Rating: 
Summary: Heavy and slow
Review: It may say 2.4 GHz, but as with most mobile Windows computers, the chip is detuned to get almost decent battery life, and even then the thing only gets a few hours before it needs recharging.So you end up with a mobile computer that has to be plugged in a lot. Wow. I returned mine and bought an iBook from Apple. Yes the chip is rated slower, but in real operations it runs as well as or better than this one, plus you get a real 6 hours from the battery between charges. That makes the iBook a REAL mobile computer. It took me a while, but I finally switched. I am glad I did ...
Rating: 
Summary: Overall Great laptop, but system hangs sometimes
Review: Overall this is a very powerful laptop and has an awesome display at 15" and SXGA, I'll NEVER buy anything less again. It looks great and although, it is heavy, I like being able to play my graphics intense games when I'm traveling. Battery life is rather short (approx 2 hours). My main concern is that my system hangs sometimes, and the only way to recover is to restart. I boots quickly, so when it hangs, I'm up and running within 45 seconds. If the hanging gets worse, I'll have it serviced, but overall, this laptop is great. Also the video card is dedicated memory, not sharred. The ATI radeon 7500 is a great laptop chip.
Overall, I'd still recommend this laptop.
Rating:
Summary: Overall Great laptop, but system hangs sometimes
Review: Overall this is a very powerful laptop and has an awesome display at 15" and SXGA, I'll NEVER buy anything less again. It looks great and although, it is heavy, I like being able to play my graphics intense games when I'm traveling. Battery life is rather short (approx 2 hours). My main concern is that my system hangs sometimes, and the only way to recover is to restart. I boots quickly, so when it hangs, I'm up and running within 45 seconds. If the hanging gets worse, I'll have it serviced, but overall, this laptop is great. Also the video card is dedicated memory, not sharred. The ATI radeon 7500 is a great laptop chip.
Overall, I'd still recommend this laptop.
Rating:
Summary: Almost great.
Review: The HP 1500 series is similar to the 900 series, though this higher end line uses the far superior Intel Pentium 4 chip as its CPU. The 1525 looks great, though it weighs in a little heavy at 7 lbs. The HP genes are apparent in its design and the result is pleasing. The CPU is an awe-inspiring 2.4 GHz P4, capable of more multi-tasking and graphics intense applications than most users will ever have a need for. The system memory is provided by a very fast 512 megs of DDRAM, easily doubled with another 512 slice. The hard drive is a generous 40 gigs. A DVD/CD-R/W combination drive is included. All the Compaq's connections are in the right place, though missing throughout the entire 15xx line is any USB 2.0 port. However, there are FireWire ports available, and these are quite fast for peripherals that are IEEE-1394 compliant (though it appears that USB 2.0 will be the winning technology in the high-speed peripheral connection protocol battle). The video card is an adequate ATI 32 megs (unfortunately, this is shared memory, not dedicated to video alone) driving a very sharp 15" active matrix display. (I am a fan of ATI graphics cards because they have been quite reliable over the long haul and because upgrading them from ATI's nice website is a snap. However, this machine should have been given 32 or 64 megs of *dedicated* video RAM) Overall, this is a very good machine that would be a great machine were it equipped with onboard USB 2.0 ports, a little beefier video memory, and were it to weight a pound or so less. Nonetheless, it's a winner made by a company that looks like it's here to stay.
Rating: 
Summary: The best in this price range
Review: There are two very comparable notebooks close enough in price to call a tie: the Compaq Presario 1525US and the Toshiba Satellite 1905-S303. On paper they look very similar: 2.4 GHz Pentium 4, 512MB RAM, 40GB hard drive, 15' screen, ATI Radeon graphics chipset (AKA M6-P). However a closer look gives the Compaq a slight edge. Screen: Both 15' but the Toshiba is 1024-by-768 pixels while the 1280-by-1024 pixels. To your eyes the Compaq will be sharper because there are more and smaller dots on the screen. This matters a lot more than you might think (the Compaq is much easier on the eyes). Weight: The Toshiba is 8.3 pounds, while the Compaq is 7.0 pounds. While neither is a lightweight, you will notice that extra 1.3 pounds if you carry your notebook around a lot. On other issues they are pretty much the same: great for any use other than high-end 3D games (very few notebooks are). Both are a little power hungry and don't have the best battery life (2-3 hours of good use). For more than that you need to spend a bit more on a notebook using a true P4-M processor (hands down the best notebook CPU ever made but it cost more). However these are very powerful mobile desktops that work great for those who have their notebooks plugged in most places they go. These machines will handle high-end computing tasks for many years to come, but the Compaq wins by virtue of its superior display.
Rating:
Summary: Good performer, once you get rid of XP Home
Review: This is great laptop that has some very nice features and a nice video display. That's about it. Windows XP Home for whatever reason does not seem to like the video driver that Compaq supplies with it. I face intermittent restart errors, usually while just browsing the web. Compaq is useless, as they have no clue what causes the problem. That's too bad, since XP is ruining a perfectly good PC. Get one, then wipe it clean and install either XP Pro or WIndows 2000.
Rating:
Summary: Good performer, once you get rid of XP Home
Review: This is great laptop that has some very nice features and a nice video display. That's about it. Windows XP Home for whatever reason does not seem to like the video driver that Compaq supplies with it. I face intermittent restart errors, usually while just browsing the web. Compaq is useless, as they have no clue what causes the problem. That's too bad, since XP is ruining a perfectly good PC. Get one, then wipe it clean and install either XP Pro or WIndows 2000.
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