ASUS Vivobook Laptops, which one is better? Or anything else under $450

General Questions

1) What is your budget?

under $400, and I'm OK to get a refurbished laptop

2) What size notebook would you prefer?

b. Ultraportable; 11" - 12" screen
c. Thin and Light; 13" - 14" screen

3) Where will you buying this notebook? You can select the flag of your country as an indicator.

USA

4) Are there any brands that you prefer or any you really don't like?
a. Like: Samsung, Gateway, Acer
b. Dislike: Apple, HP
5) Would you consider laptops that are refurbished/redistributed?

Yep!

6) What are the primary tasks will you be performing with this notebook?

-Photoshop and Illustrator
-document editing
-typing (alot)
-general administrative work, so opening quickly and connecting to internet swiftly is a must.

It would be a plus to be able to run Premiere (or the whole Adobe Suite) but it's not necessary.

7) Will you be taking the notebook with you to different places, leaving it on your desk or both?

Both, mostly taking it places though

8) Will you be playing games on your notebook? If so, please state which games or types of games?

No

9) How many hours of battery life do you need?

4 or more

10) Would you prefer to see the notebooks you're considering before purchasing it or buying a notebook on-line without seeing it is OK?

Don't need to see it personally.

11) What OS do you prefer? Windows (Windows 7 / 8), Mac OS, Linux, Chrome OS, etc.

NO CHROME. Windows is preferred

Screen Specifics

12) From the choices below, what screen resolution(s) would you prefer? Keep in mind screen size in conjunction with resolution will play a large role in overall viewing comfort level. Everyone is different. Some like really small text, while others like their text big and easy to read. (Scroll down to see screen resolution information.)

Doesn't really matter. The higher the better, but its not a deciding factor

13) Do you want a glossy/reflective screen or a matte/non-glossy screen? (Scroll down to see explanations.)

Doesn't really matter, not a deciding factor

Build Quality and Design

14) Are the notebook's looks and stylishness important to you?

Would prefer aluminum frame, no plastic.

Backlit keyboard is a big plus

15) When are you buying this laptop?

Soon

16) How long do you want this laptop to last?

at least 4-5 years

Notebook Components

17) How much hard drive space do you need? Do you want a SSD drive?

Don't /need/ a lot of space on my hard drive, would be great, but I can store the larger files off site.
So an SSD, I'm assuming, would be best for fast operation of the laptop.
But if the other computer specs are more important than drive type, I'd prefer more space (if it's the same price anyways)

18) Do you need an optical drive? If yes, a DVD Burner, Blu-ray Reader or Blu-Ray Burner?

No



Here are some of my other wants/needs:

NEEDS:

-Will last a long time - The previous laptops I've had are mostly made from plastic - I'd like something aluminum, metal frame, something with not a lot of parts that will break/break off
-Fast startup, fast opening applications
-Good battery - again, the plastic laptops have had bad luck with batteries - I've had to replace them many times, or stay close to an outlet. The length of battery time isn't as important, a few hours is enough
-Light - I don't want to be lugging around a brick. My current computer is a little more than 5lbs, and that's a pain to carry and setup


WANTS:

-Large keyboard. I don't need the numerical keypad, but enough space to comfortably type
-Backlit keyboard is a plus, but not really necessary.

I've found the two that I mostly like, and essentially I know the differences, theoretically, but which one is better?

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16...
ASUS VivoBook F402BA-EB91 14" FHD Thin and Light Laptop, Dual-Core AMD A9 Processor, Radeon R5 Graphics, 8 GB DDR3 RAM, 1 TB 5400 RPM HDD, USB Type-C, Windows 10

OR

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16...
ASUS VivoBook E403NA-US21 14" FHD Laptop, Intel Quad Core N4200 2M Cache, up to 2.5 GHz Processor, 128 GB eMMC Flash Storage, 4 GB DDR3 RAM, Windows 10 Signature Edition, Fingerprint Reader





A few more laptops I've been looking at, if they're any better, or should I just stick with the ASUS?

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?item=N82E16...

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16...

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Acer-Swift-1-Sf114-31-P5ww-N...

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA2F...

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA9A...

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=1TS-00...

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16...

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA9A...

https://www.itechdeals.com/acer-aspire-s3-391-6616-core...

https://www.itechdeals.com/acer-aspire-s3-391-6448-core...

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=9SIA9J...

https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16...

https://www.newegg.com/Product/NewProduct.aspx?Item=9SI...

I greatly appreciate any and all input about this!! Are my requirements even doable within my price range, or do I need to rethink my budget?

Thank you very much!

 

Dear Alice,

Thank You for such a detailed explanation of Your laptop specifications.
For Photoshop/Illustrator You mainly need a good and fast CPU, RAM next, hard drive and then GPU.
Since Adobe is not the most efficient in taking advantage of all the cores/threads of a CPU, You want a high clock speed as a primary and cores/threads as a second. Still, 4 should be minimum number of cores.

So let's have a quick look at Your two choices.

ASUS VivoBook F402BA-EB91
Display is nice with FHD and 14". Processor itself has a high 3.8GHz speed but sadly only 2 cores with no hyper-threading(means it can use more virtual cores such as 2 cores with hyper threading acts as 4 cores). Graphics is ok. RAM should be enough. Hard drive is not ideal for fast data access. 5400 RPM will slow You down quite a bit.

ASUS VivoBook E403NA-US21
Display is good. Processor is awful. Even though it is a 4 core processor it's base speed is 1.1 GHz with boost up to 2.9. The base is so slow You will get nothing done in Photoshop. 128 eMMC is better than 5400 RPM HDD in terms of speed but just slightly. 4 GB RAM is less than You would like.
Overall this laptop if inferior to VivoBook F402BA

Look at this one, You will have to dish out 450$ but You should get a lot better performance out of it.
https://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834861864

Dell Latitude E7440
You will get a really decent Intel i7 4th Generation dual core with typer threading. It has an IPS screen which will help with better viewing angles when in Photoshop as well as better colour quality. Base speed of 2.1 is not as fast as AMD in VivoBook but still decent. But turboboost will peak at 3.3 GHz. You will also get a 250 SSD with 8 GB of RAM. It comes with backlit keyboard. Battery life should be decent (brand new lasted for 6 hours) and it is durable aluminium design.

450€ is a rough price range to fit all Your desires, You will have to sacrifice on something.

Hope You find this useful

Travis

 

Thank you so much for your detailed response! I appreciate the brief breakdown of how Adobe utilizes various components!

I'll check out the computer you linked! And yes, I understand my budget is low with how much I want out of a comp.

Much appreciated