Carla Thornton

Compaq Presario 3005US

The Presario 3005US's screen measures a whopping 16 inches diagonally and has a top resolution of 1280 by 1024 pixels, making it ideal for graphic artists and other users who need a big display for working with multiple windows or tool palettes. Four USB 2.0 ports and a parallel port ensure easy hookups to both new and older peripherals. The $1799 price makes the laptop a good deal, especially considering its inclusion of a fixed optical drive (a DVD-ROM/CD-RW combination drive in our unit). We saw good battery performance in our tests, about 3 hours.
When you include its bricklike power adapter, the Presario 3005US weighs a hulking 9.4 pounds. Our test unit didn't come with a floppy drive; instead Compaq bundled a 4MB Sandisk Cruzer flash-memory device.
The Presario is a big portable and rather plain-looking to boot, with an all-matte-black case. The left side is bare except for a FireWire (IEEE 1394) port. On the right sits the optical drive, one PC Card slot, and a basic set of audio connections. A sturdy frame supports the huge display. The keyboard is nicely arranged but not the most impressive among Compaq's Presario offerings. Its keys feel a tad stiff, and the keyboard could use a little slope to make typing easier. You won't find any quick-launch buttons or a vertical scrolling button, de rigeur keyboard features these days. However, the touchpad and mouse buttons are set comfortably deep inside a stylish silver frame. At the top, a longish power button depresses unusually deep into the case, near an unobtrusive row of status lights. We found all the parts easy to access, though the hard drive--held in by four small screws and a panel on the bottom--is not designed for casual removal. Two sliding locks help secure the notebook's big 12-cell battery. Unlike most Presarios, the 3005US doesn't have very good stereo speakers: Seeming as if it had a head cold, it emits oddly muffled audio from outlets located above the keyboard. A hardware toggle just around the right front corner, however, does offer convenient volume control. A reasonable performer for a notebook with a desktop 2A-GHz Pentium 4 processor, the 3005US tied the only other notebook we've tested with the same configuration, with a PC WorldBench 4 score of 104. Compaq provides ample, easy-to-read documentation for the 3005US in both print and Acrobat format.
In the 16-inch-screen notebook category, where models are still rare and usually expensive, the Compaq Presario 3005US stands out with its reasonable $1799 price. It is ably equipped, and would likely suit buyers who need a standard, unflashy desktop replacement.