Ever since I got my new Compaq Presario V3000 laptop, a lot of people have been asking me for reviews about it. I thought I’d give it a couple more weeks before I’d post a more substantial feedback but I guess a Top 10 list of what I liked about it would suffice. 
1) It is fast! An Intel Core 2 Duo at 1.66GHz T5500 coupled with 1GB of RAM is the fastest rig I’ve ever had (desktops or laptop). I’ll spare you the details (that’s for AnandTech to work on.)
2) The built-in Altec Lansing speakers are just awesome. I’m an avid fan of Altec, having bought only that brand since I had my first PC back in college. The audio controls are simple and easy to use — mute, high and low. The sound quality and volume just rocks (ever tried playing DVD on a noisy Starbucks cafe?).
3) Built-in SD, MS, Pro, MMC and XD card readers to easily transfer files from my Ixus to the laptop in a jiffy. 
4) Manual toggle to turn on and off the built-in wifi and blue-tooth devices. With Bluetooth 2.0, I can manage my N3230 with the PC Suite even if it’s tucked in my pocket.
5) Toggle to turn off the trackpad. You can lock it so it won’t respond if you accidentally touch it (rogue cursor movement). This allows you to comfortable use the keyboard un-interrupted even if your palm hits the pad while typing. Comes in handy if you’re using an external mouse.
6) 16x Dual-layer DVD Re-Writer. The store even gave me a whole stack of BenQ DVDs for free. 
7) A really bright 14.1″ WXGA LCD screen (1,280×800) — more display space to work on.
Reasonable battery life. This one is just over 3 hours (6-cell) though the store said they could get me a 12-cell battery (6 hours) for under Php8k.
9) Dual built-in microphones situated on the top lid part of the screen. Not really for high-quality podcasting but this is the first time I saw two on a laptop.
10) Elegant blank carbon finish. You’ll have to see and touch it to appreciate.
Of course, it doesn’t come in without any drawbacks. First, the same time that I appreciate the extra horizontal display, the added weight comes with the baggage (5.5lbs). The battery life can still be improved, but you need to shell out some more dough to get it to 6 hours. Storage is only 60GB and though I wish it were 100 or 120GB, the DVD-RW comes in handy if you want some more storage space. While it comes in with a PCI Express Card slot, the old but still trusty PCMCIA slot was booted out . And yes, I would have been more delighted if Compact Flash (CF) card reader for my Rebel XT was also supported.
All in all, IMO the Php73,500 I spent for this baby is well worth it.
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… but its not a mac!!!
My dad has the same laptop. I’m curious, does this one come with the drivers and OS disc? Because my dad recieved the laptop without the CD/DVDs, there’s just a partition with an image of the OS with the drivers.
You’re allowed to burn a copy of the partition to discs though.
Nice. And you have Intel Virtualization Technology there - efficient VMWare support!
But jayvee has a point… aren’t Macs more suited to probloggers?
@jayvee but you can convert it to a mac if one it too, hehe… thats why it is much cheaper to buy a pc based laptop than buying a mac hehe..
btw from cnet.com it is only rated at 6.9 out of ten hehe.. and also they indcated that aside from intel’s core 2 duo processor it can also handle amd dual-core processor..
and also: The bad: Putting pressure on the case above the optical disc drive results in buzzing noise; - cnet
anyways looks good for the price.. if i’m in the market for one kahot yung intel dual core centrinos ok na sakain hehe icoconvert ko naman ito to mac eh hehe with OSX.. ooops bawala pala to,
@ jaypee
You said to wait before the better ones arrive?
@ JP
Yup, do CDs, just that partition which you can also burn.
@ Migs
hahaha… I remember that interview with ABS CBN about Macbooks and blogging. I am not just a blogger though. Is there an SSH client for Mac?
@ Vance
Can we try doing that? hehhe
So they really said something about Macbooks and blogging?
Mac OS X has “the usual” Unix shells tools so you should be able to open a terminal window and ssh to your webhost.
only problem is i don’t how to install one but a “p” version of mac osx for x86 is available on the internet (you know where it is), how to install one is the tricky part since only a few are telling how to…
here are some useful site to learn about osx x86 http://www.insanelymac.com/
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
doing this is obviously illegal…
I saw one installed on an hp laptop on youtube
here are some sites if you want to learn about osx8:
http://www.insanelymac.com/
http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/Main_Page
of course it is illegal and only a few sites have an actual guide on how to install one hehe maski ako hindi ko pa alam kung paano, some articles i read was for dual booting osx and xp,
jp: yup, no cds and drivers included in the package. everything is on the partition. if something goes wrong you just need to restore
Abe, I was at Megamall and saw that your laptop (with 512mb) now goes for 64+++.
But that’s one piece of hardware.