Tom's Best Value Laptop
Written: May 28 '02 (Updated Jan 21 '03)
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Pros: Price, Value
Cons: Battery Life
The Bottom Line: Gateway does a good job at making a Budget Laptop. They also do a Good Job of Selling you on it!
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| wwtom's Full Review: Gateway Solo 1450 PC Notebook |
UPDATE 1/03 :
FYI I did eventually add another 128K of RAM, cost approx. $40. Seems to run XP a Tad faster now.
Now I know that Laptops aren't really built for Gaming what with On-Board Video & Lower Power CPU's but just for the heck of it, and to show a Real Computer's power to a confirmed PS2 user, I loaded a Demo Version of Nascar Racing & Madden 2002 on the unit. Both games surprisingly run very well and seamlessly. Pushing things a bit, I loaded Grand Theft Auto 3, a Very Demanding game. Although this game must be run at lower resolutions and with many details switched off, though it does take a long wait to load between "chapters" it Does Run. So that makes this unit a Good Portable Gaming Device within reason!
ORIGINAL REVIEW:
My old laptop died, although my funds are very limited, it was necessary to find a replacement so I started shopping for a $999 Special.
The products considered with this budget were Dell's Inspiron 2600, HP's Pavillion ZE1115 and Gateway's Solo 1450se.
First off, only the Gateway at the time of purchase was offered at $999, the Dell and HP were slightly more.
Dell quickly eliminated itself by having a slightly slower clocked CPU and no DVD drive with being higher priced. HP was very close, indeed the 1.1Ghz Duron and 256K of RAM would seem to give a slight edge to the HP.
What sold me was the Sales Rep. at Gateway Country. When I first looked at the Solo, I told him I was going to look at what BestBuy and CompUSA had first before deciding and he gave me directions to those stores confident of my return. He wasn't wrong!
The HP though maybe a bit technically superior to the Gateway would have been a "Retail Store" purchase. Meaning that Both stores pushed their "Extended Warranty" packages at me for another $200! I drove back to Gateway and inked the deal.
My first impression wasn't exactly of the performance of the unit itself but the OS! Windows XP, I Like It! I immediately found myself in another world, it's such a step up from Win98se in looks and feel and it's exactly what you want for mobile computing.
All my software was Re-Installed with ease except for my Toshiba Digital Camera and Alaris Web Cam, I did eventually get them going after some checking but be advised that some older software will prompt XP to give you a warning, check with your vendor for upgrades and compatibility.
DVD Movies play flawlessly with the installed WinDVD software and my DivX Movies also run well after installing the plug-in. I also installed TweakUI for XP to fine tune the OS a little more to what I am used to but haven't fiddled with anything else yet.
Most reviewers of Windows XP recommend 256Mb of RAM but I haven't noticed any sluggishness. In any case avoid paying Gateway an additional $110 for extra RAM as you can get an extra 128Mb off the web for around $50 and stick it in yourself, I might get around to doing that later but I don't see the need as yet.
The standard Ni-Mh battery ran the unit for about 1hr and 45min while playing a DivX movie. This entails constant running of the CPU and CD-Rom so it's a good drain, I would expect less strenuous use would give you a bit longer time.
If I wasn't on a strict budget, I would have definitely upgraded to the Combo CD-RW/DVD for $100 and the Li-Ion Battery for an extra $79. They would be well worth it.
I have no experience with Tech Support, haven't needed it, though I read unkind things about Gateway's Support I can give no insight on that topic.
Total Price including Taxes, Shipping & Handling was $1104.00
Since I purchased this unit, Gateway has Upped the price, they now advertise it at $999 after a rebate, I guess that it's become that popular. C-Net also has rated the unit at #5 of their Top Five Budget Notebooks so I guess I didn't pick too bad.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1104.00
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Celeron
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 14
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
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wwtom
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Member: Tom
Location: Baltimore, MD
Reviews written: 17
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About Me:
I'm over 50 but you CAN Trust Me!
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