Review Of Gateway NV7802u Laptop

Laptops — on November 18, 2009 at 8:15 am | Comment Now

A laptop for basic work but not for gaming or other high end applications.

Sum and Substance:

Thumbs Up:

Big screen, good resolution, good battery life.

Thumbs Down:

No Bluetooth and express card slot, keyboard and sound quality could have been better.

Inside the Trunk:

6-cell Lithium ion, power adapter, soft wares.

The Whiz Kid Speaks:

Display – 17.3 in TFT active matrix, Resolution
1600 x 900 (widescreen) Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 / 2.2 GHz, Data bus speed 800 MHz, Chipset Mobile Intel GM45 Express, L2 cache (2 MB) 4 GB DDR3 SD RAM 1006 MHz, Graphics Intel GMA 4500MHD Dynamic Video Memory Technology 5.0 Hard disk – 500 GB SATA, DVD±RW (±R DL) / DVD-RAM, Supported flash memory cards, Memory Stick , MultiMediaCard , SD Memory Card , xD-Picture Card , Memory Stick Pro

Interfaces
4 x Hi-Speed USB – 4 pin USB Type A , 1 x Display/video – VGA – 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15) , 1 x Audio/video – HDMI – 19 pin HDMI Type A , 1x Modem – Phone line – RJ-11 , 1 x Network – Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T – RJ-45 , 1x Headphones / speakers – Output – Mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm, 1 x Microphone – Input – Mini-phone 3.5 mm

Software
Adobe Reader , Microsoft Works , Adobe Flash Player , CyberLink Power2Go , Cyberlink PowerDVD, Cyberlink DVD Solution, Gateway MyBackup Solution, Microsoft Money Essentials, Gateway Recovery Management, Norton Internet Security 2009 (60 days trial), Microsoft Office 2007 Home and Student Edition (60 days trial)
OS Provided – Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit Edition.

Razzle Dazzle:

Gateway NV7802u is an all black notebook which has silver borders around the keyboard and around the hinges. The laptop does look good but it is not sexy looking. The big screen will sure give you a better video experience.

Gateway nv7802u

Inside Dope:

This is the second Gateway product to land in our test center after the Gateway NV5207u. The major difference between the two is screen size. Gateway NV5207u was a 15.6 inch screen size and this one is 17.3 inch. A screen of this big size means that you will have to struggle to carry and hence we would term this as a desktop replacement rather than a portable computer.

The display of the computer is crisp 17.3 inch, 16:9 aspect ratio which is good for work and games/video watching. This display will give you a native resolution of 1,600×900 which is what a 17.3 inch screen should deliver. The picture quality is not so good if you are watching it with someone else, sitting on the sides. There is loss of contrast and saturation if you are watching from the sides. But still we feel that it is good display.

The battery of the computer is quite impressive and has enough juice to last for about a little more than three hours. If you are easy and don’t use high end applications this battery can take you for over 4-5 hours!

The good display isn’t well complimented by the sound quality of the speakers. Sound quality was strictly OK and could have been better. The speakers have Dolby sound processing but the speakers don’t seem the exploit the quality. NV5207u too had a similar problem. But there is a jack for speakers and you can connect external speakers of your choice to the computer.

The speed of the computer is fast enough and there is plenty of speed for your applications thanks to the four GB DDR3 memory and Intel Core 2 Duo T6600 / 2.2 GHz. This computer doesn’t have a discreet graphic card so don’t expect this notebook to play high end games in all its glory.

Keyboard of the computer wasn’t that good either. Keys are all cramped and look like they have been put too close to one another. Expect a lot of mis hits and you will have to resort to backspace key lot of time. You will need sometime to get used to this keyboard. But there is good wrist rest on the keyboard. The mouse is bad, there is a single bar which can be pressed from both the sides, instead of a two button track pad.

Above the keyboard there are a few touch sensitive keys which are often found in a laptop. There are volume controls, buttons for turning the wireless on and off and also there are keys that can be programmed to open soft wares according to your needs such as calculator or media player.

On the sides of the computer there are four USB ports (two on each side), VGA port, HDMI port, DVD drive and headphone jack. There is no Bluetooth or Express card slot.

Nitty Gritty:

NV7802u is an upgrade from the NV5207u, this laptop is for basic applications like typing or office. Not for gaming or applications which tax the hard ware. This laptop is not very expensive and will offer great value for your money.