Specs:
Core Duo 1.66ghz
1 GB DDR2 667mhz Ram
80 GB 7200 RPM Hd
Convertible 14" Screen(/tablet) max res: 1280x1024
x1400 Graphics (64mb bios won't let me change it... sucks; ATI's control center says it has 256 of Hypermemory though, who knows)
The Box:
Sigh, I can't stand the cow colors but whatever.
The Machine:
Its actually pretty solid, and by solid I mean heavy for its size. But honestly, its not that big so the weight gives it a pretty solid and usable feel. If it was light and flimsy i'de be nervous. Its not heavy enough to be bothersome in a backpack or put a huge strain on your arm if your using it as a tablet.
The Screen:
Bright and shiny! Its actually a fairly impressive screen, with better viewing angles than my old asus (and its glossy). Decent res for a 14" too, 1280
Modular Bay:
Its freaking annoying to open. The button has to be pushed with considerable force to remove the dvd/battery. Not too bad though once you've done it a couple times. COOL NOTE: Bay is HOT SWAP-ABLE in both directions. Can go batt->dvd and dvd->batt while windows is on. I can flip from battery to dvd and within 3 seconds throw in a dvd and it'll read it and play just fine.
Battery life:
Looks to be about 2 hours using only the modular 6 cell bay. Will post actual times with 6 cell/12 cell/both (18 cells) soon.
Actual rundown is between 2:30 and 2:45 with minimal usage on the 6 cell.
About (didnt test) 5-6 hours on the 12 cell.
And combined, a solid NINE HOURS with both batteries. Again, this is with minimal tasks like aim and perhaps some light web browsing (Wireless on cuts out i think about 20-30 minutes).
Fans:
Normally they're off, it turns on now and then for maybe 3 minutes then shuts off. However, i HIGHLYrecommend you take advantage of ATI's profile and set the powerplay to "always on" (Meaning powerplay is on, powerplay lowers the clocks) when you want the fans off. When powerplay kicks in the clocks on the card go down about 300mhz (core and memory each). Reducing power conception by a few watts. Now while thats not HUGE (its decent) on battery, it is enough to be the difference between the fan on 75% of the time and 5% of the time. Update The difference between powerplay on and off is about 7 watts. Now, when the whole system only uses 15-16 watts when not doing much, and 20 ish when doing something average in intensity, 7 watts is a heck of alot. All the more reason to manage those profiles well.
Even at full burst though, the fan's arn't loud per say. Its definetly noticable, but if you have somebody talking to you, or music playing or virtually anything going on, its not a nuissance. But if im sitting here studying it is annoying, hence i use the power profiles -- and its not a problem.
Heat:
Unfortunatly, even when idling, the entire keyboard area gets considerably warmer than i'de like. Meh, nothing i can do about it. The fan though is well placed, ish, in the back right. I use my mouse about 4-5 inchs from the right side and the fan never really hits my hand, at all. If i do put my hand near the fan the silly thing really doesn't push a heck of alot of air, so its not a problem regardless.
Keyboard:
The keyboard is actually VERY nice, much better than i expected. The keys are firm(moreso than other laptops i've used... however i note this is as a good thing, to me at least) to the press and not really plasticy, they have a good feel to 'em.
Pen:
The pen is kinda less than great. I calibrate it rather frequently as it never really is just quiet right. Perhaps I need to clean the screen better (I heard the MFR ships it with something on it that has to be cleaned off, i dunno, can't tell). Update: After a few days of use the pen feels better, still not 100% perfect, but good. Can't tell if i got used to it, or it actually got better. Hmph
Gaming:
I've had time to D/L and run 3dM05 on _STOCK_ drivers
And... *drumroll* scores for the FIRST GAMING CONVERTIBLE TABLET:
3dm05: 1869 3d marks. This is on a 1.66ghz Core Duo, default (free-version) settings (Stock drivers)
Played tomb raider (the new one). @ 640x480 i could have AA and HDR on. At 800x600 i could pick one or the other. This is on pretty minimum settings. But if you turn both off, i can turn up some other details. So, for what i want, thats just fine with me.
Another update: I played XMEN and Raven Shield on max settings today, with at least 40 fps. X1400: Superb :-).
Tablet Mode: (after using it for a few days)
I use it mostly in laptop mode, but i have done some tablet stuff. If your planning on carrying it around all day on your arm in tablet mode i highly advise you look elsewhere. Now while its not heavy, its certainly not light enough to carry around for hours.
