by David Boles
February 14, 2003
UPDATED: February 22, 2003
I purchased the Compaq Presario 3015 laptop-desktop-replacement four days ago and I have been burning it in ever since. The Windows XP Home Edition machine has been turned on with nothing allowed to turn off for four days (including the screen and the hard drive). The results so far are good. The machine is cool to the touch everywhere. The three cooling vents are not even warm and the fan for the Pentium 4 has yet to turn on. The display is crisp and sharp. I am able to multitask with a DVD movie playing, files downloading, mail running while reading newsgroups.
Here is a more specific breakdown of how the machine stacks up, but first a bit of background: I am coming to the 3015 from an IBM T-21. The T-21 is an excellent machine, but lately its Pentium III feels a bit slow and the display is small and I had five dead pixels from day one
The Bright
The Bad
The biggest nag of the machine is the terrible TERRIBLE keyboard!
Ugh!
It reminds me of the sloppy keyboards Toshiba was using 10 years ago when, if
you didn’t hit the head of the key just right, the key press would not
register. Welcome to the world of Compaq! You must s-l-o-w-l-y SLAM each key
down to get it to register. Forget touch typing. The machine routinely misses
registering spaces and “f”s.
Using CPANEL to modify keyboard settings has no effect on getting key presses to register. Repositioning the keyboard closer to my torso or farther away made no difference. I miss the IBM’s solid keyboard where I could lightly touch the top of the key and the press would show up. The 3015 keyboard is not solid. It bends on the left side as you type.
It is difficult for me to complain about the nasty keyboard since every demo model I tested in three different stores demonstrated the gawdawful keyboard feel – so I have no one to blame for my misery but me… and the lousy Compaq engineers who allowed this keyboard design to be built into production.
The Better
Now let’s move on to the positive aspects of the machine. The IR port was a
surprise! I can now let my Tungsten T Hotsync via IR instead of using a USB
port! The four built-in USB 2.0 ports are great to have and I no longer need to
use a USB bridge as I had to with the T-21.
The battery life was acceptable at around three hours with CD-ROM music playing, FTP files uploading and downloading and the intensive word processing experience of writing this review all happening simultaneously.
The Bad Returns
Now more of the bad: The built-in speakers are awful. My Tungsten T has a
better speaker. I use the MSFT Digital Sound system via USB and the sound is
great so the problem is with the built-in speakers not the sound chip.
Compaq support is speedy but awful. You are blamed for your problems! I unwittingly downgraded my BIOS by downloading and installing the “updated” BIOS from the HP/COMPAQ support site. I had no idea I was losing a more recent BIOS until I watched the process happening before my eyes as the update program allowed an older BIOS to overwrite a newer one. Compaq Support have no idea how to get me back the BIOS I lost. The BIOS they had online was a month older than the BIOS that shipped with the machine. An older BIOS should never be allowed to overwrite a newer BIOS or at least you should be asked if you want that older BIOS to overwrite a newer one.
Cruzer
The free SanDisk Cruzer was a surprise. This free USB card reader allows me to
have an extra Drive to backup and restore files and programs and it makes for a
smooth experience for manipulating my Tungsten T SD card files as well.
Logitech
MX-700 Rechargeable Wireless Mouse
I’m not a big fan of mouse Touchpads.
I like the cat tongue pointing sticks.
The Touchpad on the 3015 is fine, I suppose, but I opted to purchase the Logitech MX-700 rechargeable wireless mouse.
Killer!
It feels solid in the hand and all the buttons make the mouse extremely useful, keen and quick.
Go get one now no matter what sort of computer you own!
Conclusion
I will close with a final repeat, positive, expression for my love of the
screen. The T-21 had a 14” screen and the 3015’s screen is a massive
16'' SXGA TFT. The
difference is astonishing! The screen sold me on the computer and with 512MB of
native RAM and a 60GB hard drive I am generally happy and satisfied with my
purchase.
I will be ecstatic when I figure out how to get my T-21 keyboard to fit in my 3015!
The Compaq Presario 3015 Notebook earns, for the first time in the 12 year history of the magazine, TWO separate Go Inside Magazine Review Lights!
The keyboard gets four out of five green go lights. (UPDATE: I deleted all the keyboard drivers and let WinXP Home reinstall the keyboard. The change is a bit better. I think the problem is a Compaq driver issue. The system is unable to keep up with superfast typing and keystrokes are missed. One time I held down the left shift key and hit "c" -- good typists know that it should be the right shift key to ignite a capital "C" but I am testing this out so perfection in typing is not the idea here -- and the system refused to accept ANY keystroke as long as the left shift was depressed. Releasing the left shift returned the keyboard to normal input. Strange, eh? It also seems if you strike two keys nearly simultaneously -- the whole idea in speed typing -- the system will not register any keystroke at all. As I continue to bang on the keyboard and speed type, the keyboard seems to loosening up a bit and I am not missing as many characters when I gloss over these keys. Am I adjusting my typing speed or is the keyboard really improving after a week of breaking in the beast? Time will tell and I will keep you updated. I have revised my review of the keyboard upward from five red lights to four red and one green.)
(four red. one green)
The machine, without the keyboard, gets FIVE FULL GO LIGHTS -- the highest possible accolade!
(all green)
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