Gateway MC7803u reviews

Wednesday, December 17, 2008, 11:37
Laptops
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The Gateway MC7803u looks similar MC7801u except the lid color. But two devices have lot of key differences. The MC7803u supports a discrete graphic card with a memory of 512MB and it also features an eight-cell battery which provides better life than six cell battery of MC7801u. The discrete graphics card will definitely appeal to the casual gamers. The enhancements offered by MC7803u come at the premium of just $50.

The MC7803u is priced at$999 which quite less as compared other media oriented laptops. For example, the Sony Vaio FW270J/W will cost you $1299. But the price reduction resulted in the removal of some important features like Blu-ray Disc drive. Moreover, the laptop is equipped with Core 2 Duo processor instead of latest Centrino 2 processor.

The laptop measures 15.3 inches wide, 10.4 inches deep and 1.3-1.7 inches high and weighs 8.7 pounds with AC adapter. The laptop is powered by 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor and 4GB of RAM. The 320GB hard drive spins at 5400rpm. The graphics are managed by Mobile Intel PM45 Express and 512MB ATI Mobility Raedon HD3650 graphics card. The MC7803u comes with installed Windows Vista Home Premium (64-bit).

The MC7803u features a glossy black colored lid with black stripe cutting down the middle of the case. The black keyboard, which is backlit in orange, of MC7803u is embedded in glossy black frame. On the left of keyboard, lie buttons for common application like e-mail, music or web whereas the right features buttons for disc playback and volume control.

The 16-inch display of MC7803u offers a resolution of 1366x768 and aspect ratio of 16:9 which suitable for playing HD content. But the glossy finish of the screen might spoil your experience with the laptop.

The laptop offers a fair assortment of ports and connections which include VGA-out, HDMI port, Webcam, stereo speakers, microphone jack, 4 USB ports, multiformat memory card reader, ExpressCard/54 slot, modem, Wi-Fi, Ethernet and DVD burner with Labelflash. The inclusion of two headphone jacks is also a good addition as you can share movies with your friends.

The MC7803u’s battery runs for 3 hours on video playback which same as that of Sony’s Vaio FW270J/W. The laptop comes with Gateway’s BigFix diagnostic software and Gateway also provides standard one year parts-and-labor warranty. The Gateway’s website includes the driver downloads and FAQ’a as expected and option to send e-mail to technician.