HP Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX Notebook - Intel C. 900 2.2GHz / 15.6" HD Display / 2GB DDR2 / 250GB HD / SuperMulti 8X DVD±R/RW / 802.11b/g/n WLAN / Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit

Favorable Review:

Being a computer technician for the last 15 years, I am very picky when it comes to buying computers, especially laptops and even more special, laptops with Celeron CPUs. This is my very first Celeron laptop and I have to tell you that I am surprised and amazed at the performance of this particular Celeron. Todays Celeron CPUs are NOT the Celeron CPUs of 10 years ago. These new Celeron 900 are based on Core 2 Duo CPUs. They are exactly the same except for 2 things: They have 25% less Cache than their Core 2 Duo counterpart and they are single core, but that doesn't mean it's slow by any means. This laptop came with 2GB of RAM (I upgraded it to the full 4GB), a 15.6" HD LCD Screen, a 250GB Hard Drive running at 7200 RPM - yes you are reading right - 7200 RPM! - Most laptops out there have a 5400 RPM HD, including the more expensive models, so this is a real bonus. It comes with B, G, and N Wireless, Intel 4500 Graphics, 2 USB Ports and a DVD Writer.

The performance of this laptop is quite good. Very fast booting up. Windows open smoothly. Tasks are handled quite well, even with 2GB of RAM. The 4GB of RAM makes things even better. The Celeron 900 2.2 GHz CPU inside packs quite a punch. Take a look at this benchmark:

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It is by no means a weak processor. Overall this is a great laptop for $329.00 (BestBuy). Much better than a Netbook for sure (since that is what I was going to buy in the first place). Netbooks have no CD or DVD units, only 1GB of RAM, Slow Atom CPUs and 8 to 10 inch screens and cost over $350.00 (a good one). This laptop simply beats the netbooks in price, power and features. You will not be able to do serious video editing or play online games like Unreal Tournament 3, Crysis or things like that because of the limited video card, but hey let's get real, who uses a laptop to play games anyways? That's what desktops are for. If you are going to be mobile (traveling), going to school or simply work at the office then this is the perfect machine for you. If you are into web surfing, email and Microsoft Office and on a budget then look no further. For the price, you are getting a quality built machine with everything you need to do. All that and a little more. The components inside (motherboard and chipset) are all made by Intel.

I highly recommend it.  

Critical Review:

Had a CQ60 computer for a little over a year and the battery gets to 40% and the computer dies. Warranty expired 2 weeks ago and HP can't help me. I went online to buy a new battery and surprise, everyone says the battery sucks. My previous Compaq, the AC adapter died after 2 weeks and HP sent a replacement. My brother's Compaq, the battery died after a year and he bought a new one after his wireless card died too. This is the last Compaq I buy ever.

Compaq Presario CQ61-410US 15.6-Inch Laptop (Black)

Reviews:

1- Great computer with HD Screen, the new Windows 7 so user friendly, and I love the expanded keyboard - with numbers set off to the side. I was looking at laptops twice the price ($600-$700) when I saw this one pop up on the best sellers list for Amazon. The only difference between the higher price notebooks and this Compaq is that it does not have a webcam or 4 GB of memory - it only has 2 but is expandable to 4. You can't get a better laptop for the price $379. Very happy with my purchase! 

2- I am a college student on a limited budget. I wanted a computer for under $500 that I could use for movies, video games, and homework. I bought the CQ61-410US a month ago and it has been working perfectly. I run Counter-Strike source on it and it runs well. It is quiet, has a nice battery life, although I have not let it die yet. I have dropped my laptop a couple times and it still works well. I would definitely recommend buying this. A+  

3- I just received this nice 15.6" notebook and I admit that I like it! The sound is great. The keypad is really handy when you need it. And the reponse of this computer is satisfying with windows 7 loaded.

However, pictures in its product page might be a deceiving. Although they are shown in the pics, this model does NOT come with a webcam and HDMI. I was surprised when I opened the box and found this truth. Hence, I further digged into the specification sheet and found that I was wrong. Beware, if you think this is really a steal with a webcam and HDMI for this low price, you may just make a mistake like what I did.

In all, I do not regret my decision of buying it at all. You can buy a netbook for $299.99. But I will pay a little bit more to go with this notebook ($379.99) with full capability, faster processing speed and a DVD burner in trade of the mobility. Now, I am going return my cute but slow netbook...