The Compaq Presario Notebook 2500 series offers true mobile innovation, high performance, multimedia and connectivity functionality. Designed for excellent desktop performance, the... more
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A review by abdulhas90 on Compaq Presario 2500 June 21st, 2004
Author's product rating:
Speed
Very fast
Look & Feel
Excellent
Comfort & Portability
Poor
Robustness & Durability
Excellent
Value For Money
Excellent
Advantages:
Fast proccessor, quick and efficient, designed for windows xp, shock proof, takes little room, highest technology, good gaming laptop .
Disadvantages:
HEAVY ! (3 . 5 kg), consumes too much battery power,
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
The Compaq Presario 2500 laptop- the ultimate desktop replacement. You cannot find a laptop better than this one at such a low price- considering the power of such a device. If you were looking for a laptop that could take the place of a family desktop, then feast your eyes on THIS hunk of power!
The Presario 2500 is an exceptionally good laptop. It has been designed for speed using the latest technology available....in 2002. There ARE much better laptops provided by Compaq, but the prices are exceedingly high. If you have an intermediate budget, and you were aiming for a laptop with a strong and fast proccessor, then the Compaq Presario 2500 is the one for you. Unless you are a 3D game developer, you will not need a better laptop.
The amount of space available on the laptop is not that much, but unless you are going to store 40 movies in the laptop (like me), you wont need more. Even if you think you have too much programs, 40 GBs of space will be enough for the most space consuming software. I own the Presario 2500, and even though i had ALOT of software, i only used up a small fraction of the drive...until i discovered i could store movies in the laptop, that is.
Speaking of space, you have to start thinking about memory. The Presario 2500 comes with 256MB of DDR RAM. If are not a computer geek like me and you didnt understand what i just said, then look at it this way. A VERY large game runs using about 100MBs of DDR RAM. Windows runs using about 70MBs of DDR RAM. So you will still have enough memory to run more programs including running a memory consuming game. But some people need more memory. Me- i consider the Presario 2500 to NOT contain enough memory. Thats why I increased the memory to 512Mbs of DDR RAM. So if you are a user who may run many programs at once, then I'd reccommend you get a memory upgrade. It does not cost much- buying a laptop with the same specifications + 512MBs of DDR RAM will cost MUCH more than just buying an upgrade.
Overall Speed and Performance: As i was saying, the Presario 2500 uses a Pentium 4 Proccessor of 2.66 GHz (can be upgraded to 2.8GHz for an increase of about 100$ in payment). In terms of power, this is very powerfull. But that is ALL. It does not DEFINE the speed. A 2.66Ghz proccessor with low memory (32/64 ddr ram) is satisfactory. A 2.8 GHz with low memory is BETTER. 256 MB of DDR RAM is considered moderate- not very high nor very low. This makes the overall speed very high. This is a very powerfull and fast laptop- but do not try and compare it with the latest gaming laptops. they can get up to 1GB of memory and 3.4GHz! But remember that these laptops cost MORE than double the price of this laptop. Although they are called the 'Ultimate Gaming' laptops, this laptop is also perfect for all you gamers out there. The Presario 2500 contains the latest technology from ATI systems- the Radeon 9600, 128 Mb. This is MORE than good enough for the games requiring the most power. I have played many games on my Presario 2500 in my time, and all of them require high tech proccessors. They all ran perfectly and smoothly. So if you want to play a game- no matter what you choose, the Presario 2500 will be able to perform...
There is a catch. All that power must lead to something. Weight. And battery power. The laptop needs a rather large proccessor to make it so powerfull, which is why the laptop is so heavy. 3.5Kg! Unless you are a weight lifter, you will find trouble carrying it around with you all day-I myself have faced the consequences! The batteries....yeees...the batteries. To provide the power, the battery is used up VERY quickly. A battery survives an average of 2:30 hours. 4 hours seriously TOPS. That is bad- most laptops' batteries survive 8 hours! So if you travel alot, then get more than just one battery.....
The laptop was designed to be mobile....but its weight wasnt. But to make up, the laptop has MANY good features, such as the abilty to check your email, search, find help, or lock your laptop with the press of one button at the top, each clearly illustrated.
You wont need an instruction manual- i hardly read mine, because you can access the INTEGRATED instruction manual on the laptop itself! Cool eh?
The shape and design of the laptop is very cool, but it is a bit too thick. This is probably because it is SHOCK PROOF. Now, i doubted it at first: but my laptop fell from my hand a distance of 1 metre to the hard wood floor. Nuthing happened. So dont worry to much about hurting the baby...!
FLOPPY DRIVE! There is a floppy drive available in this laptop! Although this may sound weird, but MANY laptops do not come with 3.5"Floppy Drives!
