Customer Reviews

Gateway M505XL Notebook (1.5-GHz Pentium M (Centrino), 512 MB RAM, 60 GB Hard Drive, DVD-RW Drive)

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

 

 

I have owned this lappy for about a month now. One word -- BEYOND EXPECTATION. Keep in mind that my old desktop is only a IntelCelron 400mhz and old lappy is only a iBook G3 450mhz.

I have been shopping around for a good looking lappy that can actually perform with excellent battery life. This is THE ONE. After looking at G4 Powerbook for a while, I decided to safe ~$700 to upgrade this M505XL, old desktop, old lappy and loaded of accessories for my new toy. Here is MHO review.

What's hot!!

1. Solid built quality.
2. Looks hot (looks more expensive than it actually is worth. It is the clostest thing a PC to a Power G4.
3. Over 4.5 hrs battery life w/~3.5 hrs for DVD. If you have a high capacity battery this could go up by about 0.5-1hr. I got mixed up with a regular 8 cells ion battery.
4. Great sound system for a lappy. Beat anything out there with this price range. Sub really adds good dept.
5. Centrino 1.5Ghz is plenty fast for my average graphic editing, office processing programs, and directx 9.0b gaming.
6. Full function dedicated AV control panel. Although it is not that big of a deal, but its functionality is very handy when watching DVD and listening audio.
7. Full size keybord w/ full functionality. And pretty impressive touchpad.
8. Good graphic and 15.4" (if you are into widescreen). Widescreen does not make anything look fat by stretching it when you bolw window into a full screen. Everything get adjusted accordingly when browsing the internet, etc.
9. Impressively stable OS unlike I've ever experienced with any PC. I knew this well comparing my old Win98 to MacOS9 and 10 and this WinXP pro.
10. Slightly above storage capacity (60GB) and standard memory, which is still very high for a lappy (512MB).
11. Quite and impressively cool system with death silent HDD noise (Thanks for Fujitsu great HDD technology). I was in shock when I first ran my applications. My old G3 iBook cen get relatively noisy and hot on my lap.
12. Above average customer service. Used to be great customer service. See below why.

What's not!!
1. Gateway has been notorious in sending M505XL with incorrect HDD spec. Origianlly I got Fujitsu 60GB 4200rpm w/2mbcache. It is supposed to be Toshiba 60GB 5400rpm w/8mbcache. I never got the right one from Gateway after a couple of weeks debating with Gateway. Well, I bought this system from elsewhere and the quote from the supplier is only mentioned about 60GB (no speed or buffer size). Bad luck for me because Gateway holds no responsibility for this even though there is sufficient information to link a real HDD spec for M505XL model from Gateway webpage. Gateway has been discontinued this model from their own web to avoid this problem. Be ware when you are trying to buy this lappy from any other sources. Make sure that you get a written HDD spec quote.
Why I am ranting so much about this?? Well, now that I bought my own a correct HDD spec (Fujitsu 60GB 5400rpm w/8mbcache -- in love with death silent HDD technology), I am feeling like having a brand new computer. Most of my regularly used applications load pretty much instantly. I can have two programs running while watching DVD w/o a hiccup. I could not do this with the old HDD. And, even Office outlook 2003 works so slow with my old HDD. Well, it is unaccepatably slow for this price range of a system. SO LOOK BACK AGAIN AT MY REVIEW TITLE. On top of my HDD and Battery mixed up. They got my serial in the system wrong. I was trying to register, and after entering my SN it brought up a Plasma TV??? Well, Gateway promise to fix it in 2-4 weeks. It is still not after 3 weeks. I wonder whether I will be able to extend my warrenty!!
2. No upgrade option. Well, Wistron is actually manufacturing this M505 series. Basically this is a mass production model from Gateway.
3. Regardless of full size keyboard and decent feel, it is not very solid. I can feel that one of these keyboards will not last longer than 2 years. I own G3 iBook for almost 3.5 years now and not a single complaint.
4. Can only upgrade HDD up to 60GB and memory to 1024MB. High end availability are 80GB and 2048MB of Ram (This means that Gateway have Winstron put it a sub standard motherboard). Well, 100GB HDD is coming out very soon too.

I would have given 4.5, but ended up in 5 because I still like it so much after all above-mentioned troubles I could have easily returned it for a full refund after first week. Now that I upgraded the HDD to a correct spec and increased memory from 512 to 768 (will try to max out to 1024 by next month), this lappy can really perform. Noted that I tried to add more memory with the old HDD but performace was not improved enough to make me feel like a $1700-1800 lappy. By the way, I can't notice any different in battery life regardless of a new higher spec HDD. It is probably less by less than 5 min or so.

In conclusion, if you are looking for a new PC based lappy with great battery life, solid OS, good graphic, well built, medium size weight (it is pretty light to carrying around), just grab one but don't forget about the HDD and battery. (...)

I have this laptop since june of the last year....!!! I agree with the last review. I got the wrong HD but I write an email to gateway Customer support and they sent me the right one. I upgraded the memory to 1.256 MB and now works fantastic...

The best thing that I couldnt find in other laptop the MP3 functionalitty y fantastic...!!! you only have to store your mp3 in the 2GB space (D Drive) and create your play list with the bluebird software and you have to turn off your pc, and then just press the power button on your AV Control Panel and Voila!!!

Resgards,

Ramon

Gateway Has really bad customer service[/size]: I spent $2800.00 on custom laptop for gaming. after 24 days it crapped out.... The Gateway policy is that YOU have to pay them $45.00 for them to send you a box to ship it back to them to fix it! after they had it back for over 10 days and still didn't know what is wrong with it or when I would get it back...I told them to just send me my money back and they got downright nasty with me. I talked with two people in customer service and they told me there was nobody else to talk with "NO returns after 15 days" "They will just fix it and send it back"

I am so disappointed with Gateway. I also had to sign a form that came with the $45.00 return box that said I would approve the charges to my credit card for any "uncoverd repairs that were needed" If This form is not signed; Gatway will simply return the laptop in the condition they received it in.

I've only had this laptop for 24 days !!!!!! I will never buy Gateway again Don't you make the same mistake.

I was told for sombody to come to my house to fix it was only if I bought the "extra plan" but found out that when they come over they just put it in a box most of the time anyway. Ther is NO service center for Gateway unless you "want to bring it to Texas" !!!!

I am still without my system or any idea when I will see it ....I don't even want it I just want my money back $2800.00 plus my $45.00 !!!!