2 laptops: Please help me decide between ASUS & Toshiba

[Sir Arun]

So I’m in search for a new laptop and have a budget of €600 and also want to buy from a reliable source. Currently, amazon is offering me the following two, both for the same price of €599 each:


Laptop 1:
Name: ASUS F555UB-XO043T
CPU: Intel Core i5 6200U
GPU: Nvidia GeForce 940M
RAM: 8GB DDR3L
Space: 1TB HDD
Screen resolution: 15.6” 1366 x 768 TN panel (matte)
OS: Windows 10

Laptop 2:
Name: Toshiba L50-C-241
CPU: Intel Core i5 6200U
GPU: Nvidia GeForce 930M
RAM: 6 GB
Space: 1008 GB SSHD
Screen resolution: 15.6” 1920 x 1080 Full-HD IPS panel (glossy)
OS: Windows 10

As you can see, I’m in a dilemma. The ASUS laptop offers an ever so slightly better GPU with some extra RAM as well as a matte display, but the downside is it is a TN-panel and also a normal HDD.

The Toshiba laptop has a worse GPU and less RAM, but for the same price I get an SSHD of the same size and not only an IPS display, but a full hd one at that.

Here are my thoughts: I don’t mind 1366 x 768. In fact, I think gaming at 1366 x 768 native res in a budget laptop is preferable to gaming at 1920 x 1080 native res if you have a mediocre GPU because your framerate is going to be terrible at 1080p compared to 1366x768p where you can still play at medium settings with relatively good FPS (30). And downscaling the full hd display to 1366 x 768 is (I think?) worse than a native 1366 x 768 display (correct me if I am wrong).

However, I know IPS is superior to TN in terms of image quality and viewing angles. Which is why I'm on the fence. But it is reflective/glossy instead of matte, and that means glare during daylight and dust seems to collect more on the display faster as well. But SSHD is snappier than a normal HDD. But I will then get a slightly worse GPU and RAM…

My questions:

1) How much of a downgrade is 6GB RAM and 930M compared to 8GB RAM and 940M? Is it like 2-3 FPS on average or more than that?

2) Is SSHD really that much better than HDD?

3) Which laptop would you recommend?

Thanks

 

[Ketchup]

This is a couple years old, but should give you an idea of what an SSHD will do:
http://techreport.com/review/25425/seagate-desktop-sshd-2tb-hybrid-drive-reviewed/4

In most situations, I don't think that these drives will be noticeable faster than a good 7200 RPM drive, and according to the spec page, they are both 5400 RPM drives.

Personally, I would get the better video card, if you will be gaming on the machine, then buy an SSD and clone the hard drive onto that drive.

If you don't plan to play demanding games on the laptop, and want to keep the budget the same, get a laptop on the cheaper side, and buy an SSD with the savings.

 

[bruceb]

Can't really speak about ASUS quality, but I have a Toshiba Laptop right now and it is doing just fine. Satellite C855-S5347 .. it was salvaged from my town electronics recycle and when I got it, it would power up but not boot. Did a restore to factory using the restore partition. At that point it had Windows 8.0 ... a little bit later I did the free upgrade to Windows 10 Home 64 Bit ... works fine now. And this is a machine that has a Celeron B830 1.8Ghz Dual Core CPU and 4GB of RAM .. it has a 300GB hard drive. So for what it is worth, I think Toshiba quality is very good.

 

[JeffMD]

I never liked toshiba, I get asus motherboards all the time and my current laptop is asus.

 

[bruceb]

Not sure what you have against Toshiba, but in my experience (am on my second unit since 2003, my first one died when it was dropped) Bad screen and hard drive, but that unit was really down in performance compared to newer ones. So it was due for replacement anyway. That said, for me, never had a failure on a Toshiba unit.

 

[Sir Arun]

Well thanks for the input guys, I finally decided for the Toshiba because according to notebookcheck the ASUS has a really mediocre TN-panel in terms of cd/m² (around 200) and contrast (465:1) despite being matte compared to the reflective IPS panel of the Toshiba which has around 290cd/m² and a contrast of 1131:1, and tbh I could always use the extra desktop and browsing space provided by 1920 x 1080 compared to 1366 x 768.

See article here:

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Asus-F555UB-XO043T-Notebook-Review.164041.0.html

This is the one I just bought, only this review is for the more expensive model with 8GB RAM instead of 6GB and 256GB SSD instead of 1008 GB SSHD but otherwise everything else should be the same:

http://www.notebookcheck.com/Test-Toshiba-Satellite-L50-C-275-Notebook.159002.0.html

 

[bruceb]

That review is for the ASUS ... Where is the one for the Toshiba you decided on ?

 

[Sir Arun]

That review is for the ASUS ... Where is the one for the Toshiba you decided on ?

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Toshiba-Satellite-L50-C-275-Notebook-Review.160158.0.html

almost the same model (they didnt review the same one)

 

[techfenix]

Which one did you buy ? I am looking at a ASUS at the moment. Hard choice

 

[herbc]

I also prefer Asus to Toshiba.