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Rating: 
Summary: Presario X1000: A Complete Package
Review: The Lowdown: The Compaq Presario X1000 comes in several interations. The one I bought is officially the X1015US, which comes with an 80Gb hard drive, 1Gb of RAM, a wide format SXGA+ screen, a 64 Mb Mobility Radeon 9200 video chip, and a DVD+R burner. All of the X1000's also come with three USB 2.0 sockets, a socket for a secure digital card, Intel Centrio technology and are Wi-Fi ready with a built in antenna and software. Advantages: (1)This computer has amazing battery life. Using the computer with demanding graphics programs I get an average of 3.7 hours. Word processing, I get an average of 4.5 hours. Not bad. (2) The X1000 is quiet, without all the annoying fan noise of the typical Pentium 4 laptop. Besides this, the Centrino technology creates much less heat making the notebook much more enjoyable to use on your lap if necessary. (3) The screen is nothing short of incredible. It is actually a joy to look at, which is more than I can say about any notebook computer I have owned up to this point. (4) The so called SuperDrive (CD-DVD-CD/DVD burner) works extremely well. The fact that it is a DVD+R was great for me because my Dell at work is a DVD+R also. (5) The Wi-Fi technology. Within minutes I was ready to go with T-Mobile and now when I visit Starbucks before my graduate classes, I can surf the net at T-1 speed! I love it! (6) The built in speakers are actually good to listen to. Most notebook speakers are lousy, but these are the first that I don't mind putting in a CD and listening to without getting out the headphones. (7) The keyboard layout, particularly the touchpad. Compaq (HP) smartly makes a special section of the touchpad for scrolling, separating it from the rest of the touchpad by a raised ridge. Nice, but the best part is you can easily turn off the touch pad when typing with a lighted button. This is a convenient feature I use every day to avoid those annoying occurences when my thumb causes my curser to wander around the screen. (8) The 64 Mb graphic chip runs games much better than my brand new Dell desk top. It is truly amazing to see. Disadvantages: (1) It would have been smarter to place the socket for the power cord in the back of the unit. (2) The recovery time from hibernation is somewhat slow (3) The warranty is only for a year (though you can purchase longer). Support: I have been pretty impressed of late by HP (Compaq) support. Both the online chat support and the phone support have been excellent, at least in my experience. Sure, you get someone from around the globe, but the people have been knowledgable and have actually called me back when they said they would! I purchased my X1000 at CompUSA and their support is also quite good. Overall Feel: The X1000 is sleek and wide, but thin enough so as not to feel bulky. It easily slips into my padded notebook case. The 17" notebooks are too huge to be easily transportable in my opinion, but the X1000 is nearly perfect: offering a 15.4" screen and being only slightly over an inch thick. I highly recommend this notebook to anyone who does a lot of graphics work and wants a computer that is fast, silent and Wi-Fi ready.
Rating:
Summary: Presario X1000: A Complete Package
Review: The Lowdown: The Compaq Presario X1000 comes in several interations. The one I bought is officially the X1015US, which comes with an 80Gb hard drive, 1Gb of RAM, a wide format SXGA+ screen, a 64 Mb Mobility Radeon 9200 video chip, and a DVD+R burner. All of the X1000's also come with three USB 2.0 sockets, a socket for a secure digital card, Intel Centrio technology and are Wi-Fi ready with a built in antenna and software. Advantages: (1)This computer has amazing battery life. Using the computer with demanding graphics programs I get an average of 3.7 hours. Word processing, I get an average of 4.5 hours. Not bad. (2) The X1000 is quiet, without all the annoying fan noise of the typical Pentium 4 laptop. Besides this, the Centrino technology creates much less heat making the notebook much more enjoyable to use on your lap if necessary. (3) The screen is nothing short of incredible. It is actually a joy to look at, which is more than I can say about any notebook computer I have owned up to this point. (4) The so called SuperDrive (CD-DVD-CD/DVD burner) works extremely well. The fact that it is a DVD+R was great for me because my Dell at work is a DVD+R also. (5) The Wi-Fi technology. Within minutes I was ready to go with T-Mobile and now when I visit Starbucks before my graduate classes, I can surf the net at T-1 speed! I love it! (6) The built in speakers are actually good to listen to. Most notebook speakers are lousy, but these are the first that I don't mind putting in a CD and listening to without getting out the headphones. (7) The keyboard layout, particularly the touchpad. Compaq (HP) smartly makes a special section of the touchpad for scrolling, separating it from the rest of the touchpad by a raised ridge. Nice, but the best part is you can easily turn off the touch pad when typing with a lighted button. This is a convenient feature I use every day to avoid those annoying occurences when my thumb causes my curser to wander around the screen. (8) The 64 Mb graphic chip runs games much better than my brand new Dell desk top. It is truly amazing to see. Disadvantages: (1) It would have been smarter to place the socket for the power cord in the back of the unit. (2) The recovery time from hibernation is somewhat slow (3) The warranty is only for a year (though you can purchase longer). Support: I have been pretty impressed of late by HP (Compaq) support. Both the online chat support and the phone support have been excellent, at least in my experience. Sure, you get someone from around the globe, but the people have been knowledgable and have actually called me back when they said they would! I purchased my X1000 at CompUSA and their support is also quite good. Overall Feel: The X1000 is sleek and wide, but thin enough so as not to feel bulky. It easily slips into my padded notebook case. The 17" notebooks are too huge to be easily transportable in my opinion, but the X1000 is nearly perfect: offering a 15.4" screen and being only slightly over an inch thick. I highly recommend this notebook to anyone who does a lot of graphics work and wants a computer that is fast, silent and Wi-Fi ready.
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