Most of the common laptop users are not that committed to a particular brand. They have general ideas and preferences, but they don’t appeal to a certain brand. When going out to buy a laptop, you have to face tough decisions regarding the product you desire. You have to find the perfect compromise between price, performance and personal requirements (such as screen size and accessories)
Many brands are associated as being in competition on the same target. Such an example is HP vs. Toshiba. The reason is very simple: similar performances and similar prices. We will try to find the differences between these two brands. For this, you have to find a laptop from each manufacturer, that have very similar specifications. To not be interpreted as advertising for one brand, we shall select older models of HP and Toshiba for this example. We have the HP Pavilion DV4170 vs. the Toshiba Satellite M45-S355. We will take every specification offered by the manufacturers and analyze them in parallel.
First, we will look at the processor because it’s one of the most important parts and you can’t really upgrade it. Both laptops have Pentium CPUs with 533 MHz FSB and 2 MB L2 cache, but the Toshiba has a slightly more powerful one (M750 of 1.86 GHz) than the HP model in question (the M740 of 1.73 GHz). It’s not a big difference but for some it may be an important (although you can’t really feel the difference). The RAM memory and video card are practically identical (1 GB of DDR333 SDRAM and Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 900 of 128 MB shared). At first sight, the hard drives are identical (do to the 100GB storage space each laptop features), but the difference is again on the Toshiba side, thanks to the 5400RPM speed, superior to the 4200 RPM provided by the HP HDD.
The next thing that we saw was the speakers; Toshiba comes equipped with Harmon Kardon and HP with Altec Lansing. They are both good and give similar sounds, but the difference is the position: on the Toshiba the speakers are in the back, under the laptop, while the HP has the speakers in the front of the case; here, opinions may vary, because it’s a matter of preference. A plus for HP is the exceptional ports because HP offers Media Card Reader (SD, MMC, Memory stick/pro, XD, Smart Media), express card and IR, while Toshiba offers only media card reader (MMC, SD, memory stick/pro and XD). One thing that Toshiba hasn’t got and HP does is a remote located in the card slot and also HP headphones.
Another advantage of HP is HP Quick Play; it’s a feature that allows the user to play CDs, DVDs and MP3s from the hard drive without booting. The Toshiba also has its own version, the Toshiba Express Media Player, but this doesn’t allow playing MP3s from HDD, just CDs and DVDs. The worst part of the Toshiba when compared to HP is the battery life. Usually the battery life of this Toshiba is around 2 hours and a half, less than the 3 hours and 20 that is offered by HP. Displays are almost identical, the Toshiba has a 15.4 inch WXGA display with TruBrite Technology and the HP has a 15.4 inch WXGA HD BrightView screen. The prices are similar, but the HP is more expensive.
From here you will have to decide which one you like best (Toshiba vs. HP), and apply the method in real world, when you search for a laptop of your own.
Tags: Compare, hp, pavilion, satellite, Toshiba, vs., which one