Under $500 Budget for Laptop

[jwol]

1. What is your budget?
Approx $500. Less would be better.
2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering?
14.5" Display and up
3. What screen resolution do you want?
I don't think she really cares.
4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop?
Replacement laptop (old one isn't even capable of playing youtube videos).
5. How much battery life do you need?
Doesn't matter.
6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)?
No.
7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.)
Browsing, planning, watching videos. Word processing maybe.
8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need?
250GB+
9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links.
Newegg, Amazon, etc
10. How long do you want to keep your laptop?
4 yearsish
11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ?
Don't really need one.
12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons.
She currently has an Asus and that has a ton of bloatware. I've had a Dell and it lasted about 7 years. Hers is about 3 years old.
13. What country do you live in?
USA
14. Please tell us any additional information if needed.
Looking for a replacement laptop for my sister. Currently looking at a couple of options that caught my eye, mostly for the budget to performance.

Not sure if the i5 5200U would be better for her than the a10-7400p
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834315031
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834232500
Low end model:
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834319445&cm_re=g50-_-34-319-445-_-Product
I looked at benchmarks and most sites say that the a10 performs better core while running the i5 on the single core is more energy efficient and faster.
CPU benchmark has the a10-7400p tested at a higher rating than the i5-5200U. About 8% better.

Not sure if I really need the 8GB of ram but from my experience with APU's it matters.

I liked my Dell because it was upgradable. Improved the CPU and the RAM before the screen gave out. Bought a monitor and used it as a desktop for a bit before it couldn't handle youtube anymore. Her Asus was a splurge buy and it hasn't lasted. It is an ASUS A53U in case you guys are wondering.

I would welcome any recommendations.

Thanks for reading.

Edit:

This looks amazing.
http/www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834315062
Intel Core i7 4712MQ (2.30GHz) CPU Benchmark of double that of any of the previously mentioned models.

 

[Mugglensu1984]

Toshiba Satellite C55-C5241 15.6 Inch Laptop

ASUS F554LA-WS52 15.6-Inch Laptop

Both have the same CPU. Both are good brands.

 

[jaguarskx]

The processing power of Intel CPUs are better than AMD APUs. Yes, even the quad core A10-7400p is not as good the dual core i5-5200u. The A8-6410 is even less powerful. The Core i7-4712MQ is a pretty powerful CPU, but is not necessary for your sister's needs. Nothing she does will make use of the quad core i7 CPU. It also generates more heat than Intel "u" model CPUs so it will generally be louder due to fan noise. The laptop is for your sister, not for you. AMD APUs generally uses more power and generates more heat compared to Intel "u" model CPUs.

The i7-4712MQ is a "socketed CPU" which means it can be easily replaced if necessary. All "u" model Intel CPUs are soldered directly into the motherboard as well as all AMD APU which means is it more or less impossible to replace the processor yourself unless you have the equipment to de-solder and re-solder hundreds of "balls" on the underside of the processor.

For what she plans on doing with the laptop, integrated graphics will be fine. The nVidia 940m may seem very attractive at that price, but since she is not going to play games, the 940m will never be utilized. Again, the laptop is for her, not for you. The A8-6410 APU has the weakest integrated GPU; it is less powerful than Intel HD 4000 from the 3rd gen Intel Ivy Bridge CPUs. The Intel HD 5500 provides pretty decent performance for an integrated GPU. The A10-7400p's Radeon R6 (Kaveri) integrated GPU is roughly equivalent to a nVidia GT 730m GPU. Any one of the integrated GPU is will be fine for her needs.

The Asus A53U has an AMD E-series APU. The E-series was considered very weak even when it was newly introduced. The low end AMD A8-6410 would be considered an upgrade though. It boils down to choosing a laptop with the AMD A10-7400p or the Intel Core i5-5200u.


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Regarding bloatware...

All consumer level laptops will have a fair amount of bloatware. It is a catch-22 situation. People want cheap laptops so they primarily focus on price. Laptop manufactures need to make a profit to stay in business. Bloatware is a way for laptop brand names to sell laptops for a low price because the software companies that makes the bloatware signs a contract to pay the brand name money for the right to have their bloatware installed on the laptop. The name brands more or less breaks even selling the laptop itself while making a profit from the contract.

If you do not want bloatware in a laptop, then you need to buy a business laptop. IT departments do not tolerate bloatware so having bloatware installed on a laptop is a sure fire way to loose a lucrative business contract. Because of this the average business laptops are generally more expensive than the average consumer laptops.