Entered CNET Catalog: 04/23/2002
SKU: 450XL
Manufacturer: Gateway Inc.
Manufacturer description
Designed with integrated sound and Centrino wireless technology, the 450 series allows you go mobile without being tied down. Lighten your load at a reasonable price with any 450 notebook. Designed exclusively for wireless computing, Centrino technology provides you with mobility-minus the cables, wires and adapter cards. It provides long-term stability in wired and wireless environments so you can network without interruption.Product summary
The good: Thin and light; excellent tech support; FireWire port; wide, responsive keyboard.
The bad: Middling performance; limited screen, graphics, and hard drive speed options; no modular swapping with other Gateway laptops.
The bottom line: The Gateway 450's solid features and battery life make it a dependable thin-and-light travel companion for both business and home users.
Editors' review
- Editors' Rating: 7.1
- Editors' Choice: No
- Reviewed on: 09/30/2002
 EZ Pad touchpad. |
 Drive on right side. |
The 450's base weight varies between 5.88 and 6.44 pounds, depending on your choice of either 14.1- or 15-inch screens, both of which look sufficiently bright and crisp. (The AC adapter tacks on another pound.) The 450 maintains its modest weight by including a single modular bay that supports a floppy, CD-ROM, DVD-ROM, CD-RW, or combo DVD/CD-RW drive. The bay also accommodates two optional batteries at an additional $79 and $99.
 Rear-panel ports. |
 Rear-panel ports. |
Unlike some corporate laptops such as the mainstream Dell Latitude C610 series, the 450 series won't let you swap these modular devices among Gateway's other laptop lines--not an ideal setup for enterprise customers seeking to save costs by sharing drives. But Gateway tips its hat to businesses by preserving serial, parallel, and PS/2 legacy ports. Composite/NTSC video-out, two USB ports, two Type II (one Type III) PC Card slots, Ethernet, and a 56k modem also come standard with the 450. However, the 450 breaks from corporate tradition by supporting only a pared-down port replicator ($129) rather than a more full-featured docking station.
Unlike most manufacturers that design different laptop chassis for their business and home notebooks, Gateway takes a one-chassis-fits-all approach with the 450. The low-end 450L starts at $1,399, putting it out of range of budget buyers (who should look to the larger but cheaper 1450 series, which bottoms out at $999). At the other end of the spectrum, an amped-up 450XL will set you back $2,500 or more; considering how widely the 450's prices and features differ across the line, you should be able to find a 450 that's adequate for most tasks. For example, the 450L and 450X offer Pentium 4 processors that range in speed from 1.7GHz to 2GHz and hard drives in 20GB, 30GB, and 40GB capacities; the top-of-the-line 450XL comes with a 2GHz processor and a 40GB hard drive. All three systems let you add up to 512MB of system memory.
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Gateway takes a one-chassis-fits-all approach with the 450. |
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Gateway thankfully offers a mind-boggling assortment of software options with the 450. In addition to Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition, all 450s come with Microsoft Works Suite 2002. Gateway also peddles a vast array of educational apps, games, and training programs on everything from notebook security to digital photography. Fortunately, you can choose many of these apps individually so that you're not stuck with a software bundle you don't need.
On everyday applications tests, the Gateway 450 failed to live up to its high-end CPU. In addition to a 2GHz Pentium 4-M processor, the system we tested came with 256MB of system memory and a 40GB, 4,200rpm hard drive. In spite of these above-average specs, the 450 fell well behind the slower, 1.8GHz IBM ThinkPad T30. The 450 did manage to score a small but ultimately meaningless victory over the 850MHz Sony VAIO PCG-VX88. On battery-life tests, the 450 came in last, no doubt hampered by its relatively low-power battery and its fast CPU.
Mobile application performance
The 2GHz Gateway 450 scored below average for a mainstream system with comparable specs. The 1.8GHz IBM ThinkPad T30--which packs a faster, 5,400rpm hard drive--beat the 450 by 20 points on mobile performance tests. Compared to the Sony VAIO PCG-VX88, the 450 performed moderately well, but we expected a 2GHz system to beat an 850MHz system by a much larger margin.
Mobile application performance (Longer bars indicate faster performance)
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System configurations:
Gateway 450SX4
Windows XP Home; 2GHz Intel Pentium 4-M; 256MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility M6 32MB; Toshiba MK4018GAP 40GB 4,200rpm
IBM ThinkPad T30
Windows XP Professional; 1.8GHz Intel Pentium 4-M; 256MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 16MB; Toshiba MK4019GAX 40GB 5,400rpm
Sony VAIO PCG-VX88
Windows XP Home; 850MHz Intel Pentium III-M; 256MB SDRAM 133MHz; Intel 82815 graphics controller 4MB; IBM Travelstar 30GN 30GB 4,200rpm
With its 11.1-volt, 3,600mAh lithium-ion battery and low-power CPU, the VAIO PCG-VX88 placed first in battery-life tests, lasting 3 hours, 49 minutes. The Gateway 450, hampered by its low-power, 11.1-volt, 3,800mAh battery and fast CPU, lasted only 2 hours, 36 minutes. The ThinkPad T30 with its 10.8-volt, 4,400mAh battery managed to last a full 20 minutes longer than the 450.
Battery life (Longer bars indicate longer battery life)
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To measure mobile application performance and battery life, CNET Labs uses BAPCo's MobileMark2002. MobileMark measures both applications performance and battery life concurrently using a number of popular applications (Microsoft Word 2002, Microsoft Excel 2002, Microsoft PowerPoint 2002, Microsoft Outlook 2002, Netscape Communicator 6.0, WinZip Computing WinZip 8.0, McAfee VirusScan 5.13, Adobe Photoshop 6.0.1, and Macromedia Flash 5).
