Gateway has just released their latest new line called the NV series. The line offers what I feel is the best performance at a more than reasonable price. The first in the line is the 5214u. Starting at the low cost of only $479 at bestbuy right now. The Gateway NV5214u is a Normal sized 15.6′ notebook with a resolution of 1366×769 and weighs a resonable 6.82 pounds.
The best part about this laptop is it comes with every main feature that I am looking for in a budget laptop. It has an 2.1GHz AMD dual-core processor, it comes with 4GB of RAM, and it comes with the ATI Radeon HD 3200 Video Card which is on par with the more well known 8400GS. The reason these three things are so crucial because these are the three things that guarantee you a fast laptop that will run for a long time. Also the included bonus of a video card makes this laptop capable of playing games.
Some added bonuses on this laptop is the 320GB Hard Drive, 6 cell Lithion Ion Battery, an HDMI Port, Media Card Reader, and a webcam. This laptop is the perfect multimedia laptop, 320GB is more than enough to store all your music, photos, and video. The HDMI Port allows you to hook your laptop up to your giant plasma screen and the Media Card Reader is perfect for putting stuff on your phone. For a complete spec sheet see gateways website here.
If you are in need of a back to school laptop or just want a decent laptop that won’t break the bank then this is the perfect laptop. It comes with all the needed hardware and ports for a great price of under $500.
Is there a better video card than the ATI Radeon HD 3200 that I can upgrade to for this notebook??? If so please help me out by listing a few that I might consider.
No sadly gateway does not make their laptops upgradable and upgrading the video card on your own is near impossible. If you are going to look at a gaming laptop you are better off looking in the price range of $700. Also make sure to look up reviews on the mobile video card in the laptop to make sure it can handle the game you are looking to play.
I ended up buying this laptop and have mixed feelings. I have two big gripes. The keyboard feels very awkward to me and I do not like the touch pad. Also, the problem on the gateway to create a back-up disc did not work> After calling gateway, they acknowledged the problem but told me the computer was too new and none were available. Long story short, I cant wipe my windows OS to put linux on until I get my dirty little fingers on some recovery discs.
I have owned this computer for a little over two months but have actually used it less than one month. Like fsuhunter said the keyboard doesnt feel right and the touchpad doesnt work right for me. I have also had problems with charging, icons not appearing on bottom right of screen, internet connectivity, and recently the screen resolution changed on its own and I cant get it back to where it was. I own an older Gateway with a pentium processor and it is much faster than the new one.
I have one of these also, it is awesome, no problems, love the numeric keyboard, display is super bright and colors are vivid, I use the HDMI output to watch downloaded movies. It wants you to create your own OS disks. I added windows 7 what a screamer. Also very light to lug around, not a fan of a AMD but this 64 bit works perfect. Some days you get a good one. Some days not…just a thought.
I purchased this computer in June. In September, the display screen went completely white. I sent it back to Gateway for repair, I paid for the shipping. I called to check the status every week to be told the part isn't in stock. After a month of waiting, I finally get a call from Gateway informing me that the part is on backorder and they would like to offer me a replacement computer equivalent to the one I purchased. I accept the replacement and received it on Tuesday, November 3. Would you believe the replacement didn't work either? Wouldn't even boot to Windows 7. So, I was offered, yet again, another replacement. I'm not paying to ship the replacement back so I have to be inconvenienced, again, and wait to receive a shipping label in the mail. Then I have to ship it back and when the replacement is received, then I will receive the second replacement. I've never been so disappointed in a product. Be smart don't buy this machine.