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"Nice design, poor upgradability" on by nortexoid
Pros: Good design, light, thin, reasonable battery life form 3-cell, very cool and quiet, inexpensive
Cons: only one SODIMM slot, expensive 2GB RAM upgrade, small trackpack and clicky buttons
Summary: Nice laptop build-wise, except that I notice on my trackpad the right side is slightly higher relative to the left button compared to the left side. This is obviously a defect, albeit a very slight one.
I was under the impression that there were two SODIMM slots which, to my surprise, was not the case when I tried to upgrade the memory to 1.5GB from 512MB and found that there was only one slot. No wonder the 2GB RAM upgrade (from 1GB) costs over $600US! (Because it's a single 2GB module.)
I find it to be just as fast as my Pentium M 1.4GHz notebook even though this is a 1.06Ghz Core Solo. A Core Duo would've been nice, but it's not worth the added thickness, cost, heat, and power consumption, for my needs anyway. It might be worthwhile in the future when true multi-threaded apps are the norm.
You can't get a bettery truly ultraportable for the price. -
"Horribly Slow" on by Chomsky
Pros: Small, lightweight, nice finish
Cons: SLOW, VERY expensive memory upgrade
Summary: I configured the laptop with the core duo processor and 1gb of memory. Even with the duo, the 1gb of memory runs Vista horribly slow - slower than my 2 year old Dell running XP. This laptop comes with only one dimm slot, not one upgradeable dimm, one dimm slot period! Gateway tech support was surprised to discover this when I called them. They transfered me to the returns department which denied any kind of remedy because it was past 15 days; I called them as soon as I tried to install a 1gb dimm as an upgrade. Nothing on the spec sheet or the laptop configuration says anything about the single dimm slot. How many laptops have a single dimm? Rather, the spec sheet says; "1GB upgradeable to 2GB"!! Clearly misleading as most people will assume it has 2 dimms just as most people will assume a car comes with 4 tires. Customer disservice transfered me to sales who quoted me a $650 memory upgrade- a 2gb dimm. Ridiculous. This thing is remarkably slow right out of the box and cannot be upgraded at a reasonable cost. It wasn't until I filed a BBB complaint that Gateway began talking remedies for what is obviously misleading non industry standard marketing and configuration.
So far the've offered something unsatisfactory. I'll post an update if I get things resolved. In any case I'd stay away from this laptop and this company. -
"Great laptop" on by allen222
Pros: clear screen, very light and 9 cell 8+ hrs battery
Cons: vista Os, share memory on graphic card make system slower.
Summary: An excellent laptop. The lowest price 3lbs ultra portable I could find. I upgraded to a 9 cell battery and it went on for 8+ hrs before it ran out of juice. A combination of Verizon wireless card V620 use and word processing. The
performance was a little slow but I dont play games so it doesnt matter. Most important for me is the battery life. The 9 cell extended .6" to the back of the laptop and .4" to the height. For the price, this is it. It's also my second laptop from Gateway too. -
"Great Laptop! No Complaints!" on by gkb13
Pros: Weight, Battery Life, Price, Performance
Cons: Too great a deal
Summary: Very light, half the weight og my last laptop. If I dim the screen all the way (can still see fine) I got 7 hours!!!! If I dont dim at all I got about 4.5! (This is just sitting in class browsing the web) Watching a movie with brightest screen I still get about 4-4.5 hours. 1gig of ram is awesome for a laptop and the processor is plenty. No expertise needed to install windows, the first time you start the computer, it does everything for you!!!! Best purchase ever.
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"Nice Price, Subject Quality" on by carjockey
Pros: Small, Good Performance for the Price
Cons: Two Cracked Screens upon arrival
Summary: The black band that goes around the computer was cracked pretty good on the first computer. They did send me a second and it was either cracked or scratched in almost the same exact spot. You probably would not notice unless you look closely as it is a hairline crack, but what does concern me is what will happen in 6-12 months of traveling. Check it closely if you buy one and get it documented because they did ask me several times if I had dropped the first one. After spending 3 hrs with Customer Service I decided to just keep the second and call later if the problem gets worse. Other than the concern I have for the quality and toughness of the machine, the performance seems be really good compared to the Dell 710 I just had. Had a Sony before and it was definitely better built but way to expensive. If you are going to really be moving the machine around a lot I would consider other options.
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