First Impressions
Written: May 03 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: Big Screen, Speed, Everything is built in, Ease of setup, Quality of construction, Speakers
Cons: Size, Weight, price
|
|
|
| integracer's Full Review: Compaq Armada E700 (140262-121) PC Notebook |
My Compaq Armada arrived several days ago, to replace a Dell Inspiron. The Dell was plagued with problems and was being sent back to Dell every few months for repairs. I picked the Compaq because of their quality. I didn’t want it to be in the shop all the time.
My first impression was it’s size. At 2”x12.6”x10.35” it is not a compact laptop. This size might make it a less desirable choice for the traveler. I use mine primarily at a desk with at most 1 trip a month, therefore it should do nicely. The size is justified by tons of built in features. The modem and Ethernet card are built right in, No PC card needed. But there are 2 PC card slots if need be. The built in modem/network card eliminate the flimsy plugins for phone cord that typically break on laptops. There are 2 well placed conventional jacks. The screen is HUGE at 15.1” and will be great for viewing DVD’s on. (An adapter is included to hook your TV up too) Another advantage of the size, the DVD and floppy drives are able to be in at once, no swapping. Also, you can remove one or both to add any number of things. The large size also allows a biggish keyboard. Also, it seems to be built like a tank. Solid and rugged.
Turning it on for the first time, the Compaq basically sets it self up. Just answer a few questions and let it chug away. A few minutes later, it is all set. In addition to the operating system, it also comes with many applications to manage the computer’s resources and hardware. I haven’t figured out what they all do yet, but it is nice to see them there watching over. It takes a little while to get used to the little mouse nub thing in-between the keys. Also, the first time I heard the seemingly tiny speakers, I had to turn around to see if my stereo accidentally got turned on. They sound amazing, almost 3D. As for performance, the thing is great. Programs load lightning quick compared to my old 233 MHz machine. The graphics card with 8 megs onboard memory it great! I installed Microsoft Flight Simulator 2000, and was able to use the best graphics settings smoothly. Memory without upgrading is adequate for now. I would recommend additional RAM. I got 384 megs, but will probably go up to the 576 meg max eventually. Whether you need as much power as this machine’s got, depends. I say yes always, because eventually any computer will start to become obsolete. If you get the most power you can when you buy it, then it will be useful longer. I plan on doing some AutoCAD, math processing and other engineering applications, so you can never overkill.
The bottom line is it is great so far. I have been nothing but pleased and satisfied. I will let you know more soon once I have been using it for a while.
Recommended:
Yes
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
integracer
|
|
Member: Justin
Location: Boston, MA
Reviews written: 16
Trusted by: 8 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.