Big, a bit flimsy but a great value for the price
Written: Jun 25 '03
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Pros: Price, features
Cons: Fan noise, flimsy feel, size
The Bottom Line: Big, noisy, packed full of value. An real bargain with a few tradeoffs.
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| sneddren's Full Review: Gateway 400SP Plus (400SPPL) PC Notebook |
Due to the unexpected death of my beloved IBM Thinkpad (the screen died and it's too expensive to fix) I found myself in the market for a new laptop. I am a pretty basic computer user and was looking for something that would not be useless in a year and that would run just the standard applications (internet browser, word processor, spreadsheet). I also had recently set up a home wireless network and wanted something that would handle the wireless tasks without a problem.
After a LOT of research and comparison shopping, I saw that Gateway had a sale on the 400 SP Plus. $799 (shipping included) for a 2.2 Ghz Celeron processor, 256 MB memory, 30 Gig HD, 15 inch screen laptop. It sounded too good to be true. The closest I could come to this deal was a similarly equipped Dell laptop, but after getting the options up to the same level as the Gateway there was about a $150 difference in favor of Gateway. Sold.
Ordering via Gateway's website was extremely simple and within a few minutes the order was processed and I had received an email confirming the order and estimating the arrival date. I'm happy to report that Gateway beat their arrival date by several weeks and they were very good about keeping me updated on the status of the order.
Within a week of placing the order, the laptop was at my door. Actually, it was there thanks to my neighbor...UPS had misdelivered the computer to a neighbor a few houses down and the neighbor was honest enough to bring it over to me. I alerted Gateway to this problem, as well as the problem with the laptop (there is one dead pixel on the corner of the screen). I have yet to hear back from Gateway on either issue.
The laptop came well packaged and it was ready to run immediately upon coming out of the box. Everything was pre-installed (Windows XP Home, MS Word and Works and a few other programs that I probably won't use and don't even remember). My first impression was "wow, this is a LOT bigger than the Thinkpad and it feels a LOT less substantial." There is a plasticky feel to the entire unit (which is not surprising, since it is made of plastic), but it is not a solid feeling plastic. The screen is HUGE (compared to the Thinkpad's 13 incher) and bright, though it does have the one dead pixel. The keyboard takes up only half the space available and the rest of the space is there to rest your hands and to use the touchpad (I happen to prefer IBM's little pencil eraser sized joystick).
The computer boots up VERY fast and XP runs quite well on it. So far, no crashes and I'm impressed with the speed of the processor. It is a real revelation compared to the 600 or so Mhz Thinkpad processor. This laptop also has some very nice features that I never expected on a computer at this price level-it has a six in one memory card reader built in (handy for MP3 and digital photo file reading) and a nice CD (with burner) and DVD player. All in all, it's a lot of computer for the money.
The only thing I don't particularly like is the fan noise. This computer runs hot and the fan is constantly kicking on. It is LOUD. A lot louder than a typical laptop fan. On the plus side, the battery seems to hold its charge for an acceptable period (I think about 3 hours, though it's still too early on for me to know for sure).
The only thing I would have liked to see on this computer was integrated wireless capability, but at this price I didn't really expect that too.
It's not a perfect computer, but it is far more than I ever expected at this price. Gateway's customer service was very good up until delivery...if they resolve the dead pixel problem I will be very pleased.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 799
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Celeron
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 15 inches
RAM: 256
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 21-30
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Epinions.com ID:
sneddren
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Reviews written: 36
Trusted by: 6 members
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