Gateway CX200X

Summary: Given that I did my research before spending my money on the cx200X I decided to share this review with you because I don't believe the editor rating does it justice!!!

First and foremost you should know that this is by far the best deal for the parts that you are getting. The same configuration will cost you more if you go with Dell, HP or Asus. That is a matter of fact!

Also don't believe the pictures on the Gateway site that you can be a girl and carry this thing rested on your arm and walk around your office taking notes like it weighs less then one pound.Of course you can certainly do that if you are on steroids and you are buff.
It's really not that heavy, but it's not that light either.

After using this computer for one week I can't imagine why all laptops are not tablets??? There is really no good reason for them not to be. Chatting on messenger by writing your messages is wicked cool.
Handwriting emails and notes? )) Supercool!

The CX200X looks very flashy. With blue leds and cool functional buttons. You can rotate the screen in 2 landscape and 2 portrait views with a simple push of a button. So: rotating your desktop by 90 degrees with every push. That pretty much eliminates the complaints of people that would like to hold it in a different way, because: Hey hold it any way you want!

I read that some people complained about the locking of the screen?! What? It works great. The screen is not loose when you are not in table mode. It will stay in the position you set it. The cool thing is that if someone sits next to you, you can say: Hey check this out and turn the screen towards them! Exciting!!! haha j/k

Now lets switch to tablet mode and talk a bit about that.

I was somewhat of a tablet virgin in a sense that I haven't had the opportunity to play with one before I got mine, but I really LOVE IT! The pen is on the left bottom and pops up with a slide of a button. Neat! It has a button on it which is used for right clicking. You can also touch an icon and hold your pen over it for a second and then when you release it's counted as a right click. You can really configure this any way you want. (how fast you tap for double click, area of recognition, blah blah blah)

There are 3 modes for writing when using the pen:

1. Freestyle (and pray to God that your handwriting will be recognized)
2. Letter by letter (there are areas where you write your letters separately [works for me since my handwritting is plain horrible]}
3. Touch symbols and letters on a virtual keyboard (kind of beats the purpose)

I suggest you bookmark your websites that you visit often so you don't sweat when the computer recognizes grooming when you write google. You can practice your handwriting and get better. There are PLENTY of Tutorials of how to really make use of this computer. The Tutorials are interractive and they are Great!

Sometimes the pen will throw in a dot and a line here and there (rare) that you didn't put. It's kind of annoying, but it's not a big deal.

Can you use the pen to draw in photoshop, flash etc??? Yes you can. The pen is really like a mouse, except it's way cooler. The moment you come close to the screen, a pointer comes out. The moment you use it to type something it will show you a button that you click to open the pen panel for writing etc.
Don't get me wrong. When I try to write nicely my handwriting is recognized 100%: it's freakin amazing.

The software that comes with the notebook is really good. You get some nice thingies like One Note which is wicked for utilizing the power of the pen. I hope that this will replace my lab notebook. Journal is another neat program: you push a button on the computer and the program is launched immediately so you can write, highlight, erase, put images and more and send it to onenote or send it as an email to your friend. It's amazing really!

The Pen and Paper Feel is bull! Let me tell you what my eye doctor said when I got my contacts: "You will always feel like there's something in your eye, because Guess WHAT?: There's something in your eye! ". If you want a pen and paper feel, get a pen and paper. It's different!
I'm not saying it's bad. I like it. There is enough resistance for you to be happy when you write.

Anyway, if you are buying a laptop: GET A TABLET! It's much cooler, it is as fast as a normal laptop and it's very enjoyable!


This is my configuration:

1.86 ghz Pentium M 750
2X512 DDR2 Ram
ATI Mobility X600 64MB
12 cell battery

You could go up to 2 gigs of ram or get the 2.1 ghz processor , but you will be paying too much for performance you will likely not need from your notebook.

Obviously, this is not a gamer laptop, but it also doesn't weigh as much as the Alienware monster laptop you can build. This is a perfect day to day, office-home machine which is powerful, not very heavy and really, really, really, ridiculously good looking.

VIDEO CARD:

I was a bit dissapointed that the highest graphic card you can put in is the 64 mb X600 (given that X700 is a 128mb card and it's better). However, the fact of the matter is: If you are a gamer - Get a Desktop! If you are not: Get the ATI card because the ones that come in stock with the notebooks are really crappy. Pay the 100 bucks. It does make a difference!
Also, another cool thing is that the video card is on a PCI express SLOT!!! AAAAAND sometimes along the way if you decide to put a better one - you can replace it yourself.

S-Video Out

Like there is no space on the darn thing to drill another hole?!??! I don't know what Gateway was thinking when they didn't include this port. Most people that have laptops love to connect them to their TV and watch a DVD or some video download etc. Duh!

The good thing is, the ATI card does support TV-out function through the VGA connector. They claim that all you need is the cable adapter. Search ebay for VGA to tv converter. Please, please, please keep in mind that I did talk to 2 Gateway tech support reps and they said that this IS POSSIBLE, but I haven't tried it YET! If it is, the cable costs one dollar on ebay.
Either way, it is stupid not to have this port on a new model notebook.

Now, I have to share this with you:

I made the mistake of asking the S-video question to a sales rep because I was too lazy to call a tech support guy and he told me: No you can't do that, but we have a tv tuner card that you can use to watch TV on your notebook. Would you be interested in that?

Hi, we don't have any oranges, but you can use this grinder to grind your beef if you like?!!?? It's so annoying when you get the feeling that you know more about the product then the person who is selling it to you!!!

Anyway, I called tech support and they said that you can get the cable and connect the CX200X to a TV!

RAM:

How much ram do you need? 1 Gig of DDR 2 ram should be good enough for anyone. This is anticipating that 256 is a bare minimum for a good Windows XP performance. That's what I think anyway.

Hard Drive:

I got the 80 gig HD. The price difference was not so big for the extra 20 gigs. And now I'm going to quote my roommate and say "People say that your computer is as fast as your hard drive".
Not that I'm not going to get any sleep over it, but there are faster speed hard drives. It should be an option to put one of those in. (of course you can do this by yourself if you buy it separately).
And yes you can put all the software back on they do give you all the CDs.

Battery:

The 12 cell Battery lasts for about 6 hours with normal - surfing, word processing stuff. I got the bigger battery because I didn't care much about the extra weight and I want to have the computer working when I travel.

So far, I've been very happy with the CX200X and with Gateway customer support and the sales rep that sold it to me was very pleasant and knew her stuff. I recommend it without reservation! I hope that you will find my review useful in making your decision.

cheers!