Great Laptop!
Written: Apr 22 '02
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Pros: DVD/CD-RW combo drive and large screen in a light/small package.
Cons: None
The Bottom Line: Lightweight laptop that can replace your desktop machine.
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| inspire's Full Review: Compaq Presario 1710T PIII 1.13GHz / 30GB / 128MB ... |
This is a laptop that works great as a desktop replacement, and is relatively easy to carry around everyday.
My specific configuration is PIII 1.13 GHz/512MB/20GB. I purchased the computer during a promotion and received a Leather carrying case, extra battery, and flat panel Monsoon speakers. From researching other laptops at the time, this was actually the least expensive laptop for the features compared to Dell, Micron, Fujitsu, and Sony.
Upon opening the box that was delivered, I found everything easily marked and was able to have it up and running in 10 minutes. The package included the Laptop, AC Adapter, DVD/CD-RW combo drive, floppy drive, battery, and a blank insert for the media drive and associated pamphlets and restore cdroms.
I am very pleased with the laptop. Unfortunately, you cannot have both the floppy drive and combo DVD/CD-RW drive in at the same time. Which doesn't bother me too much since I barely use a floppy drive, but there have been situations where people have given me a floppy.
The ports on the left rear include the power port, firewire, headphone and microphone ports. The middle rear area is covered by a plastic piece that flips open to reveal a printer port, monitor and an S-Video port. The right rear area includes the LAN, modem and 2 USB ports.
Unfortunately there are no keyboard or mouse ports so you are out of luck if you have such devices. You can easily enough connect USB items, as I have bought a USB mouse to use instead of the mouse pad, which I could never get used to (I just cover it up with a sticky note).
The screen is ample at 14.1" and can display at 1024x768 with 8mb of Video ram. I have a 19" monitor at my desk that I sometimes connect with and it works great for graphics work. I've also been able to connect relatively easily to a projector for meetings.
The unit comes with two JBL speakers that are pointed forward toward the user. I have to say that it sounds pretty good compared to other laptop speakers without too much distortion.
This unit runs hot compared to a 1 GHz Fujitsu that my colleague has. The fan is located on the left rear side and blows hot air to the left. The fan comes on when the temperature hits a certain degree. It would be nice to be able to set it so that it comes on more frequently to keep things cool since the fan is so quiet anyways. I have a feeling the amount of heat that it generates causes it the black out sometimes when I do heavy graphics work with Photoshop and Illustrator.
Overall, I would highly suggest this laptop to power users that are always on the go. It is relatively heavy duty, although I haven't dropped it, its been man handled by luggage carriers and as a result has a few cracks in the case. This unit is comparable to many high end units from Dell, Sony, Micron, and Gateway. With a form factor that is 1.3" thick and as light as 5.1 lbs, this is a rather lightweight laptop with heavyweight features.
Unfortunately I haven't had the need to call for tech support on this particular unit, so I can't comment on that aspect.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 2200.00
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 14
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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Epinions.com ID:
inspire
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Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
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