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Shame about the Speakers - Gateway NV5378U |
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Recently, I had the opportunity to purchase a Gateway NV5378U notebook computer for 500 dollars. The price has since dropped, but I've found it was still very good value for money. The specs for the machine are adequate for my needs. It runs on a 2 GHz AMD Athlon II X2 dual core processor, with 4GB of RAM. The SATA (5400 rpm) hard drive comes with 500 GB of space, more than enough for most notebook computer purposes. |
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It has a combination CDRW/DVDRW optical drive, and with 4 usb ports has more than enough capacity for my cooling tray, external speakers, optical mouse, and a thumb drive. This notebook has all the standard features the average user could honestly want. The wireless is quick to pick up signals, programs open quickly with Windows 7, and the 15 inch display is more than enough for casual use, balancing portability and visibility neatly. Most irritating is the limited battery life. The maximum rating is three hours and thirty minutes at pure minimum operating capacity. If you have the wireless on and the screen to any brightness above the minimum, good luck getting a full two hours out of the battery. The touchpad mouse is a bit sensitive and awkwardly positioned. In normal home row typing, the thumb area of my palm tends to fall on the mouse and rub against it. This triggers Windows 7's automatic 'go back' function, often pulling me out of my browser page. Yet when I try to get the mouse to perform the same function deliberately, the mouse seems to have forgotten all about it. Usually I end up disabling the mouse and using a wireless instead, but when this isn't an option it's a minor irritation. The on-board speakers are pathetic. Even at full volume they don't provide anything like an acceptable experience. I have a convenient pair of USB speakers that work fine and alleviate the problem, but this just amounts to more things to carry around in my rather decrepit old laptop bag. Finally, the keys have a redundant layout. As a writer, I use the numpad and del/ins/end functions pretty consistently. Having to always hit numblock to switch over to some of these functions is a pain, when right above the numpad the / and * keys are duplicated from where they are on the standard keyboard. These two keys could have been replaced with home and end. All in all, I would recommend this machine. The inconveniences are fairly minor, given the overall specs of the laptop. While it isn't a gaming platform or a high end performer, it should fit neatly within a student's budget for a school computer. I like the NV5378U so much that I haven't touched my desktop since I opened this Gateway notebook's box. By William for Cheaperlaptop.com Saturday, June 19, 2010 - Kubuntu Linux On My Tough Old Gateway MX6433 - The Gateway NV5469ZU - Gateway MX6650 - The Compaq C500 - Site map - Privacy policy |