compaq presario 2100 laptop review

Compaq presario 2100 laptop and laptop battery review

The Presario 2100 series is a well-crafted mainstream notebook, and our only major complaint with the design is the loud fan that kicks in on occasion. The 7.2-pound notebook measures a slightly wide 13 by 10.7 by 1.6 inches, which is reasonable when you consider that every system in the series comes with a big and bright 14.1- or 15-inch screen, an integrated floppy drive, and a built-in CD, DVD, or DVD/CD-RW combo drive.

We're particularly partial to the unusual blue lights that complement the Presario 2100 series' power button and the standard touchpad (no pointing stick option is available). A button above the touchpad turns the pad on and off, helping you avoid accidentally moving the pointer by bumping the pad. We also like the way the right side of the touchpad is sectioned off by a vertical line, indicating the part of the software-enhanced pad that you should use for scrolling. Two mouse buttons form a smile shape underneath the pad. Finally, the wide keyboard features a familiar, desktoplike layout, with Insert, Delete, Home, and End keys huddled in the upper-right corner.

The Presario 2100 series comes with a full assortment of ports and slots. Its right edge sports one PS/2 port and whichever secondary optical storage drive you choose. The back edge includes two of the slower USB 1.1 ports and one port each of serial, VGA, Ethernet, S-Video out, and parallel. On the left edge are the floppy drive, a 56Kbps modem port, a FireWire port, one Type II PC Card slot, headphone and microphone ports, and three buttons for volume up, down, and mute. The front edge features an IrDA port.

Features of HP Compaq Presario 2100 series

The Presario 2100 series' extensive configurability is a nice change from the limited options that are typical of mainstream notebooks. You can currently choose between AMD mobile Athlon XP, Intel mobile Celeron, and Pentium 4-M processors running from 1.6GHz to 2.5GHz. Your four hard drive choices are 20GB, 30GB, 40GB, or 60GB. The active-matrix display comes in two sizes and two native resolutions: 14.1 or 15 inches at an average 1,024x768 pixels, as well as another 15-inch option with a finer 1,400x1,050 resolution. All memory consists of fast 266MHz DDR SDRAM starting at 128MB and going to 1,024MB. You can also order either integrated 802.11b or the extrafast 802.11g wireless networking, although you'll have to rely on software wireless controls because the system lacks a convenient wireless On/Off switch. The model we tested included a 2.4GHz Pentium 4-M processor, 512MB of memory, and a 60GB hard drive.

Performance of HP Compaq Presario 2100 series

Mobile application performance

The Compaq Presario 2100 performed below average compared to previous 2.4GHz Pentium 4-M systems that we've tested. This performance deficiency can be attributed to its ATI Radeon 340M graphics adapter, which borrows 64MB of main memory and cripples the system's performance. The Presario 2100 scored even lower than the 2.2GHz desktop Pentium 4 Toshiba Satellite Pro 6100. The system, however, ranked significantly higher than the Fujitsu LifeBook E series, which has the same processor and uses a similar graphics adapter. The bottom line is that the Presario 2100Â's greedy graphics adapter prevents the system from achieving its full potential. If youÂ're looking to buy a system for mobile performance, you should look elsewhere.

HP Compaq Presario 2100 battery

In our small roundup of systems, the Compaq Presario 2100 battery ,battery code: compaq 319411-001 came out on top in battery life. With its 14.4V, 4,400mAh battery, the system beat out the Fujitsu LifeBook E Series, with its slightly weaker 14.4V, 3,800mAH battery. Compared to 2.4GHz desktop Pentium 4 systems weÂ've tested in the past, the compaq 2100 battery scored about average. Not bad; but with a better battery, it could have lasted longer.