Best Laptop for the Money.
Written: Jul 09 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Real Pentium III, 14.1" TFT screen, DVD, TV-OUT
Cons: only 6.4GB hard drive, no cables provided for TV OUT, only 1 PCMCIA slot.
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| andruzzo's Full Review: Compaq Presario 1600XL145 (A64028-003) PC Notebook |
I recently was in the market for a computer. I've always been
a 'desktop' computer person...I never had a real need for a laptop.
Sure, I've always had a desire to have one, it is the ultimate gadget.
However, laptops tend to be very pricey and unless you really
need one they're not worth spending the money.
This was all fine and dandy until I recently came across this Presario.
The first thing that attracted me was the price. It was advertised
for about $2299.00 US.. I thought at first that it would be a 'low end'
laptop to entice people into buying. On closer inspection, I noticed it
had some advanced features that I had only seen in much more expensive
laptops:
-Intel Pentium III (I prefer to stick with Intel). This laptop
is faster than my desktop machine. It runs everything without
problems. From Office to Visual C++ compilations, to Diablo II!
-64MB RAM (expandable to 320MB. The first thing I bought was
a Kingston Technologies 64MB module. It popped in easily
and I got 128MB instantly.
-6.4 GB Hard DRive. IT's a good size but more would be better.
Turns out that you can get upgrade hard drives from Kingston
technology, all the way up to 25GB, so it's good to know
that there is support by 3rd party manufacturers and that it's
upgradeable.
-Floppy built in
-6 X DVD built-in (some laptops don't have the ROM and the floppy built-in
but this one does!). The DVD plays all movies that I have put in and
doesn't complain. On the LCD screen, the movies look great. However,
by using the TV out, the quality is not as good as a dedicated DVD
home player. But when you're on a trip, this will keep you occupied
(or the kids in the back seat!). One thing that I was surprised with
was that Compaq did not supply the appropriate cables for the TV
out functionality. You basically have to get your own RCA cable
and an RCA Y-cable for the audio to hook up everything. I expected
better support for this functionality.
-Lithium Ion Battery (means that it lasts longer and the battery itself
can be charged/recharged hundreds more times than a NiMh.) Lithium
Ion Batteries are known as 'memoryless' meaning that they give
you full charge time through their entire life.
-JBL speakers
-Can play audio CDs without having to turn on the laptop!!! This is
a great function. When you're on a plane, you can pop in a CD, plug
in your headphones (or not) and use the cd control buttons to listen
to audio...without having to boot Windows!
-14.1" TFT screen! This screen provides a GREAT amount of viewing area
and almost extends to the end of the enclosure. The Trident
video card allows a resolution fo 1024X768 at 32Bit color depth. It
is such a bright screen and is viewable from pretty much any angle.
Also, the trident video card has 3D graphics acceleration that supports
pretty much any game out there.
-TV out functionality. This is a very useful thing to have and don't
let anyone tell you otherwise. I can't remember how many times I needed
to give a presentation on my laptop and did not have an LCD projector.
With the TV out functionality you can use a simple TV and display
your desktop on its screen. Very useful. Bravo Compaq!
-Built-in FAX/Modem. This of course, is standard on any laptop nowadays.
There is no built-in network card but that to me is a good thing because
I like to select my own network card instead of being forced to use
the one the manufacturer provides.
The biggest complaint I have with this laptop is the fact that it only
has ONE PCMCIA slot!! The network card I bought works great in it, sure,
but if I ever want to install something like an external drive, I'll
have to remove the network card to use it. There should have been
two PCMCIA slots, no ifs ands or buts about it. The other negative
thing is that Compaq does not provide the full install disk to
Windows 98 SE! Tell me that isn't ridiculous? I obviously
paid for the OS but the full CD is not provided....instead they
provide a 'rescue cd'. I've had Windows crash before, and believe
me when I tell you that nothing other than a full re-install could
'rescue' the OS!
All in all, I'm very happy with this laptop and everyone who has
sat in front of it has drooled. Of course, there are more expensive
latops that are more fancy, lighter, have more HD, more MEM faster
CPU, etc....but in the end they end up costing about 50% more!
After much research and comparisons, I kept coming back to this Compaq.
It provides the most functionality and options for the money and
beats many others that cost hundreds more. So I bought it...for $200
less than advertised after some haggling. I suggest
you search as much as possible and you'll eventually come to the
same conclusion that I did!
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
andruzzo
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Reviews written: 26
Trusted by: 9 members
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