Customer Reviews

Compaq Presario CQ62-220US Laptop PC

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

First of all, I'm a gamer and advanced computer tech. My main rig is composed by X4 965, 4GB, 275GTX, 2 x 26" and some TB's (WD1002FAEX FTW!).

I need a computer for my school projects and really did not want to spend all my cash for a laptop I wouldn't use at 100% (No fancy quad core, 4GB, 500GB, or fancy video cards and fingerprint readers). I was about to get the 210US but compared both VGA, CPU and RAM and its so much more worth this 220US than its little sister.

Strenghts:
-Processor has quite a punch. If your API's are double core oriented, this lap will not slow down
-Enough RAM, come on 3GB are just fine, 4GB is better and anything beyond is overrated (if you need more, then u don't need this laptop)
-Video: By this I was truly amazed. I totally discarted any gaming on the laptop. However, just out of curiosity, I tried one of my fav. games (Company of Heroes). Everything Low & 1366x768 = 50~60fps. I COULDNT Believe it! I instantly started some panzer battles and it dropped to 36~45fps. VERY VERY Playable OMG!.
-Display is BEAUTIFUL! I own a T260HD & LN42B630 and it looks really great compared to them!.
-Speed: Overall very good speed. HDD somehow drags you down but its 5400rpm afterall...

Weakness:
-Case: Even though I think it looks cool, once you get closer, it really looks very very cheap and scratches very easely
-Touchpad: Its integrated in the case and there are no boundaries (physically, but the touchpad does have limits) so if you dont constantly keep an eye where the touchpad is, you wont find it by feeling it.
-Bloatware & Bundled SW. useless.

Extra:
- The mouse buttons ARE NOT HARD TO PRESS!. Ive tried the CQ60 and yes they were, but on the CQ62 they're smooth as butter!, less smooth than the DV6000 but seriously, who wants a DV6000 hehehe.
- No webcam :( but I already knew that.


UPDATE (I've had it for 6++ months)
The laptop is still running strong (Hardware wise, Software wise that depends on you not on the laptop). I've came across many other laptops that are prettier (like Toshiba's) but they are much more expensive and come still with less hardware (many lack a good graphics card) than this CQ62-220US.

I'm impressed by how the price has maintained itself. Truly a great purchase!

PS. The Battery still holds very good and the charger is properly working :).

I got this laptop at another retailer on sale for $400 and I'm pretty happy with it. It is certainly a good deal at $400, above that I'm not too sure. The size and weight are great as far as I'm concerned. Not so large and heavy that you feel like you're carrying a desktop around, but large enough to get some real work done. Although the hard drive could stand to be a tad faster, most other laptops at this price come with around 250 GB, so the extra space is appreciated. The processor is really pretty fast. I think this is the first laptop I have ever played with that doesn't seem to struggle with more than a few web pages open at a time. I can run media player, office, firefox, and few other things without so much as a hiccup. The sound is pretty decent. It has Altec Lansing speakers, and the sound card has some neat features like virtual surround sound. I don't know how well those work, but they are cool to play with. Video is really good on this thing. I have a TV tuner usb dongle that has been a struggle for every other computer, but this one runs and records 1080p video no problem. The LCD screen required some adjustment for me. The colors and brightness are little off, but I did meddle with the drivers a lot so that might have something to do with it. Gaming is a mixed bag. I suppose its decent for a $400 laptop, and I suppose you really shouldn't be gaming on a laptop anyway, but I can't help it. It runs some older games really well (especially counter-strike source), but it struggles a lot with newer games. I have been able to get mass effect 2 to be barely playable, though I often find myself wishing that I had an extra 3-5 fps. I don't have a desktop, so any PC gaming is done on this thing for me.

Cons:
-If I had it to do over again, I might have opted for a slightly more expensive laptop with a slightly better, discrete video card. I feel a bit duped in that regard. I should have done more research, but AMD gives the impression that the HD 4250 is a discrete video card. It isn't. It is SLIGHTLY above average INTEGRATED VIDEO. In fact, AMD's graphics processor naming conventions are completely nonsensical now. 4250 may be considerably slower than a 4200 or much faster than a 69000 or whatever. The names and numbers no longer have anything to do with anything. It is good at processing video (DVDs, AVI, MPEG, TV TUNER), but not so great at 3D graphics.
-The touchpad is a little bit of a pain. It is kind of cool looking, but as it blends in with the case it is easy to drift off of it and this gets irritating. The buttons are way too tough. I find myself awkwardly using two hands, one for the touch pad and one for the buttons.
-The shortcut buttons on left side of the keyboard are pretty pointless, and I find myself constantly hitting them on accident when I am trying to hit tab or shift which are always, and have always been on the left edge of the keyboard.
-It is a Compaq/HP. Neither of these are my favorite companies. HP has had a history of making shoddy laptops and issuing half-hearted recalls after the warranty is over. I've never been terribly impressed with their driver support either. Toshiba probably makes the best laptops, but you do pay a premium for the brand name. Unfortunately, Toshiba's current generation of similarly priced laptops are very unimpressive. I was torn between this computer and slightly cheaper Toshiba, but this one was slightly better in every way except for the manufacturer.

Overall I would say I'm pretty satisfied with this computer. It is a good deal for the price, especially if you don't plan to do much gaming on it, and you don't mind taking a little bit of a gamble on Compaq.

