Customer Reviews

Compaq Presario CQ60-420US 15.6-Inch Laptop

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

Great specs and performance for the price. System is very responsive and I haven't had a hiccup yet. Only thing missing for me would be an integrated webcam and dedicated graphics memory but you get what you pay for and those features usually cost extra.

I do a lot of writing, email, and a little video work. This machine is perfect. There's a wide screen, so that I can see two pages when working on a book page layout. It's very fast compared with my old Pentium 4 laptop. The biggest question to ask is what you want out of your laptop. If you want high end fast gaming, this is not your PC. If you want quick word processing, email, facebook, etc... this one's incredible. I got this on sale at Staple's this week for $349, which is a crazy low price and I'm thrilled. As the earlier reviewer noted, MS Office is not included. I really don't know of any computers where it's included. There is a 60 day trial of Office 2007. If you want office, pick up the home and student edition at the same time you buy the computer for around $79-$99.

Things in the computer world move fast. A year or so ago, this laptop would have rated at the top of the rankings for speed, memory, HD Size, etc. Now, it's lower in the rankings. So what? It's still a very fast computer at an incredible price and will serve my needs well over the coming 3-5 years.

Hope this helps :-)

Had a CQ60 computer for a little over a year and the battery gets to 40% and the computer dies. Warranty expired 2 weeks ago and HP can't help me. I went online to buy a new battery and surprise, everyone says the battery sucks. My previous Compaq, the AC adapter died after 2 weeks and HP sent a replacement. My brother's Compaq, the battery died after a year and he bought a new one after his wireless card died too. This is the last Compaq I buy ever.

Bought this from one of the "office supply" stores at about the price the CQ60-410 is going for elsewhere, was actually cheaper than the 410 in this store.

Screen is very nice. For the keyboard, the 10 key is very cramped, I think I would have preferred it just not be there and a bit of a wider normal keyboard, although the keyboard spacing does seem fine other than the 10 key.

The processor is the very capable T4200 (Core Duo), which is great for something at this price point, as netbooks and many other "value" notebooks are shipping with either the Atom or Celeron single core chips.

A lot of trialware, as I suspect most laptops have: Trail of office, trail of Norton, pre-installed Compaq branded Microsoft Bing toolbars, etc.

This laptop does qualify for a free upgrade to Windows 7 and uses the Windows Home Premium version of Vista. Hopefully the Windows 7 disc won't come with all of the trialware.

I got this laptop for my 14 the birthday and Grduation. When i first got it i was so happy. When i turned it on all that happieness tuned in to frustrstion. Right from the get go it was slow. and didnt function right. So if u want to get a laptop. this is not the laptop that i would want to buy. unless u like slow and annoying laptops. be my guess.

I got a similar model about a year and nine months ago, but the problems started a long time ago. This laptop started with some heat issues, whenever I had it on my lap, it would overheat, oftentimes so much that it would turn itself off, so I got a fan lap desk and it worked well. It took me about 3 minutes from the time I turned it on until I was able to use it successfully. All of this started about three months after buying it.

Now my real issue began about a week ago. I purchased a new router and set it up while connected to my computer, I had 2 computers and 2 smart phones connected to it, but not my laptop. I called the router people and they said that the problem was with my computer not the router. So I called the Compaq/HP tech support, which became my biggest nightmare. The first time I called I talked to "Sarah", somewhere in India. She then told me that my warranty had expired 9 months ago and that I had two options, extended warranty for 14 days for $50, or for a year for $100. I asked, "Is there anything you can do for me right now, for free?" and she responded negatively, so I thanked her and hung up. I called my personal tech support, who worked on it for a long time to no avail.
I then called back and fought with someone in India, until "Roger" promised me a full refund if my problem was not fixed. So I was on the phone with him for about 2.5 hrs one day and another 1 or so the next day with someone else, and he told me that it was a hardware problem that he could not fix. So I told him I wanted my money back from the extended warranty, and this guy told me he could not, until I argued and yelled and he said he would make an exception. Today I check my account, and not only did they not refund me back, but charged me another $100. So I called and yelled and finally I will be getting (hopefully) my refund on Monday.

I am now looking to buy a laptop that will last me longer than just under 2 years. Preferably 5-6 years. Is that too much to ask?

I bought this 420US model in this August. The DVD drive failed to read and burn after 2 weeks of purchase. I called the customer service and have it replaced in the September. However, the new one failed to burn and read CD again in another one month. DVD reading is OK. When HP scheduled the computer back to the repair center in TX, the computer screen was cracked by FedEX and HP refused to replace the screen, even though they paid for the shipping and have the laptop insured. HP said it is me who broke the LCD and sent back for repair. what??? Another word, you have to prepare at least 1hr to finish the call with HP's customer service. Now I have a broken screen and broken DVD drive 3-month Compaq siting on for floor that I can do nothing with it. Hope you guy would not have the bad experience but I would never buy a compaq product EVER.

Went into a big box office supply store to look at netbooks and saw this on sale for $378 minus $30 mail-in rebate for price of $348, the same price as a netbook. Great machine for the price however it is a basic machine. 3GB of memory, 250gb hard drive, dvd burner, windows Vista Premium (eligible for Windows 7 upgrade for shipping charge), vga connector, 3usb ports, modem, wireless and wired lan connections, memory card reader, trial versions of MS Office and Norton Security, DOES NOT have HDMI connector, Express card slot, bluetooth or webcam. The 15.6 screen is bright and clear, has a numeric keypad, battery life is about 3 hours and I like this clam shell design that doesn't have any latches to open the cover of it. The quality seems awesome, I've owned Dell, Toshiba, IBM and Acer machines and this machine is as sturdily built as any of them. No I can't go 6 hours without plugging in like I wanted with a netbook but I am happy I bought this.

I picked this up in Staples in July for $350.00. Features for the price is simply unbeatable anywhere. This machine with a Pentium dual core T4200 was actually less than Celeron machines. My advice: never buy a celeron. You can almost always find a dual core, pentium or AMD, for the same or less if you're patient. This Compaq cost the same or less than some netbooks. I bought a similar dual core Compaq for my daughter last year and she's had no problems, so I anticipate good reliability with this unit. The touchpad is nice, with a scroll feature on one side. However, I hate touchpads. Buy a logitec nano wireless mouse. Plug in the tiny USB antenna and instant sinc whenever you turn the mouse on. I like that this laptop comes with the 32 bit system. I can actually play Halflife on it and it runs great! Windows 7 upgrade is free.

Cons: no web cam or external mike or dedicated graphics card.

I have owned Compaq computers for well over 8 yrs, I started with a desktop and had no issues with it, but wanted a laptop, and purchased the Presario CQ-60 420US. I trust the Compaq name...its made from HP, I still have my original desktop in the basement for my kids, but will soon replace it with another Compaq laptop,(its 8 yrs old, and nothings wrong with it). I bought my laptop for 250.00 at Staples for a 1 day super sale, and am so happy I was able to get it, it is dual core 250 hard drive, 3g, I purchased a USB fan for it because it does heat up after hours and hours of use, so no big deal, and if Im too lazy to plug in the fan, I make sure I allow ample air circulation underneath it to help keep it cool. I dont use the battery if Im at home, I use the wall plug, and keep the battery out until needed, I have had this laptop for almost 3 yrs and still have the original battery that lasts at least 2 1/2 hrs. OH... I also work from home, and am on this laptop for at least 8 hrs a day. Hope this helps