Yeah...just pulled the trigger. Thank you Silver Premier status. Got in shipped for free w/o wasting gas to pick it up.

I think this machine seems like a good deal. Certainly it will likely be on the slower side of things with vista and 1gb, but if you have an XP license kicking around... Alternatively, you could throw a linux distro on there. I can attest that the newest ubuntu version (and I assume all distros with the same or similar kernel) has improved battery life noticeably, and improved support for suspend/hibernate. One might worry that the wireless would not be supported, but that seems increasingly rare these days. I would guess that it's using a cheap RAlink (realtek) chip for the wireless (many acers do) and most RAlink chips are supported by ubuntu "out of the box."

For word/web and even older games this system seems fine. Certainly, using this system as a primary system would be far more tolerable than an atom based netbook (different priorities I know). The CPU is a Lima core A64 with a 15watt TDP, so with a 6 cell battery the life should be pretty good. I like the 690G mobile chipset too.

I would like to see more systems like this out on the market. I dare say, most people really do not use laptops for "heavy computing" type tasks. A 1.6 gig A64 with a gig of ram (vista ram hogging issues not withstanding) is PLENTY of horsepower for the majority of users.

300 dollars for a full featured notebook with a bit-better-than-intel graphics and a CPU that should give the box plenty of battery time seems like a steal.

My local BB had tons of these even at around noon. Nice compact 14" at price of Asus Eee type mini laptop without much features when compared to this one.

nptato said:
300 dollars for a full featured notebook with a bit-better-than-intel graphics and a CPU that should give the box plenty of battery time seems like a steal.Until someone with actual knowledge of reality (me) comes along and displays the truth.

Whoever bought this laptop basically bought a laptop with OVER 3 year old technology. You can make all your outlandish claims of how "A 1.6 gig A64 with a gig of ram (vista ram hogging issues not withstanding) is PLENTY of horsepower for the majority of users." This is simply NOT true. The major issue with this laptop is the slow CPU, yes SLOW cpu. Heck for a little more you can buy a core2duo based pentium-dual core 2.0ghz laptop which would blow this Gateway away like it was a joke.

Like I said, this is a 3+ year old laptop in reality. Welcome to reality.

onion said:nptato said:
300 dollars for a full featured notebook with a bit-better-than-intel graphics and a CPU that should give the box plenty of battery time seems like a steal.Until someone with actual knowledge of reality (me) comes along and displays the truth.

Whoever bought this laptop basically bought a laptop with OVER 3 year old technology. You can make all your outlandish claims of how "A 1.6 gig A64 with a gig of ram (vista ram hogging issues not withstanding) is PLENTY of horsepower for the majority of users." This is simply NOT true. The major issue with this laptop is the slow CPU, yes SLOW cpu. Heck for a little more you can buy a core2duo based pentium-dual core 2.0ghz laptop which would blow this Gateway away like it was a joke.

Like I said, this is a 3+ year old laptop in reality. Welcome to reality.

Don't agree. Although the speed of this CPU is a little bit disappointing by using the standard of 2008, it's a quiet and power saving CPU when compared with any CPU three years ago. The speed is at least as good as those Intel Celeron M CPUs nowadays. This CPU is not for gaming, but is more than enough for any internet browsing, video play back, document editing, photo editing tasks. I also have a Intel C2D 2.2GHZ laptop at hand, I have to say when working on tasks such as internet browsing, video play back, word editing etc, I can not notice the speed difference between these two machines, at the same time, the Intel C2D machine is significantly nosier than this Althlon CPU powered machine.

inksdk said:
Don't agree. Although the speed of this CPU is a little bit disappointing by using the standard of 2008, but it's a quiet and power saving CPU when compared with any CPU three years ago. The speed is at least as good as those Intel Celeron M CPUs nowadays. This CPU is not for gaming, but is more than enough for any internet browsing, video play back, document editing, photo editing tasks. I also have a Intel C2D 2.2GHZ laptop at hand, I have to say when working on tasks such as internet browsing, video play back, word editing etc, I can not notice the speed different between these two machines, at the same time, the Intel C2D machine is significantly nosier than this Althlon CPU.No THIS is funny......CPUs dont make noise. Its the cooling and fan solution that creates noise. All laptops with properly designed cooling solutions since the beginning of Pentium M/Celeron M days back in 2004 were SILENT. In reality this laptop is actually 4 year old technology. I had a celeron M 1.6ghz back in 2004 which easily offers the same performance of this Gateway and I paid $400 for it 4 YEARS ago.

