Compaq Presario CQ50-130US 15.4-Inch Laptop (2.0 GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core T3200 Processor, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium)

Compaq Presario CQ50-130US 15.4-Inch Laptop (2.0 GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core T3200 Processor, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium) Features

Additional Compaq Presario CQ50-130US 15.4-Inch Laptop (2.0 GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core T3200 Processor, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium) Information

What Customers Say About Compaq Presario CQ50-130US 15.4-Inch Laptop (2.0 GHz Intel Pentium Dual Core T3200 Processor, 2 GB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Vista Premium):

The price was perfect, and the features were just right. Great system and great value. I purchased this for my daughter who is short on funds and needed a fully functional laptop. Everything worked fine out of the box. Would repeat this purchase if I had it to do over.

This is done to stall so they can find a solution, probably from a supervisor. After all, HP/Compaq gets to spend the money I gave them any way they want.Further, out of the box the webcam was broken. It came loaded with the operating system savvy users don't want, Vista. Keep in mind, this is right out of the box.I've been an HP Printer buyer for years.

HP/Compaq won't give you the time of day with regard to changing the operating system.When I buy hardware, I expect it to be able to run any operating system I want. Bought this computer on sale at Staples. I finally told them to stop re-asking questions and to provide me with a solution. I will never, ever buy another HP or Compaq product again. After 3 hours of online tech support non assistance, they wanted me to send the computer back to HP for repair which I was told would take 7-10 days not including shipping time.

Which is how I ended up with the send it in for service solution, non-solution. Do yourself a favor and avoid this brand even if it means spending a little more. The computer will not allow you to install xp on it. But even their printers stink now. Their overseas tech support is the worse.

They waste enormous amounts of time re-asking you the same questions over and over again. The same day that I was having all of these issues with the laptop, my HP printer broke down beyond repair. It will be money well spent.

I am truly enjoying my laptop. I love the set up and the pics. It works well and the speed is just right for the pourpose I bought the laptop for.

For my daughter's purposes (2nd grader) to complete online assignments, typing stories on Microsoft Word, and visiting educational websites, this computer performs well. This leads me to battery life. The screen has little, if any, screen flex. It would be a better value if the battery life is longer, or if the unit were supplied with a longer life battery.The construction of the notebook is solid, despite the lighter weight of this design. There are function keys that allow the user to change screen brightness, fast forward, reverse, stop, play/pause and print. We also have a CD/DVD drive that reads movie DVDs, software DVDs and CD-ROMs.

The drive also burns DVDs.The keyboard is ergonomic and more comfortable than other brands on the market. I do not like the layout of the accessory keys: home, pg up, pg dn, end, insert, delete. We got this notebook to replace our daughter's Dell Inspiron 1500 notebook. We do not use memory intensive PC games but with an integrated Video Card, the capability of hardware intensive 3 dimensional gaming would be limited. The WIFI function, unfortunately, drains the battery quickly. Although this notebook is used predominantly for home use, the battery life is only about 2.5 hours with WIFI on. We have never tried programs like Adobe Photoshop for editing photographic images or any video editing, so I cannot answer for its higher level processing capability.

The glossy screen is bright and the quality of images from photographs and videos are excellent.The WIFI function was easy to set up and we were on the World Wide Web, in no time. She also accesses her Webkinz account to play games and I use her notebook to synchronize her songs onto her IPOD Video Apple 30 GB iPod AAC/MP3 Video Player Black (5.5 Generation).There is a port for SD cards, 3 USB ports, and NIC port for LAN access. The keyboard keys are solid and are resistant to child use. The mouse pad is responsive and customizable for various functions. WIFI signal is excellent from anywhere in our house (3400+ square feet) and the Lanai (what we call the back porch in Florida). The glossy screen is easier to clean than conventional matte screens.Performance for Microsoft Office is solid and fast. Despite the 5400 RPM hard drive speed, the performance of general everyday applications is excellent.There is an average amount of 'bloatware' (numerous trial programs and extraneous software that is unnecessary for a vast majority of users loaded on discount computers).PROS:Good Performance/Cost ratioEasy to set upComfortable keyboardDurableLighter than average notebooks of similar screen sizeScreen qualityCONS:Battery lifeVERDICT:I highly recommend this notebook for a majority of people looking to do routine Microsoft Office applications, Web surfing, synchronizing music onto your MP3 player, and wireless networking.Two thumbs up.