Considering the Gateway M-152XL. Advice please!

Hey.. first time poster Never owned a laptop before.
After extensive searching I was considering getting the M-152XL. I really like the review on the site too. But since I never had a laptop I need advice from you guys with experience about this stuff.

Any cons for this laptop? Are they known to break quickly? Will it last for say 3 years without any problems?

Enlighten me

 

I have only owned one for about 2-3 weeks and so far its been great to me.

 

Well, the resolution might be a little on the low side, but if you don't need the screen real estate, that should be fine. I'd take up on the 3 year premium warranty if you want it to last 3 years or more.

 

I think I will go with the warranty included in the original price (1 year). Sadly, money is an issue for me. I don't want to rely on the warranty, I just want to know how much the gateway laptops are known to last if taken good care of

 

Need more feedback on this product please guys

 

This notebook isnt as popular as like the 6860 so not many people will be able to give hands on experience. As I said...it hasnt given me any problems yet, aside from a few crashes i alot to vista.

O and if you are left handed and put your mouse on the left...the vent is on the left side and the air can get hot sometimes.

 

OS crashes? Why

Right-Handed

 

Um its microsoft. We gave up asking why long ago. And my mistake, not a few crashes, just one actually.

 

Buy it. I'm going to be getting one in a couple weeks. I currently have a Gateway 6752. It looks EXACTLY like the 152XL but has integrated graphics instead of the HD2600 along with a slower CPU (1.66ghz). I'm going to be selling my laptop for $600 ($100 less than what I bought it for) and getting the 152 for only $1000. If you call gateway you can convice sales reps to lower prices.

As for durabillity, this laptop is NICE but like all laptops, somewhat fragile (you cant beat it up all the time). I slipped on the ice during the winter and SMASHED my laptop on the ground. I was totally freaking out and when I went to pick it up I realized that only the left hinge cover had broken off and one of the 2 snaps to hold the battery in place no longer worked. The laptop was completely functional! I called gateway and they said that I could send it in (they'd pay for shipping) or I could fix it myself. Well, I told them i could fix it myself and they overnighted the parts to fix it!!!! Even though it was my fault!!!!

As far as crashes, the laptop itself is fine...vista is just somewhat flaky. I'm really impressed at the power of my laptop even though it is integrated graphics and only 1.66ghz. I'm running with a secondary monitor in 1920x1200 without any problems. Right now I have firefox open with 50+ tabs, photoshop with 3 big files open, phpdesigner, an FTP program, windows media player, 3 pdf documents, 2 database connection programs, and internet explorer with 10 tabs. I still am only using 68% of my ram and everything seems responsive and quick (firefox used to run somewhat slow with over 10 tabs but since I upgraded to firefox 3 it works great). The reason I want to get the 152XL is because I want to be able to play games. My laptop does desktop applications great but can only play UT2004 on medium....Additionally, the CPU and the GPU crap out when I try to do 3D modeling. The 152XL should be able to do all these things much faster without choking up a bit. The more I talk about it, the more I want to upgrade.

The only problem I have is my wireless card is really bad. I have to switch the switch like 20 times when I reboot to get it to start working. I think this might be just a bad unit as no one else has had any problems like it. I leave my laptop on all the time so its not a big deal. I could have gateway send me a replacement but I don't have time to make the repair nor can I sacrifice my laptop for a couple weeks if I sent it to them for repair. The gateway 152XL uses a slightly newer version of the wifi card so I think there will be less chance of getting a bad unit.

Buy it if you can!

 

Thanks for the long post! Anyways i already ordered an HP Laptop because of the -500$ Coupon

 

How much did you pay for it? If you paid over $1000 you got ripped off

 

Around 982$ shipped. It was a dv6700t that I customized.

- HP Pavilion dv6700t Entertainment CTO NB
- Upgrade to Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (64-bit)
- Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo Processor T8300 (2.40GHz)
- 15.4" diagonal WXGA High-Definition HP BrightView Widescreen Display (1280 x 800)
- 4GB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
- 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS - For Core 2 Duo Processors
- HP Imprint Finish (Radiance) + Microphone + Fingerprint Reader + Webcam
- Intel(R) PRO/Wireless 3945ABG Network Connection
- FREE Upgrade to 250GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive from 160GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive!!
- LightScribe SuperMulti 8X DVD+/-RW with Double Layer Support
- No TV Tuner w/remote control
- 12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery
- System Recovery DVD with Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit)
- Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
- HP Home & Home Office Store in-box envelope

 

meh. you spent almost 1000 bucks for a 8400M GS?

 

Everything in that HP is a great deal aside from that crappy graphics card.
Pros would be the 12 cell battery and 4 gig of ram, but the gateway still is ALOT more powerful and faster and it would have been the better deal.