tell which one will look better by the specs, you would have to see them in person or read reviews that talk about screen quality. The GPU in the Toshiba would make it better for gaming, but you wouldn't notice much or any difference for TF2. Otherwise, it won't matter. I personally would avoid HP laptops because in my experience they have a lot of annoyances like poor keyboards and touchpads, but I can't speak specifically to this model. I would avoid the Toshiba Satellite line because Toshiba has announced that they are shutting down their consumer laptop business. They would probably still support it, but they won't be making many/any more.
I also personally much prefer 13in models to bulkier 15in laptops, especially for a student who may want to carry the laptop regularly.