The Presario Notebook 700 Series features reliable, stylish and affordable notebooks. The feature-rich dual-tone design includes brilliant displays, full-sized keyboard and... more
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(+) Clear easy instuctions, Looks very smart, Light and easy to transport, very durable (-) Screen could be slightly bigger, battery doesn't last very long
A review by sezlouise on Compaq Presario 700 October 30th, 2004
Author's product rating:
Speed
Average
Look & Feel
Good
Comfort & Portability
Good
Robustness & Durability
Satisfactory
Value For Money
Satisfactory
Advantages:
Decent for a first time user
Disadvantages:
Potential crashes, over heating
Recommend to potential buyers:
no
Full review
-^- Introduction -^- As a member of Ciao I’ve been looking to do reviews on objects I’ve had for a while. To try and really give an in depth review over things. Although I know the Compaq Presario 700 may not be on sale anymore this could be a review for people wanting to get it second hand from someone or buying on website etc.
-^- Background Information -^- I bought my laptop in September 2002. I’ve always wanted a laptop just for the actual feeling of owning one. However I went halfs on it with my parents as it was a necessary for me to have seeing as I was also starting university. In total the price was £900. Pricey it seemed but I wasn’t going over £1000. The actual one I wanted was sold out and I really didn’t want to leave without one so I took the Compaq Presario 700. In total I’ve had it for just over two years now.
-^- Specifications -^-
-^- Processor -^- The processor I’ve got is a Mobile AMD Duron(tm) Processor. I’d say this is pretty standard in the types of processor and it simply gets the job done whenever I’m working on my laptop.
-^- Memory -^- The memory is very small compared to some models of laptop that are coming out into the shops now. I have only 112 MB of RAM… not even near enough to run the new Sims 2 game! Which is very disappointing. However as I have mentioned it is over two years old now. The amount of memory is sufficient for most tasks.
-^- Hard drive -^- The Hard drive is 14.9GB… very, very small however I don’t use my laptop for videos or anything like that. At the moment I’ve used just over half of that. I believe this is to be below average in laptops standards. I’m not reaching any kind of crisis point with capacity. If using broadband to download items I feel this would be very small and you’d never be able to fit much on. Programmes sometimes take a little while to load but I’m used to that now.
-^- Disk Drives -^- They include Floppy disk drive and a DVD CD Rom drive. No CD writer with this laptop. And definitely not DVD writer with it! Each performs it’s job correctly and the CD Rom loads disks up as quick as the processor and hard drive allow it to.
-^- Visual and sound -^- There is a standard 14 inch screen. The sound is build in with a speaker running along the bottom of the laptop. The screen is bright and colourful however enlarging any DVD movies it gets a little blurred which is to be expected. This could be the video card installed. The sound quality is pretty decent with or without headphones.
-^- Connectivity -^- They include headphone, microphone sockets down the right hand side with the CD Rom access. At the back of the machine there is 2 UBS ports for printers, web cams etc Along with a connection plug for additional mouse or keyboard and a parallel port for printers. Also there is the socket for the telephone line to connect to the Internet. Also network connections, S-video (tv out) everything seems to be covered pretty well.
-^- Software -^- I got very little. Minimal in fact. It is just Microsoft Windows XP and it comes with Works in which I can’t “work” with at all! It comes with DVD playing software but nothing else apart from that. You can expect to get the usual accessories and Windows Media Player.
-^- Ergonomics -^- The laptop is pretty standard in looks the main dominate colour is black however here is a silver trim around the touch pad and keys area. Once closed there is a circular white and red Compaq logo in the middle. The whole model seems pretty solid throughout. Dimensions are around 31.5 cm x 26.9 cm x 4.2 cm and the weight is around 3Kg as stated on the Ciao website. To open there is a large catch at the front of the machine that easily opens the lid with the screen.
Once open your presented with the screen and it has a silver surround. At the bottom there is lights to indicate your mains power and battery power. The bottom as previously mentions the speakers are built in above that is the main touch pad mouse control which responds extremely well and two large buttons for the left and right mouse keys. There is also a navigator pad below this for scrolling up and down left to right… this is handy if you don’t want to press the arrow keys using the mouse pointer to scroll around. Above the mouse controls is the main keyboard… reminds me of a dell computer key board as the keys are purely black with white detail for each of the letters etc. Above that is 6 silver buttons. The main power on switch is located in the middle either side to the right is a volume button and to the left a button which links to Compaq web page, one to open outlook express and another to lead to a search engine… that’s what they did when I pressed them!
The main power cord is attached well to the back of the laptop. It connects to a transformer that then leads to the mains socket all in all there are two connecting wires for this lap top and one for connecting to the internet. However if you are like me you may need another one to actually connect to the phone socket.
-^- Performance -^- From the start I’d say it takes a good 3 to 4 minutes for the system to boot and load everything up. Once up and running you can easily access any software you are wanting to use. The Internet performance is standard. I have a simple dial up connection and it works pretty well for me. Dial up is as usual and I use BT Yahoo as my ISP.
Battery performance… when I first got it I used to use the battery all the time and it usually lasted around two to three hours. However see the section below on “problems”
Other issues… the CD rom works well for watching DVDs… can be a little jumpy over time. I am not really a big games player on CD rom however I do have the original sims game which works fine without sticking or freezing. However as mentioned above I daren’t even try the Sims 2 purely because I know I won’t have the capacity to run it. As for standby or hibernate mode I don’t use this now purely because all the usage the laptop has had.
While in use the noise factor is minimum, only when the fan starts to cool down the machine is when it makes a little noise. However after long usage the machine gets rather hot and it did cause me problems… see below.
-^- Problems -^- Through out the time I have had this laptop I’ve had to send it back twice for repair. One time was extremely tough as they insisted that my one year warranty had run out! And it hadn’t I still had 10 days to run on it and they weren’t going to honour it… in the end they did but it was extremely stressful at the time as I thought I’d have to pay out to fix it.
The problems I had occurred were that it started shutting down the screen going to blank and then I’d have to restart again… after a while it did it and it just didn’t come back no matter how much I tried. I was very annoyed because I had no time to back up files etc and had no idea if I would lose them or not. It had to be sent away to be fixed which happened very promptly. I was informed it was the fan that had broken and the machine had overheated. That was replaced and it may need to be replaced again if it still gets as hot as it does at times.
The second problem was with the connection lead to the mains connection, it meant the machine kept turning off whenever I moved the wire. That had to be replaced as well.
The third problem I had was using dodgy software… my own fault however it made the whole system crash and I had to do a master reset losing everything I had on the machine… and I carry a lot of stuff which is getting updated consently for websites etc so it’s quite annoying having to back up all the time. Anyway tip is don’t used dodgy software on this laptop!
The other problem I have regarding the machine is that the battery is completely gone. I can’t turn it on at all now under battery power. So it completely runs on mains power. The battery is completely dead and I believe I can’t have it replaced now. The battery went after about a year.
I took out an extended warranty on the machine that has another year left to run on it.
-^- Conclusion -^- In the end this is my first laptop computer and I’d like it to last me as long as possible even after I’ve finished university until I have a decent job for me to up grade the machinery to something else. It is a standard laptop however it does has its problems that I highlighted above. I also think it was a little overpriced when I bought it and your probably going to get it a lot cheaper. Overall this is a good laptop to have for a first starter to laptop systems but if your wanting something good to run games and other software that requires high memory and processing power this is not the laptop to buy.
Advantages: Good size keyboard, most keys are in standard places (like desktop keyboard) Disadvantages: Not suitable for traveling (not very durable), battery life when using windows
...when I looked on the Compaq website before I got the laptop it said the max battery life was about 1.5-2 hours so it runs a lot longer with Linux.
I also has some other handy features. It has an S-Video out port so you can plug it into your TV and watch DVDs or do what you want on your TV. The only problem with that is that the signal is NTSC so it doesn't display properly on english TVs (mine shows a good detail image but it is black and white ... ...drive built in - but Compaq could have made it better by adding a CD writer. I use the floppy drive quite often at college to transfer my work to another PC to print it (surprising I know but some of their computers don't have a CD drive, and some don't even have USB!) so floppy is the way to go in that scenario.
Onto the bad points. After having it about 4 months, the hinges on the screen started to get loose - very loose in fact, the screen usually ...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Cheap Starter PC Disadvantages: Poor build quality
The Compaq Presario 700 series is one of their biggest selling "home" laptops, how do I know this I here you ask, well I worked for Compaq on their Presario Technical Support line.
The 700's are a good laptop, if your new to the PC scene, but don't expect great things from them. They have an average spec for the price, but the build quality is not the best in the world.
The software bundled with the 700's is fine for the majority of users (XP Home, ... ...out by the ONLY authorised Compaq laptop repairer in the UK (so ignore PC World when they are authorised to repair Compaq laptops) and is on a pick up and return basis. That is Compaq will collect the laptop from you and return it to you free of charge, in the majority of cases the turnaround for repairs of laptops is 7 business days.
To sum up I would only recommend this laptop to users who are looking to buy a PC for the first time, as itermediate ...
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Advantages: Stylish looks Disadvantages: lack of power
I bought this laptop from PC world a couple of years ago as an ex-display model. On the face of things it appeared to be a good little laptop. The machine should have come with a cd writer dvd combo however after getting it home I discovered only a DVD drive installed. The machine comes pre-installed with windows XP home edition which is by its very nature a memory hog this takes an awful amount of memory away from the megre 128mb well 114mb after ... ...is substandard as it is a duron and i think an Athlon would have been a much wiser choice and to be fair not that much more money.
