Description:
Targeting the home and work-at-home user and those who like to spend at least some of their computing hours in the pursuit of entertainment, Compaq's Presario 710US notebook strikes a happy balance between performance and affordability. Although it doesn't incorporate the fastest processor on the market, the Presario 710US is certainly ready to handle most light to medium duties and virtually all computer-related leisure activities. Sporting a sleek design and a futuristic two-tone color scheme, the Presario 710US looks substantially snazzier than many of its notebook peers. It tips the scales at a comfortable 6.4 pounds and measures in with a slightly larger than average 10.6-by-12.4-by-1.64-inch profile. Under the hood, Compaq has fashioned a reasonably powerful engine consisting of a 1 GHz AMD Duron processor and 256 MB of RAM (expandable to 512 MB), a setup that won't elicit blinding speed but motors along nicely and easily runs several concurrent applications. The system's 20 GB hard drive offers plenty of room for all the MP3 files you may want to collect and later broadcast through the unit's impressively proficient JBL Audio bass reflex speaker system. Powered by a 16 MB Via ProSavage graphics card and capable of 1,024-by-768 resolution, the Presario's 14.1-inch LCD display is ready to handle all the movies you'll play on the unit's integrated 8x DVD-ROM drive. Its keyboard section offers full-size keys, a separate cursor and touch pad, and an array of six one-touch buttons for instant control of such everyday functions as speaker volume, e-mail, and Internet access. A 3.5-inch floppy disk drive ensures support for older programs that have yet to find their way to disc, and a 56K modem permits acceptable Internet access speeds. The Presario 710US veritably bristles with ports. Compaq has included two USB ports for plug-and-play peripherals such as joysticks, a 10/100 Mbps Ethernet network connection, a single parallel port for devices such as printers, an NTSC/PAL port for connection to various video devices, a multipurpose PC Card slot, and a speaker-out and microphone-in port. In addition, the system is equipped with AMD's battery-saving PowerNow technology, which adjusts processor clock speed to determine the best compromise between speed, power, and battery life. This is a valuable tool for users who go long periods of times between charges. Preloaded software includes useful utilities such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, Microsoft Works 6.0, Microsoft Money 2001, Norton AntiVirus, Roxio's nifty Easy CD Creator 5.01, InterVideo WinDVD 3.0 DVD player, and a one-year subscription to Microsoft's Encarta Online Deluxe Encyclopedia. Users will operate their system with the Home Edition of Windows XP, arguably Microsoft's most stable OS since Windows 98 Second Edition. Faster, beefier notebooks are not hard to find. Yet for those who don't have vast, untapped financial resources, Compaq's Presario 710US is fine choice.
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