Hewlett-Packard Compaq Presario R4000

After scouring the laptop market for several months and having a run-in with a dreadful sales agent at Dell, I decided to go to PC World and just play with everything they had.
Loads of options, IBM, Toshiba and of course Compaq.The R4000 is a pretty beast and caught my eye immediately. It is designed for people who want the sheer power of a desktop PC with portability.
We flitted around the store (my wife and I) changing the wallpapers on all the laptops to check out the quality of the screen. Also we opened Internet Explorer on each machine to see how quickly it would open. The R4000 won on both counts.
The spec being: AMD Athlon 64 3200+  1.0 GB DDR SDRAM  15.4" WXGA BrightView Widescreen (1280x800)  128MB ATI RADEON(R) XPRESS 200M w/Hypermemory  80 GB 4200 RPM Hard Drive  DVD+/-RW/R & CD-RW Combo w/Double Layer Support  54g Integ. Broadcom 802.11b/g WLAN with 125HSM/SpeedBooster  12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery (Compaq HSTNN-DB02)
The laptop is very well packaged. All the accessories, discs etc were placed in a separate smaller box with the laptop. The R4000 looks fabulous and is amazingly rugged - I found some of its competitors to feel flimsy in comparison.
It is coloured black with a silver Compaq logo. The inside is somewhat different and it is nearly totally silver. It is very eye-catching.The dimensions 14.25" (W) x 10.96" (L w/out hinge) to 11.18" (L w/hinge) x 1.8" (H Front) to 1.88"(H Rear) and it weighs in at about 7.9 lbs.
It is wireless enabled so it 'found' my new router with ease and set-up was a breeze.I use it all over the house and garden. Works superbly and the seemingly high weight is not a problem or hindrance at all.
Batteries last around 150 minutes. And that is with Internet connected and DVD running!The R4000 is well cooled and ventilated. It does not seem to run as hot as my old Toshiba.
The 15.4" WXGA BrightView Widescreen (1280x800) is superb. No complaints at all. Watching DVD's is a joy - much better than the DVD player plugged into my TV!The speakers and very good and very clear. Plenty of available volume.
I love the volume control. Three hotkey buttons for up, down and mute. These are SO useful.The DVD burner was an unexpected bonus. I have not used it to burn DVD's yet so cannot comment.
Loads of ports to please everyone. Firewire HeadphonesMicVideo-out (s-video)VGA port for monitorModem portEthernet port. Expansion Port 2 Four USB ports
Also a media card reader, which can read: Memory Stick  Memory Stick Pro  SmartMedia Card  Secure Digital (SD)/MMC  XD-Picture Card  ExpressCard/34  ExpressCard/54  Type I CardBus  Type II CardBusWindows XP Home SP2 is included as standard.
Also: Symantec Norton Antivirus 2005 (complementary 60 days)  Notebook Help & Support  Adobe Acrobat Reader  Sonic RecordNow  InterVideo WinDVD  Microsoft Works