Laptops Arena

I have to admit, it’s been a while since I heard anything about the Gateway laptop manufacturer and new Gateway laptops. One of the new Gateway laptops I know is in fact about one year old and the model is called Gateway NV5213u. This laptop has drawn my attention because of its $529 price which seems excellent for the specs of this unit.

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This unit is powered by a 2.1 GHz AMD Athlon 64 X2 QL-64 and 4 GB of RAM. The combination between these 2 components can handle multitasking at a great speed and without affecting the overall performance of the unit. The total storage capacity of the hard disk is 320 GB which is more than enough room for file storage. The 15.6 inch display comes in a native resolution of 1366 x 768 and the screen is quite decent when it comes to quality. The glossy coating of the display provides colors full of vitality and this eventually leads to a much better image. The speakers are quite average and even if the lack of bass is highly noticeable, the speakers still produce quality sound and can be heard from all across a small room. To fill bigger rooms, you will need a pair of external speakers. It is not frequent that we find numerical key pads on 15 inch laptops. If you notice that the keyboard was stretched all the way to the edges of the notebook, it is easy to understand how a numerical pad could have fit in there.

The keyboard feels very comfortable to type on without registering any flex. The touchpad of this Gateway laptop is very responsive and will register a very small amount of lag. The left and right mouse buttons are in fact one single bar which has to be pressed on the left and right edges in order to trigger the proper commands.



The Gateway NV5213u comes with 4 USB ports, one SDHC card reader, a modem port, an Ethernet port, a HDMI port, one VGA out and the regular headphones out and microphone in jacks. Some people will miss the FireWire port even if personally I  don’t find it quite essential for a laptop and I would trade it in anytime for a HDMI port. The battery life of this Gateway laptop was quite ok compared to the scores and performance of other 15 inch laptop batteries. With the display brightness set to 70%, the wireless connection activated and the Windows Vista power management profile set to “balanced mode” this laptop managed to stay uo and running for about 3 hours and 30 minutes, which is more than I can say even for my very own 15.4 inch laptop. With an elegant design and good specs, this Gateway laptop is quite a great idea for a budget notebook. The battery life is decent even if the weight may be a burden standing between you and portability. The integrated ATI HD3200 graphics card will not allow you to play top of the line games but it does allow some softer game play.

10 inch notebook computers are frequently referred to as „netbook” because they have 2 main characteristics. The first one is that they are really small and because of their small size they do not have powerful components inside. The second characteristic is that since the components found inside them are pretty weak, they can only be used for the basic computing needs which basically cover surfing the internet and doing some word processing.

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10 inch notebook computers are generally way cheaper than usual laptops but the advantage is the size which makes them highly portable. They generally offer better battery performance than regular and bigger laptops. An example of a good 10 inch notebook is the Sony VAIO VPCW211AX/L which can be bought for a starting price of $450. This mini laptop is one of the most elegant and powerful netbook that you can find on the market right now. It has a 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N450 processor and 1 GB of RAM which can be upgraded to a maximum 2 GB.

The 10.1 inch display has a native resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels and the graphics card is the integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150. The storage capacity of the hard drive is an amazing 250 GB, a lot more than you could ever find on mini laptops belonging to the same category. The unit comes with 2 USB ports, one Ethernet port, one VGA out and the regular headphones and microphone jacks. Sony VAIO has always struggled to make high quality apparel and gizmos so the Sony VAIO mini series of portable laptop makes no exception as it certainly provides some of the best models on the market.

Another fine example of a good and affordable mini laptop is the Gateway LT2118u, which has a starting price of $350. This unit comes with the same 1.66 GHZ Intel Atom N450 processor and 1 GB of RAM (there are no references about the possibility to upgrade). The storage capacity of the hard drive is 250 GB which is more than enough even if you plan to use this netbook as your primary computer (although netbook will not always be able to cover your computing needs). The graphics card is the same integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150.



