Gateway-Notebook Reviews

I've had this notebook for 3 months now and it was amazing right from when I received it. Amazing features of this notebook includes Nice wide screen display and a pair of good internal speakers with subwoofer ideal for listening to music and watching movies. Recent games such as Final fantasy XI, Max Payne 2 and NFS underground runs very smoothly and the speedy pentium M processor handles most demanding applications well. The slot loading DVD drive is cool too, and most of all it has a AV control panel and it is light enough to be carried around. A quality product from Gateway.

As a web and graphic designer, I constantly put my computers to the test. This one keeps up. I can have several high-intensity programs running at the same time without bogging down all my system resources. Furthermore, the battery life is amazing (mine is over 4 hours), it is completely silent, doesn't get hot, light for its size, and stylish to boot. I am in love.

The only thing that marred my experience with this computer is receiving one with a dead pixel in the center of my display. Big bummer. Gateway won't fix it. Otherwise, this is one amazing laptop.

This laptop has everything one could need:
-Fast processor, good amount of memory, GREAT graphic card, DVD writer, and a wide-screen ideal for games, DVD viewing and any other multimedia applications. For music enthusiasts, a built-in music player on the left of the keyboard can be used to play audio cds or mp3s without even turning the laptop on. Also, the speakers are of very good quality and the laptop even has a built-in subwoofer.

I tried a lot of notebooks before buying the M505XL and I can safely say that this is one of the best. At this price, you can't get a better deal.

For gamers, as I mentioned the graphic card is amazing. You'll be able to play the latest games with the settings maxed out at an amazing frame rate. ONLY games such as Far Cry which actually compete with the graphic engine of Half Life 2 might show some slowdown, but removing advanced settings such as Anti-Aliasing will boost the frame rate while keeping excellent visual quality. Games that work perfectly with all the settings turned on: Need for speed underground, Halo, Call of duty, Final Fantasy XI, Unreal Tournament 2003...

Finally the notebooks's pretty light (6.7 pounds) and you can easily take it with you wherever you go.

I like this notebook. I had purchased a cheaper laptop earlier, but sent it back because of the fan noise. The cheaper laptops typically use Intel Celeron processors which do not include "Speedstep" technology. Intel's speedstep (or AMDs similar technique) is needed to reduce power consumption/dissipation (and hence heat) to keep the fan off. In Intel's line, it seems to only come with Mobile Pentium M (part of "Centrino") and with *Mobile* Pentium 4s. The Gateway M505X which has the more advanced Pentium M (1.4 GHz which is equivalent to perhaps a 2.4 GHz P4)) does not run the fan at all during most uses (probably would if one ran games, etc.), and the hard drive is virtually inaudible. In short, the machine is totally silent. In addition, the bottom only gets moderately warm (not hot). Also, the palm rests do not suffer from heat buildup like some competing models (hard disk location is better in 505X).

The touchpad is awesome. Has a very smooth feel, never missing my finger's commands. I wish the left/right mouse keys were slightly less stiff, and I must say that although the keyboard is nice (less force needed than on HPs and Compaqs), I am dissappointed that Gateway left a chasm below the j, k, and l keys. When these keys are hit, the keyboard flexes slightly and the sound made is significantly different than the keys on the left side which have structure below them. But I'll learn to live with it... :-)

The multimedia capabilities of the machine are excellent. Especially the sound quality. I am frankly amazed at how good this thing sounds. As an Electrical Engineer, I know it is not easy to make good sound from tiny speakers, but this machine does a good job. (It's not going to compare to large speakers, of course, but it is infinitely better than the speakers in the cheaper laptop I purchased and returned). The 505X has, in addition to the two top speakers, a "subwoofer" that does a very credible job of enhancing the lows. Makes bass guitar tracks, etc. very clearly heard, and fills out the sound in general. There's even an equalizer that comes up in the system tray that you can use to alter the tonal quality and add effects such as reverb! The only negative on the sound is that max volume is not too high. In a noisy environment, this might be an issue, but its certainly fine for around the house.

