Cheapest Branded Laptop. Review on Compaq Presario 2514 AT

First Love: The Cheapest branded laptop. Price: 42,000 plus taxes

Tech Specifications:

Mobile Intel Celeron 2.8 GHz Enhanced SpeedStep Technology 15'' TFT Active Matrix Screen 1.44 MB FDD CD Drive 30 GB HDD 128 MB DDR RAM LAN card Modem Infra Red 1 yr warranty

Detailed Report

1. Weight: The weight of this laptop is a great disadvantage. It is a bit heavier than I expected. It clearly weighs above 2 kgs, and could be a tad bit difficult to carry.

   
   




2. Battery time: Delivers what it promises. 2 hrs is the fully charged battery time and that’s what it gives. Period.

   
   




3. Configuration: The Compaq Presario 2514 AT delivers a solid configuration at the given price, but then there is a cliché here. The notebook lacks a CD writer or a DVD player which is now a mainstray of most of the notebooks and almost any computer. There are Notebooks available which have these features and are only a few thousand rupees costlier than this one, so you could go for an added investment.

   
   

But for people like me who already own a fully loaded PC at home which have all these features, or for those whom the above configuration suffices, this is a pretty good bargain.

1. Looks: The 2514 is pretty ordinary looking from the outside, but when the flap is opened and when the lights come on, the blue lights and the black keys and the silver casing makes it look pretty cool. No doubt this one is no Aishwarya Rai of laptops but still pretty faceworthy.

   
   




2. The Mouse pad: According to me and this may not be my personal opinion alone, the Mouse pad type system in the Compaq and HP PC’s are the best. Better than the mouse ball found in the middle of the Keyboard which is seen in Toshiba laptops. Without doubt this one takes time to adjust but once you do that it works well for you. It also has an option of locking the mouse at the touch of a button. Of course you could invest in a cheap three button mouse which many people do, but it is your personal choice.

   
   




3. Keyboard: This one has its pros and cons First the good news, this keyboard is pretty user friendly, takes little time to adjust and carries many cool functions with a special function key. You could do almost everything with these keys, adjust the monitor contrast, check email, change the volume and much much more. The bad news is that this one would lead you to the feared Carpal tunnel syndrome very fast. The sheer designing has a flaw. The fact that the keyboard is located far up onto the Laptop board and a large space is left in front of you where the mouse lies. This makes typing a bit uncomfortable especially on a long run. Also you hand would constantly cross the mouse pad, especially the sensitive scroll button when you type, this is where the mouse pad lock comes into picture.

   
   




4. Software: The 2514AT comes preloaded with Linux (Probably that’s the reason for the low cost !) You can easily ask your vendor to install you a Windows 98 or XP. Please don’t try to do this yourself as it would has a lot of obstacles, especially for amateurs. Let you vendor do these things before you pay him ! He must earn his money !! I have tried both the Linux and XP on this machine and both work pretty well. The time taken to start your XP is slightly longer than on your PC but that’s the only time consuming thing.

   
   




5. Technical Performace: The 2514 delivers what it promises. It is pretty zippy with your high graphics games and music videos and you day to day word processing is a breeze. I still haven’t figured out why but it seems all the dose programs runs in a smaller window which fills up only a part of the full laptop screen, as a result some of my old DOS games work in small space !

   
   




6. Heating it Up: This laptop burns ! It heats up pretty well and pretty fast. Though it is not abnormal for laptops but my experience is that Toshiba machines heat up lesser than Compaq machines.

   
   




7. After sales support: Compaq delivers an excellent after sales support, the best. It is Maruti of Laptops ! That should sum it up ! Overall View: This one is a power packed laptop at a dirt cheap price. For those who own another home desktop with DVD and CDRW this one is brilliant, but for those who are buying a computer for the first time, this is pretty good but it could be better if you would upgrade it a bit. With pretty user friendly stuff and good after sales support this one is good for everyone.

   
   

FAQ for first time laptop buyers:

1. Are there laptops cheaper than this one ? Yes there are . Many companies are selling laptops at 30,000 or even lesser. Even you local computer walla could assemble a machine at this price. But as far as laptop goes my experience is NEVER GO FOR A NON BRANDED MACHINE or from a company you have not heard much about. This is because a desktop can be repaired by almost anyone but no one would dare to touch a laptop for repair. The aftersales service of a laptop is the most essential component of a machine. Also add to the fact that laptops have much smaller life than desktops, you must remember that a branded one would atleast guarantee longer life. The availability of spare parts is another issue you must keep in mind. Also there are Compaq versions too which come cheaper than this but are must less powerful and almost obsolete. So in many ways this is the cheapest new generation laptop.

   
   




2. Laptop VS Desktop ? If you are a first time computer buyer, or looking for a new computer, this question always arises.

   
   

Desktops are much much cheaper than the laptops and come with lots of goodies. It’s mouth watering to go for a desktop which can also be your TV, you Mp3 player, your DVD player, but at the end of the day, what is a computer for ? In my personal opinion, 2 desktops and 2 laptops later, I have realized that if you can afford it, ALWAYS GO FOR THE LAPTOP. These big desktops are messy they would carry a lot of your space, dirt accumulates in it very fast and has lots of problems. Some day your monitor stops to work, some day the keyboard keys don’t work, some day the harddrive goes corrupt. The worst part is that you need one for your house and one for your office and inbetween you are helpless. You life gets tangled in a messy world of wires, and CD-R and floppies. Attaching even your headphone and switching between the Subwoofers and Headphones which is one of my day to day task is hell.

So go for a smaller lighter and more cosy laptop with which you can easily type your emails while one the move or in your bed.