Compaq Presario C300 Laptop Review 6/10 + repair

Compaq Presario C300


For a week now I have been testing out the nicely styled Compaq Presario C300 laptop. This laptop is very nice for the person out there looking for the basic computer setup mainly for surfing the internet watching videos and viewing pictures. It is also great for listening to music and watching DVDs. The 15.4" WXGA 1280x800 LCD display offers excellent vibrant color display and has a very sharp picture. I also really like how the LCD display sits back behind and higher than normal above the laptops base which makes it easily viewable by offering a more comfortable angle when sitting in a chair but also when you the laptop is sitting stationary on a flat surface.

Intel's Celeron M CPU operating at 1.6GHZ really pulls through for this computer. It handles simple task like word processing all the way up to running several demanding programs at the same time without hanging up due to heat or general overload of information flowing through the CPU. Switching between programs on this computer is very quick and straight forward without delay.

The sound from this computer is offered up by a nice set of Altec Lansic speakers that have a very crisp tone which is supplied by a 3D Soundblaster Pro. I found it to be a very nice feature when watching DVDs because it doesn't have only highs and slight mid range sound like most laptops with small speaker setups. Makes a great computer for your MP3 collection as well.

The battery life on this computer is surprisingly well compared to most laptops of its size. Again the Intel Celeron M CPU pulls through because of its intelligent use of power when operating on battery power. I normally got around 1.5hours of use on a fresh charge and that's doing basic web browsing with the sound on and the LCD brightness turned all the way up.

Final thoughts. Although this computer is well rounded it does have a few things that were less desirable in my eyes. When typing on this laptop the keys have almost a loose feeling and are just a little bit to firm. Pressing down on them when typing fast almost gives you the same feeling of when grit or sand like material sometimes finds its way under the keys. The laptop is also a little on the hefty side as far as width, thickness and weight which makes for a sometimes slightly uncomfortable computer to be sitting in your lap for a long period of time. One thing I do not for the life of me understand is that given the size of this computer they did not install the useful SD card reader which makes transferring large amounts of data really quick and painless. Lastly the test unit I had didn't have a DVD-RW, only a a CD-RW which again makes the backup of data and transfer of data more time consuming and even frustrating when you think about the wasted space. This last paragraph is why the C300 only scored a 6/10 rating with me.
It was a great platform that could have been a lot better with just a little extra effort. Again though for those out there looking for a fantastic basic internet browsing, basic media laptop the Compaq Presario C300 is a great value which can typically be had for around $250-$400 used sometimes even cheaper. - Jesse T

Features vary for different C300s range from the features below (some specs are slightly higher and not listed);

* The following processors, varying by computer model:
* Intel Core Duo T2250 (1.73-GHz), T2300 (1.60-GHz),
or T2050 (1.60-GHz)
* Intel Celeron 430 (1.73-GHz) or Intel Celeron 420
(1.60-GHz)
* 15.4-inch, WXGA, TFT (1280 × 800) display with antiglare
or BrightView, varying by computer model
* 120-, 100-, 80-, or 60-GB high-capacity hard drive, varying
by computer model
* 256-MB DDR1 synchronous DRAM (SDRAM) at 667 MHz
and 533 MHz, expandable to 2.0 GB
* Windows® XP Home Edition or Windows XP Professional,
varying by computer model
* Full-size Windows keyboard with embedded numeric keypad
* TouchPad pointing device, including dedicated horizontal
and vertical scroll regions
* Integrated 10Base-T/100Base-TX Ethernet local area
network (LAN) network interface card (NIC) with RJ-45 jack
* Integrated high-speed 56K modem with RJ-11 jack
* Integrated wireless support for Mini Card IEEE 802.11a/b/g
WLAN device

My test computer has the following specs;
*Intel Celeron M CPU @ 1.6GHZ
*512MB DDR2 ram
*80GB sata Hard Drive
*DVD Player CD-RW optical drive
*Windows XP Professional
*All the other non optional basics listed above

***Repair Tips and Notes from me for this specific laptop and others are found here-Compaq Presario C300/C400 Repair Blog
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