Welcome to a Laptop Battery specialist of the Compaq Laptop Battery
The Compaq F500 is a series of notebooks from HP featuring AMD CPUs. This particular model under review, the F560US, has the AMD Sempron CPU while others in the model line have Athlon TK Dual Core CPUs. The F500 series is squarely planted in the budget end of the notebook spectrum. The F560us with battery Compaq 247051-001 Battery, Compaq W20700 Battery, Compaq Presario 14XL Battery, Compaq Presario 14XL2 Battery, Compaq Presario 14XL3 Battery, Compaq 116314-001 Battery, Compaq 176780-001 Battery, Compaq 388647-001 Battery, Compaq Presario 1200 Battery, Compaq Presario 12XL Battery, Compaq Presario 1600 Battery, Compaq Presario 1800 Battery has a minimum of features and style, but that's not necessarily a bad thing if you're on a limited budget. You're probably going to see a lot of the F500 series between now and Christmas. I know Circuit City has the similar C717NR, which comes with the Pentium Dual Core instead of an AMD CPU, on Black Friday as a doorbuster item. Stores will probably use them as a way to entice you into the store with a low price after rebates hoping you'll buy other stuff as well. That's how they got me to buy. The F560us' best features are the pleasing glossy screen, simple look and low price. It also has some less than stellar attributes as well.
Model: F560US (GF593UA)
CPU: 25W AMD Sempron 3500+ 1.8GHz 1600MHz FSB 512K L2 Cache
Chipset: Nvidia
Memory: 512MB DDR2 P5300 2 Slots, 1 Open 2GB Max
Hard Drive: 80GB 5400RPM Fujitsu (MHV2100BH) SATA
Screen: 15.4" WXGA 1280 x 800 Glossy
Optical Drive: LiteOn DS8A1P DVD+/-RW/-RAM
8x DVD+/-R, 4x DVD+/-RW, 4x DVD+/-R DL
5x DVD-RAM
24x CD-R,16x CD-RW
Graphics Card: Nvidia GeForce Go 6150 128MB Shared
Network: Broadcom Wireless BG, Nvidia 10/100 Ethernet, Modem
Inputs: 86 Key Keyboard and Two Button Trackpad with Scroll Zones
Buttons: Power and WiFi On/Off Switch.
Ports:
3 USB 2.0 Ports - Two Left Side, One Right Side
S-Video and VGA Out
Line-In and Headphone
Other: Microphone Integrated into LCD Housing
Battery: Six Cell
Dimensions:
Width - 14.1”
Depth - 10.1”
Height - 1.5”
Weight: 6.6 Lbs.
Operating System: Vista Home Basic
Warranty: One Year
The F560 comes with a six cell battery. There is a 12 cell battery option if you need more time, but since I will mostly be using it at home, it's not a big issue for me. Setting the screen to half brightness with WiFi on doing normal tasks like Office and Internet, I was able to get 2:22 minutes of battery life going from 100% until in went into hibernation. Two plus hours of battery life seems fair given the machines budget nature. The screen is so bright on the F560, you could turn it down more and eke out some additional time if needed. The AC brick is petite, which is always a plus for portability. It does use a three-pronged plug which may sometimes make finding a suitable outlet more difficult.
Let's face it, if you're considering the Compaq F560us, either times are tough or you're cheap. I would place myself into the latter category. In either case you're probably going to have to make some trade-offs. I wanted a notebook with a nice bright glossy screen as a contrast to my darker screened ThinkPad. I don't need a lot of performance. The Sempron fills that role well. I was willing to live with the lesser quality and performance to get the nice screen. For someone who justs needs a box for every day tasks like music or Internet, doesn't need superior quality/service and doesn't have a lot of money to spend, I think the F560 offers good value.