The widescreen is also nice. Native resolution is 1280 x 800, which is OK for my eyesight. Like other laptops, if you go to a different (lower) resolution, the fonts look a bit rough, so be sure you can read text at the native resolution. The text is going to be slightly smaller than say, a 15 inch TFT with 1024x768 native resolution. Brightness is good, and has many levels so one can save power and battery life by turning it down if you want. One slight negative on the display is that mine has one bad pixel. It is stuck on and noticible with dark backgrounds, but completely invisible most of the time, so I can live with it... On the subject of battery life, I went 4 hours of mixed use (surfing web wirelessly, loading a few programs, playing snippets of DVDs, intermixed with some idle time on a mid-brightness setting), and still had 20% left in the battery.

Wireless works fine. Seems to get as good a signal or better than my external card on my other machine. Power management is pretty good too. When I put it to sleep (hibernate mode), it gets there in 13 seconds. Waking from hibernation takes 22 seconds. Not bad for a machine with 512Mb of RAM. Of course, your mileage may vary, depending on what software you are using.

Finally, the aesthetics and build are nice too. The metal lid and keyboard surround are fashionable and the machine feels quite solid. Would be nice if it were a few pounds lighter, but the 6.7 pounds is about state-of the art for what it contains.
For the price, I'm very pleased!

had the notebook for about a month now, and love everything about it. No problems to report so far.

Pros: wide-screen is definitely a major plus, at 6.7lbs lighter than other comparable notebooks. Sturdier than comparable models. S-video port, and 3 USB ports. Looks VERY cool.

Cons: No infrared (has the port built in, but its been disabled), at 1.4M not the fastest out there, 40 gigs is slightly smaller than others.

Final note, I was debating between the toshiba m35 which was cheaper at the time than this,but the toshiba seemed flimsier and even though it had a bigger hard drive, it was not that appealing. The keyboard on the toshiba feels quite uncomfortable.

Similar to another notebook shopper, I debated between the comparable Gateway M505X and Toshiba M35-S359, (see the very complete review "Nice machine, nice price", December 2, 2003 for the Toshiba).

Unlike that reviewer, I ended up purchasing the Gateway for a couple of reasons:

The Toshiba felt a bit flimsy and the keyboard was mushy. The Gateway seems to be constructed better and have a more subsantial feel with a very nice keyboard, without being much heavier (~1/2 pound).

The Gateway has much better speakers and a subwoofer which enhances the sound. The Toshiba sounded faint and metallic in comparison. The Gateway also has a very handy AV panel with LC display.

The screen on the Toshiba might be a little better, or at least a little brighter at its highest setting, but both are very good.

The Gateway offered better extended warranty packages for less money. Also, you can take it into any Gateway store instead of shipping it somewhere. Complete extended warranties with accidental damage coverage offered by computer retailers for about the same price were only 2 years vs. Gateway's 3.

The Gateway is much sleeker, and cleaner looking with its monotone metallic case and integrated speakers.

I realize that most of my points are aesthetic, but the hardware is almost identical, and performance should be very comparable.

I've used the Gateway 450X for several months now and find it to be a solid, reliable full-featured laptop that strikes a decent balance between weight and features.

The case is sleek, thin and modern, but plastic not metal (don't let the silver color mislead you).

The screen is bright with fine detail.

The keyboard is responsive with good feel. The wrist rest is a little deep compared to the ideal and there is only a touchpad, no pointing stick. However, the touchpad is better than many. I have an HP that drives me crazy with an overly sensitive touchpad.

The 450X has very good battery life and good wireless performance. I use a Linksys wireless network and the 450X has better range with its built-in wireless than older laptops with add-in cards.

There are some trade-offs. The optical drive is a good DVD-CD/RW combo drive, but no DVD writer is available. Similarly, the speakers are not really adequate for a multi-media presentation platform.

Gateway's dock or port replicator plugs into a slot on the bottom of the laptop case and promotes ventilation and a good typing angle. The availability of a port replicator was a requirement in my selection process (so you can leave printers and other peripherals plugged into the dock). I highly recommend this accessory. It makes working with a laptop much easier.

