Similar Notebooks cost hundreds more.
Written: Jul 11 '02 (Updated Jul 31 '03)
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Ease of Use: |
 |
|
| Quality of Tech Support: |
 |
|
|
Pros: INEXPENSIVE!!! Nice Design, good customer service. Paid less then I was suppose too.
Cons: Battery life
The Bottom Line: Dell and Sony notebooks with similar spec cause $300 to $400 more.
|
|
|
| bongnpinoy's Full Review: Gateway Solo 1450 PC Notebook |
My sister and I had been sharing a computer that our mom had bought us since middle school. As I grew up and became more of a computer nerd, I often hogged the computer and argued with my Sis over who gets to use the computer.
Well, my Sis being a Daddy's Girl went to him and asked for money. She was given a $1,300 budget. Since my Sis doesn't really know much about computers and have a propensity to be very irresponsible and compulsive when shopping, I told her I would search and do research for a system within her budget for her.
At first she was looking for a desktop but I persuaded her to buy a notebook instead because of the limited space in the house and the benefit of convinces. My four potential places where I could purchase the notebook were: Dell, Gateway, Toshiba, and CompUSA (Sony). I had customized the notebook I wanted from each source and was amazed at the price difference betweem Gateway and all the others.
I had customized my notebook with:
Upgraded to a Pentium III 1.2 (Default for a Gateway Solo 1450 SE a Pentium Celeron)
128 of SDRAM ***(Don't upgrade your RAM I'll tell you why latter)
Upgraded to a CD-RW/DVD ROM DRIVE
20 GB HARD DRIVE
14.1 XGA TFT Active Matrix
1 year warranty
The total price: $1248 (including shipping).
Similar systems from Dell, Toshiba, and Sony priced at 1,600 to 1,700. Although I was told my system cost $1248 I was only charged $1212 and my system oddly enough came with a $59 carrying-case which I did not include in my order. I latter checked Gateway.com and noticed that they were now including a "free" carrying-case with every Solo, but the price was reflected on the final price. I figured it was a glitch that caused them to charge me less and include a carrying case, but don't go to Gateway hoping they'll commit the same mistake. Thank goodness the glitch was for my own benefit; imagine if they had charged me more and not included a features I order instead.
It took Gateway two weeks to built and ship my notebook. The Design of the notebook is pretty sleek half of it is silver, the other half black with the Gateway logo on the middle. The screen which is 14.1 inches is equivalent to a 15 inch CRT. The picture is fuzzy with 808 by 600 resolution (I have heard this is all true for LCD screen) but is clear with a higher resolution.
***The notebook ran TERRIBLY slow with 128 RAM. But I had purposely not upgraded my RAM with Gateway because I would have saved $161 if I had purchased the memory from www.crucial.com. To upgrade to 384 of SDRAM on Gateway you would have to add $210 to the final price, however, if you had purchased the 256 SDRAM from Crucial that would have only caused you $59.99 (price reflective as of July 10 2002). The notebook came with two sockets, one with the 128 Dim and an empty one. If you bought a 256 Dim and installed it yourself you would have 384 total of SDRAM at $59.99 compared to Gateway's lofty $210 price tag. This may sound very technical to some but don't be afraid of installing RAM yourself, it's as simple as unscrewing a lid and sticking in a Memory Dim. Memory upgrade is the most practical and simplest upgrade anyone can do to boost performance of a computers. Here's a link to how to upgrade your RAM http://www.pcworld.com/howto/article/0,aid,62183,00.asp Since the upgrade, the notebook has been running faster and smoothly!
The only problem one might face with the Solo 1450 is the battery life is TERRIBLY Bad. As for me it isn't really a problem since my Sis only uses the notebook at home. If Battery life is crucial to you, choose the better quality battery offered or/and buy additional battery.
For does who have not tried Windows XP yet: Windows XP Home comes with the Solo. Windows XP is Absolutely MUCH MORE STABLE compared to pass versions. The Solo with XP have never CRASHED yet.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 1212
Operating System: Windows
Processor: Intel Pentium III
Processor speed: over 1000
Screen Size: 14
RAM: 128
Internal Storage: CD-RW and DVD
Hard Drive (GB): 13-20
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
bongnpinoy
|
|
Member: Moreland Nagal
Location: Honolulu, Hi, U.S.A.
Reviews written: 23
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
Twenty-years-old college student originally from the Philippines -- U.S. Army Reservist.
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.