Stuck between 2 laptops

StormCloudSeven

Honorable
Nov 13, 2013
8
0
10,510
I'm currently stuck between a Lenovo and an Asus laptop:
Lenovo: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834317542

Asus: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834231975&cm_re=msi_gaming_laptop-_-34-231-975-_-Product
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The Lenovo would cost me about $130 more than the Asus, and for that $130 I'd be getting: a GTX 860M instead of 850M, a build in 8GB SSD, 4 more GB of RAM.

In terms of a better GPU and more RAM, paying $130 more seems to be worth it to me. However, the things holding me back are:
- A slightly slower CPU
- Shorter battery usage
- Asus is a more trustworthy brand to me (I see only 5 eggs for ASUS but Lenovo always have "dysfunctional out of the box" reviews).
- I can spend around $100 and just get a much bigger capacity SSD for the ASUS afterwards.

I'm taking the laptop to college this coming fall. Gonna be using it to do school work + game, I'll probably be doing 3Ds Max and After Effects rendering a lot as well. I don't know THAT much about computer specs so I'm asking if anyone will kindly give me some advise on which one to choose, or which one would you choose?
 

Deus Gladiorum

Honorable
Jun 29, 2013
94
0
10,610
I just decided between the Y50 and an Acer Aspire V7-582PG, and I'll tell you why I chose the objectively weaker latter:
The screen on the Y50 is terrible. The best review I heard on it called it "sub-par". The worst review I heard on it called it "the worst Full HD screen I've ever used". So because of that, I decided to go with the Aspire V7 with a GT 750M and a 1.6 GHz i5-4200U if only because I love the IPS screen. As I type on my laptop now I think about the color accuracy of my previous Dell Inspiron screen and I shudder (it was shitty by even the most inexperienced eye's standards) and I would not have taken the risk of Lenovo sticking me with that again, albeit at a higher resolution. I'm really happy with the quality of the screen I have now. Also this laptop was way cheaper, though of course weaker.

However, if you don't care about the screen quality or price and you're REALLY concerned about gaming (I have a high-end gaming desktop at home so it's not a massive priority for me, though my current laptop is still very good at gaming) then get the Lenovo. Here's the difference in performance graphically -- scroll to the bottom of the pages for game benchmarks:

ASUS GPU

Lenovo GPU

As you can see the Lenovo is more powerful by a good amount, but frame rate and how much it matters is up to you. The difference in CPU quality is up to you. If you're anything like me when I'm at college, battery life isn't a huge concern as most of the time I'm docking my laptop and only need the battery for a good 3 hours straight at most each day.

UPDATE: In reality the ASUS will be closer to the Lenovo than the benchmarks show, since the ASUS has a better CPU and GDDR3 as opposed to DDR3 memory that's used in the benchmarks.
 

StormCloudSeven

Honorable
Nov 13, 2013
8
0
10,510


Hmmmm yea display quality does kinda matter to me. Although the lenovo I linked isn't the 4K version, I did read some consistent complains about the screen on the Y50 4k resolution version of people saying the yellows are bad and some had bleeding problems. Build quality wise ASUS definitely is the safer bet.

I'm leaning heavily on the ASUS now. I think the 1 grade better GPU isn't gonna cut it for me cuz i have a desktop with a GTX 770 anyways. Thanks for the reply.