What a great deal
Written: Apr 02 '05 (Updated Apr 14 '05)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Quality of Tech Support: |
|
|
|
Pros: Great price. Big bright screen. Nice keyboard. Lots of ports.
Cons: Big/heavy. 5-in-1 memory card reader does not support CompactFlash.
The Bottom Line: This is a great deal if you don't mind the extra weight/bulk. I would highly recommend it if you are in the market for a solid PC laptop.
|
|
|
| tkidd's Full Review: Hewlett Packard Compaq Presario R3000Z (DP533AV) P... |
My idea of Presario products has definitely changed with this laptop. In the past, my idea of Presario was cheap and crappy. This laptop is just the opposite. I purchased my laptop from hpshopping.com -- and I chose to built my own since there was a $50 instant rebate and a $30 mail-in rebate available. The estimated ship date for this laptop was April 8. It was delivered to my door step on March 31.
The first thing I noticed when I opened the laptop was the humongous 15.4" widescreen. It's big, bright and crystal clear. As I started using the laptop, I noticed how nice the keyboard is. It's not spongy like other laptops I've used -- it has a very nice feel to it. Screen brightness can be adjusted on the keyboard and there are other "easy access" keys that can be programmed with the included software.
There are plenty of ports on the laptop. 3 - USB2.0, parallel printer, external monitor, ethernet, modem and firewire. You must get the 64MB video option to get firewire. My laptop also can with the 802.11b/g wireless network option. The only thing that I can't just plug into this laptop are all my CompactFlash memory cards. The 5-in-1 memory card reader doesn't support CF cards.
This laptop is bulky and heavy compared to other laptop models. It weighs about 8 pounds but it's not too uncomfortable to use. It was the only affordable laptop I've been able to find that has an Athlon-64 processor so I'm not going to complain about the size of it.
I was worried about the battery life. Reading other user's stories about short battery life, I was assuming that I would get about 1 - 1.5 hours per charge. This lead me to order the 12-cell battery. I was shocked to find that I was able to get 3.5 - 4 hours of life from my battery. I wasn't using processor intensive applications during my test but I did use the wireless network card.
My configuration is as follows:
- Microsoft(R) Windows(R) XP Home Edition with SP2
(Why do you need XP Pro on a home machine?)
- AMD Athlon(TM) 64 3200+ 2.00 GHz
(This is a super fast processor but you can go faster or slower according to your budget.)
- 15.4" WXGA BrightView Widescreen (1280x800)
(They offer a slightly less expensive screen (non-brightview) and a more expensive screen with higher resolution.)
- 64MB NVIDIA(R) GeForce(TM) 4 440 Go + 1394
(Do not get the less expensive video option - you'll regret it.)
- 512MB DDR SDRAM (2x256MB)
(Don't go any lower than 512MB - I would recommend 1GB if you can afford it.)
- 80 GB 5400 RPM Hard Drive
(The standard drives are 4200RPM. Hard drives are the biggest bottle neck so get the fastest you can.)
- DVD+/-RW/R & CD-RW Combo w/Double Layer Support
(This option was $25 more than the single layer DVD burner.)
- 54g(TM) 802.11b/g WLAN w/ 125HSM/SpeedBooster(TM)
(Bluetooth is also available.)
- 12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
(The 6 cell battery is too small.)
- Microsoft(R) Works/Money
(This comes free with the system. MS Office is available but it is very pricey.)
- 3 year extended warranty
(Accident protection is offered. With any "home" models of computers, it is always a good idea to get an extended warranty.)
All of this came to $1355.75 before the $30 mail-in rebate.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1355.75
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Other
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: Greater than 15 inches
RAM: More than 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): Over 50
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
tkidd
|
|
Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.