Gateway® NV5378u Laptop 4GB Notebook 500GB Computer for Sale

Product Details

• Flexing some serious power with the AMD Athlon II X2 Dual-Core Processor
• 15.6″ HD laptop will have you surfing the web
• Genuine Windows 7.

Gateway® NV5378u Laptop 4GB Notebook 500GB Computer Customer Review

We bought both a desktop and a laptop computer for our college-bound son a week ago at Best Buy. We’ve been buying desktops for many years, and were quite satisfied with the HP we found there. However, ignorant laptop newbies that we were, we went with an uber-cheap HP Compaq Presario CQ60-615DX Notebook – Intel C. 900 2.2GHz / 15.6″ HD Display / 2GB DDR2 / 250GB HD / SuperMulti 8X DVD±R/RW / 802.11b/g/n WLAN / Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit single-core Celeron-based laptop, and quickly found out that we just couldn’t deal with such a slow, non-multitasking PC. We brought the Compaq back to Best Buy yesterday and exchanged it for the Gateway N5378u, and have already decided that this one’s a “keeper.” Why?
1) Lots of RAM (4GB) and spacious hard drive (500GB);
2) Dual-core processor (AMD Athlon II X2 M300) — seems to handle multiple open windows (including multiple windows + a download) as smoothly as my office computer (which is admittedly a few years old, but plenty adequate for multitasking);
3) Nearly full-size keyboard (I can touch-type on it without a problem) with a full numeric keypad (something you won’t find on laptops smaller than this 15.6″ one);
4) Matte-finish, slightly depressed touchpad area (easy to find, and doesn’t get smeary every time one uses it) and built-in webcam (a nonessential for us, but my technogeek teen daughter loves it); and
5) Price (9.99 at Best Buy, making this the best value-for-money laptop at this pricepoint).

Now, this is not the ideal laptop, and perhaps wouldn’t have been what we picked had we been only buying a laptop for our son, for these reasons:
1) Integrated graphics (although we’ve been told that the ATI Radeon HD 4200 graphics here should be able to handle light gaming — especially old DOSBox stuff — better than the Intel GMA found on Intel-based everyday laptops);
2) Mediocre battery life (approx. 3.5-3.75 hrs., depending on whose figures you’re looking at; adequate for bringing to a class, but not for all-day computing on battery power);
3) Power button on end of hinge (which hopefully can’t be used when the laptop’s closed — but we haven’t confirmed that yet);
4) Single “button bar” on touchpad, instead of dual buttons (not an issue if you’re using a mouse, but takes a little getting used to otherwise); and
5) Limited screen viewing angle (DVDs look fine viewed straight ahead, but appear to have weird “special effects” viewed from an angle across a small room).

On balance, we’re well pleased with this Gateway laptop. If you really want a machine capable of playing the latest games and don’t have the space or money to buy a desktop computer or a console videogame system as well, then you may want to spend a bit more and buy something with dedicated graphics RAM. Likewise, if you truly require long battery life, you’ll either want to get a netbook instead (which won’t be as powerful) or spend the money for something with either a bigger battery or one of those ultra-low-voltage things. However, for everyday computing & light entertainment/gaming with modest away-from-an-outlet requirements, this will do the job quite admirably, and at a price that college students and their parents can easily afford.

(2 final suggestions:
1) Get a third-party extended warranty (such as Best Buy’s “Geek Squad Blacktie Protection Plan”) if you can — Gateway does not have a great reputation for tech support; and
2) If your student user really wants to play video games beyond what this can handle, try buying them a Nintendo DSi XL Bronze as well (they’re cheap and extremely compact).)

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