Turning the screen is fine, pressing the button to rotate the screen isnt as much a hassle as i thought it'd be.
Writing on it is fine, i mentioned in my initial review that it needs to be calibrated frequently -- less so now than at first, i dunno, perhaps the layer of new-ness is wearing off, but the pen seems better now than it did at first.
I dont mind at all though carrying it for a bit in tablet mode. Im about 5'11 175 lbs, medium sized person. Not really much of a burden for short bits.
I plan to use it at college, so i can use ink annotations in MSWord to do math and stuff, its 100% perfect. Type all i want, hit the pen button, scribble some square roots and calculus, then continue typing.
You can write on the screen in any position, which is also nice, but im sure thats not unique.
Gateway?
Going into this purchase I was abit dismayed I couldn't get something like this from asus. I'm very, VERY partial to them. Ultimate in high quality parts, never had a problem with 'em. So i kinda just bit the bullet and went gateway. They're rep isnt the best for quality but honestly, besides a few minor quirks/design problems, im not unhappy. Its no asus, but it is far, far from junk, heck, i might even like it :-).
Overall
I think i read this on cnet or something "Its a great laptop, x1400 and 1280x1024 14" screen. But a mediocre tablet". But heck, for most people (or at least me) thats perfect. Im extremly satisfied with the laptop thus far.
10 Months Laterl
So, its been a lot of months of using this Machine -- and i can say a lot more in retrospect. I'm glad I got this machine for what it does -- however were I to make the choice again I would have gotten the Asus R1F. The build quality of this machine has gone from "It feels solid" to "That didn't last long". The plastic kind of pops off in places, The screen REALLY feels like its going to just fall off the hinge anyday now. It wobbles a good 15-20 Degrees. So if you want it to face you within say 5 degrees it'll take a handful of fiddling. The LED's sometimes don't go on (and yes, i know there is an on off button -- its alwys set to on). Battery Life is still fantastic, and it still plays games. No serious part failures yet though -- which is good. However, I do sourly miss the little things - S-Video out, Built in Webcam, IR Port, Bluetooth etc. Also -- the pens are crap. I've already returned three of them, thankfully though Gateway replaces them for free.
Pics!
Core Duo 1.66ghz
1 GB DDR2 667mhz Ram
80 GB 7200 RPM Hd
Convertible 14" Screen(/tablet) max res: 1280x1024
x1400 Graphics (64mb bios won't let me change it... sucks; ATI's control center says it has 256 of Hypermemory though, who knows)
The Box:
Sigh, I can't stand the cow colors but whatever.
The Machine:
Its actually pretty solid, and by solid I mean heavy for its size. But honestly, its not that big so the weight gives it a pretty solid and usable feel. If it was light and flimsy i'de be nervous. Its not heavy enough to be bothersome in a backpack or put a huge strain on your arm if your using it as a tablet.
The Screen:
Bright and shiny! Its actually a fairly impressive screen, with better viewing angles than my old asus (and its glossy). Decent res for a 14" too, 1280
Modular Bay:
Its freaking annoying to open. The button has to be pushed with considerable force to remove the dvd/battery. Not too bad though once you've done it a couple times. COOL NOTE: Bay is HOT SWAP-ABLE in both directions. Can go batt->dvd and dvd->batt while windows is on. I can flip from battery to dvd and within 3 seconds throw in a dvd and it'll read it and play just fine.
Battery life:
Looks to be about 2 hours using only the modular 6 cell bay. Will post actual times with 6 cell/12 cell/both (18 cells) soon.
Actual rundown is between 2:30 and 2:45 with minimal usage on the 6 cell.
About (didnt test) 5-6 hours on the 12 cell.
And combined, a solid NINE HOURS with both batteries. Again, this is with minimal tasks like aim and perhaps some light web browsing (Wireless on cuts out i think about 20-30 minutes).
Fans:
Normally they're off, it turns on now and then for maybe 3 minutes then shuts off. However, i HIGHLYrecommend you take advantage of ATI's profile and set the powerplay to "always on" (Meaning powerplay is on, powerplay lowers the clocks) when you want the fans off. When powerplay kicks in the clocks on the card go down about 300mhz (core and memory each). Reducing power conception by a few watts. Now while thats not HUGE (its decent) on battery, it is enough to be the difference between the fan on 75% of the time and 5% of the time. Update The difference between powerplay on and off is about 7 watts. Now, when the whole system only uses 15-16 watts when not doing much, and 20 ish when doing something average in intensity, 7 watts is a heck of alot. All the more reason to manage those profiles well.
