Thinkpad Edge 13: AMD Turion vs. Intel i3

I am looking for a small laptop for my wife. She will only use the laptop for Microsoft Word and Firefox.

I am leaning towards a Thinkpad Edge 13. Apparently, there are Intel and AMD versions. See for example the following two configurations:

Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 13 NV338MB Azerty - Laptopshop.be versus Lenovo ThinkPad Edge 13 NV13CMB Azerty - Laptopshop.be (see full specs down the page)

The AMD one is about 1/3 cheaper than the Intel version. The only differences seem to be the CPU and RAM.

Can anyone comment on how these two models compare? I trust that performance will be sufficient for both, but maybe I'm wrong... What about heat and battery life?

(I have considered alternatives such as a Dell Vostro 3300, or even a MacBook Air, but I have more confidence in the build quality of the Edge over the Vostro, and my wife is not familiar with OSX.)

Thanks!

 

That's where AMD usually falters, but is that worth the extra cash? Personally, I would say yes, especially if it's a long term investment.

 

when you say 1/3 price, can you give an exact amount? because these machines in different countries can retail for different prices.

Vostro 3300 is on par in quality with the Edge 13.

 

Taking into account the 100 cashback promotion, the Intel version would come at 749 euros, and the AMD version would be 449 version. In other words, the AMD version costs less than 60% of the Intel version.

I don't want to be cheap here, but proportionally, that's quite a big difference, especially if maybe heat/battery life difference would not be very noticeable under light use?

I will only consider the Vostro if my wife believes that she needs an optical drive. The Vostro would be a bit cheaper than the Edge (Intel version) with a i3-380M, a 7200rpm hard drive (instead of 5400rpm) but only 2gb of RAM (instead of 4gb), and apparently the battery life is very bad (two hours or so). It's slightly heavier than the Edge 13.

 

the intel i3 CPU speed is about 3 times that of the AMD CPU used in the Edge 13. Basically the Edge 13 with AMD CPU is a bigger X120e.

If you are going to use it for a while then the i3 CPU is the way to go, or otherwise get a X120e, which is a very good machine (better than the Edge 13 in my opinion).

 

Are you sure about the i3? My understanding was that this 380UM is an 'ultra low voltage version' of the i3 at 1330 Mhz, not the standard i3. And it is still 3 times faster than this 1800 Mhz AMD Turion?

The X120e would probably do as well, but I cannot seem to order it online in Belgium, and going to retail stores is always a hassle.

 

my bad, i assumed it was the i3 standard voltage. The UM used in the Edge is has Passmark score of around 1290, and the closet AMD they tested of that series has a score of around 900.

So in that light, then performance difference is only 30% or so, but the intel will run cooler. I would say for price difference of 300 dollars, i would take the AMD version of the Edge 13.

 

Never seen Core i3 in Edge 13, I thought they came only with SU7300?

 

There were some i3 UM models but they were not very common.