Other features of this laptop are the 3 USB ports, a built in webcam which also has an integrated microphone, a multi format digital media card reader, a touchpad which supports multi gestures and a promise of more than 10 hours of battery life. Beware as generally manufacturers tend to exaggerate with the performance of the battery. The total weight of the unit is 1.25 kg or 2.76 lbs. you get some trial version of different programs preinstalled on your mini Gateway, like a trial version of the Norton Internet Security suite.The list of good 10.1 inch laptops could continue as we have great models like the Acer Aspire One, The Dell Mini 10 and the Asus Eee PC but we will leave that info for another article.

Since refurbished laptops are a very wise choice for those who don’t want to spend much money on a brand new laptop but they still need a good laptop and reasonable warranty period, today we are going to show you some offers for Gateway refurbished laptops, like we did for several other manufacturers.
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On www.laptopscloseout.com we found a lot of Gateway refurbished laptops that have been sold out. The price for the Gateway ML3109 model was $549 and it included the 1.6 GHz Intel Celeron M processor, 1 GB of RAM, and 80 GB of free disk space. This model has a 14 inch display and a CD burner/DVD reader. Other features were the 4 USB ports, the RJ45 and RJ11 ports, the SD card reader and the Windows Vista Basic operating system. The warranty covers 3 months.

Another model was the Gateway MT3707 sold for the same price. It was powered by a better processor that the previous one, a 1.6 GHz Intel Core Duo processor backed up by 1 GB and RAM and 160 GB of available disk space. Compared to the previous model, the MT3703 has a DVD writer but only 3 x USB ports. It has one PCMCIA plus an SD Card reader.  The size of the display is 14 inches, the same as the ML3109.

Another website we recommend for purchasing refurbished laptops is www.usanotebook.com. This website is selling the Gateway MD2614U for a mere price of $479. It has a 2.1 GHz AMD Turion X2 RM-72 processor combined with 3 GB of RAM which pretty impressive considering the low price. The graphics card is the ATI Radeon HD 3200 which has 256 MB of video memory and supports a maximum resolution of 1366 x 768 pixels. 250 GB of free disk space should cover all your file storage need but if it doesn’t, you can always make some DVDs using the DVD burner with Labelflash so you can copy your files and then free some disk space. As for the LCD, you have a 15.6 inch display that uses WXGA Ultrabright technology to provide a high definition widescreen. As for the ports and connections, this laptop come with a total of 4 USB ports, one VGA port, one RJ-11 and one RJ-45 port, a Kensington lock slot, a HDMI port, one headphones out and one microphone in jack.  There also is an Express Card slot and a digital media card reader that can support the following formats: Memory Stick, Memory Stick Pro, Multimedia Card, Reduced Size Multimedia Card, Secure Digital and xD Picture Card).  Above the display there is a 1.3 mega pixel webcam which will provide clear images for those who plan on using it during a Skype video call. The operating system is the Windows Vista Home Premium and this laptop comes with a 6 months warranty.

The silver Gateway T6330U is another laptop you are going to like. It has a price tag of $489 and the specs are also excellent for people that need a good laptop for regular usage. It has a 2.0 GHz Intel Dual Core T3200 processor and 3 GB of RAM. These two combines will provide great speed for multi-tasking. The graphics card is the weak Intel Graphics Media Accelerator X3100 that can support a maximum resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels on the 14.1 Ultrabright TFT display. It has a storage capacity of 250 GB. Other features are the DVD writer, the stereo sound and the integrated 1.3 mega pixel webcam.  This laptop has a number of 3 USB ports, one VGA port, one HDMI port, one RJ 11 port, one RJ 45 port, a lock slot and the headphones in and microphone out jacks. There is one Express Card slot and a 5.-in-1 card reader. Pretty nice for such a low price, isn’t it?



For $549 you can buy the refurbished Gateway M7356U which is available in a beautiful red coating. This could make a great present for you wife, daughter or girlfriend and it looks so nice it does not even need wrapping (well, maybe just a nice white ribbon). The processor is a 2.0 GHz Intel Dual Core and you get some nice 4 GB of RAM that will help you run multiple applications at an acceptable speed. The graphics card is the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500 and they offer a maximum resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels.  If the models we have shown you before still don’t have enough disk space to cover your needs, this model has 320 GB of free available disk storage which should prove satisfying.  There are 3 USB ports on this laptop, one VGA port, one HDMI port, one lock slot, one RJ 11 port, one RJ 45 port, a headphone plus a microphone jack. There is also one Express Card slot and a 5-in-1 media card reader.



