Thoughts on my new MT6828

I bought my Gateway MT6828 last Sunday on the 20th from BestBuy at the clearance price of $549. My overall experience at BestBuy was pretty disappointing, but it may be isolated to that one location. Here are the specs on the notebook:

C2D T5200
15.4" WXGA TFT-LCD widescreen w/Ultrabright 1280 x 800 resolution
100GB Serial ATA hard drive (5400 rpm)
Intel GMA
Intel Pro/Wireless 3945ABG
1GB PC4200 DDR2 (up to 2gb)
Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive w/double-layer
Vista Home Premium
~6lbs. I wasn't able to test the battery yet. Online it states ~3 hrs. To lengthen the battery time, there's the option of buying a battery attachment item from Best Buy for $150, but it adds an extra 1-1.5 lbs.

My reasoning on buying it: I wanted a portable notebook for college that I could use for basic word processing, internet, and engineering courses. My parents were offering to buy it as a graduation present so I didn't want it to be over $1200. I was looking for best value in my purchase. Initially I was browsing a local BestBuy store to see an advertised Toshiba laptop when I saw the MT6828 on clearance. Then I decided to purchase it on the spot because it was a very good price for the specs.

Other laptops I looked at: Before I found the MT6828, I was considering an HP dv2500t, dv2000t, Lenovo t60 during their Memorial Day sale, and an Asus f3j from Newegg. My school offered a discount on Dell computers so I tried out different configurations with the student discount versus the current deal of $400 off the Inspiron 1405 and 1505. The student discount price on the same configuration ended up being a higher price than the current advertised sale. HP also offered a student discount, better than Dell's at the time. Ultimately, I think I would have gone with an HP laptop if I hadn't found the MT6828 because of the overall good reviews of the product line, customer service, and sale prices.

My buying experience: Other items I purchased at BestBuy are the HP 3-in-one C3180 printer ($50 after a $50 discount), a wired router from Linksys ($50), and an LG 19'' widescreen lcd moniter ($219). After the moment of purchasing this, my brother was falsely accused of shoplifting and so my family was detained at BestBuy for an hour. That experience did not endear my family to that store and that chain.

The laptop had to be shuttled in from a nearby BestBuy 30 minutes away from my house. My sales rep had told me BestBuy would call on Thursday when it would be available for pickup. Thursday passed by without a call, so I tried reaching them on Friday to see the status of my order. It took me four calls to different extensions on their automated call layout at different times in the day to reach a person who worked there. I found out it was in-transit and would be available for store pickup on Saturday. I thought, no big deal for me, just that it was annoying how they didn't call on Thursday as promised.

I finally was able to pickup my laptop on Saturday, but they did not call me once again. I got worried when it was a few hours until closing time and I had received no call from them, so I called them up and got put on hold for 25 minutes. From this overall experience I came to the conclusion that the customer service at BestBuy is very disappointing. Next time when I have an expensive purchase, like I did this time with over $900 spent, I will avoid that store because the bad customer service doesn't make it worthwhile.

5/29/07 Update:
-The laptop heats up to very hot temperatures until the fan finally begins to whir.
-Based on the battery indicator (which tells the percentage and time of the battery life remaining), on medium brightness and power saving mode the battery life is ~3.5 hrs. On the same power plan but with the lowest brightness setting, the battery indicator shows ~4.25 hrs.

I will later edit this post to talk about the build quality, performance, and other things that come up. I'll post some pictures this week.