This was a gift to me for my old laptop replacement Gateway 2004. What luck! For less than $ 600 you get a super fast processor, tons of storage, and Windows 7 (which, BTW, is leaps better than Vista). I like the feel of the keyboard. It is not as narrow as a conventional laptop keyboard, so that your hands hurt after typing a document. There is also a set of keys on the right side of the letter keys, which I like. This computer is equipped with a wireless card and connects to the Internet easily. I had almost nothing to do at all to connect to my wireless home network. Yay! The screen is bright and sharp. And all weighs about 5 or 6 pounds … So much easier on my shoulders by hanging around an airport!

The few drawbacks I found with this laptop mouse pad. I had a little play with the mouse pad features to be as sensitive as I want. It took a little dig at the pointers “Mouse & Found” folder in the Control Panel, but I think that Windows 7 is a problem and not a question of the bridge. The other thing is the mouse buttons. Sometimes the left click button is too sensitive, so you end up selecting / deselecting an item in all you do is just to select. This is not a big problem … Just a little annoying. But I think the pad multi-gesture to be cool. It is very easy to scroll through long documents or Web pages.

The con is that the other Office suite comes with (and I think in all domains with Windows-based PCs today): It comes with Microsoft Works rather than Microsoft Office. MS Works kind of stinks … This is a watered down version of Office, I do not like because they have different characteristics than the actual programs such as Word and Excel. You can buy MS Office, after a trial lasting 60 days, but I would not have to bother with downloading. I just prefer to pay extra at the front and they already have.

Overall I found all the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. I love this computer and I am very happy with it. Gateway computers have served me well over the last 15 years and I would not buy anything else.


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