Gateway 200X 1.5 GHz Laptop (1.5 GHz Pentium M (Centrino), 512 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive, 802.11b Wireless, DVD/CD-RW Combo Drive) | List Price: $1,579.99
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Platform: Windows XP Home Edition
Brand: Gateway
Binding: Personal Computers
slick, fantastic little machine! [Posted on 2004-06-29]
I wanted a sleek looking little laptop with a decent size screen and 512mb of ram... and I got all that and more! It does everything I need, never hiccups, it's lightweight... I'm really glad I bought it. It's beauty is not only skin deep, have a look at the specs :) It's great. The only complaint... buy a backup battery... the standard one runs out so quickly.
Post script... June 12th, 2006 (original review was made circa August of 2004 - thank goodness Amazon lets you edit reviews!): I would NOT recommd this machine AT ALL. Exactly 12 months later, a week after the Gateway warranty expired the CD drive went kaput. Three or four months later, the fan started screwing up. Also, the machine doesn't wear well. What once looked sleek and sexy, looked plasticy and cheap after a year of wear. My friend's Mac looks just as fabulous as it did the day he opened it. So guess what? I bought a Mac. Don't waste your money with this cheap Gateway. You certainly get exactly what you pay for!!!
Great little machine, particularly with a few upgrades [Posted on 2004-07-07]
This computer is spectacular, it looks great and also runs well. It is very small, but the keyboard is of usable size and has a good feel to it (my old gateway notebook definitely had a bit of a flimsy feel to it). A few things:
1) GET THE HIGH CAPACITY BATTERY. The stock battery is awful, but such is life. Don't order it from gateway though, check out other places, such as a particular online warehouse with a three letter name. I got mine for almost 1/2 the price Gateway was charging there, and the service was a lot better.
2) The speakers suck too. The computer is less than 1" think. What do you expect? They're finally beginning to come out with wi-fi products that will use your connection to stream music from your computer to your stereo. I can't wait to get my hands on one, until then, plug it into to your stereo or use headphones.
3) Adding more RAM is highly recommended. I added an additional 512MB that I got from a well-known auction site for $50. The difference is immediately noticable; XP devours RAM.
4) Download iTunes. Seriously, even if you don't want to download music from them, it has to be the most user-friendly (not to mention free and visually pleasing) music library managment software on the planet.
5) STAY UPDATED. Every time you read about an attack, its because people don't update their OS, antivirus, and firewall software/hardware. It takes a few seconds every few weeks, and any decent company will alert you to the updates automatically. This will also eliminate 99% of problems people may experience with their wi-fi connections; the software updates usually fix glitches that weren't anticipated when the product was manufactured (I use a D-Link DI-624 router, and it's been phenomenal).
6) You'll want to get a USB drive if you need to move files off-network regularly. They're compact, hold a lot, and have become really inexpensive. I ended up buying one and couldn't be happier. Or you can do as I used to: just email files to yourself and access them at your final destination (I had a habit of losing/leaving behind floppies when I was in college). All that said, for the price, this system simply can't be beat. Even without all the extra BS I bought for mine, it's still a great notebook. It runs cool and fast and looks great. You won't find many other notebooks with these specs and functionality.
Gateway sales and support....STAY AWAY [Posted on 2004-09-10]
Ok, right off the bat I want to say that the computer is alright and deserves better than one star. But...Gateway the company is THE WORST! I write this to warn you that they do not care about the customer and once they take your money they will not give you the time of day.
I ordered and paid for the 200, with 80gig HD and 512 RAM. I recieved the 200 with 40gig HD and 256. I called my sales person, and she never called me back. I got a hold of her 2 weeks later (after multiple tries) and she promised to ship out a new HD and additional memory. They never came, she never placed the order. She will not return my calls (she actually changed her extension). Her sales supervisor will not return my calls. The supervisor's supervisor will not return my calls. Customer service gives me the run around.
Total blow-off.
I am now dealing with the Gateway reps that my University department uses to get this straightened out, and it has yet to be resolved. As I write, I have had the WRONG COMPUTER for 2.5 months, and have been unable to get any work done with the 256RAM. Gateway has done everything in their power to ensure that I can't return it and/or do not get the computer that I paid for.
So there you go. Buyer beware.
slim and sleek... the best [Posted on 2006-01-01]
At first I thought it was too good to be true,I mean the very compact size, the moderate sized screen, and the overall look... and after a while I found out that it was too good to be true, at the time of trying to install an old printer in my computer, I found out that there is no parallel connection for a printer only one for some other thing, like a monitor or somehting. Even though I did not want to buy a new printer because I liked my old one a lot, I saw myself forced to buy one that had a usb connection. After that it was all good, except there is only 2 usb ports in the computer, and they are all taken up, so at the time of wanting to plug in my camera to the computer I have to disconnect either the printer or the floppy drive which is external (the computer does not include one) a usb hub should solve that though. Other than that the only other bad thing is the TINY speakers, they suck, but earphones or a regular set of pc speakers should solve that problem. Otherwise the keyboard is great, I feel it is very confortable, and it runs very smoothly, battery life does suck, but with a spare battery (one bought at some other place with more battery life)that problem was fixed. The scrolling wheel is pretty small so it is slow, but if the finger is rubbed against the right corner of the mouse pad then it moves much faster. Even though I have encountered problems with this computer they have been very tiny problems and they have all been fixed, otherwise the performance and overall speed of this notebook are very good. This tiny slim and sleek notebook has been the best thing that I have ever bought. :)
Find something else... this isn't good. [Posted on 2007-03-09]
This review isn't just about the machine but the company also. I have had terrible luck with this machine. I have had two power supplies go bad. I bought the worthless extended warranty on it. When I bought the machine I bought the $200 extra long life battery. It died just outside the 12 month warranty and low and behold they do not cover it under the extended warranty. That cost me $179.00 to replace. Then when the power supply died it took them almost two weeks to get it to me. I had to call mundocorp and order one and pay for it out of my own pocket so I could use my laptop that week for school.
The hard drive was replaced twice. It randomly wouldn't boot and would say that it couldn't find the hard drive. I sent it in, they wouldn't fix it. I took it out of the box when they sent it back and it wouldn't boot.
I'm a system administrator and this thing has frustrated me to no end. They won't ship me parts like Dell, so I have to ship it off each time. It's never been reliable.
Even when I first ordered it, I called to make sure that I would get it within three weeks so I could use it for a Flash class I was taking. They assured me I would get it. It took 2 months! I think with all the upgrades and warranties I paid just under $2500 for this machine.
I WILL NEVER BUY A GATEWAY COMPUTER AGAIN. I support Dells in my job and have never had so many problems with one machine. Not only that, but Gateway wastes your time. I called in about my battery and they had me jumping through all sorts of hoops and doing all sorts of stuff over a period of three days, calling back several times.... and then AFTER all of this they told me the battery wasn't even covered under the warranty. All that, and they could have told me BEFORE.
I really recommend you look at another brand before you buy a Gateway.
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