Deciding between 2 laptops

joenobodyyet

Commendable
Nov 30, 2016
2
0
1,510
I found some decent deals on Black Friday and I ended up purchasing 2 laptops. I need to return one, but I'm really not sure which to keep. Both laptops were the same price.

Dell Inspiron 15 5000 Series
Model: 5559
15.6"
i5-6200U
8GB Memory
128GB Solid State Hard Drive
Windows 10

vs.

HP Notebook 15-ay196nr TOUCHSCREEN
15.6"
i7-7500U
8192MB DDR4 SDRAM
1TB Hard Drive
Windows 10

I really don't use my laptop for more than email, facebook, and other browsing, but I might start recording some music with my new laptop (probably not much). I'm not sure if I have much need for storing music or movies on my computer since free streaming services are everywhere, and basically every album is on youtube ha. I would like to be able to watch movies whether on netflix or random sites on the internet. I'm also not much of a gamer at all.

Let me know what you think. I've heard a lot about the speed of a computer with SSD, but I also know that 128GB isn't a lot of storage. Do people like touchscreen laptops? Thanks!
 
Solution


Or.... you can give the one you don't want to me as an appreciation for my free advice. :D :D :D


It's a bit of a tough call. I don't really care about touchscreen so that is irrelevant in my assessment. The HP has a newer generation CPU that is a little more powerful and also a little more power efficient which means slightly better battery life. Probably around 30 - 45 minutes assuming "average usage" and all other electronic components being the same. It also has a 1TB HDD which is plenty of storage. Yes, it has much slower read / write speeds than a...


Or.... you can give the one you don't want to me as an appreciation for my free advice. :D :D :D


It's a bit of a tough call. I don't really care about touchscreen so that is irrelevant in my assessment. The HP has a newer generation CPU that is a little more powerful and also a little more power efficient which means slightly better battery life. Probably around 30 - 45 minutes assuming "average usage" and all other electronic components being the same. It also has a 1TB HDD which is plenty of storage. Yes, it has much slower read / write speeds than a SSD, but if you are used to using a computer or laptop with a HDD, then it should not be a big deal. However, the SSD will make the laptop feel more responsive. For example. my laptop with a 5400RPM HDD takes a little more than 30 seconds to get to the login screen. My other laptop with a "small" 256GB SSD can get to the login screen in less than 7 seconds.

With only a 128GB SSD I assume if you look at the available space you will probably see around 70GB - 75GB available. After update patches Windows 10 takes about 25GB - 30GB which also includes Dell recovery programs and other miscellaneous files. Another 25GB - 30GB is used for the hidden Windows recovery partition and other tools needed in the event you want to re-install Windows again. What remains is not a lot of space for storage. And also keep in mind that amount of storage used by Windows can slow grow over time from continual patch updates.

If you need more storage space, then you will have to replace the Dell's SSD with a larger capacity SSD since the laptop only has a single 2.5" bay for storage. On the other hand if you want the speed / responsiveness of a SSD for the HP, then again you will need to purchase a 2.5" SSD to replace the hard drive.

The Dell allows you to expand the RAM to 16GB. You cannot expand the RAM on the HP. So if you want more than just 8GB of RAM (which is usually more than enough for most average users), then Dell it is.

The HP has a newer and slightly more powerful CPU, but for average daily use you will not really notice any difference when it comes to performance. I am not sure what you mean by "recording music". If you mean ripping music tracks from your collection of CDs and converting them into music files like mp3, ogg, and FLAC, then the HP can encode music a little faster. But unless if are doing a huge batch of music files all at once, you will not notice much difference.


If storage space is not really important and you want a more responsive laptop, then go with the Dell. If storage space is important and responsiveness is not very important immediately, then go with the HP.
 
Solution

SecretG

Estimable
Apr 26, 2015
14
0
4,560
Id take 1TB HDD over 128GB SSD any day of the week. But since you dont particularly care about storing anything on it, you might aswell keep the SSD one with you. Or better Id rather return both of them and instead look for something with native 1080p. I mean its crazy how slow tech has been evolving lately. Only 10 years ago laptops began having 1920x1080 resolution and now in 2016, 1366x768 is still the majority of what is considered norm.
 

GHolnyuk

Honorable
May 4, 2016
35
2
10,595
Keep the 1TB HDD as 128gb just isnt enough no matter how fast it is.
BTW, why not make one a home computer, the other take with you on travels.
I will get a desktop, and take the 11" lap to Vegas.