This is not a video creation platform, but for everyday work in Microsoft Office and web browsing, it's a great laptop with balanced features and excellent pricing.

I also recommend Gateway's service and support. Support information is individualized to your actual machine. Gateway's website resolves most issues for me without resort to techs, but when techs are necessary they are located in the United States and have consistently been helpful. This is my sixth Gateway computer and the service and support system is a key reason for coming back.

This Gateway m305CRV laptop is very nice. Not a be all end all desktop replacement of course. But a full featured laptop that does anything you ask it to. The Intel Extreme 2 Graphics are pretty good, and you can have up to 64 mb of AGP accelerated memory by setting it through the bios which is nice. The hard drive is sound. And the Intel Pentium 4 Mobile Celeron is definitely not your run of the mill celeron processor. It features the intel mobile Pentium 4 core, and unlike other celerons it features 256Kb of L2 cache rather than the normal 128Kb found in budget cpu's making this celeron faster than normal celerons. Also the system features DDR Ram which is a Huge plus for performance.

Basically it comes down to this. This laptop should perform anything you want it to do including light gaming and cpu intensive tasks. I personally watch dvd's while Im downloading music or surfing the internet on a very regular basis. I make slide shows, AVI movies and tons of other stuff. This laptop is my main computer now, I liked it enough to actually sell my less capable desktop.
Also my laptops specs are slightly different although it is the same model.
The only annoying thing about the laptop is a trade off for a nice feature as well. The fan is loud, and can be annoying while your not used to it, HOWEVER, because the fan runs alot the laptop very rarely gets warm, and virtually never gets Hot. This is the first laptop I can comfortably use on my lap, which is great and makes me not care about the fan one bit.

Greetings - I ordered this laptop from Amazon in May - and it was forwarded to me all the way to FOB Dagger, Iraq (Amazon will not send lots of technology products overseas so I had to have it forwarded). First of all, my full-time job is computer support so I have quite a bit of laptop/notebook experience. This M505x is a super, super machine. Build quality is great - no 'flexy' case, cheap plastic (think "D*ll") or crooked lines here and there - its top-notch in this respect. It is made in the Phillipines vice mainland China by the way. The display is bright, responsive and not grainy (and the case lid appears to be aluminum). No dead pixels on mine by the way, quite a feat considering how far it traveled!! One of the greatest features of this laptop is the ATI Radeon 9600 (64mb DDR) graphics. It absolutely rocks with the games I've played. Raven Shield looks great - and the Far Cry demo is awsome. Oh, also by the way, in view of all of this praise, you might think this is either a vaporware review - or that I'm somehow connected to Gateway. I really ordered and possess the system and I'm not in any way connected with Gateway. One little downside is that it came with a 4200-rpm hdd - but I had pre-ordered a spare Hitachi 40-gb 5400-rpm drive (not from Gateway or Amazon). Here's another M505x advantage - Gateway didn't take the cheap way out with a garbage-software-infested restore CD - the "restore" CD appears to be a relabeled XP Home CD! No problems with the restore to the new hdd - and the software/apps CD gives you the option to pick and choose what to install. All of the buttons/SD card slot/graphics worked perfectly after the restore. I cannot say enough good things about the M505x - I am thrilled with mine!! One last comment - I am sending this review from an Army morale computer in an internet cafe. I had never cared much for Gateways until I arrived here at FOB Dagger. The 20 Gateways in this Cafe take an enormous beating from GI's, heat, dust, viruses - you name it. Most of them have a few bad pixels now - but they are running very well considering the use and abuse they get. The only thing they all need is 256mb of ram instead of the measly 128mb that they each have. Ok - last but not least - there has to be some negatives: Gateway uses cheap cardboard for shock protection in their boxes - although my system was not damaged. And, to be honest, some users have reported dark areas in their displays (not mine, though) - as reported on notebookforums.com.

I have owned this lappy for about a month now. One word -- BEYOND EXPECTATION. Keep in mind that my old desktop is only a IntelCelron 400mhz and old lappy is only a iBook G3 450mhz.