As you can see, you don’t have to spend a fortune to buy a good laptop whether it’s for yourself or you plan on making a gift.  In this article we have shown you some good deals on refurbished Gateway laptops but there are lots of manufactures that offer good refurbished laptops with warranty periods that are good and surprising.  If laptops used to be expensive, their prices have been considerably reduced so buying a good laptop is no longer as luxurious as it used to be. Refurbished laptops are a good way to buy that laptop you have always wanted but can’t afford a new one. You still have a warranty period which is indeed shorter that the one on a brand new model but it can offer some guarantee that you are buying a quality product.

So refurbished may not be the nastiest choice when you are in need of a laptop. Look into some other models from different manufacturers and compare the prices to see which one is more convenient for you. There are lots of online stores and dealers that offer good laptops at reasonable prices.

Gaming laptops are a bit different (and a bit more expensive) than your usual laptop which you normally use for work purposes or to watch a good movie.  Not only do they have great processors and lots of RAM and HDD, but both the graphic card and the sound card are of excellent performance, allowing the user to play even the newest games available on the market.
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Although there are numerous manufacturers that develop high quality game laptops, one of them specializes in doing just that. Alienware laptops are actually made by Dell and they are pretty much in the entire world for their high speed, high performance laptops and desktop computers.  In the past, if you wanted to play a good game, you could only do it on a desktop (a really good desktop that is) but today, gaming in not limited to desktops anymore. A good gaming laptop is capable to provide high graphics and a good movement speed, so you can enjoy the top of the line games each time you please. More companies are struggling to develop these high performance machines because the number of gamers is large and it is still growing.

But if you are a true gamer, which is the best laptop for you? We tried to bring the top 10 gaming laptops so you can make the best choice. Like we have mentioned before, the best gaming laptop is made by Alienware. The Area-51 m17x has an Inter Core 2 Extreme X9000 2.8GHz processors and a 2 x 8800M GTX SLI graphics card. Together with 4GB of random access memory, these features make this laptop "fly". The price is a bit spicy (some thousands of dollars).  Sound fantastic? You should look into some reviews before buying it, even though it may now seem like this is the perfect choice.

The second place goes to the same manufacturer, different model. The Dell XPS M1730 has a 2 x NVIDIA GeForce 8800M GTX 512MB SLI graphics card and the 17 inches long display can surely bring you the ultimate in gaming performance.  The design is unique and astonishing. The LCD Logitech GamePanel gives you something to brag about, as it records your statistics. You can play even when the lights go out because the M1730 keyboard is enhanced with a blue light.

The Rock Xtreme SL8 has been available on the market since February 2008 and it has been among the leaders ever since. With its Intel Core 2 Quad processors and 2x NVIDIA 9800M GTX 1GB GDDR3 High Performance SLi graphics, the Rock Xtreme SL8 is believed to be one of the fastest laptops available on the market.

Our fourth choice is Asus W90. The target of this laptop was the entertainment crowd but since it has one of the fastest processors (Core 2 Duo T9550 Processor 2.66GHz, 6GB RAM) and graphics cards (Nvidia Geforce 9800M GS) on the market it was adopted but a huge number of gamers. You have three available RAM slots which can hold up to 6GB of memory.

Although it occupies number 5 in out top 10 gaming laptops, this is one of Alienwares' grand competitors. With a fiery and shiny red color on the back of its display, the Toshiba Qosmio X300 really means business! Portability is not one of this laptops' strong points, as it weighs about 4.5 kg and it occupies a great deal of space. Just like most desktop gaming replacements, there is a separate numerical keypad next to the regular one. The display is powered by an Nvidia GeForce 9700M GTS with 512MB of dedicated video memory graphics card which provider excellent gaming experience.

The HP Pavilion HDX Dragon is really something else! The display is 20.1 inches long and this monster is anything but portable. The monitor is attached to the unit using a special silver hinge that rotates at the base and intersection of the hinge at monitor. This gives the monitor a high degree of movement which seems quite necessary when you have just a big LCD. The ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600XT card and the 256 MB of dedicated RAM make this laptop one of the best there is.

