Time and again, Gateway’s NV series has made our shortlist of top budget notebooks, but with a few vgp-bps8a. We’ve always enjoyed its balance of performance and battery life and, with the exception of its lone mouse button, have praised its design. The revamped NV59C09u ($799), a 15.6-inch laptop, has a slimmer, lighter build that includes a social networking hotkey and dashboard, along with a Blu-ray player, something most sub-$800 laptops don’t offer. This time around, though, the NV’s performance was less impressive in comparison to other notebooks in the same price range.vgp-bps8
Design
After churning out umpteen NV notebooks with updated specs but the same design, vgp-bpl8 has re-thought this line of laptops. Following a trend set by HP and Dell, Gateway ditched its super glossy lid and instead went with a subtly patterned one whose finish has a bit too much kick to be called matte, but is still subdued enough that it’s not reflective. The result is an attractive, more understated surface that masks fingerprints. The lid and palm rest’s silver color and fine pattern of wavy lines should also prove gender-neutral. vgp-bps9,vgp-bps9/s,vgp-bps9/b,vgp-bps9a/b
Gone, too, are the touch-sensitive multimedia controls above the keyboard. Instead, there’s a thin chrome strip above the keys that houses Dell battery for Wi-Fi and battery status, as well as a discreet power button. The multimedia keys are now baked into the top row of the keyboard, as they are on Macs. In addition to multimedia keys, there’s a dedicated button for launching Social Network Service—Gateway’s own dashboard for vgp-bps13, Flickr, and YouTube (more on that later).
The chiclet-style vgp-bps13a/b—basically, Acer’s FineTip design—is new to the NV series, too, although Gateway still fits in a full number pad, something many other 15-inch systems lack. As a result, though, the touchpad is placed left of center, so that it falls in the center of the keyboard, but not the palm rest itself. The NV59C09u feels surprisingly compact at 15 x 10 x 1.3 inches and 5.4 pounds; it weighs the same as the Editors’ Choice–winning notebookand is lighter than the minimalist 5.6-poundToshiba Notebook Battery and older 5.6-pound Sony battery
Keyboard and Touchpad
Despite having an island-style layout and a full number pad, the PA3399U-1BAS Battery is still spacious enough that the Enter, Backspace, and right Shift keys are all full-sized (the left Shift key is another story). Although the keys weren’t terribly bouncy, we were still able to type at a fast clip, notching an all-time high score of 100 words per minute on the Ten Thumbs Typing Test.
The large, gesture-enabled touchpad responded smoothly to pinching and zooming,PA3399U-2BAS Battery as well as to one-fingered scrolling. With a smooth, low-friction surface and an easy-to-press touch button to match, this redesigned NV is an improvement over its predecessors.
Ambient Heat
Even after playing a Hulu clip at full screen for 15 minutes, the PA3534U-1BRS Battery stayed cool, measuring 90 degrees Fahrenheit on the touchpad and 92 degrees at the center of the keyboard and on its bottom side. True, the average notebook this size also measures 90 degrees around the touchpad, but it also reaches temperatures of 93 degrees on the keyboard and 98 degrees on the bottom, the side that gets the least ventilation.PA3435U-1BRS Battery
Display and Sound
When we watched the first Iron Man movie on Blu-ray, the picture looked bright and sharp on the 15.6-inch screen, as PA3450U-1BRS Battery did a lower-resolution SNL Digital Short on Hulu. Still, the benefits of having a Blu-ray drive are mostly lost on a 1366 x 768 display. A higher resolution would have been nice, although we suppose that’s a reasonable trade-off to make in a sub-$800 machine.
The speaker strip, barely noticeable above the keyboard, PA3479U-1BRS Batteryproduced slightly metallic bass notes when we played “Telephone” by Lady Gaga and “Paint it Black” by the Rolling Stones.
Ports and Webcam
The PA3451U-1BRS Battery includes every port most users could need, including three USB 2.0 ports; HDMI and VGA output for high-def and standard-def monitors and TVs, respectively; an Ethernet jack; and headphone and mic ports. Rounding out the list is a 5-in-1 memory card reader. The Blu-ray player takes up most of the right side, save for two of the USB ports; the rest of the ports are on the left side (the memory card slot is tucked into the front edge).
The 1.3-megapixel webcam has a maximum resolution of 1280 x 1024. While our photos showed good colors and brightness,PA3478U-1BRS Battery could only make out a fair amount of detail, even at the highest resolution. Our video, meanwhile, showed motion blur even at VGA resolution, while the laptop’s microphone produced echoing sound, too. In general, the Gateway Video laptop Camera software is too minimalist; there aren’t even thumbnails of photos and videos you’ve just shot.
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