My daughter is preparing for high school and she wants to attend a school dedicated to communications and graphic arts. As such, I needed to purchase a laptop well-suited for her needs and one that would last 4 1/2 years until she goes to college.I originally settled on a Sony at Best Buy on sale for $599 but I did not pull the trigger before it went up in price to $629. Although $599 was a very good price for a laptop that sells for $700 almost everywhere else, I'm glad I didn't. That Sony had the 2nd generation Core i5 processor, which I thought was the sweet spot between exceptional performance and price.
As I did more research, I discovered that the AMD Vision A8 processor was vastly superior to not only the Intel Core i5 but also the Core i7 on graphics tasks. Yes, both of the Intels beat the AMD A8 on basic computational tasks in the various tests but in reality any of these processors are quite fast in the real world and unlikely to be noticeably different. I decided that the graphics capability was going to be more noticeable.
I got lucky and found this model HP at OfficeDepot for $499 after $50 rebate compared to a "retail" price of $699. It was $130 cheaper than the Sony and identical on everything except the processors and for my daughter's application this processor is better. Plus, this one has the USB 3.0 standard and the fingerprint scanner.
I would never recommend paying $700 $800 for this laptop but if you are opportunistic and can find a laptop powered with an AMD A8 processor and a 15" 16" screen for $500 $550 then scoop it up! It will give you 3 5 years of capability.
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