I have been shopping around for a good looking lappy that can actually perform with excellent battery life. This is THE ONE. After looking at G4 Powerbook for a while, I decided to safe ~$700 to upgrade this M505XL, old desktop, old lappy and loaded of accessories for my new toy. Here is MHO review.

What's hot!!

1. Solid built quality.
2. Looks hot (looks more expensive than it actually is worth. It is the clostest thing a PC to a Power G4.
3. Over 4.5 hrs battery life w/~3.5 hrs for DVD. If you have a high capacity battery this could go up by about 0.5-1hr. I got mixed up with a regular 8 cells ion battery.
4. Great sound system for a lappy. Beat anything out there with this price range. Sub really adds good dept.
5. Centrino 1.5Ghz is plenty fast for my average graphic editing, office processing programs, and directx 9.0b gaming.
6. Full function dedicated AV control panel. Although it is not that big of a deal, but its functionality is very handy when watching DVD and listening audio.
7. Full size keybord w/ full functionality. And pretty impressive touchpad.
8. Good graphic and 15.4" (if you are into widescreen). Widescreen does not make anything look fat by stretching it when you bolw window into a full screen. Everything get adjusted accordingly when browsing the internet, etc.
9. Impressively stable OS unlike I've ever experienced with any PC. I knew this well comparing my old Win98 to MacOS9 and 10 and this WinXP pro.
10. Slightly above storage capacity (60GB) and standard memory, which is still very high for a lappy (512MB).
11. Quite and impressively cool system with death silent HDD noise (Thanks for Fujitsu great HDD technology). I was in shock when I first ran my applications. My old G3 iBook cen get relatively noisy and hot on my lap.
12. Above average customer service. Used to be great customer service. See below why.

What's not!!
1. Gateway has been notorious in sending M505XL with incorrect HDD spec. Origianlly I got Fujitsu 60GB 4200rpm w/2mbcache. It is supposed to be Toshiba 60GB 5400rpm w/8mbcache. I never got the right one from Gateway after a couple of weeks debating with Gateway. Well, I bought this system from elsewhere and the quote from the supplier is only mentioned about 60GB (no speed or buffer size). Bad luck for me because Gateway holds no responsibility for this even though there is sufficient information to link a real HDD spec for M505XL model from Gateway webpage. Gateway has been discontinued this model from their own web to avoid this problem. Be ware when you are trying to buy this lappy from any other sources. Make sure that you get a written HDD spec quote.
Why I am ranting so much about this?? Well, now that I bought my own a correct HDD spec (Fujitsu 60GB 5400rpm w/8mbcache -- in love with death silent HDD technology), I am feeling like having a brand new computer. Most of my regularly used applications load pretty much instantly. I can have two programs running while watching DVD w/o a hiccup. I could not do this with the old HDD. And, even Office outlook 2003 works so slow with my old HDD. Well, it is unaccepatably slow for this price range of a system. SO LOOK BACK AGAIN AT MY REVIEW TITLE. On top of my HDD and Battery mixed up. They got my serial in the system wrong. I was trying to register, and after entering my SN it brought up a Plasma TV??? Well, Gateway promise to fix it in 2-4 weeks. It is still not after 3 weeks. I wonder whether I will be able to extend my warrenty!!
2. No upgrade option. Well, Wistron is actually manufacturing this M505 series. Basically this is a mass production model from Gateway.
3. Regardless of full size keyboard and decent feel, it is not very solid. I can feel that one of these keyboards will not last longer than 2 years. I own G3 iBook for almost 3.5 years now and not a single complaint.
4. Can only upgrade HDD up to 60GB and memory to 1024MB. High end availability are 80GB and 2048MB of Ram (This means that Gateway have Winstron put it a sub standard motherboard). Well, 100GB HDD is coming out very soon too.

I would have given 4.5, but ended up in 5 because I still like it so much after all above-mentioned troubles I could have easily returned it for a full refund after first week. Now that I upgraded the HDD to a correct spec and increased memory from 512 to 768 (will try to max out to 1024 by next month), this lappy can really perform. Noted that I tried to add more memory with the old HDD but performace was not improved enough to make me feel like a $1700-1800 lappy. By the way, I can't notice any different in battery life regardless of a new higher spec HDD. It is probably less by less than 5 min or so.

