Compaq Presario 1510US - P4 2.2 GHz - RAM 512 MB - HDD 40 GB - CD-RW / DVD - Mobility Radeon - Win XP Home - 15" TFT 1024 x 768 ( XGA )
Average Customer Rating
(2.5 out of 5)
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(4 out of 5)Fast, loaded and ready to rock!
I recently purchased this computer for my father's retirement gift and set it up, played with it for a few days and have kept up with the status of it. I must say I am quite impressed.
The 2.2 GHz Intel Pentium 4 is mighty speedy - especially for a notebook in this price range. The 512 MB DDR DRAM is more than plenty of memory for most users of laptops as is the 40 GB Hard Drive. I appreciate that it has a CD-RW with DVD-ROM (same drive). We watched a DVD on it and there were absolutely no degredation in play as the video card has sufficient memory on it already. We got the Windows XP Professional version to do advanced networking. While it is shipped with Norton Anti-Virus, it is only a 90 day trial so go ahead and purchase your anti-virus elsewhere to save cash. One thing I really enjoy is the 15.0 inch active-matrix display. It is clear and crisp with no blemishes. You also have the standard floppy drive, modem and network connections and all else you expect.
... I also appreciate the sleak look of brushed aluminum with the black plastic. Very sheek!
However, with all that is good, I always try to make an effort to include the downsides:
* I immediately noticed that when it shuts down, it automatically reboots itself. I've gone into the CMOS settings and cannot find a way to fix that and have tried elsewhere. My father has the computer now and will call Compaq support if he too cannot figure out why we can't have it shut down for good upon completion of the session. We just hit the power button when it goes to reboot.
* The software is average but most will want better. MS Works is sufficient but lacking. Money is okay but I'm partial to better. The encyclopedia is just a dang link to the web! In addition, as is traditional with Compaq, you get all the extra [stuff] that comes with it. This time I noticed that they have gone deeper and added tons of Yahoo! links and Yahoo! messenger everywhere. It took time for me to rid the computer of this. Minor inconvenience unless you like all that stuff up there.
* Back flap - there's a back flap that snaps to cover up connections. It's fairly flimsy and I see where it may eventually break off in the near future. I don't see the purpose of it whatsoever.
* Battery - Has good life (lasted us about 3.25 hours at one sitting). However, it's heavy and the laptop isn't the lightest in the world though I've had heavier.
Overall, I think it is a good buy! ...Despite the negatives, I still give it a rating of 4 stars because the positives do overshadow the negatives.
Go for it!
(3 out of 5)RUNS HOT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
This laptop runs very hot, Penium 2.2 Ghz makes a lot of HEAT that is why after a while it will be hard to keep this laptop on legs, or stomache.
If you want to buy cooler Laptop buy slower Laptop.
1.6Ghz or 1.4Ghz will do just fine for your needs!
(5 out of 5)True Powerful Laptop You Can Get Now
I got this computer 3 weeks ago now. First of all, I think for a laptop, it is very comprehensively designed. When you take it out of the box, it is almost ready to use, just following simple procedures and it is ready to run.
What I can say is if you really want to replace a desktop using this, it might not be very satisfactory. I bought this computer for use in school and I also have a desktop that I built myself. The desktop is a AMD XP 2100+, 1G DDR333 Ram, Geforce Ti4600, Sound Blaster Audigy Platinum, Yamaha 5.1 set speaker, etc..... Im also a really die hard gamer. For this laptop, I would think it's not even close to as fast as the desktop. I guess the bottleneck here is still the Radeon 7500 itself, it is just acceptable for 3D games at 1024x768. I think even the GEForce DDR with a 1G desktop that I had before offered the same performance in gaming. The 15" SVGA+ LCD Display that this laptop is equiped with, I would only give it 3.5/5. Yes, it support higher resolution (1400x1050) which is higher than other laptops. However, when you try to lower the resolution for games(Direct 3D, OpenGL) and desktop (DirectDraw), the words becomes a little blurry and the color is just not as good as when it is set to 1400x1050. I think that this LCD display is really built to use at this resolution only. Next is the CDRW/DVD Combo Drive. It offers 8X for DVD and 8X/8X/24X for CDRW. I think its definitely not very fast and the noise is pretty loud when it operates. The sound system built into it I would say its just okay. Can't expect too much with such small speakers although its from JBL, you still get distortions at loud volumes. The battery is something that is a breakthrough, because it lasts almost 2 hrs in normal usage. One of the reason is that the Radeon display would adjust its speeds according to what you are doing to save power. For the keyboard and touchpad, I would say it's just average, but the buttons on the top are quite convienient especially the volume keys. The harddrive is only 40GB which could have been more I think and it is not quite fast either.
There is also a IEEE1394 port built in and a multiport module for Wireless Lan, Bluetooth etc, but seems they are not available yet. The IEEE 1394 is quite useful because I can connect it up to the SB Audigy and it offers very fast file transfers. The laptop came with a lot of softwares too but I don't find it too useful for myself so I just uninstalled them to save some HD space, maybe some ppl would find it useful.
Maybe I shouldn't compare it with a desktop but it seems it is one of selling point of this laptop. What I can say is I still prefer my desktop. In this price range you can get a much better one. But if you absolutely need the mobility I would say this is a good choice. Things that could be done to make this laptop better is for Compaq to use the GEforce 4 GO display Im sure the performance would be much better and also a bigger harddrive would be nice. I would say the quality of the built of this laptop is average, not the most solid you can get, the silver is just painted on in the outside, Im sure it would wear out a bit even with care. But I still give this a 5 star because I think thats about how much you can expect from a laptop considering its size too, it's really acceptable. Go for this if you need the mobility and power!
(5 out of 5)NICE LAPTOP
I really like this laptop first of all it has 2.2 ghz which is really fast and 512mb ddr ram which I like alot. I have been using this computer now for 4 days and it hasn't crashed yet. It's really stable. I like the dvd/cdrw drive good for watching movies and making your own cd's. This computer is a little heavy as some other laptops and my battery lasts for 2 hours or so I don't know why, maybe it's because I don't leaVe it charged all the time but n e ways that's how long it lasts mostly all the time. It has a 15" display which is really nice. I give this computer an A+ because it is fast and I like it alot, I use it as my desktop replacement at home and enjoy it. Go buy it already! A++ :-)
(2 out of 5)Careful what you buy this computer for.
I bought the 1510 US for work on cpu intensive stuff. Raytracing and BSP map compiling and other 3d applications. I was able to use the computer for a few months without much of a problem, but also I wasn't using the 3d software much in these first few months. After I began using the 3d software the computer began to shut off without warning. There were no logs or errors or anything. I called compaq tech support who couldn't figure out what the problem was and they insisted that it must be software related and refused to do anything warrantyish with the machine. So I call Microsof pay per incident, who determined that the computer was overheating.
I called back compaq and told them what Microsoft had to say and compaq finally decided to take the computer back for repairs. I got the computer back in about a week and a half. Not too bad for a hardware warranty repair turn-around time.
The computer worked for a few months and is now overheating again and shutting off unexpectedly. I've talked to compaq tech support who are telling me I need to update the bios. So I'll be doing that and hopefully the computer will be able to work properly.
Compaq claims that the 1510US should be able to run any software application I want it too. But it is overheating with the cpu intensive stuff. I'm able to keep the computer from shutting down with a large fan pointed at the back of the machine. But without it the computer shuts off.
I hate the prospect of having to argue with Compaq tech support again in order to get the computer repaired. If I had known I was going to be left without a computer this often or that tech support would treat me like a pebble in their shoe then I would never have waisted my time or money on this computer.