Customer Reviews

Gateway NV5425U 15.6-Inch Black Laptop - Up to 3.5 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Home Premium)

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

 

 

For about 2 months, I research and compare the specs of HP, Toshiba, & Sony in relation to my budget. I patiently waited for Windows 7 too. I also factored-in the 3 years economic usefulness of any PC (laptop included) before it becomes technologically obsolete. For above criteria, I could not justify buying any of above brand at their respective prices.

I finally decided that I will get the Gateway EC series for portability and full keyboard (10 inch screen with descent specs). Our tech guy (at work) suggested that everything is impressive except the gigahertz speed. I look-up the speed of my PC at work and at home and both of it has the speed twice of the EC series yet I still complain that both machines are slow. So I scratch-off the EC series and went to NV54 which is the 15 inch screen with full keyboard. I'm glad that I switched to NV54 because I later realized how important the optical drive to any PC (to accomodate multiple needs) which is absent to the EC series.

I used the NV54 for about 4 days now and it is lightning fast. At its Amazon price, it is an excellent choice with comparable specs , generous ports, and fewer junk wares. I was so confident in my buying decision that I bought in advance its accessories like its external music sound system, Student/Home 07 Office, Norton, and lately the Outlooks without BCM. I copied my music and files using Ativa mem stick. My Excel and Word files are all working fine. I played the music without external sound system (no time to assemble yet) and it sounded better than my regular boom box. I am a music lover and I know the quality of sound reproduction this little Gateway NV54 can do. The color of my unit is midnight blue and I got it at CompUSA for the same price as Amazon is selling. I am an Amazon customer and I was force to buy outside because it did not carry this product earlier. My buying experience at CompUSA was not excellent. So I got my machine there and 07 Office and the rest I get it back from Amazon.

I installed my XP accounting software and it is working faster an efficient. The speed is quick that I find it hard to match. I also installed my XP Chess game and the 3D graphic is very impressive. The boot-up time is quick as well as the shutdown. The web cam can do video and snapshot.

The down side, the operating manual is in Gateway web site and appears so brief. It assumes that the user is technically advance and the discussion is very minimal. The instruction manual that came with it was not updated. It said that you have turn-on its power for example (duh) but it does not mention where is the power button. It took me 30 minutes to finally found it - it is on the right side of the hinges between the unit and the screen (it's recess and somewhat hidden). The unit arrived without the system CD and the first order is to make a backup disk and boot-up disk in case of future failure. But it did not warn you that you need to have 4 DVD blank disks first (duh) before you can execute it. It's common sense but such things are missed and leaves an impression that they were in a hurry to bring their product to the market place.

During this lean times, the end result is about price and performance. You can't go wrong with NV54 that perfectly fits your budget and I highly recommend it.

Update - Nov 10, Nov 23, Dec 10, Dec 22, and Dec 28
This machine is so fast that I decided to buy Logitech (plug & forget) Nano mouse. It is a perfect match.

The Internet connection is lightning fast too. I have no negative to say about its Internet connection ability. It is super fast and it taps/connect to any available signals provided you know the security code in the neighborhood. For almost a month now, I connected it to Cox (cable) internet and its speed maybe went up to at least 5 times more faster. I used both wireless and wired internet and I am very happy with its results.

Music Sound - with external speaker sound system that I paid for $60 (in Office Depot), the music reproduction is rich, robust, & distortion free. In other PC brands, the audio jacks are color coded to match the speaker system but not for Gateway NV54. The speaker male jack is color green and it was a trial and error to which jack I should connect to Gateway NV54. No big deal because there are only 2 jacks in Gateway. I still think that Apple's I-Tune is superior than the Windows. The I-Pod would sync only with I-Tunes and I was forced to install the I-Tunes. It highly recommended that NV54 is 64 bit machine and I followed it. I really don't know what it means but it's working great. I also discovered that my Blackberry cell phone stereo speaker jack fits to NV54 and it affords me to listen to my music privately while working.

DVD Movie Playback - The playback is intuitive and excellent. You can increase decrease the volumes in many ways. My complaint is that the Optical Drive (DVD) "touch/push" section has no color. (The color of sidewalls are all black). You really have to struggle to find the correct section to touch/push it so that the drive will open/close it for you. I overcome it by remembering that the correct alignment of the push section is aligned with the number 3 key pad.

Battery Life - The battery power seems to hold it longer. I purposely use a battery power when I wrote this update, do some chores, and post it to Amazon. So far I used 3 hours and 10 minutes already and the battery meter says that I still have 1 hour and 37 minutes left remaining or 33% battery power left. I opted to use the Power Saver - conserve 50% battery power. The screen is a little bit dark but readable enough. The touch mouse is slower and not as responsive but I used instead the up/down, left/right arrows to move around faster and Control plus Home/End keys to go to start/end of the line. It works.

Keyboards/Screen - Generous keypads size and very responsive. The resting space of your palm/hand is sturdy. The Keys are not fancy but dependable. In other brands, all the letter keys are bigger but the numeric keys are smaller - maybe the numeric keys are 1/3 smaller. You don't have that issue in Gateway NV54. To the contrary, I considered it a little bit bigger and very accomodating to speed typing and for fast number crunching. Its screen is clear and wider which means more productivity.

Web Cam - I did not had the chance to use it reasonably long in the chat room. After a couple of updates from Gateway site, the quality of the pictures improved so much. The clarity of my web cam picture is very pronounced using Yahoo chat. The receiving party told me that my chat picture was very clear on her end but I did not had the chance to receive incoming chat picture yet. I also downloaded the pictures from my Kodak to NV54 and it was lightning fast too. It automatically knows where to save it.

