Gateway NV77H05u

Budget laptops are made to get you through day-to-day tasks. But in order to keep prices low, budget systems often have to cut out features, add extraneous software to the hard drive, or equip the system with lower-end components. Case in point: the Gateway NV77H05u ($629.99 list at Office Depot). This system comes equipped with an Intel Core i3 CPU, is encased in a plastic chassis, and has few features; for just $20 more, you can upgrade to the Editors' Choice Asus U56E-BBL5 ($649.99 list, 4 stars) with a faster Core i5 processor, sleek aluminum chassis, and features that include Wireless Display 2.0 (WiDi 2.0), WiMAX 3G broadband, and 7 hours of battery life.

Design
Despite its plastic chassis, the NV77H05u's exterior really pops: the bold red lid has a pattern of tiny copper diamond shapes that gives the whole design a rather regal look. However, its aluminum-covered counterparts, like the Asus U56E-BBL5 and Lenovo IdeaPad V570-1066A9U ($629.99 list, 4 stars), will offer more protection, a cooler surface, and a sleek, luxurious look. The NV77H05u weighs 6.46 pounds, which is expected for its size. Typically, 17-inch laptops aren't taken on trips, unless by trips you mean you carry it from one spot within your house to another. The 5.5-pound Asus U56E-BBL5 and 5.47-pound Lenovo V570-1066A9U feature smaller 15.6-inch screens and, thus, lighter chassis that wouldn't be as burdensome if you wanted to take it out for a Starbucks working/coffee session.

The NV77H05u's screen is huge?17.3 inches?with a 1,600-by-900 resolution. With a screen this big, multitasking with two or even three windows side-by-side shouldn't be an issue. The interior has a two-toned color scheme: the palm rest and mouse pad features the same red pattern seen on the lid, while the keyboard portion is all black matte plastic. The chiclet-style keyboard is full-size, with a numeric keypad to the right that will please number crunchers. The touchpad was smooth to navigate on, but the unified mouse button (as opposed to two distinct right and left buttons) was too stiff for my tastes.

Features
Compared with other budget systems, like the Asus U56E-BBL5, the NV77H05u is pretty limited on features. It has the usual ports: two USB 2.0, HDMI and VGA video, an SD card reader, audio and mic jacks, and Ethernet jack. The only outlier in the bunch is the single USB 3.0 port, which will speed up data transfer between your computer and a hard drive equipped with the same interface. Systems like the Asus U56E-BBL5 feature an advanced HD video connection option, outside of HDMI, called WiDi 2.0 that allows you to wirelessly stream your computer's contents to your HDTV (provided you have a Netgear Push2TV receiver, a $99 option). It also has a 3G wireless broadband technology called WiMAX. The NV77H05u only has 802.11n Wi-Fi. There's also a DVD-RW drive included for watching movies.

The 640GB, 5,400rpm hard drive is one of the biggest you can get within the budget laptop category. Other laptops like the Asus U56E-BBL5 and Lenovo V570-1066A9U feature same-size hard drives. It won't fill up quickly, unless you're a heavy hoarder of digital content, but for the average user looking to keep family photos, documents, and some iTunes music, it should suffice.

Unfortunately, there's a considerable amount of bloatware on the desktop that includes Gateway's own suite of software along with Netflix, eBay, Times reader, and Nook for PC. I'm of the mind that a new computer means a fresh start, and when there's extraneous software on it, it seems ? tainted.

Performance
With the NV77H05u's 2.1GHz Intel Core i3-2310M CPU and 6GB of memory, the laptop proved competent at completing day-to-day tasks, earning 2,004 points on our PCMark 7 test. The Asus U56E-BBL5 (equipped with an Intel Core i5 CPU) garnered a similar score of 1,920. However, when the NV77H05u's Core i3 processor ran more processing-intensive tasks like Cinebench R11.5 (2.04), it couldn't stand up as well against the Asus U56E-BBL5 (2.60). In our Handbrake video encoding test, the NV77H05u fell behind by 28 seconds against the Asus U56E-BBL5 (1 minute 55 seconds).

The laptop's 6-cell (48Wh) battery lasted 4 hours 36 minutes on our MobileMark 2007 test. Other laptops like the Asus U56E-BBL5, which comes bundled with a larger 8-cell (74Wh) battery, lasted 7:34. The NV77H05u, did last longer than the Toshiba Satellite L755-S5214's ($548.99 direct, 3 stars) and its 48Wh battery (3:43).

The Gateway NV77H05u is a solid performer when it comes to day-to-day tasks, but outside of that there's not much else this budget laptop offers. If you're willing to part with $20 more, then the Editors' Choice Asus U56E-BBL5 will provide more wireless features (WiDi 2.0 and WiMAX) as well as a better processor.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS:

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare the Gateway NV77H05u with several other laptops side by side.

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Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/ziffdavis/pcmag/~3/0StC8e78MxE/0,2817,2394405,00.asp

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