Gateway NV7802u Review – Able Multitasker Laptop

Pros

Considering the features that Gateway NV7802u comes with, the system is rather inexpensive, and on top of it there is the delicate design of the laptop, its impressive battery life and decent performance.

Cons

The Gateway NV7802u has really poor viewing angles, doesn’t have an ExpressCard slot and Bluetooth.

Introduction

Gateway always has been known for offering the best bang-for-your-buck retail laptops and guess what, they continues to do so, with their all new Gateway NV7802u. The Gateway NV7802u has a 17 inch wide-screen model with a very well curved port collection and pretty good power offered by the 4GB of DDR RAM and Intel Core 2 Duo processor. The system also offers bigger than normal 500GB hard drive for storing a lot more data then ever. Even the battery life of Gateway NV7802u is pretty standard, especially considering the size of the system.

On a whole the Gateway NV7802u is a pretty decent laptop, although it has some really insignificant designing issues and there are certain features that we wished it should have had. But on a whole the Gateway NV7802u is great of office and home computing and will full fill a lot of your demands.

Design

The cover lid of Gateway NV7802u has a lustrous black pattern with faint honeycomb designing and has a petite silver Gateway logo. So the look for Gateway NV7802u is modest enough to be used in home or offices. Opening the lid of the system with its circular silver hinge reveals the black interiors of the system and opens effortlessly. The laptop is rather big in size but it’s nice to see that it is not as heavy as it gives the impression.

The Gateway NV7802u’s 17.3 inch screen is surrounded by a gleaming black bezel and has an aspect ration of 16:9. The LED-backlit screen here is sufficiently sized both for the work and entertainment purposes and you won’t have any problems in any of these tasking even if you do them simultaneously. The native resolution for NV7802u’s screen is of 1600 x 900 pixels, which now a day is pretty standard for budget notebook having screen size of about 17 inches. The picture quality for the screen in our anecdotal testing was pretty good, although can’t be said the best or the brightest and crispest that we have seen till date. The Gateway NV7802u comes with Dolby sound processing, but it hardly had any impact on the incorporated speakers of the system and they sounded nothing but fine. Even the webcam for the system and its performance was also pretty standard, with nothing exciting.

Under the display, there is the lusterless wide and flat keyboard of the system, which simply is OK and although it’s a tad soft, but offers a decent travel when used. Positioned on the right side of the keyboard is a complete number pad, and due to this the touch pad of the system is a little off centre of the screen. But as the size of the chassis is pretty large, there is ample room for your wrist rest on both the sides of the either sides of huge touch pad. One major problem that we always have with Gateway systems is that rather than using two separate buttons for right can left clicking they uses a thin bar for the same purpose. So if you have huge hands then there are chances of you missing the bar. Also the entire keyboard is flushed and hence if you are a careless typist, then you definitely will have to press a lot of deleting and backspacing. Hence it’s better that you test the system before buying.

Though, one of the nicer features here is the array of touch-sensitive buttons positioned above the keyboard. The array includes standard buttons such as volume controls, locking the touch pad, for turning the wireless service on and off and for a programmable launch key for opening any particular file, Web site, folder or application and one another button for launching the software for your back up files.

System Configuration

Price: $649.99
Manufacturer: Gateway
Part Number: LX.WE802.005
Notebook type: Mid-size laptops (6-7.5 lbs.)
Operating System Provided: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition

Processor: 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6600
System weight: 6.8 lbs
Dimensions (W x D x H): 16.2 x 11 x 1.4 in
RAM: 4GB, 1,066MHz DDR3

Display Type: 17.3 in TFT active matrix
Graphics Processor / Vendor: Intel GMA 4500MHD Dynamic Video Memory Technology 5.0

Screen size: 17.3 inches
Hard Drive: 500 GB
Hard drive type: Standard
Graphics: Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
Supported flash memory cards: MultiMediaCard, Memory Stick, xD-Picture Card, SD Memory Card and Memory Stick Pro
Software Provided: Microsoft Works , Adobe Reader , CyberLink Power2Go , Adobe Flash Player , CyberLink DVD Solution , CyberLink PowerDVD , Microsoft Money Essentials , Gateway MyBackup Solution , Norton Internet Security 2009 (60 days trial) , Gateway Recovery Management , Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition (60 days trial)
Video: HDMI and VGA-out
Audio: Stereo speakers and Headphone/microphone jacks
Networking: 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Modem, Ethernet
Data: multiformat card reader and 4 USB 2.0
Audio Output Compliant Standards: Dolby Sound Room, Dolby Headphone and High Definition Audio
Input device: Keyboard and Touchpad
Features: Security lock slot, LED-backlit and Ultra bright

Performance

Being a retail system the Gateway NV7802u is expected to satisfy a wide range of consumers and with its Core 2 Duo processor backed by the 4GB of DDR3 RAM of the system the Gateway NV7802u performed just according to that. In terms of pace the Gateway NV7802u was equivalent to a lot of other similarly configured laptops. We won’t say that the NC7802u is an exceeding well multitasker, but still the system is capable of multitasking and you can easily perform basic office and home tasks such as handling office tasks, Web browsing, running the e-mail and IM services and photo editing all at the same time. The system clearly will match your multitasking requirement for any basic home or office needs.

The Gateway NV7802u’s included six-cell battery ran for 3 hours and 6 minutes in our lab testing. The timing clearly is impressive, especially considering the fact that our lab tests are the extreme conditions a system could be subjected, so you can easily expect a tad extended life for the systems. Considering the feature set and the screen size of the system the performance offered by Gateway NV7802u is pretty good.

Support

The Gateway NV7802u gets a one year standard parts and labor warranty from Gateway, with return-to-depot service. There also is a Gateway service available through a 24*7 toll-free telephone number, and for online support there is the conventional FAQs, driver downloads, and support through live chat and e-mails are available through Gateway’s technicians. Also as it is a retail system and the retail stores offers extensive service, if you want to, but we don’t recommend that support service as they are in general pretty expensive.

Word from the Experts

The Gateway NV7802u is a decent laptop with pretty good performance, and is an imposing option for general homes and offices.