Even at full burst though, the fan's arn't loud per say. Its definetly noticable, but if you have somebody talking to you, or music playing or virtually anything going on, its not a nuissance. But if im sitting here studying it is annoying, hence i use the power profiles -- and its not a problem.
Heat:
Unfortunatly, even when idling, the entire keyboard area gets considerably warmer than i'de like. Meh, nothing i can do about it. The fan though is well placed, ish, in the back right. I use my mouse about 4-5 inchs from the right side and the fan never really hits my hand, at all. If i do put my hand near the fan the silly thing really doesn't push a heck of alot of air, so its not a problem regardless.
Keyboard:
The keyboard is actually VERY nice, much better than i expected. The keys are firm(moreso than other laptops i've used... however i note this is as a good thing, to me at least) to the press and not really plasticy, they have a good feel to 'em.
Pen:
The pen is kinda less than great. I calibrate it rather frequently as it never really is just quiet right. Perhaps I need to clean the screen better (I heard the MFR ships it with something on it that has to be cleaned off, i dunno, can't tell). Update: After a few days of use the pen feels better, still not 100% perfect, but good. Can't tell if i got used to it, or it actually got better. Hmph
Gaming:
I've had time to D/L and run 3dM05 on _STOCK_ drivers
And... *drumroll* scores for the FIRST GAMING CONVERTIBLE TABLET:
3dm05: 1869 3d marks. This is on a 1.66ghz Core Duo, default (free-version) settings (Stock drivers)
Played tomb raider (the new one). @ 640x480 i could have AA and HDR on. At 800x600 i could pick one or the other. This is on pretty minimum settings. But if you turn both off, i can turn up some other details. So, for what i want, thats just fine with me.
Another update: I played XMEN and Raven Shield on max settings today, with at least 40 fps. X1400: Superb :-).
Tablet Mode: (after using it for a few days)
I use it mostly in laptop mode, but i have done some tablet stuff. If your planning on carrying it around all day on your arm in tablet mode i highly advise you look elsewhere. Now while its not heavy, its certainly not light enough to carry around for hours.
Turning the screen is fine, pressing the button to rotate the screen isnt as much a hassle as i thought it'd be.
Writing on it is fine, i mentioned in my initial review that it needs to be calibrated frequently -- less so now than at first, i dunno, perhaps the layer of new-ness is wearing off, but the pen seems better now than it did at first.
I dont mind at all though carrying it for a bit in tablet mode. Im about 5'11 175 lbs, medium sized person. Not really much of a burden for short bits.
I plan to use it at college, so i can use ink annotations in MSWord to do math and stuff, its 100% perfect. Type all i want, hit the pen button, scribble some square roots and calculus, then continue typing.
You can write on the screen in any position, which is also nice, but im sure thats not unique.
Gateway?
Going into this purchase I was abit dismayed I couldn't get something like this from asus. I'm very, VERY partial to them. Ultimate in high quality parts, never had a problem with 'em. So i kinda just bit the bullet and went gateway. They're rep isnt the best for quality but honestly, besides a few minor quirks/design problems, im not unhappy. Its no asus, but it is far, far from junk, heck, i might even like it :-).
Overall
I think i read this on cnet or something "Its a great laptop, x1400 and 1280x1024 14" screen. But a mediocre tablet". But heck, for most people (or at least me) thats perfect. Im extremly satisfied with the laptop thus far.
10 Months Laterl
So, its been a lot of months of using this Machine -- and i can say a lot more in retrospect. I'm glad I got this machine for what it does -- however were I to make the choice again I would have gotten the Asus R1F. The build quality of this machine has gone from "It feels solid" to "That didn't last long". The plastic kind of pops off in places, The screen REALLY feels like its going to just fall off the hinge anyday now. It wobbles a good 15-20 Degrees. So if you want it to face you within say 5 degrees it'll take a handful of fiddling. The LED's sometimes don't go on (and yes, i know there is an on off button -- its alwys set to on). Battery Life is still fantastic, and it still plays games. No serious part failures yet though -- which is good. However, I do sourly miss the little things - S-Video out, Built in Webcam, IR Port, Bluetooth etc. Also -- the pens are crap. I've already returned three of them, thankfully though Gateway replaces them for free.
Pics!
