Looking for some advice: HP tx2510, Asus F8-SpX-1, or other?

Hi All,

I'm in the process of picking a new laptop and I've narrowed it down to the HP tx2510us or the Asus F8-SpX-1.

My two main concerns are functionality and reliability. It's main use will be for video editing (I'll be editing a handful of ~2-5 minute clips [1024x786 resolution] on a daily basis). As long as it can handle that efficiently, I'm sure it can handle everything else I'll be using it for as well.

As for reliability, I'll be moving to Argentina shortly (for 1-2 years) and neither have coverage in that country, so I'd like to go with the one (laptop and/or company) with the best track record. I don't know much about either company.

Ideally I'd buy a laptop that has coverage down there, but I haven't found anything that fits that bill for my budget ($1000; not much, I know). Purchasing the laptop down there is another possibility and something that I haven't looked into yet.

Anyways, any advice and/or information would be very much appreciated.

Cheers,
BTZ

 

well from what specs are pretty equal except that the hp tx2150 is a tablet and the asus has a pretty good video card. so it depends on what you need and your uses are? do you need a touchscreen? the asus will be better for gaming thanks to the radeon 3650. dont think a better video card will make a diffrence in video editing. best you elaborate on what exactly you expect to do with your laptop.

 

Video editing will rely primarily on CPU and RAM, so out of the 2, the Asus seems to be superior. Unless you're editing graphics based videos such as in games, then GPU shouldn't be much of a concern. In terms of warranty and support, Asus doesn't have any service centers in Argentina (they have one in Brazil though), but HP does - however, if you purchase a HP notebook in the US, I don't think their warranty is international. Keep in mind that it'll also be cheaper if you purchase a notebook in the states.

 

dougbrad8 - I'll pretty much mainly be using it for that light video editing (other than that it will be the standard office/web/music&photo storage), but it will be done on a frequent basis, so I'd like a computer that can handle that without excessive slowdown.

emporiumboutique - you hit the nail on the head, warranty support and reliability were really my main concerns, since both of the laptops have enough graphics power to handle what I'm going to be using it for.

Just in case anyone is interested, this is what I found out about the HP warranty: For HP's consumer line, the standard warranty is only valid in the country of purchase. However, should you move to another country, you have the option of buying an extended warranty in that country and you will have coverage under that new warranty in that new country.

One caveat is that each country apparently has a limit as to how long you can wait before you are unable to purchase an extended warranty. I was told on the phone that for the US you can extend it anytime during the 1st year, but in Mexico, for example, you only have 90 days. Furthermore, if you were to return to the country of purchase before this deadline (taking the US as an example, if you were to return before 1 year), then you could extend your warranty again in that country should you choose to do so. I'd assume this would be valid in any country (not just the country of purchase), as long as the deadline for warranty extension (from the time of purchase) in that country hasn't been passed (but I didn't specifically ask about it).

So, there you have it (I think)...they really should implement an international warranty, because the way it is now is pretty absurd by anyone's standards.

If they did have an international warranty I'd have gone with the HP tx2510. But as it is, if something happened it'd be way too troublesome to fix, and the fact that the tx2510 was just released (not to mention the fact that it's a tablet with more movable/breakable features) doesn't help the situation. Honestly, I'm a little bummed that they didn't have a better warranty. I played around with it in the store and the cool factor (and the functionality) was way up there.

Drtigerlilly, on the tablet forum for HP pointed me to this Toshiba U405 at Best Buy and I'm going to go with that one. It has everything I need, is $150 cheaper, and I was able to buy a Canon MP470 printer for $30! Toshiba's standard 1 year warranty is also an international warranty, so it has pretty much everything I'm looking for.

Anyhow, maybe this info will help others sort through some of this "stuff". Thanks again for the suggestions.

Cheers,
BTZ

p.s. You're definitely right about buying in the States. I checked out some retailers in Argentina and all the prices I saw were a little less than twice as expensive as it is in the States. If I knew what was popular amongst the wealthier crowd down there I'd buy it retail here in the states and take some with me to resell!