1700 US Happy after resolving some issues !
Written: Jan 09 '02
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Pros: Thin, rugged, sleek designing, price and features. screensize, battery life.
Cons: Processor warm on left hand and no legacy jacks. Some flakey software.
The Bottom Line: A great internet PC, non legacy notebook, thin and sleek design, good battery, solid consruction feel, reliable and no crashes. Burns CDs. 10/100, USB, Modem.
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| dougmjones's Full Review: Compaq Presario 1700-XL275 |
I was blown away with getting a 1700 US with CDRW/DVD, 20gb HD, large screen, Pentium III 850 all for well under 1500 dollars with a discount I recieved.
The delivery was excellent and packaged well and I was very impressed with the solid feel, rugged feel and texture of the outside, the rugged latch on the screen to keep it closed and the general quality and workmanship was excellent. Not as boxy looking and generic as some of the Microns and others I have seen. I like it alot.
This notebook is very thin and has the USB, phone and power on rear. The combo DVD/CDRW in on the right hand side and hot swaps with the floppy with windows running. This works very well.
The keyboard feels nice but the Pentium III starts to feel a little warm after a long session. Your left hand might get a little sweaty in the palm. There are nice volume controls and hot buttons on the top of the keyboard for internet, email, volume and a few other extras.
The mouse pointing device is decent but I highly recommend a Targus optical usb scroll wheel for notebooks. Working in a hotel and remotely might be alot easier with a real mouse in your bag. This also reduces much wear from the buttons and pointer built into the laptop. I noticed after heavy usage the buttons on the keyboard for the mouse dont work as well as they did when it was new. So this mouse is good for long sessions of surfing and mousing.
I would report on the maximum battery cycle but this one seems to last very well and having zero trouble surviving with just one battery pack.
When I first recieved the Presario with Windows ME it crashed at least 3-4 times within the first 30 minutes of opening the box. I finally gave up on ME and loaded Windows2000 and PowerDVD, EZ CD Creator 5 Platinum and it has been the most solid laptop you could imagine. It is solid as a rock. I added some ram to it from www.crucial.com as I do with all my systems and it has been a great notebook.
I would buy another in a heartbeat but I wont be able to get my discount on another for a while. What a pleasant surprize this product was. As long as you load a solid operating system with all the right drivers and updates you should run good.
The modem and ethernet drivers have to come from Compaq web site. The PCMCIA card slots are free and open since the modem and ethernet are built in.
Some of the software they give you for it is a little hoaky. It also came with a 29.95 free Windows XP upgrade but I havent installed yet.
Windows XP seems very reliable and I am certain it will run very well on this notebook and be very solid like Windows 2000 is at this time.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1400
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: 801-900
Screen Size: 14
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 21-30
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Epinions.com ID:
dougmjones
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Location: Atlanta , Ga
Reviews written: 78
Trusted by: 24 members
About Me:
Computers, Music, Quality toys and gadgets. Like to review products that I demo or purchase.
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