ASUS X550ZE vs Lenovo Z50-75 vs Lenovo Edge E555/545

Depends on what you're using the laptop for but I would go with the ASUS X550ZE

All those laptops you mentioned do use AMD graphics. But if you are using it for lightish gaming and college uses then the Lenovo Edge E555/545 is not for you.

Lets Compare:

ASUS X550ZE:
- AMD A-Series A10-7300 (1.90GHz)
- 8 GB of Memory
- 1 TB for Storage so about 950 gigs
- AMD Radeon R6 Series Graphics
- RESOLUTION: 1920 x 1080
- OS (Operating System): Windows 8.1 64-bit
- Screen Size: 15.6"

Lenovo Z50:
- AMD A-Series A10-7300 (1.90GHz)
- 8 GB of Memory **Can support up to 16 GB
- 1 TB for Storage
- AMD Radeon R6 Series Graphics
- RESOLUTION: 1360 x 768
- Windows 8.1
- Screen Size: 15.6"

Similarities:
As you can see, both laptops use the same CPU ( A10-7300 ) which is faster than the i5 4210U. They both have 8 GB worth of memory and 1 TB worth of storage. However, the Lenovo can support up to 16 GB of memory. You do not need 16 GB of memory if you are only planning to use it for light gaming. There is no point. They both use the AMD Radeon R6 Series Graphics. They both have a screen size of 15.6".

Differences:
The ASUS laptop uses Windows 8.1 64-bit, which performs faster than the Lenovo Windows 8.1. The resolution is also different. The ASUS has a much higher resolution of 1920 x 1080 which will produce a much sharper, clearer, smoother image than the Lenovo's 1360 x 720 resolution. If you work on your laptop frequently and like multitasking a lot, or displaying lots of information or pages at once, 1920x1080 is great. It's also better for most multimedia purposes.

Overall, both the Lenovo and the ASUS will perform similar. So it depends if you want to pay more for a higher resolution and faster performing laptop (ASUS) or pay cheaper for a laptop that will still satisfy your needs (Lenovo) but your images may not be as clear/sharp if you are doing photo editing. Resolution is pretty important. But I will leave that choice up to you.

I personally would go with the asus as they are better for gaming and image editing as they have better screens than the lenovos. Also remember that lenovo was recently affected by a security weakness caused by their own software which shows how reliable they are. Not saying they are not good but they are better with business laptops than gaming or multimedia laptops which is what you want.

If it is idle it will probably be around 40 - 50 degrees celcius, and about max 75 degrees celcius.

Hi,

Just thought I should point out something about the Asus x550Ze. It comes in 3 flavours so the information above is incorrect.

According to the ASUS website
High end is the FX 7600P APU and dual graphics is provided by Radeon R5 M230 + the Radeon R7 M270 with 2GB built into the FX 7600P.
Mid Line is the A10 7400P APU and dual graphics is provided by Radeon R5 M230 + the Radeon R7 M265 with 2GB built into the A10 7400P.
Low end is the A8 7200p APU and dual graphics provided by Radeon R5 M230 + the Radeon R7 M260 with 2GB built into A8 7200P.

Chipset is the A76M.

Some additional comments.

First off these are available in the UK and Ireland and other territories however they may not be where you expect them to be. I haven't check lots of PC HW sites yet but the first few I checked SCAN UK, DABS.COM, KOMPLETT did not even have the ASUS X550ZE listed never mind in stock. Instead I found them in one of the largest high street white goods chains, Currys (both UK and Irish sites) where not only are they in stick at right at this moment they are discounted.

I plan to check other sites overclockers, elara etc and will update.

However the weirdness does end there. People have been waiting for these. Some fan fair is in order yet there seems to be f all information about these platforms in the trade sites. The Nexus 9 and Nvidia Shield tablet got lots of reviews etc these AMD releases almost nada.

And what are ASUS doing with the X550ZE a R5 M230, silicon that's lower end than the silicon in lowest APU of the 3 flavours. At least make the second GPU a R7 and it would be nice to see something higher than oland cores offered as an option. Apart from that the X550ze seems to be a very solid all rounder in the traditional desktop model (in other words not what's needed today). Price is sub £500 even for the top model so good value if your looking for a student desk laptop it would have been so much better if the display was convertible and so addressed student mobile computing (stylus) needs better.

Suggest you check out MSI GX60 and GX70 too, 3 models for each with lots of flavours in each model. Same story with the weird availability as the ASUS but they appear to nicely fill the mid range gamers needs for portability.

No sign have I seen of an A10 or FX Convertable or all in one media. Basically the types of platforms where this silicon would cream the competition it terms of value.

All of this leads me to wonder WTF is AMD at. I'm not a fan boy as I think both AMD, Nvidia and Intel have their own strengths however I have leaned to AMD for graphics recently due to AMD's better support of interchangeability and openness. Innovation in the industry will suffer if they go the way of of the other historic innovators like Digital Sun etc.

So please spread the word about these products and try get AMD to wake up. I hope to find out more but not be able to devote much time to it for the next week or two.