In conclusion, if you are looking for a new PC based lappy with great battery life, solid OS, good graphic, well built, medium size weight (it is pretty light to carrying around), just grab one but don't forget about the HDD and battery. (...)

I'm going to cover what hasn't already been written about. So, here are things that make this laptop stand-out or stink-up.

Pros:
- The Centrino Chip clocks at 1.5MHz; I have heard that this translates to a P4 2.5MHz processor. This part is confusing; just know that games and applications work fast.
- Screen checks in at 14.1" which is a good working size - slightly more to carry than those 12" screens, but much more useable and it leaves room in the chassis for a full-sized keyboard.

- Comes with internal DVD/CDRW which I find really cool (as opposed to external, which would be a pain to carry).
- AC adaptor is pretty cool. It's made so you can wrap the cord around it neatly when you're not using it, and then there is a little snap thing on the plug so the cord doesn't get unraveled.
- Lots of useful external ports (2 usb's, firewire, ethernet, modem, PCMCIA slot, video out, S-video out, etc). I especially like the optical out, which I don't use, but I still like it being there.
- Wireless works well. Go Centrino technology!
- Comes with many programs inside (Windows XP, MS Works, Picture It!, Jukebox, etc)
- The battery looks cool. If you take it out, there are some little led lights and a button you press that shows how much battery life is left.
- This is one of the sleekest designs and coolest looking notebooks around. If you want to stand out from all those other black books in the airport or commuter train, you won't go wrong with the 200.

- It comes with a comprehensive hard-copy user manual (yes, printed on real paper -- not a CD or web address).
- The battery is upgradeable.

Cons:
- Yes, battery life and speakers suck. Use the high-capacity battery and a pair of headphones.
- The mouse scroll, while it is useful, takes a long time if you use it to scroll down web pages because it moves the pages down slowly
- While the screen brightness key function works well, the audio volume adjustment is annoying to use. It doesn't respond to (function) (up) or (down) very well. hard to describe, but if you get a chance to actually play around with this laptop before you buy it, try the audio up down function and you will know what I'm talking about. What would have been better is a little manual scroll wheel on the side of the computer that would control the system volume.
-Maybe it's my computer, but the battery life status doesn't seem to be completely accurate. It goes up to 99% somewhat fast, and then stays there for another 10-15 minutes before it finally says 100% charged. It's the same with low battery status, where it doesn't fall below 9%. but it does give me a warning message. (But the LED light doesn't start blinking at low battery, like the manual said it would)
- No floppy drive. I guess buying a USB flash drive will do.
- Two usb ports. While it may be sufficient to some, I wish there were more. I guess buying a USB hub will do.
-Too bad there is only space for one pc card slot
-It would have been nicer if the ethernet port was in the back of the notebook so that the cord doesn't bother my left arm, but it's no big deal.
-I hate support programs. They take up space and I feel like I have a bunch of junk programs running every day. I say if you're confident of your computer skills and can take care of the little computer problems yourself, take them out.

Overall: Yes, battery life is bad. If you need more than 2 hours get a new 6-cell one for 100 bucks. Yes, speakers are bad, but what do you expect from a 4 pound laptop? This is cool looking, good performing system without the bulk. Highly recommended.

This computer is spectacular, it looks great and also runs well. It is very small, but the keyboard is of usable size and has a good feel to it (my old gateway notebook definitely had a bit of a flimsy feel to it).

A few things:
1) GET THE HIGH CAPACITY BATTERY. The stock battery is awful, but such is life. Don't order it from gateway though, check out other places, such as a particular online warehouse with a three letter name. I got mine for almost 1/2 the price Gateway was charging there, and the service was a lot better.
2) The speakers suck too. The computer is less than 1" think. What do you expect? They're finally beginning to come out with wi-fi products that will use your connection to stream music from your computer to your stereo. I can't wait to get my hands on one, until then, plug it into to your stereo or use headphones.
3) Adding more RAM is highly recommended. I added an additional 512MB that I got from a well-known auction site for $50. The difference is immediately noticable; XP devours RAM.
4) Download iTunes. Seriously, even if you don't want to download music from them, it has to be the most user-friendly (not to mention free and visually pleasing) music library managment software on the planet.
5) STAY UPDATED. Every time you read about an attack, its because people don't update their OS, antivirus, and firewall software/hardware. It takes a few seconds every few weeks, and any decent company will alert you to the updates automatically. This will also eliminate 99% of problems people may experience with their wi-fi connections; the software updates usually fix glitches that weren't anticipated when the product was manufactured (I use a D-Link DI-624 router, and it's been phenomenal).
6) You'll want to get a USB drive if you need to move files off-network regularly. They're compact, hold a lot, and have become really inexpensive. I ended up buying one and couldn't be happier. Or you can do as I used to: just email files to yourself and access them at your final destination (I had a habit of losing/leaving behind floppies when I was in college).

All that said, for the price, this system simply can't be beat. Even without all the extra BS I bought for mine, it's still a great notebook. It runs cool and fast and looks great. You won't find many other notebooks with these specs and functionality.

I wanted a sleek looking little laptop with a decent size screen and 512mb of ram... and I got all that and more! It does everything I need, never hiccups, it's lightweight... I'm really glad I bought it. It's beauty is not only skin deep, have a look at the specs :) It's great. The only complaint... buy a backup battery... the standard one runs out so quickly.

Are you looking for an awesome deal on a laptop? Need the best Tablet PC on the market? Are you a student that has difficulty with there typing skills? Are you an office worker that thinks they can be more productive if they didn't have to type everything? Do you need an excellent computer, but don't want to pay $2,000* + on a computer that's not as good as the M275? If you answered yes to any of these questions than the Gateway** M275 convertible tablet pc is the right choice for you. Now you're probably saying ok here's a laptop reasonably priced nothing special hmm... next! WRONG the M275 unlike most tablets that don't have built in keyboards and, unlike most laptops that don't offer handwriting recondition the M275 offers the best of both worlds, when you first open it up it's a normal laptop, then all you have to do is turn the screen, push a button and Boom... it instantly becomes a tablet. What is a tablet you ask, a tablet is a special type of computer with special software made by Microsoft*** that offers converted handwriting recondition, that means that with a special pen (Included) you can write on the screen press a button and BOOM!!! It converts your handwriting. As well as offering handwriting recondition it also offers a 14" screen, something only offered by two manufacturers of tablets (Gateway** and Acer**) in addition it also offers a memory card reader so if you are going on vacation and you're bringing along your digital camera you don't have to pack a cable for your digital camera (if it supports SD, Memory Stick**, or Smart Media) This is why I think the M275 is a excellent system!!!!

By Andrew Kostin -- Student

*Depending on options system can be configurable to exceed $2,000 as of 6/23/04

** products/companies are registered trademarks of there respected owners

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HARDWARE

M275XL tablets 1.6 GHz is one of the high speed tablets compared to other on the market plus not very expensive. Yes more expensive than a laptop. Before buying Tablet PC make sure that you hold it and use it for a while before you buy it (do not drool... bad for screen)

Display View Angle: In tablet mode you will often hold it in different angles and hold it much closer than a laptop. Most screens fail in this test. M275 works OK in default landscape mode but very bad in both portraits and reverse landscape.

Pen: Check how well pens perform at the screen edges. Often scrollbars are on the edge in maximized view. I noticed sometime physical touch point on the screen and the 'soft pointer' don't align (off by 1/2 the thickness of scrollbar) making it difficult to use. M275X works OK. Few times I have had to recalibrate pointer/pen.

Processor and Memory: Low CPU speeds and lesser RAM might might be a factor if you plan to use this for something more than data entry and/or etch-a-sketch.

SOFTWARE

M275 ships with Table PC Edition 2002. Microsoft will be launching 2004 Edition with better features in June... that is what I last heard. It ships with Windows Journal and Office Works OneNote, which are really good basic tools for free form writing and recording information in tablet mode.

Other more serious graphic application such as Corel Graphigo, SketchBook, or Office 2003 with OneNote will improve your productivity.

BOTTOM LINE

M275 is good hardware except viewing angle issues. I just use it in default landscape mode and I am OK with that. Go for more CPU speed and memory. Hard disk space of 40GB~60GB is ample. Upgrade to Edition 2004 will be free... yeah from Microsoft. If you can't wait... BUY IT!!! And, if you can... DON'T WAIT!!!

It takes a week to get used to pen and different user interface.

NOTE: Don't buy (or take it for free) cheapest Gateway carrying case. Better off using manila envelope. Very thin. No pockets. Minimal padding. No protection. No use. Buy an extra Pen $20.

Versatile, lightweight, portable, durable and powerful.

I love this thing! I've had my Gateway tablet for about two months now and it's already changed the way I use my computer for both business and fun.

First of all: Some other reviewers had complaints about the latch breaking... mine is still working just fine! It's easy to get carried away having fun with such a cool new technology, but you have to remember that this is NOT a toy! It's a powerful hybrid computing system that gives you an edge over both laptop AND tablet PC users. If you screw around with it of course it's going to break- just like any number of other delicate parts on your laptop. The latch is built well and works perfectly if you make sure not to force it.

For the guy who broke his after 20 days... you should have gotten an extended warranty! I highly reccomend the extended warranty on this because, like any other advanced technology, you're going to want to protect yourself from any repair or replacement costs you might face should something go wrong. I didnt get the extended warranty because this is a bad computer... I got the extended warranty because it's the smart thing to do!

I love my tablet because it's smaller than a notebook but still has a full-size keyboard. Basically you get the best of both worlds with this one!

I can now do all of my graphic design work by sitting the computer on a desk or my lap and writing directly on the screen... and then swivel the screen out so I have acces to the keyboard when I need to write an e-mail or chat online... this is brilliant!!

I have this set of CDs I recently purchased that contains materials and resources I'm studying for an upcoming licensing exam. Before, I had to sit at my PC for hours a day reading this stuff. Now I just throw the CD in the tablet PC and I can recline or relax at ANY angle and I'm able to hold the tablet whichever way is comfortable. If you ever use your laptop to read, watch movies, or even just surf message boards then you'll love the M275X.

I can't say enough good things about this computer. It's made working when I travel so much easier. Tablets are so far superior to laptops in terms of ease of use and comfortable viewing/ operating options. And this tablet takes it a step further by including the ONLY thing that tablets were missing- a keyboard! Maybe the only downside is all the attention it attracts when I'm using it at Starbucks! Tablet PCs are the future!

There are many features of this laptop that I like. However, it appears to have some serious reliability problems. In the four months that I've owned it, it has already had to be sent in for repairs twice, once for problems with the wireless card and once for a dead LCD monitor. Although it is covered under warranty, this still means being without it for over a week each time and paying almost $50 each time for the special shipping to send it to Dallas.

I would not buy this laptop again.

For the price, this is a well loaded machine and an excellent desktop replacement.

I got an M350 about 6 months ago and I haven't had any problems at all. It has great speed, memory, and all around performance. I would recommend this laptop to anyone.

I bought a Gateway 200E (200 ARC series) 2 days ago from another online store (I'm still posting it here, so that other potential buyers may find out about this before making a buying decision). The quality, features and speed are good. The reason I'm giving 1 star is because Gateway doesnt accept responsibility for their bugs, and doesn't want to fix them.

If I put the computer into standby and then wake it up, and use the volume control by pressing Fn + left or right arrow keys, the system crashes. It freezes completely. Even ctrl + alt + del doesn't work.

I called Gateway, and this is what they said:

"It's an already documented problem with this model.

Gateway doesn't have a solution for this problem, they only have two workarounds:

1. Don't use the Fn + key combo for volume control, use the volume control icon on the system tray with your mouse.

2. Don't use the Fn + key combo for a while after waking up from
stand by"

My reply to #1, I dont want to look for the icon and click it, I want a shortcut whenever I want to control the volume. That's what it is there for. Besides, I press ctrl + arrow to tab through my text documents. It's very easy to press Fn instead of ctrl, and this is more possible in this model especially since Fn is the outermost key on the left side, and ctrl is to the right side of it, unlike most other laptop keyboards where ctrl is the outermost key. I dont want my laptop to crash when I'm browsing through my text documents or writing code.

#2. I even tried doing this after an hour, and it still crashes.

I have the latest BIOS (v 42.01.02), and Gateway doesnt have a newer BIOS update of fix for this. I use Win XP Pro, by the way. This crash is reproducible every single time I do what I described above (use volume control after waking up from standby).

Gateway said they just wont fix it or replace this laptop. If I send it for service, they won't give me a time estimate of how long it will take to fix it. They are just trying to deter me from sending it for service I guess.

The tech who answered my second call was so rude and yelling on the phone telling me not to use the key combo, rather than focusing on how to fix it. He even said he won't let me talk to Level 2 tech people when I asked. I had to give him a piece of my mind before he would let me talk to Level 2.

The level 2 guy was even more ridiculous. He suggested that I use the screensaver instead of standby. Moron, he doesnt even know the difference between the use of a screensaver and a standby mode.

Perhaps, he thinks people who buy their laptops are starfishes who they can push around and deny service for their defective product.

How many of you have had this problem replicable with the Gateway 200 ARC series? Can you try this on your laptop and see if it happens?

Does anyone know a fix for it? I badly need it. If you have the same problem, or know how to fix it, please email me at sen@stanmed.net

If there are enough number of people with this problem, without
proper service being provided by Gateway, I think a class action
lawsuit would be feasible.

Thanks.

Sen.

I've had this computer for 3 months now, taking advantage of all of its many features. I spent a long time looking for the right model, with the requirements being: wireless, good portability, computing power, good connectability (variety of outputs/inputs for interfacing with accessories, other computers, etc.), XP Pro, etc. This one has all that and more -- I love it! Even better, I had originally looked into getting it directly from Gateway, but delivery would have taken a relatively long time. I looked into Amazon to see if they had the same model, and coincidentally they did -- except no DVD burner, but $400 less! ($500 less with the $100 rebate!) Perfect for me -- I don't need a DVD burner, and if I did, I'd be reluctant to pay an extra $400 or $500 for it!

So why 4 stars instead of 5? The battery it comes with is simply unacceptable. You'll get 90 minutes if you're lucky; probably closer to 1 hour. I knew this ahead of time and purchased the bigger battery from Gateway. (Amazon should have it but they don't!) It took well over 1 month to receive it. In the end, the battery life with the new battery is acceptable, but not great. It's double the other, so if you're using it for low-consuming tasks, maybe you'll get 3 hours. If you're playing a DVD, you *may* just squeak out the full DVD with 1 charge. That is, if the DVD is <2 hours.

I would say that this is really the only criticism, and for me, this ain't bad. (Well, that and the fact that Prince of Persia wouldn't work on it. But in all fairness, you need a gaming computer for that app. Still ... with a brand new computer, you expect that it should be able to run virtually any app that you can pick up at Costco... The game wouldn't work on my friend's new Toshiba either. If you want a laptop for gaming, you'll need something very special. But i digress.) The computer works perfectly on my home wireless network, and has worked perfectly on other wireless networks (airports, hotels, etc). It's fast. It has a firewire port, which I've used for transferring files between computers -- excellent! I use it for work: I do training courses, so I use the computer for Powerpoint presentations, and I also burn CDs for the participants at the end of the course. The keyboard is great, and the scrolling wheel is an excellent touch! AND it has a stylish look -- very chic! All in all, I'm very pleased with this product -- I'd recommend it to friends, and if I could do it all over again, I would definitely select it again.

I have had the computer for about 2 weeks. I especially like the speed, keyboard (like desktop) and wireless connection. My only problem would be that I can't adjust the contrast on the desktop. Since this is my first laptop, I don't know if I could do it with a different one. Very light to carry, especially since the CD/DVD is internal. Also like the scroll button near the touch pad.