Entered CNET Catalog: 08/18/2007
SKU: 0654367715215
Manufacturer: Gateway Inc.
Manufacturer description
Leave single-core productivity behind with the MT3422 featuring dual-core power and portable entertainment features in a lightweight design.User opinions
Select a User Opinion to view: 1 2 3 4 5out of 5 user reviews
Short-term good, long-term bad
Pros: Affordable in the short-term, decent performance for the price.
Cons: Confirmed my fears that Gateway computers are poorly engineered/designed.
I'd always heard of reliability issues with Gateways and I worked on some friends' Gateway desktops...I wasn't impressed. I vowed I'd never buy one but the price was right on the MT3422 so I went against my better judgment and picked one up.
The computer worked well for our intended purposes for the first 17 months (warranty is 12 months). Then the hard drive crashed. I replaced the hard drive and it worked fine for another month. Now it won't POST...I hit the power button and the power light comes on, the dvd drive spins momentarily, but then nothing...can't even access the BIOS. I've done some research and numerous other users have experienced the same issue. It appears to be a problem with the motherboard and of course Gateway wants 60% of the total system cost ($300) for a new motherboard. According to other postings I've read where people had purchased an extended warranty, the motherboard was replaced but issue resurfaced about 8 months down the line. So there are clearly some design issues here (I'm guessing heat-related failures because it definitely runs on the warm side). We called Gateway to see if they could provide any info and we were told we'd have to pay $60 in order to talk to them for 30 minutes.
Long story short, this is the first and last Gateway product I will ever purchase. If you do choose to buy a Gateway, I'd highly recommend purchasing the longest extended warranty available because based on my experiences their systems are very poorly designed.
Updated on Jan 4, 2009p.s. Forgot to mention, the wireless range was horrible...probably poorly designed antennae. Both my work laptops (IBM T42 and Dell Latitude D630) can access my wireless network anywhere in my house. The MT3422 only had a range of about 30 feet. Beyond 30 feet it would sporadically drop connectivity and wouldn't reconnect until you were within 10 feet of the access point.
out of 5 user reviews
Decent Laptop, but sorry wireless
Pros: love the form factor and the metal on the case. nice screen and resolution, decent keyboard.
Cons: reartek wireless card is defective, drops connections constantly, very frustrating. Gateway's website is clueless about the problem. Vista totally blows and its hard to get drivers for XP.
out of 5 user reviews
Great laptop, especially for the price
Pros: Nice appearance, surprisingly rugged -- has survived over 1 year of heavy daily use with no visible damage. Price was unbeatable for a laptop with these specs, especially with a nice appearance to boot. HDD and RAM are easily accessible.
Cons: No internal microphone, so-so battery life, though no worse than other machines in its class. Keyboard is not the best, but acceptable -- similar in feel to a Toshiba.
out of 5 user reviews
good laptop with XP
Pros: small, inexpensive
Cons: Vista sucks!
out of 5 user reviews
It does what I need it to do
Pros: light, small, inexpensive, vibrant screen, good battery life
Cons: left palmrest gets warm, buttons on the touchpad are hard to click
