Compaq Presario C700t User Review

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of the Compaq Laptop Battery   First post by: www.laptop-battery-stores.com

The Compaq Presario C700t is HP's current budget 15.4" widescreen notebook. It is available with limited configuration on-line from HP.com and is also available in retail stores. In case you see a few of them popping up on eBay it was recently offered as one of Best Buy's door buster specials this holiday season. In a nutshell, I'd liken the C700T to Dell's Vostro 1000 with a budget Intel processor.

Specifications:

15.4" WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView (glossy) Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)

Intel(R) Pentium(R) dual core processor T2310 (1.46 GHz, 1MB L2 Cache, 533MHz FSB)

1GB DDR2 System Memory (2x 512MB)

Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator X3100

Broadcom(R) 802.11b/g WLAN

Fujitsu MHY2120BH 120GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive

Optiarc DVD RW AD-7560A 8X DVD+/-R/RW with Double Layer Support

6-cell, 44 watt-hour Lithium Ion Battery such as Compaq 100680-001 Battery, Compaq PP2060 Battery, Compaq Presario 1400 Battery, Compaq Presario R3158 Battery, Compaq Presario 1700 Battery, Compaq Armada E500 Battery, Compaq EVO N100 battery, Compaq Evo N1020V battery, Compaq Evo N1000C battery, Compaq Evo N115 battery

Windows Vista Home Premium (32-bit)

14.1 (L) x 10.11 (W) x 1.29 (min H)/1.58" (max H)

6.4 lbs

1-year HP Accidental Damage Protection with Pick Up and Return

Reasons for Buying

My $500 Black Friday special from last year, a Cisnet ncl3001 "NASCAR Laptop" - a rebadged AOpen Notebook 2000, began having keyboard problems a few days after its 1-year warranty expired. It had been a terrible laptop all year with serious stability issues that were never resolved despite repeated efforts and returns. I hit the stores and websites this year looking for the best value I could get for a limited budget.

I only needed a basic laptop for general office work and web surfing. I am concerned with battery life, but I've never had any concerns with weight on my laptops (my favorite laptop of all time is still my old P-III Panasonic Toughbook, which tipped the scales at over 10-lbs). I haven't been a gamer since leaving college years ago, but I do enjoy the occasional new strategy or RPG title. I did my research and figured that any of the modern IGP's would suit my needs just fine.

When you limit yourself to about $500 there are not many alternatives to the 6-pound, 15.4", integrated graphics, budget Celeron or Sempron specials that seem to keep constantly showing up in all the weekend flyers. I decided that I would not settle for anything lower than an entry level dual-core processor and I didn't want to mess with any sort of mail-in rebate. I expected at least a 100GB hard drive and a DVD burner with Vista Home Premium - everything else I considered to be gravy.

Shopping

There were several good special available at a variety of places this year. By the time I saw the really good on-line Dell Vostro specials they were already sold out. I watched all the Christmas sale flyers and hit the stores regularly for about a week. There were a few AMD-based Gateway models that were available in retail for a similar price, but the choices were pretty limited. I must say that there has been a great improvement in the budget laptop sector this year. Last year the only way to find anything less than $500 was to get one of the door-buster specials. Even then they were always a single-core, already obsolete notebook of questionable durability. This year there are several options for sub-$500 notebooks from all the big vendors that are generally available and even have current generation technology.

The Compaq Presario C714NR, regularly priced at $599, showed up on Best Buy's website at $449 but promptly sold out. Best Buy's weekly flyer priced it at $399 with limited availability. I woke up a bit early the day the sale started and was lucky enough to be number six in line with eight available at the store. By the time they opened there were about 100 people in line (which isn't that bad if you've ever shopped the Black Friday sales on the East Coast). I had made my purchase and was out of the store before everyone in line had a chance to enter the building.

For those that missed the sale, be sure to check the "Laptop Deals" section in this site as they frequently post HP coupons. You probably won't be able to find a model with a similar configuration for the price I paid, but low-end models do often drop to less than $500 with a good coupon.