You're C2D laptop makes more noise because of a lousy engineered cooling solution. A good example of this is the Acer One which has a tiny CPU that only consumes 4 watts yet the fan is so noisy that people are calling for a recall. Most C2D laptops are silent due to dynamic fan speeds, quality fan, and properly designed heat sink. This is not that difficult to figure out.

All I am doing is providing the FACTS of our reality....

onion said:nptato said:
300 dollars for a full featured notebook with a bit-better-than-intel graphics and a CPU that should give the box plenty of battery time seems like a steal.Until someone with actual knowledge of reality (me) comes along and displays the truth...
Whoa !!! you sure are arrogant, dude. There are people with varying degrees of knowledge of technology on this forum. Don't be scant in your respect for all of them. Perhaps you do know more than many of these folks but there is a way of putting things across. Your posts will be pissed upon for its arrogant tone than respected for its content. You seriously belonged in Pres Bush's cabinet. Its still not too late, you might be the answer to revive the GOP. But seriously, if you cannot let go of that snobbish attitude of yours, you ain't no good, even with all that knowledge you claim to possess.

inksdk said:
Highly doubt it, your 2004 Celeron M should use a Pentium 4 or Pentium M core, 130nm or 90nm technology. This Athlon will beat it hands down. If you do not believe it, just install Windows Vista and report the corresponding ratings. Windows Vista will make your machine an unacceptably slow snail.You have to understand that my knowledge is vastly wide. For example...

1. The older Clereon M cpus are based on Pentium M cores. Intel never used P4 cores on celeron Ms.
2. Using Windows Vista report to measure CPU performance is simply laughable and shows great inexperience.
3. The Athlon MAY pull slightly ahead of the older celeron Ms only due to SSE3 but as far as raw processing power they're very close. There are PLENTY of benchmarks. Simply use google and see for yourself.

I took advantage of this deal immediately after posting the link in the second post. I am at Best Buy right now, inspecting the demo unit.

Umm, this is a $300 laptop. Its not a $430 laptop discounted. It just doesn't feel good. Pro or con, this is a lightweight, flexible laptop. The build is clean, but it feels cheap. It looks cheap too. Yes, it is a cheap computer, but I think it will be cheaper in the future. Perhaps for BF. The store has about 30 of them on the high shelves, and the ones on the floor, within salesman's grasp, have already been violated by the Geek Squad. I am getting the feeling that this will be the BF lappy at BB and maybe it will be $249. That is a guess, and if it was $249, it would be a deal. Why does $50 make a difference? Because $300 laptops are becoming popular. And the offering at WalMart is better.

So I won't be picking up my in-store pickup order. I will wait to see what better comes along.

For some, this will be a fine laptop. It will do all that they ask of it. Web surfing, email, basic stuff.... I guess I have just been spoiled on FatWallet deals.

Picked this computer up for a friend today and set it up for him. I'm very impressed with the build quality and screen. Booted up nice, played DVD's well, and is expandable to 2GB. Now, I read somewhere in the specs from the machine that it might be upgradeable to 4GB's with 2 on each...these were specs that were displayed on the documentation in the screen. It comes with some ACER labeling on the box...but the notebook is e-machines. I have seen and used many notebooks and this looks like a great "low end" device. If you're going to do gaming or use a graphic program ...or think you can upgrade to Vista Ultimate....forget it. But it seemed to work very well surfing the web, doing word processing, etc. My take is if you are looking for something inexpensive....and are aware of the fact that you are going to get a low end machine, then this is a very good deal...with decent technology. Not everyone can afford $500 - $600 and then up to $2000 for a notebook. If it lasts two years or so, then consider it a disposable and upgrade to something better.