Dilemma: Old HP HDX16 vs New ASUS X550

[Skele Drew]

I've had my HP HDX for about 2 years now and it's been giving some issues off and on. It overheats a lot, so I had to buy a cooling pad, but it still gets noisy, and I keep it running like a server right by my bed. I've also been having some memory issues where some of my apps keep crashing (especially Firefox, Android emulator, and other memory hogs). I kinda suspect there may be some malware on it since the hardware diagnostics state all is well. But I've wanted a good upgrade that could handle almost any load I throw at it, esp as a dev system (I don't game much).

So a week ago I snatched a new ASUS X550CA-DB71 for a pretty good price on eBay, intending to put Linux on it (been itching to convert for a long time) and sell the HP. But now I'm having regrets as there seem to be so much missing. First off, the ASUS only has 2 USB ports (1 2.0 and 1 3.0) while the HP has 4x2.0, and I love having space to connect stuff. Then the ASUS viewing angles are worse than HP, though not so bad. But the thing that's really breaking it for me now is the webcam, because I'm going to be doing some screencasts with my picture included and the quality is really crappy (0.9MP I think).

The main thing that the ASUS has going for it is that it's super quiet with an i7, 8GB DDR3 RAM and a 1TB HDD. But this performance gain doesn't seem worth it at the lost of so many good features in the HP. Kinda like why I choose Android over crApple... Now I'm considering reselling the ASUS and instead upgrade the HP's RAM to 8GB and change it to Linux.

Now what'd be the better move here? Keep an older laptop that has some issues for the features or the newer one for the performance?

HP Specs
ASUS Specs

[Wallizzle]

I'd say any laptop camera is garbage really... My honest opinion. Kinda like the forward facing cameras on cellphones - they haven't come a far way over time. With that being said... I'd invest in a decent HD webcam or an actual 'video camera', and as far as USB ports goes, 2 - 3 seems standard these days manufacturers getting cheap! why not buy a USB hub to expand the number of ports? At the end of the day, you'll never be able to upgrade your HP to the specs of the ASUS.

Beats me why you didn't do a thorough review and spec run down before you bought your replacement though... I've learnt that lesson as well, I feel your pain bro