Customer Reviews

Gateway EC1457u 11.6-Inch HD Display Red Laptop - Up to 7 Hours of Battery Life

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I did a lot of research, from price to cpu to features. First off, if you're getting this laptop, at least part of your reason has to be for size/portability. With that said, your choices are netbooks or laptops up to 13 inches.

I ruled out netbooks because the screens where just a little too small and mostly because the CPU and graphics were just not worth it. When I looked at the netbooks on display at the stores, they were horrible. From the outside the netbooks look cool and sleek, but the second you actually test drive one, you will realize they are really not for anything but getting your emails...and maybe a little Internet surfing.

It was hard for me to rule out the 13" laptops. They were obviously more powerful and had good graphics. In the end I had to weigh whether I wanted a more powerful laptop or a more portable one, with much, much better battery life. I made this decision because I don't play any real graphically intensive games....which is really the only thing you can't do with this laptop.

Most of the computers in this category are using the low voltage (Intel SU series) cpu, GMA 4500 graphics chip and 2-4 GB memory, so really your deciding based on look and feel. Here are some things to consider when thinking about upgrading and whether it's worth it.

cpu - su4100 versus su7100 : the only difference is really something called virtualization, which allows you to dual boot with Vista and such. probably something you're not doing. $50 - $100 price difference.

2GB versus 4GB - this model comes with 4, so no upgrading here. You need 3 or more to take advantage of Windows 7 64 bit.

Gateway has a new model with a disk drive - adds about a 1/2 lb and cost ~$60 more. This would be a major consideration...but to be honest, I haven't touched my disk drive on my old laptop for months. I think this is less and less needed, especially with streaming video.

Gateway versus Acer (same company). No difference except style. One thing I notice that was a deal breaker for me was that the Acer version doesn't close completely shut...there's a small gap and you can see the keys inside. Dumb design in my opinion.

No bluetooth on this model or the equivalent Acer (UPDATE: Acer came out with a bluetooth model for $90 more)

Now my first impressions. I love the look and feel of this laptop. It looks sleek and the keyboard has a nice feel (full size is nice). In a perfect world, the hinges and mouse buttons would be brushed chrome/titanium rather than a shinier chrome...and a more matted case rather than the shiny black. one other thing I need to note that made me choose this item...the mouse buttons on this laptop are flush to the edge, which makes it easier for someone with bigger hands to click.

As for performance, there's really nothing to say...it does everything I need it to do. I've surfed the web, played some online poker, watched some HD youtube, synced up by iTunes and just about everything else. Unless you're playing graphic intense games, this laptop will do just fine (can't say that about netbooks). P.S. - changed the default test size from 100% to 125% and this made the screen size an absolute non-issue.

I can't really think of any cons, so pros and cons won't really help. I'm giving it 5 stars, though not perfect, it's close.

Bottom line: I think this is the perfect laptop for anyone that likes to take their laptop with them when they travel. Whether the travel is back and forth from school or work, vacation, or long weekends away.

UPDATE: Still lovin the laptop. Just wanted to add that the multi-gesture trackpad works really well. You'll have to adjust it to your preference, but once you have it locked in to your likes, it's nice. Especially with the "pinch" in and out to zoom in and out, like the iPhone/iTouch. It's handy when you need to increase the size of something because of the smaller screen. Also tried the HDMI on my 42" plasma and played HD youtube, looked great...started surfing the web via the 42" TV, it was quite a treat :)

This took some hunting down on Amazon as it doesn't show up when you do any of the filters, ultra-portable: thin and light, that kind of thing.

The base spec I wanted was 11-12 inch screen, dual core processor, and under 3.5 pounds. It came down to this, the Dell and the Toshiba. The Dell seemed to have a problem with the 6 cell battery where it sticks out at the base. The Tosh only came with 2gB memory.

This has a 500gb HD and 4gb memory, basically a full spec compared to whatever else is around. The 6 cell battery fits the profile of the computer perfectly. The keyboard is nice. The screen is nice. The mousepad is good once you get the hang of it, it's the same as every other laptop this size. Best of all it weighs in at just over three pounds. I just spent the last week lugging it around London and hardly knew it was in my bag. Delighted with my purchase. Highly recommended.