The design is not very original but that does not mean that the Sager NP8660 is not as good as other gaming laptops. The processor is an Intel Core 2 Duo P9500 (2.53GHz/6MB L2/1066MHz FSB/25W TDP) and as far as a graphic card goes, you can really benefit from the Nvidia GeForce 9800M-GT w/ 512MB. Even though the display is only 15.4 inches long and you only have 320 GB of available HDD, this laptop was designed for gaming purposes. The battery life is lower than expected even if we are dealing with an eight-cell battery pack.

The Gateway P-172X FX is a laptop with a 17 inch display and a 2.4-GHz Core 2 Duo T8300 Intel processor.  The NVidia's GeForce Go 8800M graphic card and the 4 GB of RAM do not seem to be enough for game players as the sound system is pretty lousy. It's nothing a good set of headphones can't fix.

Intel Core 2 Quad Q9000 processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260M graphics card and it's all worth 1.700 dollars. Sounds good? This is what the ASUS G51-series has to offer. Unlike the other laptops mentioned before, this one is actually portable, with its 15.6 inches display. The features of this laptop allow you to play games such as Call of Duty 5, Left 4 Dead and BioShock.

Although it was mainly designed for multimedia purposes, the Sony Vaio NW180J/S is another laptop you could use for gaming. The 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7350 processors and the ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 graphics card come together with a pleasant design and a wide-spaced keyboard that encourages your gaming needs. Unfortunately, the battery does not last very long so you need to keep it plugged in most of the time. It can last up to 4 hours if you use it to run simple applications (such as Winamp and MS Word) but it only lasts about 2 hours if you use it to play games or watch movies.

We believe that these are the top 10 gaming laptops available on the market right now. You can surely find one that better suits your needs. It depends on how much you are willing to pay for it. Remember that you need a good processor, as much RAM as you can get and the latest in graphic card material.

For a long period, most Gateway products I've been bumping into were monitors and, sometimes, Gateway desktop computers. Since I was never called by anyone to fix a Gateway system, I concluded they were pretty solid machines, and if you add the fact that one of my friends had a Gateway monitor running around the clock in a computer games hall, you can imagine what I think about this company. Now, the time has come to check a Gateway laptop, namely the Gateway P-7808u FX.

Strange name, don't you think? Imagine how tough would be life for somebody working in a store selling about 20 models with such names, instead of "MSI Wind" or "Asus Eee," but - fortunately - they're not always like this one. When I say "like this one," I am not only thinking about the name...
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...because a $1,700 laptop can't be really considered "affordable," but if we look at the hardware setup, that explains a lot:

- Intel Core 2 Quad Q9000 2.0 GHz Processor
- 6 MB L2 Cache, 1066 MHz Bus Speed
- 4096 MB DDR3 (PC3-8500) RAM
- 500 GB (5400RPM) SATA Hard Drive
- 17" WXGA+ (1440 x 900) Ultrabright Display
- Built-in 1.3 MP Webcam and Microphone
- NVIDIA GeForce 9800M GTS with 1024MB of Dedicated Video Memory
- Labelflash DVD±R/RW Drive with Dual Layer
- Intel WiFi Link 5100AGN 802.11a/b/g/n
- Bluetooth 2.0 +EDR
- 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet
- ExpressCard 54 Slot
- 5-in-1 Memory Card Reader SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro, xD
- Connections: 3 x USB 2.0, eSATA, IEEE 1394b, Headphone/SPDIF Audio Out, Microphone, HDMI, VGA, RJ-11 (Modem), RJ-45
- Approximate Unit Dimensions: 15.75" (W) x 11.75" (D) x 1.7"(H)
- Approximate Unit Weight: 9.05 Pounds

I don't know about the heat produced, and while the first user reviews are still expected to drop by, let me say only this - I have no idea about reliability in the long run, but this notebook can surely kick my desktop computer's ass in games, and I don't have a 5 years old one!

Although not quite a gaming computer, the Gateway P-7808u FX is a great performer, no matter the tasks you may have in mind...unless you simply want a cheap, light, and small tool to get online.