Gateway NV55S15u 15.6-Inch Laptop (Ebony Black)

I've had the Model NV55S15u for about a month and a half now with no issues whatsoever. That is more than I can say for the laptop of another brand, which began freezing up soon after it arrived. That one went back, as did a Gateway nearly identical to this model, which unfortunately came with a squeaking PgDn button that liked to get stuck. Fortunately for me, the third attempt at a new laptop wasn't a strikeout.

This model has been a pleasure to use, is very responsive with no stumbles or slow downs. I'm sure I'll never fill the 640gb HDD to capacity, but it's nice to have the additional space since the pre-installed software takes up a fair amount of room. I use it mainly as an energy-saving replacement for a desktop computer. Although it comes with a 65W power supply, my measurements indicate that (with the battery fully charged) it consumes only about 12W during typical Web browsing, 18W while burning a DVD and 21W playing a HD video. Power consumption goes way up if the battery is receiving a charge, of course.

As do other manufacturers, Gateway recommends calibration of the battery by operating the laptop exclusively from battery power until the battery is exhausted. I did that over the course of two days and probably got at least four hours of battery life overall with light use and wireless enabled. Since power drain is directly related to processing, display brightness, speaker volume, external accessories, etc. your experience might vary.

The miniscule internal speakers leave much to be desired in the way of sound quality and volume, but that can be worked around by using a set of headphones or amplified speakers. There is some noise from the HDD and occasionally the fan, but that is typical. This machine doesn't get overly warm, unlike some others I've read about.

The multi-gesture touchpad can take some getting used to and it is easy to inadvertently rub against it by mistake if you're not careful. I'm sure other laptops share this annoyance. Since I'm not using mine as a portable, I simply plugged in a USB mouse, which I personally find easier and faster to use. I do prefer the smoothness of the touchpad on this machine to the textured feel of some others I tried, feeling that their roughness might be hard on the fingertips in extended use. I don't find the single 'seesaw' button bar below the touchpad to be any harder to use than dual buttons would be.

The 'Windows Experience Index' of the laptop I have is 5.9 on a scale of 1 to 7.9. I recommend you check this performance rating whenever you are able to test-drive a computer that is on display in a store. Simply right-click on 'computer,' then left-click on 'properties.' You can then click on the link to the right of the number to see more information. This is a great way to compare the performance of different machines.

To sum up, I have no reservations about recommending this as a good, middle-of-the-road laptop for the general user.

I very rarely write reviews for products on Amazon.com, in fact, I think this is a first. That's how much I like this notebook PC. It is SUPER FAST both online and with the applications that don't require Internet access. Plenty of hard drive space and RAM to get a lot done whether you're using it for entertainment or professional reasons. The only thing I have NOT liked really so far is that the touchpad mouse is what is called a "Multi-Gesture Touchpad" mouse, and when I bought this computer, I had never heard of that before, and it's taking some getting used to, that's for sure. Basically, you can put your thumb and forefinger on the mouse and move both of them around to manipulate objects on the screen. It's supposed to make things easier I guess, but it just made things more difficult for me really. I was on my Facebook page one day and I was trying to figure out how exactly the mouse worked and I ended up shrinking the text and graphics on my FB Wall so small it was unintelligible! Fortunately, it was only in the browser I was using at the time. If I were to go on another computer, or even in another browser on the same computer, it would look normal. I deleted the browser history, cache/temp files, etc. and logged back into FB and it was still small just from that one browser. I ended up having to uninstall/reinstall that browser to restore the correct look just to FB.com and it was all due to the "Multi-Gesture Touchpad" mouse scrunching my text and graphics and me not being able to figure out how to UN-scrunch them, lol. Another problem I have is when I'm online, if I have to "refresh" my browser page, I prefer to press the F5 button vs clicking the "refresh" browser button. With this computer, you have to hold down the "Fn" key before pressing the F5 key because if you just press the F5 key alone, that is the equivalent of shutting off the monitor. Or maybe it's the "sleep mode" button, I can't tell what that symbol is? HD graphics are great too. Overall, I'm happy with this computer. For the price paid, the mouse problem, and the few weird things I had to get used to with the keyboard I had to get used to were well worth it for this great machine. :)

Buy Gateway NV55S15u 15.6-Inch Laptop (Ebony Black) Now

I bought this laptop 6 months ago after comparing tons of different laptops for college, but i also wanted a computer with enough power to play games, and this laptop is perfect for all of those. Lots of RAM and Hard drive space and the graphics card isn't too bad. I have downloaded a lot of games and music, uploaded a lot of photos and videos and i still have plenty of space left. I was surprised at how well this Laptop can run games. It can play MOST new games on medium to high settings. I am able to play Skyrim and Borderlands on high video settings without any lag. I ran the Windows experience index test and it scored high on all the tests. The test is based on a scale of 1.0-7.9 It scored a 5.9 on graphics and RAM, and a 6.5 on 3d Business and gaming graphics performance, which is very good. So far i haven't had any problems with this computer, the only downside is the battery life. If you are just using the computer for homework or business you probably wont have a problem with battery life, but if you are going to be playing a lot of games, running 3D creation programs, or watching a lot of movies you might want to get a larger battery or plug it in, but that hasn't been an issue for me and i am very happy with my purchase. If you want a powerful Laptop at a good price then this one is perfect.

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It was worth the purchase price. Though the battery life, is pretty bad. It can run for about 2 hours I'd say on normal settings and depending on what you do. Overall, nice computer though.

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Personally I think this laptop stinks! I've owned numerous laptops but this one totally irritates me. The sensitivity on the glide pad is awful, even after adjusting the settings! Occasionally the monitor decides to shut down when in use. I do not download any crazy applications which could slow the computer down, however, shutting it down can take some time. The free virus scan offered with this computer, California whatever CA, is so so. When I called them up I got someone with some accent who I had difficulty understanding and visa versa, I decided to just do it online. When you're offered something for free thats what you get. You're better off going to Best Buy or whatever, and buy a Virus Protection disk (something solid you can hold), and just download it that way, then allow the program to make automatic updates. The Volumn is way too low, even when you set it on the loudest setting. I am far from being deaf, but you can not increase it much. The response time, when clicking a short cut on the desk top is quite slow, and gets a bit slower as time goes on. It has frozen on me a few times. This is the only laptop I own which kicks me off when I am using Magic Jack. This is NOT a software problem, its the laptop! For a quad core its quite slow, especially when shutting down. Oh, it could have been offered with a blu-ray player or inscriber, but they probably knew it wouldn't work the way they configured this laptop! I doubled the RAM to 8 GB in hopes of some improvement. Stick with an i3 or higher! As you figured out by now, overall, I do not recommend this computer, contrary to the other reviews who speak highly of it. I have numerous other complaints, but I'll leave it at that! Wish I never bought it!