The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
I still have yet to see a single comparison that puts any numbers behind that claim... fact is, it's a crapshoot with any notebook... Unless of course you go IBM... from personal experience, they're rock-solid. Last competitive review on quality showed that no big-name notebook manufacturer did particularly well...
well sony is really reliable and quite good i have heard its good quality wise...
but sony is a bit costly but then again in my opinion worth it
all the best chossing
merry christmas,
cheers
honestly. if u go sony, make sure u get a good/not cheap sony vaio, they're performance from my experience are off the hook, seriously. if i had a choice between sony and a gateway, of course i will choose the sony, but when it comes down to the price and all....gateway will obviously beat it.
Here is my review of the experience I have had. I bought a laptop over a year ago from BestBuy. I was impressed by the specs and the price. I did in fact get a deal, but after the first month I noticed little problems and dodgy performance. If you aren't familiar with the hinge cracks, then please avoid MX7515 and all related models, practically all of them. In the end I am very displeased that I paid the money to receive a quality notebook in terms of ram and other hardware, but the the case is poorly made and I've had 3 broken hinges and now my warranty is up. No more gateways for me. As much as I want to enjoy it, I'd rather have a laptop that functions 100%.
I can only speak from experience. I had been deciding between the hp dv9000z, the dell e1705 and finally the nx860xl. I went with the gateway for a few reasons.
1. the price, lets not be shy about this, they offered me a better deal for a heck of a laptop. Dell wouldn't budge and to my hous was $2000. Gateway, $1600, same specs. The HP was about the same price, but they have the lesser gpu at the 7600. Chipsets on all are very similar except with the gateway, the chipset is designed for dedicated gpus.
2. Performance/quality, this is where I was most hesitant. I read and read and read. And what I determine is that if you read enough reviews, all laptops are great, and all laptops suck. Luck of the draw if everything performs as it's supposed to. For the build quality, again all about experience. I had an emachine mx8610. Piece of crap. over heated, shut off randomly, hinges broke, sent it in for recall, they LOST my laptop, sent me a refurbed, horrible experience! Next I bought a gateway MX6421. I am typing this on it now. I've had it for a year now and this laptop has been rock solid. no issues in construction or performance. No over heating, again, no issues. Now mind you, it's plastic, it bends, the lcd ripples when you push on the back, etc. But these are minor issues to me as, again, it works flawlessly. If you want a lappy you can kck around, go get a toughbook. My biggest complaint about this laptop is that the left mouse button on the bottom has the paint worn away. Pretty minor.
I have not had a dell (laptop) or an HP so I cant speak to those, but I have read the reviews. The deal is this in my opinion. If you want to pay for a "better looking" laptop, I say go with the HP or Dell. If you want to pay for a comparable laptop, with equal performance, that just looks like a laptop, get a gateway.
This may be a major mistake and it might cost me $150 to return it. But I made my decision based on performance, experience, and price. No one can tell you what kinda laptop to buy. choose. choose wisely.
long winded I know, hope it helps.
g
btw, laptop coming:
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor T7200 (2.00GHz, 667MHz, 4MB L2)
2048MB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
80GB 7200rpm Serial ATA
17.1" WUXGA TFT Active Matrix (1920x 1200 res) Platinum Ed
nVidia 7900 GS 256MB Graphics Card
I've had my Gateway MX6437 for 9 months now. I have not experience any problems with it so far. No hinge problems. No heating up problems. No random shutting down problems. This particular model has a solid construction. Pushing on the back of the lid does not cause ripples on the screen. Honestly though, if you press hard enough for any brand laptop, it will cause ripples. Performance is still excellent. That's because I take care of my lappy.
The others have already said what I would have said in their place. I've owned hp's and dell's before. Nothing special there. I guess they make the cases aesthetically more appealing but aside from that, durability and performance of the laptops are about the same, I think. Go Sony if you want something equivalent to IBM's durabilility but expect to pay a hefty premium for that. I'd sacrifice durability for competitive prices/tech specs any day but that's just me. Besides, Intel and AMD are churning out new processors every few months. It won't be long until your top-of-the-line lappy becomes obsolete.
My NX860LX is still chugging away after 10 months of daily use with no serious problems. This computer is reported to have some heating problems, but I've noticed also that NHC reports inaccurate core temps. Right now it reports a temp of 68 degrees. The computer is cool as a cucumber and Core Temp reports 35 degrees! Earlier today NHC displayed a warning notice that my temp was exceeding 80 degrees and the computer was cold, just booting up.
I am a faculty member at Cleveland State University, the laregest Gateway customer in Ohio afaik, as well as some one who put themselves through grad/undergrad by building and/or selling PCs.
Okay bio out of the way, in short, if I had a choice, Gateway would not be #1 , #2 or even #3 for me. Sadly, as we are under some sort of 'global' contract, I don't have such a choice, at least without a ton of paperwork/approvals anyway.
Reliability is probably somewhat worse than average, although in typical luck of the draw mine has sucked. From talking to the techs here at CSU (we have to supply our own front line service...) about 10% arrive with issues... That is not to far off for laptops in my experience, but rather higher than expected for desktops
I have one 4 year old destop, whose power supply failed at 3 years and whose floppy drive currently won't stay seated flush with the cover. I have not looked at/or had that last bit fixed, as I rarely use floppy anymore anyway.
1st Notebook a 450e I believe. Had numerous screen and stability issues. After the third repair (and a lot of 'yelling'), it was finally replaced with an newer 450e. This one works much better, but still has a quirk that if you run the battery down, once in a blue moon you have to remove the battery and re-insert it before it wants to start again - even on AC power! Lol. Given repair times go 2 weeks to 2 months for us (remember we do our own service), it just ain't worth the hastle to get that fixed....
2nd notebook, the educational version of the NX680XL, an 685e I think with the 7900GS. Unstable with performance issues right out of the box - had to rebuild it, afaik driver issues... In fairness it was brand new version which was not even configurable with the 7900GS via the web site when ordered - had to call in to get it configured like that. The rebuild helped immensly and framerate became what I expected. But, even though I ordered a full windows cd, the suppplimental driver cd did not have all the right drivers. Luckily, I have multiple macines and burners so DLing fixed this sitch, but a poor showing none the less.
It still has a fairly frequent BSOD stop error on rebooting now and then, which requires a rebooot into safe node and then a restart to clear. But again not worth the hassle to fix yet as its probably driver related. Time and updates should hopefully make that go away.
Buildwise, I have no material complaint about Gateway. In fact I think they do a fine job selecting solid feeling pieces/parts. Now if only they did not fail so often...
Reliability aside, the performance/price wise equation is not too bad deal imho for the 685e at least. Beats having to run all over for Dells latest coupon codes/monthly good discount. But I would rather do that than deal with all the repair hassles. My DIY overclocked PC, and 1 each of a Dell/HP notebooks, we have at home have all been more reliable than any of the 3 of 4 current Gateways I have.
I guess we all have our anecdotes. I have a 10 year old Gateway Pentium 180 meghrz desktop at home that still runs fine, never had any problems with it. My next desktop was a Dell which arrived DOA. Dell did have a tech in my house replacing the motherboard the next day. I worked in an IT and data support unit for an agency in the state of California. We ordered and maintained hundreds of computers. We had HPs, Dells, Compacs, and Gateways. Computers of every make had some issue or other eventually. We once ordered several dozen of one brand of desktop (not Gateway). Every one of them, brand new, destroyed every floppy inserted in them.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.
