Since I first bought the Compaq Presario V3000 over a year ago, I’ve been a fan of HP’s line of laptops. So, after selling off that old model, I went back and got an almost similar but lighter version — the Compaq Presario HP B1256TU.
At a smaller form factor, the Compaq Presario’s 12.1″ screen is as clear and bright as the v3000 series. The screen real estate still supports up to 1280×800 pixels, powered by a embedded Intel GMA X3100 graphics hardware.
It’s lighter too — 1.79kg is just over 4 lbs. It’s not on the top end of HP (the tx2000 series is) but this rig has an Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 that runs at 2.0 GHz with a default 1024 MB (2x512MB) of RAM. The 160GB of HDD space and a DVD+RW puts it on the middle of the scale in storage space.
It’s almost complete in the connectivity department too — 3 USB ports, phone modem, Gigabit LAN port, S-Video out, VGA out, Bluetooth and an SD-MMC card reader. There’s a built-in 1.3 megapixel webcam too.
The external controls for the 802.11 b/g/n WiFi is also on top of the full keyboard along with speaker switch and volume control.
The speakers are now situated at the bottom front of the laptop, along with the mic and headphone jack.
This model is actually an old one and costs about Php90k when it first came out last year. It has since dropped to just over Php55k. It’s a good deal, IMO.
The drawback though is that they come out of the box with Windows Vista Home Premium and they don’t allow a free downgrade to Windows XP. That makes the default 1GB RAM enough to run the system comfortably. Worse, upgrading the memory to 2GB will require you to buy new 2 x 1GB RAM sticks and take home the 2x512MB that originally came with it. Despite the drawbacks, the recent price downgrade still makes it a good buy.
Yeah, great deal. But it’s not a full keyboard as it does not have number keys. But still a nice buy though it’s a Compaq.
Nice lappy. I’m thinking of upgrading my core duo laptop. Have to do more research.
By the way, do this laptop includes a firewire?
Still no MacBook?
Hi Abe!
Just sharing some good news, my friend!
Remember my daughter? She had a pic-op with
you at Bloggers Kapihan at Phi-Sci?
Link is here:
http://anitokid.blogspot.com/2007/09/first-bloggers-kapihan-series-at.html
Guess what, Abe! She just graduated at the top of her class! VALEDICTORIAN!
Pics here, my friend.
http://anitokid.blogspot.com/2007/09/first-bloggers-kapihan-series-at.html
All the best!
AnitoKid
Yeah! Compaq. For non-mac laptop, I would definitely go for HP products. I was using my compaq r3000 as my main development machine and it survived the abuse for 4 years.
@jhay, after 2 weeks of hunting for a Macbook Air, still nada. Even went straight to the distributor.
@anitokid, hey! send my congrats to her!
Will do, kabayan! Will do!
.
MacBook Ar. I don’t know why you just didn’t try megamall. I saw one on display at a shop window. That was like 3 days ago.
@BrianB, I called almost all of them last week. Others could not say when the next shipping will arrive and when it does, there’s only 1 unit lang per store.
Off the topic:
Pls vote Chocolate Hills and Tubbataha Reefs for New 7 Wonders of Nature, to vote click here
Twitter: getitfromboy
says:
why is your feed entitled “why showbiz blogs rule the blogosphere” (or something)?..no pun intended? just kidding..
how much is this one?
What is your opinion on Acer asphire’s new line of laptops? with the same specs, you can get it at 35-40k.I bought an ACer asphire 4290 i think, 160GB, dual core, 1.8Ghz, 2Gig ram, other specs same as this. So far, its running so smooth.Impressive screen resolution and color. Only drawback that I can see is its shared video memomry. But there are other models that have dedicated memory and still price is lower than 50K. never experienced any hang-ups after playing several games. I don’t know what are its drawbacks, maybe you have reviewed them already.
Last Thursday I got my HP Pavillon dv2715nr. It was bought in the USA because it’s just a gift from an aunt.
No problems with the hardware at all but IE7 crashes when I download Firefox.
Fortunately I got a friend to e-mail the installer so I’m now using Firefox and so far I’m not having problems anyway.
By the way, where is the HP service center here in the Philippines? I need to know JIC. Thanks.
I need help regarding connection of my sony DR-BT30QA bluetooth headphones, i cannot use it to my compaq presario B1200, i can pair it to the computer`s built in bluetooth, but i cannot make the music goes out on the headphones… please teach me… thanks
[...] let me state that I’m a Windows XP fan myself and I was frustrated that my recent laptop purchase forced me to go with Windows Vista. The vendor says they no longer offer XP bundled with the new [...]
I just saw one at V-Mall selling for about 36k. But it’s only 512 MB RAM, 80GB HDD, no OS. Adding 1GB RAM is additional P800. They tell me speakers are Altec Lansing. So, is that ok for the price or not?
hi yuga!
do you happen to know where to download HP webcam driver? i have presario b1265tu but i cant find any device driver for the webcam. tried the HP pavilion webcam driver but it didnt work. i cant find any drivers in their website and their email support provided me a link where to download it but it didnt work. HP webcam has a yellow question mark in device manager. i have windows vista. hope you can help.
Thanks!
Twitter: lucienium
says:
I wanted to get the one without Windows on it but I found out that these laptops uses Broadcom WiFi chips on them instead of Intel branded ones, meaning they’re very non-Linux friendly…
[...] Read full review of the Compaq Presario B1256TU. [...]
this will fight well with XPS M1330 geforceM 8400 GS.
advice: dont be fooled with dedicated GPU on laptop.
GPUs are for desktop fot this time.
Twitter: edelweiss_19
says:
is that still available in the market? im planning to buy a laptop this month. i want value, performance and mobility and it seems this laptop has them all. plus it’s a 12-incher already. do you think the price has dropped to 30k now (my budget)?
@edelweiza – the Core Duo version which is 1.73GHz with 512MB of RAM is just 30k+.
Hello, i have a compaq presario b1200 . i am downgrading it to Windows XP and i have problems installing the drivers.. can someone help me with this? please..
how about its batt life span?
thanks
I bought mine yesterday..dito sa singapore..I love it!
lumalabas na 44K pesos lang sya tapos may kasama nang Canon MP145 printer
sulit!