Are Gateway laptops any good?
 

I'm considering getting a Gateway laptop. Do you guys any horror or praise stories for me?

I'm considering something similar to this one, is the ability of having a tablet within a laptop is actually good or is a silly gimmick? Any recommended model?

Thanks.

Paying that much for that kind of system is a complete rip-off. 14"0? Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950? Please, no.

From what I have heard, Gateway has been pretty much a poor computer manufacturer. Granted, this is the impression I got around 1 to 2 years ago, so they might have changed things around.
As for the tablet feature, would it really be something that you would use regularly? Because I can see it just being an expensive novelty if you just use it occasionally, and not for any really practical purpose that couldn't be achieved with a normal mouse and keyboard.
With that in mind, I have heard that their choice in a digitizer is a bit poor, with a low resolution(as compared to many standalone professional tablets), and there have been complaints about erratic cursor movement at random times.
If not for the integrated tablet, I cannot imagine that price being at all reasonable(although I find the price with a tablet pretty unreasonable too, but thats because I'm a penny pincher).

My awesome home desktop computer is a Gateway, three of my buddies own and love their Gateway laptops, and we all got them for better prices than any other manufacturer's comparable model, including Dell. But DON'T get a tablet. It's almost useless except for very specific things, and costs way too much.

So overall, yes, I'd say from experience that Gateways are groovy. They didn't used to be, but now they've upped their quality as well as their customer service, probably due to the fact they're manufacturing eMachines. They said "Poor quality for eMachines, good quality for Gateway" just like HP said "Poor quality for Compaqs, good quality for HP." However, on that note, they've increased Compaq's quality greatly in the past few months, so that I don't loathe them anymore.

I used to sell computers all the time, and I can tell you the ones that come in for service the most are eMachines, Compaqs, off-brands, and lower-end Dells.

Thanks for the answers:

Grawl: Thanks for the price suggestion, actually that price is cheaper than the one I'm getting over here: ;___;

packrat: Yeah, I don't think I'd use the tablet feature that much, so I say goodbye to that extra gimmick.

Ayos: I might give a try to a Gateway laptop that cost less and has better specifications (Dual core, etc).

Thanks again, if anyone has anything else to add, feel free to post your comments.

I just bought a warhorse 17" Gateway laptop (a maxed out NX860X) last week and I love it. I'm also extremely impressed with their customer service. In the order process the sales rep mistakenly told me that I wouldn't need a certain piece of hardware (powerful soundcard), so I settled with the integrated. It turned out I did need the additional soundcard, and after less than two minutes on the phone with a supervisor they agreed to send me the $100+ item to me for free. That warrants some satisfaction.