Firewire, USB, Infra-red These are the available ways to connect with other devices. There are 3 USB ports, and internal infra-red. There is also a firewire port for connections with cameras. Although there is no bluetooth, there is a port where a bluetooth card can be bought and installed.
The screen is quite large- but not too large. it uses XGA technology so that the screen would appear clear at almost extreme angels...now even the person next to you can see the screen clearly!
It also comes with a cd-rw for your own cd writing needs. but i reccommend getting a an internal cd-rw/dvd-rw combo drive to replace it with, unless you are on low budget.
Here are a few specs about it that you might want to know:
Advantages: Versatility, speed, ease of use Disadvantages: CAPITAL LETTERS, plastic lid catches
...TECHNICAL STUFF
The Compaq Presario 2500 is fitted with a 2.52GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor which gives excellent accessibility and speed. It can be temperamental, with start up times ranging from the sublimely fast to the somewhat lethargic.
Once started though, the processor allows fluid and rapid movement between programs with great multitasking.
At 30Gb the hard drive could be bigger. I curently use only 2.5Gb for all the programs I need, ... ...lot more, and so want more. However, with the 27Gb left at my dsiposal I can't foresee a hard drive capacity shortage in the near future.
This machine is fitted with 384Mb of RAM, although 64Mb are shared with the ATI Radeon Graphics package. As far as I know, this combination is big enough to play just about every game currently on the market, and for people who just want a home office with the ability to web surf, there shouldn't be a problem.
...
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Advantages: Very powerful and Cheap Disadvantages: Bad battery longevity and NOISY
I bought this laptop about 2 years ago now so it is pretty outdated by the speed at which the industry is moving. I got is cheap in a PC world January sale for £299 and as far as I am concerned it has done everything that I have asked it to within reason. I originally bought it for school work and in that respect it has had no problems, I also like to play games and only now are games coming into the market which it can't play mainly because it only ... ...to 512MB which should be enough for use in almost anything you would need to do on a laptop. Its bigger + is its speed which with a Pentium 4 Processor at 2.66GHz this is very fast and powerful. A lot of laptops you buy today bearing in mind that this is 2-3 years old don't even have 2GHz so it is still in the top of its game in power. It comes with 40Gb of hard disk space which is enough to store all the software you would require and only starts ...
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Advantages: Good functional desktop replacement Disadvantages: Fans frequently shorten battery life
In 2+ years of use I have found my 2500 to be a very good desktop substitute. BUT once the fans kick in (fairly often) the battery life greatly shortens to less than 50-60 minutes. This unit kicks out a lot of heat so the three fans operate almost constantly in my experience.The fans are also noisy -- I have had a librarian once come to me with request to quiet my computer! On the plus side :-) one can warm one's hands in a super airconditioned, ...
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Advantages: Reliable, easy to use,small and light weight. Disadvantages: battery runs down fast after a while
I brought the compaq presario 2500 one year ago. I found the compaq presario 2500 to be a great computer. I have used it every day for a few hours, and today it is as good as new. It is easy to use, and it is fast. It is also very easy to install new software onto. It also looks good and is designed well. The compaq presario 2500 is very light and it is easy to transport from place to place. With all my travelling in the pass year the computer has ... ...good as it was a year ago, I used to get 3 hours battery life with heavy use, now I am luck to get one hour of battery life.
The notebook came with the normal stuff, the standard power pack, battery, the recovery Cds, software Cds, and a modem connection cord.
And the manual, of course that I did not even look at. It has DVD/CD-RW hardware. For a notebook the sound is not too bad, I was happily surprised at this, as many notebooks I have seen, ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: cheap.. but you get what you pay for... Disadvantages: Horrible sound, dead battery, worst ac adaptor, lap burner
I got this compaq presario when I just started my career in IT. I took it coz it had great configuration at that time at decent price. My BAD ~~ to take this laptop, after 6 months.. the sound of the fan increased, it crashes down more than any other laptop I have seen, after an year, when run on battery you get 45 mins. you would get your lap burned, AC adapter doesnt work, and you cant get these adapters other than compaq website.. lousy customer ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average somewhat helpful
Graphics Processor / Vendor: ATI Mobility Radeon, ATI Mobility Radeon 9200
Video Memory: 64 MB
Audio
Audio Output: Sound card
Input device(s)
Type: Keyboard, touchpad
Operating system / software
OS Provided: Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Software: Drivers & Utilities
Manufacturer's product description
The Compaq Presario Notebook 2500 series offers true mobile innovation, high performance, multimedia and connectivity functionality. Designed for excellent desktop performance, the Compaq Presario Notebook 2500 offers fast Intel desktop processor. The notebook also includes up to 15-inch high-resolution TFT display, ATI Mobility Radeon integrated graphics, and IEEE 1394 input making it the ideal portable system for the home and home office.
