Compaq Presario 2710US Laptop (1.13-MHz Pentium III, 512 MB RAM, 20 GB hard drive)

by Compaq

Product Details

Product Manual [3.97mb PDF]

• Product Dimensions: 11 x 13 x 1.6 inches ; 7.9 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 14.8 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005UT2W
• Item model number: Presario 2710US
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: January 7, 2002

Product Description

Amazon.com Product Description

Although Compaq generally markets its Presario lineup of notebook computers to the home and home-business user, some models will handle far more demanding tasks and applications just as easily. Powered by a potent 1.13 GHz Intel Pentium III CPU and an enormous 512 MB (expandable to 1 GB) of RAM, the Presario 2710US notebook is one such machine.

Weighing in at a substantial 7.9 pounds and sporting an 11.02-by-13-by-1.65-inch profile, the Presario 2710US is markedly larger than several of its competitors. Compaq does, however, put that extra size to good use. The unit is literally loaded with drives, including a large 20 GB hard drive to handle permanent storage needs, an 8X DVD-ROM drive to play movies, and even a 3.5-inch floppy disk drive for older or smaller programs. The 2710US also takes advantage of Compaq's new FutureBay II technology, which allows users to install and swap additional optical devices such as CD-RW and DVD drives or CD-RW/DVD combos into a spare bay. In the case of the 2710US, that bay is already loaded with an 8X (write) CD-RW drive for reading and burning data and audio CDs.

There's one other reason for the 2710US being as big as it is. At a full 15 inches, its TFT active-matrix XGA viewing screen is nearly a full inch larger than the norm. That's good news for anyone who wants to get a better look at their programs, but in particular for multimedia enthusiasts. Certainly anyone into movies or music will also enjoy the benefits of the unit's capable ATI Mobility Radeon M6 graphics card and Dolby-certified JBL Pro Audio bass reflex speaker system.

The 2710US sports enough ports to accommodate virtually any form of expansion and exterior connection. The unit features two USB ports for plug-and-play peripherals such as joysticks, an S-video, TV-out port for television output, a PS2-style port for an external mouse or keyboard, a single parallel port for devices such as printers, a VGA port for external monitors, an internal 56K modem and 10/100 Mbps Ethernet network connection, a speaker-out and microphone-in port, a multipurpose PC Card slot, and a QuickDock connector for ultrafast hookups of additional accessories.

The 2710US keyboard section offers 88 full-size keys, an array of one-touch e-mail, Internet, and multimedia controls, a four-way Internet scrolling tool, and a touch pad. Power is supplied by a high-capacity lithium-ion battery and regulated by Intel's SpeedStep technology, which lowers processor speed and thus reduces battery drain whenever the unit is not plugged into an AC outlet.

To help get you started, Compaq has installed the Home Edition of the Windows XP operating system and an assortment of useful software applications, such as Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0, Microsoft Works 6.0, Microsoft Money 2001, Norton AntiVirus, Roxio Easy CD Creator 5.01, InterVideo WinDVD 3.0, and a one-year subscription to Microsoft Encarta Online Deluxe Encyclopedia.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Nice laptop, but screen specs are in error, January 14, 2002

By 

G. Wideman "gwideman" (San Diego, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Compaq Presario 2710US Laptop (1.13-MHz Pentium III, 512 MB RAM, 20 GB hard drive) (Personal Computers)

For those shopping by spec, for some reason the LCD specs are messed up in many sources, including Amazon currently. Just looked at models in a store, and neither the 2710 nor the 2715 have "native" 1600x1200 LCDs. The screens are 1400 x 1050. There is indeed a setting for 1600x1200, but this merely allows the 1400x1050 screen to pan across the larger area.
You may also want to know that the 2715 has 16M video RAM vs the 2710's 8M, which woudl be important if you are expecting to use dual-monitor desktop mode.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The BEST DEAL for this price., January 19, 2002

By 

A Customer - See all my reviews

This review is from: Compaq Presario 2710US Laptop (1.13-MHz Pentium III, 512 MB RAM, 20 GB hard drive) (Personal Computers)

I have owned a Dell Latitude, an IBM Thinkpad and a Toshiba Satellite and this one beats all of them to dust.

The display is awesome and the PIII rocks at 1.13 Gz. This laptop also has the most robust build among notebooks in this range. Every laptop has some issues, though this one is the best deal, there are a few issues with this one too, though minor.

1. The Floppy drive that comes with the 2710 cannot be used Externally. You have to swap it with something else. Most other laptops let you use the FDD externally.

2. The recovery disk works only when you boot with the disk on the DVD drive ! does not work when u use it from the CD-RW drive. Took me two hours to figure this out, the customer support was totally clueless.

3. Almost all hardware need specific drivers, including the display. The display[...]when you use standard drivers, so DONT LOSE the recover disk at any cost, its the only place to get all the drivers (unless you want to spend hours searching websites).

But yet, this is the best laptop out there for under 2K

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compaq 2710US - A great laptop at an equally good price, April 2, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Compaq Presario 2710US Laptop (1.13-MHz Pentium III, 512 MB RAM, 20 GB hard drive) (Personal Computers)

I shopped for laptops recently and had quite a bit of bad luck. The first machine I bought was an HP1170 whose sound car died a week after I purchased. I returned the HP for a compaq 2700 which had an overheating problem. I then got a toshiba 5005-S504 which was a nice machine but, it didn't have a mobile pentium so its battery lasted about 1.5 hours only.

Finally I got the Compaq 2710 and I have been thrilled with it. The build quality of this machine is superb and with 512mb of ram and screaming mobile pentium III running 1.13 GHz, this bad boy can easily replace my desktop.

The only negatives are the screen which is a little grainy but, not more than any other laptop I tried out. Also, Compaq service is the pits. It seems that Compaq engineers are very responsive when comes to getting patches out on the web site. Unfortunately, Compaq support seems to be completely unaware of these patches. The support organization gives advice designed to waste the maximum amount of your time and yield no results. If you have a problem, read the user forums. Chances are that someone has already had the problem you're experiencing and a patch already exists. That was my experience with a minor problem I was having.

If you're buying any laptop these days, you're bound to run into minor problems that you'll realize soon after getting it. Generally speaking, these problems are minor and I would say that this machine has fewer of them than most machines I've seen.

I heartily recommend this machine. It's built like a tank and runs like a top. Everything about this machine is quality.

Great keyboard feel
trackpad with easy scroll button (very convenient)
All the ports you need
15" screen
Great sound for a laptop
Good battery life about 3.5 hours with power management

A Smart Purchase