The machine is inherently slow at opening application and can crash on fairly regular occasions, and finds it rather difficult to cope with some modern applications. I feel if the machine had been installed with 256mb or RAM then these problems would have been perhaps minimised.
There are no serial ports which is annoying ...
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Advantages: Cheap, good range of options and plugs Disadvantages: Freezes/hangs often, limited memory upgrade space
This laptop is fine for the average user, but for those that use processor intensive software, it is best to give it a miss.
I do a lot of video conversion work, such as DVD to AVI, and experience a lot of hangs/freezes. Also, although it says it is designed for Windows XP, it experiences several issues with the automatic upgrades from Microsoft - these are to be avoided!
The 16MB graphics card is unsuitable for most modern games, but it has a ... ...for a bigger picture.
On board memory is 256MB, expandable to 496MB, while the processor, an AMD Duron 1.2GHZ is more geared towards internet browsing in my experience.
Also, i have encountered issues with the pcmcia slot, with a firewire card inserted, in that the laptop crashes often with my external hard drive connected.
This probably all only matters to those that are looking to constantly upgrade and expand, so if you just want a bog-standard ...
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I've had a one of this for 6 years. I had some problems with it. The first one was the hard disk which broke down in March 2005 an had to be replaced by a new one (this time a 40 giga disk). And about six months ago, the hinges didn't work anymore and they have to be replaced or repaired, which cost a lot. Besides, the battery has been flat for the last 3 years more or less and I have to use it plugged in.
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Advantages: Good Looks; very good WiFi adapter; Widescreen; Card Reader; Awesome sound; nice keyboard Disadvantages: Very Poor Battery!!! ; Overheating
...Presario C795TU is an average notebook with a very good looks and feel but unsatisfactory in ease of use from my side.
# It comes with inbuilt DOS. Not even Windows XP is offered.
# Have a good lay-out of 3 USB ports, a Card-Reader, DVD-RW, LAN, Modem and a serial port. Camera as an external feature is a very good one.
# The multi-gesture Touch-Pad is awesome to use. I often like working with it in Windows Explorer, where it uses our gestures to control Explorer actions. Farmore, the Pad-Disable Button provides good ease of use with this device.
# Beautiful and easy-touch Keyboard is also a centre of attraction and the easy-click keys gives a very sensitive sense of touch for use. The use of Function keys is also at a very appropriate and easy reachable length.
# The notebook contains Altec Lansing stereo speakers which gives...
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Advantages: Quick, memory, screen, can play DVDs, battery life Disadvantages: Overheats, can be slow
...well as some extra things such as a special photo programme!
If you want to see the technical information but laid out so its really easy to read, visit this link:
http://static.tigerdirect.com/pdf/CompaqPresarioC700SeriesNotebookPC-MnSG.pdf...
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Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Advantages: Fast and brilliant if used on a table and not on your legs Disadvantages: Overheating - burning - hinges for the monitor
...CompaqPresario 724EA
I bought this Notebook when I lived in Belgium. It originally came in French but a quick telephone call to the Compaq customer services and they sent me the Rescue CDs in English.
I paid about 1000 euros (which was about £700 at the time) for it 3 years ago.
The speed of the CompaqPresario 724EA is 1.2 GHz and it's AMD Duron, which made it unbelievable fast 3 years ago and still is about the same as the PC I use now.
The notebook is 31.5 cm x 26.9 cm x 4.2 cm in dimension and weighs about 3 kilograms. It's black with a silver edging and it has the emblem COMPAQ in the middle of the laptop case.
It came with MS Windows XP Home edition (French and English) and Norton Anti Virus 2001 (French and English), which isn't really a big assortment but I didn't mind as I still had a lot of software from my dad...
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Software: Drivers & Utilities, Norton AntiVirus, Microsoft Word 2000, Microsoft Works 2000
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Listed on Ciao since : 24/08/2002
Manufacturer's product description
The Presario Notebook 700 Series features reliable, stylish and affordable notebooks. The feature-rich dual-tone design includes brilliant displays, full-sized keyboard and built-in Mini-PCI slot to always be connected. The Presario 700 Series is perfect for mobile users seeking performance and functionality at a price that fits your budget. Powerful AMD processor allows notebook systems to run the most demanding Microsoft Windows compatible business and multimedia applications available today, with ample performance headroom for tomorrow's advances in software and operating systems. AMD PowerNow! Technology increases battery life by up to 30 percent without compromising performance and enables the notebook to run quieter and cooler, with features such as Automatic Mode, High Performance Mode, and Battery Savings Mode - all easily selected through the Control Panel. With its incredible performance and convenient all-in-one design, the Presario 700 Series is the affordable mobile solution for personal productivity or your small business.
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