Very basic, easy to use, simple computer. Issue is that the product is defective and HP refuses to acknowledge this. Case Manager stated that the display can crack if you open the monitor from the right or left corner with a single hand. I read through the manual and did not see any instructions that states you should open with two hands to prevent the monitor from cracking. HP Case Managment was very unhelpful. I now have a useless HP laptop that is less than 60 days old. Basically a laptop paper weight. What hillarious is that HP is a multibillion dollar company that wanted to charge me more than the cost of the defective laptop to repair it. You can actually by the replacment monitor for $80 online from a third party and the company that crated the machne wants to charge you over $400 dollars. I am a 34 year old male Business Analytics Manager and have been using laptops for the past 16 years. During that time, I have had the opportunity to work with Dell's, HP's, IBM Think Pad's, Toshiba Satellite, and Sony Vios laptop. While in possession of many different brands of laptops, not once have I experienced an issue like the one I am going through now.

Out of all the value oriented laptops at the 350-500 price point (got it for 349) I must say no complaints here.

Fast (Dual core) 3GB memory is enough and over 300GB of hard drive space is fine for any student.

My only complaint is that the housing is cheaply made and touchpad is terribly annoying. It is endless and at times hard to press on.

I am more than pleased with my purchase. While this is a lower end laptop it meets my needs. No problems

This is a very nice laptop at a super-reasonable price. I can even play 'City of Heroes' on this thing! My wife has a 17' Compaq that can not play this game, but this laptop can handle it at medium settings without a hiccup. I can probably go with even higher settings, but I don't want to push my luck, as I'm still experimenting with it. I also installed 'Red Alert' (another favorite of mine), and it also plays flawlessly. It was a very nice surprise because I bought this laptop to do visual basic programming and surf the internet, watch movies, etc, but I never thought it was going to be able to play games.
PROS:
-Very nice looking and the quality of materials is excellent.
-FAST. Very fast. The dual core processor, the ATI graphics and 3 GB of memory work very well.
-Display is bright and beautiful and there's no problem with the angle from which you see the screen. It is perfect from any angle.
-Good speakers for a laptop (Altec Lansing). I expected this because my wife's Laptop is loud. This one is not as loud, but is still perfect for watching movies, games, etc.
-Very nice keyboard. Keys feel great, very responsive, I love it. No numeric pad tough.
-Doesn't get too hot. It gets only a little warm when playing games, but that can be fixed easily with one of those laptop pads that come with fans. I'm typing this review with the laptop on my lap, and is not hot at all after using it for several hours.
-Completely silent. You can not hear the fan, the hard drive, nothing! I love this.
-No complaints about windows 7 either. Well, I have used it only for one day, but so far so good. If I change my mind later I will update this review.
-Very easy to set up, the battery charges fast, not too much bloatware.
-Not heavy at all.
CONS:
-Only one. I don't like the touch pad. More specifically I don like the touch pad button. I find it hard to press. It can be me, I generally don't like touch pads. A few hours after start using it, I went to a local store and bought wireless mouse Rocketfish Nano Laptop Laser Mouse NANMSE. Anyway, this is not a big issue and I still think this laptop deserves five stars, specially at $ 400 price.
-UPDATE 11/02/2010: The hard drive comes partitioned this way:
C: 284 GB
D: 13.5 GB (Used for recovery)
E: 99.3 MB (HP Tools)
I've made my recovery disks today. I used LightScribe DVD's (4 total). The burning and labeling process was flawless and the discs look great.

Sad, pathetic horrible computer. Everything is creepingly slow. It's like being back in the '90s and using Windows 98 all over again. It takes nearly five minutes to open an application or to log in. I hope the engineers who brought this thing to market cry themselves to sleep every night, because that would be the only appropriate thing for them to do now.

If you are buying laptops for a boss, i.e., for a corporate environment, you will be in huge trouble if you buy any of these. You will be very, very embarrassed, and likely fired.

I loved the price and was more than satisfied with the performance. Obviously not a gaming machine but for routine day to day stuff that wasn't too graphics intensive it was great. Three months past the warranty the hard drive crashes. I went to the HP website to buy a replacement hard drive and it tells me the original is no longer recommended and they have an alternate they recommend. Great so I try to order that and they say thats not available to order and thats it, no other information. I know about the flooding in Thailand right now and availability issues for laptop hard drives but you would think they would at least let you know that they are temporarily not available due to a shortage and not have me have to hunt the info down on my own on the internet. I posted my issue on the HP support forum asking for another recommendation for a replacement hard drive and nothing, no response for weeks. Hard drives fail, I understand that so I guess my biggest gripe is with the lack of support from their online support resources. I am sure I can get somebody to talk to me from HP but that doesn't appear to be free from what I can tell since my 1 year warranty is expired.

I bought this laptop computer on the recommendation of my son, who uses the same model for tele-commuting as an IT Specialist with a major banking company. It is powerful, portable and efficient. I would buy this computer again and would highly recommend it for anyone else considering a portable computer purchase.

I purchased this laptop at the beginning of September...just a little over four months ago. It worked pretty good until a couple of weeks ago when the CD/DVD drive just stopped working. After troubleshooting for an hour, I discover the drive is dead. HP's customer care did little to help me. Even though the laptop is still under warranty, they refuse to help me. The thing is I used the drive a total of three times before it failed. I rarely use DVDs so it may have been broken for much longer before I realized it recently. So basically, I have a dead DVD drive and a useless warranty. This was my first Compaq/HP product, and it will be my last. Buyer Beware!