System configurations:
Gateway 450SX4
Windows XP Home; 2GHz Intel Pentium 4-M; 256MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility M6 32MB; Toshiba MK4018GAP 40GB 4,200rpm
IBM ThinkPad T30
Windows XP Professional; 1.8GHz Intel Pentium 4-M; 256MB DDR SDRAM 266MHz; ATI Mobility Radeon 7500 16MB; Toshiba MK4019GAX 40GB 5,400rpm
Sony VAIO PCG-VX88
Windows XP Home; 850MHz Intel Pentium III-M; 256MB SDRAM 133MHz; Intel 82815 graphics controller 4MB; IBM Travelstar 30GN 30GB 4,200rpm
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User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13out of 13 user reviews
Good solid laptop - never let me down.
Pros: Dependable, solid, good screen.
Cons: Fan sometimes loud, battery life is only okay.
I only had one small, small problem about a year and a half ago which I don't even remember the particulars of but when I called customer service they were very courteous and effective (and easy to understand). Other than a loud fan sometimes and less than stellar battery life (buy the extra one), I can't complain about Gateway's 450xl.
My mom, brother, and step-father own Apple laptops and while I admit they are far prettier to look at, I've been put off by the fact that all three of them have had their computer in the shop at least once, and my mom and brother had to have their laptops replaced entirely. I've never been dissapointed by my laptop!
out of 13 user reviews
Well I just love this loptop is small the battery live is good. And it didn't cost me tons of money.
Pros: screen got to love it. Weight no more pains. Wireless finally sky is the limit. USB ports on the side love it. DVD-R love that too.
Cons: well I don't have any cons so far maybe only one it feels too delicate i feel like im going to brake it in half lol.
out of 13 user reviews
Heatsink Design Flaw
Pros:
Cons: In my opinion, there is a design flaw in the heatsink in 450 series of Gateway laptop computers. It appears to me that the CPU is connected to the same heatsink as other peripherals. The fan does not turn ON until the CPU temperature gets relatively hig
out of 13 user reviews
good laptop but terrible cust service
Pros: had the computer for a month and working great, love the screen and looks nicer then other laptops
Cons: customer service stinks, ordered it and finally got it after 8 weeks of getting the runaround from my rep on how this and that was wrong with it.
out of 13 user reviews
2 months old and working great
Pros: Fabulous screen, fast computer, overall a good buy for the money.
Cons: This Gateway's keyboard is not as ergonomic as my old laptop. Froze up twice - quickly fixed and it's probably Gate's problem not Gateway's.
out of 13 user reviews
Good Intentions, Bad Execution
Pros: The price is quite good for the available features. For the first three months that I had mine, I was delighted by its performance.
Cons: After three months, the machine progressively began to die: wireless networking would begin to die, then the display would start to fail, finally, the machine wouldn't boot. Twice, I sent the machine in for repair and it was returned to me without being
out of 13 user reviews
Good, when it works
Pros: Very nice feature set, wireless, nice graphics capability, good battery life.
Cons: Have had 6 components fail so far (2 hard drives, 2 graphics components, 1 power button, and 1 lcd). Customer Service was helpful, but the products I recieved the replace the defective parts were also defective some of the time. I'm now attempting to get
out of 13 user reviews
Gateway rocks
Pros: Thin and much lighter than a desktop replacement. Beautiful outer design. Great performance and loaded with features for the price. Great battery life. Gorgeous screen. Much more durable than the plastic Dell Inspirons.
Cons: Not as light as other portables. Dull inner design. 10 to recieve but I guess same thing goes with Dell and a lot of other manufacturers.
out of 13 user reviews
Faulty Video Card and more
Pros: Ease of startup use and good automatic updates, but this is more to the credit of Windows XP
Cons: Faulty Video Card - after a year of use, the video card needs to be replaced and have spent nearly one month back and forth with Gateway attempting to get it repaired despite a 3 year warranty and have yet to even get the unit properly picked up by Gatewa
out of 13 user reviews
450X SO FAR SO GOOD! (1.4 GHZ, 40 GHD, 512 SINGLE DIM, 64 MB VIDEO)
Pros: I like the way it feels compared to other notebooks in it class. It does not feel cheep like the del notebooks I have seen. The display on it is very clear(64mb video), and the viewing angle is pretty good. Compared to a lot of other 15" display notebo
Cons: The only thing I do not care for on the 450 is the limited space for the USB ports "So be careful when you purchase a flash drive(pen drive), because mine barely fits."
out of 13 user reviews
Good laptop but gets pretty hot!
Pros: I just received my 450 XL and I like it. I've only done a few things on it so far so we will see after I've had it for a while.
Cons: The only thing I don't like is the fact that it gets pretty hot. I actually felt heat (Like a heater was on) coming from the touch pad. The bottom was very hot to touch. I took it back because it didn't seem right that I felt heat coming from the top o
out of 13 user reviews
THE NEW MODEL IS AWESOME (the centrino)
Pros: Light, very affordable, radeon 9000 video, LONG BATTERY LIFE. (get the battery upgrade for $25) Awesome 15" screen. I compared this to the ibm T40 and got this because of the price.
Cons: i dont like where the function key is near the control key
out of 13 user reviews
good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Pros:
Cons:
