For about 2 months, I research and compare the specs of HP, Toshiba, & Sony in relation to my budget. I patiently waited for Windows 7 too. I also factored-in the 3 years economic usefulness of any PC (laptop included) before it becomes technologically obsolete. For above criteria, I could not justify buying any of above brand at their respective prices.
I finally decided that I will get the Gateway EC series for portability and full keyboard (10 inch screen with descent specs). Our tech guy (at work) suggested that everything is impressive except the gigahertz speed. I look-up the speed of my PC at work and at home and both of it has the speed twice of the EC series yet I still complain that both machines are slow. So I scratch-off the EC series and went to NV54 which is the 15 inch screen with full keyboard. I'm glad that I switched to NV54 because I later realized how important the optical drive to any PC (to accomodate multiple needs) which is absent to the EC series.
I used the NV54 for about 4 days now and it is lightning fast. At its Amazon price, it is an excellent choice with comparable specs , generous ports, and fewer junk wares. I was so confident in my buying decision that I bought in advance its accessories like its external music sound system, Student/Home 07 Office, Norton, and lately the Outlooks without BCM. I copied my music and files using Ativa mem stick. My Excel and Word files are all working fine. I played the music without external sound system (no time to assemble yet) and it sounded better than my regular boom box. I am a music lover and I know the quality of sound reproduction this little Gateway NV54 can do. The color of my unit is midnight blue and I got it at CompUSA for the same price as Amazon is selling. I am an Amazon customer and I was force to buy outside because it did not carry this product earlier. My buying experience at CompUSA was not excellent. So I got my machine there and 07 Office and the rest I get it back from Amazon.
I installed my XP accounting software and it is working faster an efficient. The speed is quick that I find it hard to match. I also installed my XP Chess game and the 3D graphic is very impressive. The boot-up time is quick as well as the shutdown. The web cam can do video and snapshot.
The down side, the operating manual is in Gateway web site and appears so brief. It assumes that the user is technically advance and the discussion is very minimal. The instruction manual that came with it was not updated. It said that you have turn-on its power for example (duh) but it does not mention where is the power button. It took me 30 minutes to finally found it - it is on the right side of the hinges between the unit and the screen (it's recess and somewhat hidden). The unit arrived without the system CD and the first order is to make a backup disk and boot-up disk in case of future failure. But it did not warn you that you need to have 4 DVD blank disks first (duh) before you can execute it. It's common sense but such things are missed and leaves an impression that they were in a hurry to bring their product to the market place.
During this lean times, the end result is about price and performance. You can't go wrong with NV54 that perfectly fits your budget and I highly recommend it.
Update - Nov 10, Nov 23, Dec 10, and Dec 22
This machine is so fast that I decided to buy Logitech (plug & forget) Nano mouse. It is a perfect match.
The Internet connection is lightning fast too. I have no negative to say about its Internet connection ability. It is super fast and it taps/connect to any available signals provided you know the security code in the neighborhood. For almost a month now, I connected it to Cox (cable) internet and its speed maybe went up to at least 5 times more faster. I used both wireless and wired internet and I am very happy with its results.
Music Sound - with external speaker sound system that I paid for $60 (in Office Depot), the music reproduction is rich, robust, & distortion free. In other PC brands, the audio jacks are color coded to match the speaker system but not for Gateway NV54. The speaker male jack is color green and it was a trial and error to which jack I should connect to Gateway NV54. No big deal because there are only 2 jacks in Gateway. I still think that Apple's I-Tune is still superior than the Windows. I also discovered that my Blackberry cell phone stereo speaker jack fits to NV54 and it affords me to listen to my music privately while working.
DVD Movie Playback - The playback is intuitive and excellent. You can increase decrease the volumes in many ways. My complaint is that the Optical Drive (DVD) "touch/push" section has no color. (The color of sidewalls are all black). You really have to struggle to find the correct section to touch/push it so that the drive will open/close it for you. I overcome it by remembering that the correct alignment of the push section is aligned with the number 3 key pad.
Battery Life - The battery power seems to hold it longer. I purposely use a battery power when I wrote this update, do some chores, and post it to Amazon. So far I used 3 hours and 10 minutes already and the battery meter says that I still have 1 hour and 37 minutes left remaining or 33% battery power left. I opted to use the Power Saver - conserve 50% battery power. The screen is a little bit dark but readable enough. The touch mouse is slower and not as responsive but I used instead the up/down, left/right arrows to move around faster and Control plus Home/End keys to go to start/end of the line. It works.
Keyboards/Screen - Generous keypads size and very responsive. The resting space of your palm/hand is sturdy. The Keys are not fancy but dependable. In other brands, all the letter keys are bigger but the numeric keys are smaller - maybe the numeric keys are 1/3 smaller. You don't have that issue in Gateway NV54. To the contrary, I considered it a little bit bigger and very accomodating to speed typing and for fast number crunching. Its screen is clear and wider which means more productivity.
Web Cam - I did not had the chance to use it reasonably long in the chat room. After a couple of updates from Gateway site, the quality of the pictures improved so much. The clarity of my web cam picture is very pronounced using Yahoo chat. The receiving party told me that my chat picture was very clear on her end but I did not had the chance to receive incoming chat picture yet. I also downloaded the pictures from my Kodak to NV54 and it was lightning fast too. It automatically knows where to save it.
Accessories - there's handful of accessories that came with it and the 2 most that I like are calculator and sticky yellow note (both virtual). The accountants will love it because it has a trailing numbers like a calculator tape. Upon turning-on the NV54, the open note (reminder) will super impose or minimize if needed. For busy peope, the sticky note is very helpful. It has games too. It comes with approx 7 feet combined power cord.
Printer Drivers - I went to the websites of Samsung and HP then downloaded the drivers for Windows 7. It works great.
If you decide to buy Gateway PC, don't waste your time (physically) visiting multiple PC stores. Gateway markets its specific model to a specific store only. In short, exclusive rights. The model that Amazon is selling for example, can't be found somewhere else.
Travelling Companion - I've been travelling and it provided me a reliable PC to do my accounting works in the road. I can browse current events, watching movies/DVD privately by using my blackberry cell phone wire. So far, I did not downloaded anything (free apps) from the Internet other than the essentials. After more than a month of usage, it did not fail yet. I felt that I already recoup my investment to this machine.
Summary: I bought this machine for my computing needs, Internet,& Small Home Office business duties. The chat, entertainment, and portability are extra big bonus. I can honestly say and conclude that my decision to buy Gateway NV54 was excellent.
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