re: i7-4700MQ vs A10-5750M processors

That's actually a difficult decision, especially with the work you're planning to do with it. Are you going to be using those programs often (hours a day)? Is its performance in those particular programs of the utmost importance?

I ask because the CPU performance will be the most important feature, and the 4700MQ's single-threaded performance is 50% better than that A10, and in multi-threaded applications, the 4700MQ would be close to twice as fast as the A10, and just a teeny tiny bit more power efficient.

What the A10 has going for it is the superior integrated graphics, hence the 1080p panel. It's a good option for an entertainment laptop (maybe even for very, very light gaming). It's a difficult choice, because the low-res screen kind of sucks for image-editing work but would give you far superior performance.

If we're talking about heavy editing work as part of your job, neither laptop is all that great of a choice. Does it have to be from Costco? Retail brick-and-mortar store models are often configured so strangely.