So, I have been trying to think of something good to make my
first blog post and review about, and I figured why not review the device I’m
typing it on? My laptop. I bought this machine about 3 weeks ago, and as it is
not my first computer that I’ve owner, it is my first laptop.
Compaq Presario cq56-219wm
Specs:
Intel Celeron 2.2ghz
2gb ddr2 Ram (pc6400)
250gb hdd
Windows 7 Home Premium 64 bit (Upgraded to Win. 7 Pro. 64
bit for $29 via student discount from Microsoft)
15.6 inch lcd tft display
Dvd r/w
3 usb ports, mic and headphone jacks, vga & earthnet
cable ports, built in microphone
What I like:
First of all, the price. I bought this thing for just over
$300 bucks and for 300 bucks I think I got a decent machine. There are a few
things missing (which I will get to in a second) but for the price I paid I’m
not complaining.
The battery life is pretty decent, I get about 4 hours
without the ac adapter plugged in and this is on wi-fi, without wi-fi I’m not
really sure because I’ve never taken it off my home wi-fi for any significant
amount of time. But like I said for the price I got it at, getting a little
more than 4 hours without being plugged in and on wi-fi, I’m happy.
The built in microphone is nice. Although there is no built
in webcam, I was surprised to find out that it has a built in microphone which I
actually have put to use in the past few days with Facebook’s new video chat
feature. Although the people I talk to can’t see me, they can still hear me and
that’s fine with me. I haven’t had any complaints about the mic level and
everyone I’ve talked to so far using it has said it sounds great.
The dvd/cd drive. Although dvd burners are pretty much
standard these days on desktops and laptops, the one that is built into this
Compaq laptop is surprisingly fast. I’ve only burned 1 dvd so far and that was
when doing a system recovery (don’t you love editing the wrong registry files?)
I created a backup of all my files and what not and did it in under 5 minutes,
and that’s including a dvd rip I had on my hard drive.
The color. It’s black. But it’s the real black. Not the “black”
that’s actually a dark gray. Now this may be a small thing but, to me, it
counts.
The speed. For only having 2gb ddr ram and an Intel Celeron cpu,
this machine is surprisingly very fast. I have installed FL Studio 10 on it and
I am able to edit and create & arrange music just fine with no stuttering
or skipping or any other problems that I expected to run into. Web browsing is
lightning fast, performing tasks and opening files and folders is also fast.
The boot time for me is under 40 seconds, which is nice.
The 15.6 inch widescreen display is very nice, and bright. When
using FL Studio it is so much nicer doing so with a widescreen display.
The recovery partition. Trust me, it comes in handy.
What I don’t like:
No webcam. What? I thought that was a laptop standard these
days? I guess not for $314 it isn’t…
No backlit keyboard. This is probably my biggest complaint
about this machine. I had to buy a USB powered lamp which is ok and it works
and I can configure it so that it doesn’t intrude on my view of the screen, but
I mean come on. And what’s worse is there are no backlit replacement keyboards
available that I could buy either.
All the trial software. Even before I purchased the laptop I
knew I was going to have to uninstall some annoying trialware, and although
there really isn’t that much, it’s still annoying. Some if was kind of nice
such as the free 60 days of Norton, and after I did my system recovery, it gave
me a fresh 60 days of Norton, so I guess if I never want to pay for anti-virus
software all I’d have to do is re-do my system every 59 days….
No recovery disks.. you have to order then separately from
HP. Although it does have the recovery partition, it’d still be nice to have it
on a disk so I can wipe over that partition and use that space. (not that I’d
ever use the 250 gigs I have anyways but still…)
Other than that, it’s a pretty solid machine. I would recommend
this for anyone who is on a budget and needs a laptop like I was. I will be getting
my student loan refund check in a couple of months and I plan to upgrade but
for now I am very happy with this machine. I will also be doing a review on
some of the external products I bought along with it!