Using this laptop steadily for the last few days and the battery life has proven to be excellent. I'm consistently getting 6-7 hours of life without needing to resort to tricks like dimming the screen or avoiding certain types of applications (video, etc)

Other pros:
.Love the 500GB Hard Drive-- don't see this filling up anytime soon, even after adding lots of media files, documents and installing applications

.Processor is adequate for everything I've done so far - web surfing, videos, productivity apps- also the 4GB ram is a plus

.Incredibly light - I'm used to lugging around 15-in laptops for work, I can barely tell that this in my bag

.Screen resolution is also very good; easy to read documents and websites

.Didn't come preloaded with too much bloatware

The only con I have so far is the touch pad. The multi-touch control is pretty useless and I find myself inadvertently zooming-in/out of open windows. I'm mostly using an external USB mouse so this is not a major issue.

I would highly recommend this system to anyone who wants the portability of a netbook but requires a good deal more disk space and memory.

This laptop fills a very specific niche: It is compact enough to have the effortless portability of a netbook, but has the processing speed, RAM and hard-disk space, and quality of assembly to mark a significant step up from the ubiquitous $300-$400 (Atom processor/Windows Starter/1 GB RAM) netbooks. I have owned a couple of those, and tried out several more at retail stores - they are all glacially slow, prone to freeze, essentially incapable of running any memory-intensive tasks, and feel cheap. I should mention perhaps that I am a long-time Mac user; The Gateway does not replace my Macbook, but Windows 7 is definitely the best-functioning iteration of that OS I have used, and Apple does not make a computer with this combination of price point, capacity and speed. I travel a lot, and this unit is very small and light. It starts up quickly, has excellent battery life, good enough screen and keyboard for my eyes and fingers. I had considered another one of the ASUS netbooks, but after upgrading the RAM, installing a more functional OS (Windows Starter is pretty woeful), you would be approaching the price of this Gateway, and still have a machine that is significantly inferior. If you are shopping for a netbook and can make the price jump to the EC1457 without wincing too hard, you won't be disappointed.

Although it is not perfect, for the $600 price tag, the Gateway EC1456u is a nice step up from a netbook while still keeping the weight and size in ultraportable land.

Pros: the 500gb hard drive and fast processor mean fewer compromises. I have 80gb of files I need access to in my Dropbox and it was nice to watch that all transfer without having to worry about filling up the hard drive.

This machine is also relatively fast, given the weight and relative lack of excess heat even when going full bore. I read on some sites that running games on the integrated Intel graphics was iffy at best. I installed my addiction of the moment - World of Warcraft - and was able to get 15-20 FPS in populated areas like Dalaran and 20-30 FPS in non-city areas at full-screen resolution. Ramped the graphic back a bit to 1024x768 and I was hitting 40 FPS. Tried a bunch of lower end games off Steam like Torchlight, and they ran fine too at more-than-acceptable frame rates.

Cons:

- the keyboard is not nearly as good as other reviews would lead you to believe. I can touch type at 150wpm and the keyboard took some getting used to. Yes it is full-size, but the keys are completely flat which makes it hard to tell at times which key you're pressing -- slightly smaller keys or even a chiclet style keyboard as on some of the Toshiba netbooks would have worked much better.

- as in most small notebooks/netbooks, the trackpad and buttons are crap. I just turn them off and use a wireless mouse instead, though, so I assumed that going in.

- I really couldn't care less about this, but if you do be warned -- the case is fingerprint smudge city.

Overall:

I am extremely happy with this laptop. It really fits the bill as an ultraportable laptop that is a lot more powerful and fully equipped than a netbook, but still in the 3 pound take-it-anywhere weight range.

Researched many laptops. Wanted portable and light but a netbook has such a low-tech set-up and upgrade will bring price to a full-sized laptop. This is a bit bigger than netbook with advantage of a full-sized keyboard. Extremely light and portable. Best of all, 500g hd, 4g memory, and 8 hr battery. Can't beat it.

This laptop is an excellent value, fast, versatile and light. It has a host of features: both vga and hdmi outputs, 3 usb ports, a dvd drive, a large hard drive and plenty of ram and power and speed in the processor, all in a light 3.5 pound package. This baby has me very comfortably waiting out the "tablet/Ipad" wars. Highly recommend.

This laptop rocks, 500gb hd is awesome but it is small. I'm not the world's greatest typist so I have trouble on this little thing. I wish I would have bought a 14.5 inch laptop instead.

This computer cannot see my wireless network unless it is within 20 feet of the router. My older laptop and two desktops see it fine. I am not satisfied that I will be able to get within 20 feet of a network setup in France. Going to France was the reason I purchased this smaller notebook, but I'll go with my old laptop or purchase a netbook.