Gateway NV59C09U i3 4GB 320GB BluRay Notebook PC

Gateway NV59C09U After churning out umpteen NV notebooks with updated Laptop but the same design, Gateway has re-thought this line of laptops. 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. Gone, too, are the touch-sensitive multimedia controls above the keyboard. Instead, there’s a thin chrome strip above the keys that houses LED lights 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 Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube (more on that later).

The chiclet-style keyboard—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. 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 HP G62t and is lighter than the minimalist 5.6-pound 15-inch MacBook Pro and older 5.6-pound Gateway NV.
The NV59C09u’s list of Laptop echo what we’ve seen on lots of budget notebooks lately: a 2.13-GHz Intel Core i3-330M processor, 4GB of RAM, and a 5,400-rpm, 320GB hard drive. In general, it performs better than the average mainstream laptop. Its score of 4,846 in PCMark Vantage, for instance, falls almost 700 points above the average.
Then again, the less expensive HP G62t ($599) comes with the same processor and amount of RAM, as well as a larger, faster 7,200-rpm hard drive, and it notched a much better score of 5,306. The Dell Studio 15, which packs a more powerful Core i5 processor and a 7,200-rpm hard drive, also steamrolls the NV with a score of 5,735. The Samsung R580, which has a 2.26-GHz Core i5-430 CPU and 4GB of RAM, bested them all with a score of 5,804.

The NV converted a 114MB MPEg-4 file to AVI in 1 minute and 4 seconds using Oxelon Media Converter, which is faster than average. The machine was powerful enough that we didn’t notice Norton Internet Security running in the background as we watched a Hulu clip at full screen.

Gateway NV59C09U Specifications

CPU
2.13-GHz Intel Core i3-330M
Operating System MS Windows 7 Home Premium (64-bit)
RAM
4GB
RAM Upgradable to
8GB
Hard Drive Size
320GB
Hard Drive Speed
5,400rpm
Hard Drive Type
SATA Hard Drive
Display Size
15.6
Native Resolution
1366x768
Optical Drive
BD-ROM/DVDRW DL
Optical Drive Speed
4X
Graphics Card
Intel GMA 500
Video Memory
Shared
Wi-Fi
802.11b/g/n
Bluetooth
Mobile Broadband
Ports (excluding USB)
Ethernet; HDMI; Headphone; Microphone; VGA
USB Ports
3
Card Slots
5-1 card reader
Warranty/Support Two-year limited/24/7 toll-free phone
Size 15 x 10 x 1.3 inches
Weight 5.4 pounds

Gateway NV59C09U i3 4GB 320GB BluRay Notebook PC   Gateway $489.99