Which Laptop is better overall?

Platinum Era

Honorable
Jul 22, 2013
21
0
10,560
I have been looking for a laptop to replace my aging Samsung R522. I have selected 2 that like:

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/acer-acer-aspire-v7-15-6-ultrabook-gunmetal-intel-core-i5-3337u-24gb-ssd-500gb-hdd-12gb-windows-8-v7-581-6489/10254572.aspx?path=226359e5ff9e81e3595821eea0ca4579en02&SearchPageIndex=1

or

http://www.futureshop.ca/en-CA/product/asus-asus-r405cb-14-1-laptop-black-intel-core-i5-3337u-750gb-hdd-8gb-ram-windows-8-r405cb-fb51-cb/10256770.aspx?path=668e4849c241528be776cbc69a135632en02&SearchPageIndex=1

I will be using the laptop for general students purposes (Mostly MS office) and entertainment (Youtube, movies). I might do some gaming but I do have pretty powerful desktop for that exact purpose (4670k, GTX 770).

Now I like the Asus because of the GT 740m and faster RAM (8GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600mhz). I dislike that it's a 14.1" laptop.

I like the Acer because it's an "Ultrabook" (it's behind Intel's most of Intel's requirements) and comes with a SSD boot drive (I believe), it is thinner and is a 15.6" Laptop. The Acer on the other hand has 12GB SODIMM DDR3 at 1066mhz and it has the HD 4000 chip. It also looks like it will come with a lot of bloatware

They both have identical CPUs (i5-3337u), identical battery life (5ish hours) and they will both be on sale for 599.99 as of Friday, August 23rd

I dislike that both laptop have such a weak resolution of 1366x768.

Which would you guys recommend?

Now I can easily wait another couple of months for more Haswells to pop up (the Pentiumns and i3s) or for the Ivy-bridges to receive even larger price cuts.

*And if any of you would like to recommend a different laptop, it has to be from Futureshop.ca/Bestbuy.ca (I want to use a gift card I have instead of my money, the gift card was won in a contest)



 

pyro226

Distinguished
Sep 22, 2011
28
0
18,590
Overall, the Asus laptop is better. If you think the screen size is going to be a problem, don't get either. Wait for something that better suits your needs to go on sale.

I really don't like that the Acer only has one memory slot and the slow memory speed. I personally wouldn't get the Acer. From what I've read (no windows 8 experience), Widnows 8 is pretty quick to boot up because the normal boot sequence resumes from a kernel hibernate from the previous power-off. It may read applications a bit faster with the SSD, but I think the SSD on these laptops more going to be a selling gimmick rather than a large performance benefit.