Excellent!
Written: Dec 19 '03
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Pros: Widescreen display is great! 80GB drive is wonderful! Wireless connectivity is superb!
Cons: None yet!
The Bottom Line: If you need a powerful notebook computer with advanced multimedia capabilities, at a reasonable price, get this computer!
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| mcmeadows1's Full Review: Compaq Presario X1015US (dn624a#aba) PC Notebook |
I have had this notebook computer now for three weeks (purchased on 29 NOV 03) and have used it for at least two or three hours each day.
The reason I purchased it was because I am going to work in Iraq for a year and I need a computer which will not only allow me to conduct business, but also allow me to watch DVDs, play games, store and process pictures and video from my digital video camera and, most importantly, communicate with my family and friends back here in the States.
The first thing which I truly enjoy about this notebook computer is its widescreen display (15.4" 1680 x 1050, 32 bit). Coupled with the ATI Mobility Radeon 9200 (64MB dedicated video RAM), the images look absolutely gorgeous! Text is crisp and sharp and all colors seem to be accurately displayed. Both still pictures and moving images are a joy to view. DVDs in particular are excellently rendered and imaged. In Microsoft Word, I can easily edit two full pages of text, side by side, and still have room for the toolbars on top and the cut and paste window pane on the right side of the screen, all at the same time! Cruising the internet, either with one window fully filling the screen or having two or more windows open at the same time, side by side, is extremely satisfying.
The Pentium-M 1.5 Ghz processor is fast! My desktop PC (HP Pavillion 754n) has a 2.4Ghz Pentium 4 and seems no faster than this computer.
Having 1GB of 266 2DM DDR RAM installed already eliminates the hassle of dealing with only 512MB or 768MB of RAM. Such a large amount of RAM allows more data, programs and system software to be loaded into memory at one time, increasing system performance and lessoning the number of times the system needs to access the hard drive.
The large hard drive (80GB) doesn't seem to be as slow as its 4,200 rpm specification would indicate. While I readily admit a 5,400, 7,200 or even 10,000 rpm would be nice, unless one is going to be accessing a database or manipulating one, the relatively slow hard drive is not an inconvenience at all, especially when coupled with the 1GB of RAM (see the previous paragraph). I readily accept the sacrifice of lower hard drive performance for the convenience of having 80GB worth of data storage built into the notebook. I honestly don't notice I am ever waiting for the system to access the hard drive.
The integrated Intel Pro/Wireless 2100 802.11b wireless LAN works beautifully and reliably, although I rarely stray further than 50 feet or so from my wireless access point. I am connected to the internet via a cable modem and accessing the internet via Wi-Fi is just as fast as if I connect via my desktop PC (HP Pavillion 754n) which is connected via a wired ethernet connection. I have noticed no interference problems from either my cordless telephone (2.4 Ghz) or my microwave, both of which are closer to the wireless access point than the place from which I primarily use my X1015US.
All the computer games (Diablo II, Halo, Morrowind, Myst III, Riven, Unreal Gold, Unreal Tournament, Warcraft III, etc.) I have installed on the X1015US run properly, are rendered exquisitely and are fast!
Battery life runs about 3.25 hours when using e-mail, internet and word processing software. Obviously, accessing either a CD or DVD will negatively impact battery life, but I have not yet tried watching a DVD movie on battery power alone so I can not comment on how long the battery will last in this situation.
The JBL Pro speakers are OK, but they lack bass. Given how close together they are, stereo imaging is very good. Let's face it, given the obvious size constraints notebook computers require, excellent sounding speakers are just not practical, if at all possible, in any notebook computer. I plan on using ear buds anyway. With that said, the speakers do sound better than the run-of-mill ones which are normally installed in notebook computers.
The fit and finish of all components is very tight and professional. Nothing seems to be cheap or cheaply manufactured. The unit runs very quietly, although the CD/DVD drive does make noise when accessing CDs. I do not notice noise when playing DVDs.
I have burned about 30 CD-Rs and all were burned at anywhere from 4x to 16x. I have not tried burning any DVDs.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1,800.00
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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Epinions.com ID:
mcmeadows1
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Reviews written: 4
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