Accessories - there's handful of accessories that came with it and the 2 most that I like are calculator and sticky yellow note (both virtual). The accountants will love it because it has a trailing numbers like a calculator tape. Upon turning-on the NV54, the open note (reminder) will super impose or minimize if needed. For busy peope, the sticky note is very helpful. It has games too. It comes with approx 7 feet combined power cord.

Printer Drivers - I went to the websites of Samsung and HP then downloaded the drivers for Windows 7. Samsung has 32 bits only and none for 64. It works great.

If you decide to buy Gateway PC, don't waste your time (physically) visiting multiple PC stores. Gateway markets its specific model to a specific store only. In short, exclusive rights. The model that Amazon is selling for example, can't be found somewhere else.

Travelling Companion - I've been travelling and it provided me a reliable PC to do my accounting works in the road. I can browse current events, watching movies/DVD privately by using my blackberry cell phone wire. So far, I did not downloaded anything (free apps) from the Internet other than the essentials. After more than a month of usage, it did not fail yet. I felt that I already recoup my investment to this machine.

Summary: I bought this machine for my computing needs, Internet,& Small Home Office business duties. The chat, entertainment, and portability are extra big bonus. I can honestly say and conclude that my decision to buy Gateway NV54 was excellent.

This Gateway laptop, after much searching, seemed one of the best values for the money out there. I went with the name [I have always been more than satisfied with my Gateway desktops - first one purchased in 1994 - currently using a model purchased in 2005 that still runs like a top!], and was not disappointed. The Gateway NV5425U looks sharp, is solidly built, and has the performance features that I need. All running very smoothly!! With my Amazon Prime shipping, I got a wonderful laptop, and added a wireless mouse & pad, and a carrying bag all for UNDER $600. Not a bad deal. Love the PC!

Just got this laptop and for the price and features you cant really beat it. Full keyboard, nice webcam, feels great and doesn't run hot even after hours of use. A definite buy if you are looking for a laptop

Not a bad machine for less that $550.00. Decent speed and enough memmory to handle the new operating system. I was concerned about Windows 7 since I really hated Vista. Microsoft seems to have one a good job fixing the new system.
Evidently there are two versions of Windows 7, a 32 bit system and a 64 bit system. I believe the system in this is 32 bit because I had to upgrade a printer driver and selected the 32 bit version. the computer seems to boot up quickly and operates smoothly. So far I have not found any significant quirks!

Cameras for Kids: Fun and Inexpensive Projects for the Little Photographer (Volume 1)

Animal Portraits With The Digital Photography Of John Crippen: Learning Photography With Animals

Visual Guide to the Wineries and Hotels of the Central Coast: with the Photography of John Crippen (Volume 1)

This was loaded with that I need in a lightweight package and for a great price at about $550.00. The battery life is respectable, the display is very clean and has excellent resolution with HDMI. This is my third gateway in the last 10 years, and I still can find no reason to move over to a Dell or HP.

My mom bought this for me as a birthday gift in August 2009 (it is now Feb. 2011). Within the first year (while under factory warranty) it had to be returned twice because the power cord would not stay in. During that time I asked Gateway (a nightmare in itself - trying to talk to someone there) if I could purchase an extended warranty because I was worried about it happening again once my year-warranty was up. They said no. Wouldn't you know, this month, the computer just would not turn on. I contacted Gateway and saw on their site that they DID have extended warranties, which I asked about. They replied that those only became available in July of 2010 thus my warranty was up. I pointed out that my warranty was not up until August of 2010 and wanted to know why I was not offered one when I asked in July of 2010 (which they show record of) and they changed the story to them not offering extended warranties until August of 2010. This is all in writing over email.

Long story short, I took the computer elsewhere for repair - the result being that the motherboard is dead. On a year and a half old computer. $463 to repair. ON A YEAR AND A HALF OLD COMPUTER!!! NEVER EVER BUY A GATEWAY!! This is going in the garbage and I'll be purchasing a Dell.

I purchased this product in August of 2009. Until this December it worked beautifully. Soon after, the screen started to wig out and we eventually had to send it in to Gateway. Needless to say, I have had to send it in 3 times now because every time it comes back, it is not fixed. It wont even turn on anymore. Do not buy this computer!!

This is by far the worse Gateway Laptop i have ever purchased, i would not recommend it at all. First style is not stylish in any aspect, the materials that it was made of it's very poor and simple. Second, the gestures added to the mouse pad, wtf? this is very difficult to get used to, i thought i could but still not working for me. i tried to disable them but they will still do the gestures sometimes. Third, if you get errors or any malfunctions with this item, it will be very difficult for you to get an answer from amazon or form the "manufacturer" (Gateway) Amazon will tell you to contact the manufacturer the manufacturer will only make you do a full system factory restore, what is that going to do? erase all your data and start from "0" . You will still have the same problem, believe me. I'm saying this by experience, this so called "new laptop" will give you problems.
Other bad things about this laptop is the speakers, the way your opened windows work or display are just stupid, there is too much clicking to just closed an opened window or even go to one.

At last, the ony 2 good this about it it's the battery life and display resolution, the end.

I don't have this model, I have model MD2614u. I'm rating the Gateway costumer service here. I bought MD2614u laptop about a year ago. The computer didn't charge the battery two months later from the purchase. I called them, they send me a replacement battery. About a month latter same problem came up. I called, they sent me another replacement. Couple weeks latter the battery went bad again, I sent the computer to the Gateway service. I had it back two weeks latter but the battery had a same issue little bit later. I called, sent it to them again. I got it back in about two weeks, but same day I had to call again -guess what was the problem- So they made me to send it to their service again. I did. That was two months ago, I'm sitting front of my laptop, it works good, I just can't use it without the power adapter. I called them today, they want to me to send it to their service again...I'm not up to it