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There’s always the smallest in a series, and the HP Compaq Presario CQ20 fills that position in the HP Compaq Presario CQ series. Its screen is only 12 inches, while its other two siblings have at least 14 inches for their LCD screen. Consistent with the Presario design, however, the CQ20 sports a native resolution of 1,280×800.

 

Small doesn’t mean it has falls behind its mates in the Presario line. The HP Compaq Presario CQ20 is marshaled by a processor that runs at a speed of 2 GHz. It specifically, boasts of an Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo P7350 processor, backed up by a solid memory of 2 gigabytes. For what it’s worth, running multiple processes at once is not a problem for this little notebook. 

 

At first glance, you would wonder how Compaq has crammed a lot of features in a very small frame but it did. For example, the CQ20 has an optical drive placed under its hood. It has 3 USB ports, plus two video output connections: a VGA output and an HDMI output. The latter is useful, as you can plug the CQ20 directly into a true HD television to view high definition media. Last but not the least, it also has an SD/MMC memory card reader as well as ports for Bluetooth, Infrared and an ExpressCard slot.

 

Hard disk space is also very important for any model of laptop. The CQ20, just like its other two mates, has a hard disk capable of accommodating up to 250 gigabytes of files. This is more than enough space for important documents as well as multimedia files since HD content eats up a lot of hard disk space. You can store a lot of your favorite movies and TV shows with this notebook.

 

Portability is of prime concern as well. Nobody wants to carry out a heavy and bulky laptop; everyone wants convenience. Convenience is indeed what you get from the CQ20: it weighs less than 2 kilograms. Taking this laptop with you on your travels will not be a problem; coupled with its small size, you would not need much space on your luggage.

 

Just like its brothers, the CQ20 lacks a dedicated graphics card thus hampering its abilities to process graphics. You cannot expect this laptop to run heavy games. You can, however, still play soft-core and lighter games on this platform. If you’re into 3D gaming, you’re better off looking at something else as the CSQ20 will disappoint you with its integrated graphics card.

 

Price estimates at Cnet puts the prices for the CQ20 at the US$1000 mark.

 

SPECS

Operating system: Windows Vista Home Premium

Processor: Intel Centrino Core 2 Duo P7350 2 GHz

Graphics: Intel GMA 4500MHD

Memory: 2 GB

Hard disk space: 250 GB

 

PROS

Users will definitely appreciate the power that the CQ20 has. With its 2 GHz Core 2 Duo processor and its 2 gigabytes of RAM, people will find it easy to process multiple programs simultaneously. Multitasking will certainly be a walk in the park with the CQ20, which is an important capability that everyone should have access to.

 

We also love the fact that there is an HDMI port for the CQ20. You’d have to admit that the 12.1 inch screen is quite small; hooking it up to an HD TV is certainly a good alternative for display.

 

CONS

The CQ20 suffers the same setback as its siblings: the lack of a dedicated graphics card. While it can play HD content without a problem, the platform still lacks the capability to give a good gaming experience in terms of graphics. This makes the CQ20 exclusive to business users and multimedia alone.

 

CONCLUSION

Let’s face the facts: the CQ20 will not and never will be a gaming platform. So, for gamers out there, the CQ20 is not the one for you. However, if you’re just out for a laptop that can do mundane tasks quickly and easily, you can get a lot from the CQ20. With this unit, you can do word processing, edit spreadsheets or simply listen to your music and watch movies.

Related posts:

1. HP Compaq Presario CQ60 – Review
2. HP Compaq Presario CQ 40 – Review
3. HP COMPAQ 615 – Review
4. HP Compaq 610 – Review
5. HP Compaq 6530b – Review

Tags: HP Compaq, HP Compaq Presario, HP Compaq Presario CQ20, HP CQ20

This entry was posted on Saturday, January 23rd, 2010 at 3:56 am and is filed under HP, and is tagged with HP Compaq, HP Compaq Presario, HP Compaq Presario CQ20, HP CQ20. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.