Just my 2 cents. I've been playing guitar for a LONG time. Never pro, only casual, casual enough to play local city events with a band I had in high school. We hung out the music store and the owner let us use his equipment which actually turned out to be free advertising for him.
My choice then was Gibson, Jackson, BC Rich (not in that order) I have always been fan of Ovation (for acoustic) and I bought one off eBay for around 300 bucks (good deal if you ask me) it was green flame, shallow bowl maple leaf finish. Very rich sounding but I digress.
After a while, I kept my like for Gibson and Jackson/Charvel, but dropped BC Rich and went with Peavy. Peavy's were really nice and still are.
Regardless of your play style (imo) a good acoustic is always a good investment and sometimes cheaper than good electrics (but not always the case, you really pay for quality, especially if you buy new) considering you normally buy the guitar with an amp. For learning and just starting out, you also might want to consider a nice acoustic instead.
Unsure how your learning is going to go if your going to jump straight into power chords, etc, but learning acoustics was usually a first step.
Currently all I have now is my ovation. I will be buying an electric soon so I can reminise a few chords of the songs I used to play but the investment of guitar + amp + pedals is a bit much for a fad I went through long ago.
Between your 2 choices, I don't like either personally. That's just a personal choice I can't play comfortably on either. I've tried similar ones in the store and could not play with either. They're both nice guitars as far as quality goes, but quality means sheot if you can't play on them.
You need to go through the guitars and find one that fits you, feels good, feels natural.
Give you an example, I love Jackson flying V's but I'll never own one because I don't like playing on them. I can play on it, but for long times I can't stand it. I found a straight strato style peavey was the best choice (14 years ago) as the neck was the right width, it had the right amount of action, the thickness of the neck was comfortable, I can reach all the frets, I didn't strain my wrist while reaching for notes, the sound was phenominal and it played nice. A similar Jackson/Charvel with only a minor size in the neck caused strain.
Play each one, try different ones. Chances are though, (my experience) you can buy a good quality guitar now, but as your skill progresses and you develop into a playing style, you may end up changing guitars anyway because the one you have doesn't suit or doesn't feel right anymore.
With that in mind, I would also suggest, buy a good one now (not saying buying a walmart brand but a resonable quality one), buy a much better one when you've honed your skill enough to warrant getting a really good quality. One can say getting a crappy one now then buying a good one later would cause you to spend more money than if you bought a good one now, but the opposite of this is also true, buying a good one now then finding out you can't play on it later would prompt you to buy a better one later so your still paying a lot.
Get a good one, just not a "Good" one until you're ready.
