Decent laptop for the price
Written: May 19 '08
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Pros: - Cheap
- Windows Media Center
- Wide screen display
Cons: - Speakers could be better.
- No Trackball
- Gets hot fast.
The Bottom Line: Good cheap laptop. Good for someone to use as a 2nd machine or for basic stuff.
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| wogerwabbit9's Full Review: Hewlett Packard HP / Compaq Presario f579wm 1.7GHz... |
I bought this laptop as my home internet browsing and media laptop. I usually use my computer at home for some browsing, printing and watching movies on a flight. The biggest motivation for me was the price. I did not want to drop excess of $700 on a laptop which I would use occasionally at home or on the road. Plus, it was available as one of those thanksgiving blow out deals, so the extra discount helped my decision. :)
Windows Vista:
This PC comes with Windows Vista Home Premium installed on it which depending on your comfort level to adapting to a new OS can be good or bad. Initially, it was a pain to change over to the vista experience from being an XP user for 7 years. Especially the Vista security feature which asks you to "accept/decline" access to programs before it lets them do anything. But once you install and set up everything on your machine, it's not that bad. Also, the home premium comes with Windows Media Center so if you want to record tv shows on your computer all you need is a TV card and you are good to go. No fees for a DVR or a TiVo service.
15 inch Flat Screen:
I like the 15" Glossy Flat Screen especially for watching movies.
Sound not that great:
The sound card and the speakers on the laptop aren't that great. It would have been nice if with the glossy wide screen if they had put in better speakers. The experience is better if you use headphones.
No Trackball:
I have been a Thinkpad user for a while now and I love the trackball. Now without that trackball on this laptop I have to use the mouse pad. For some reason, it is too sensitive. When typing up documents, emails, if your wrist comes even a little close to the mouse pad, the cursor moves to a new position and you have to reset it. This is very annoying and definitely a design flaw. They have provided you a button over the mouse pad to switch it off if you want while typing but that really isn't a great solution, is it?
All in all, this is a great starter laptop for someone who either has a better machine (desktop/laptop) and wants another one or for someone who does not do a lot other than web browsing and MS Office stuff.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 315
Operating System: Windows
Processor: AMD Athlon (K7)
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
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Epinions.com ID:
wogerwabbit9
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Reviews written: 5
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