Gateway's 16-inch MC7803u laptop reviewed: great rig for the price

by Darren Murph, posted Nov 27th 2008 at 9:02AM

We can't explain the sudden onslaught of 16-inch laptops hitting the scene, but if neither the R610 nor the Aspire 6930 suited your fancy, maybe Gateway's MC7803u will. The multimedia-minded rig recently hit CNET's review bench, and generally speaking, critics were pleased with what they saw. The expansive display was found to be quite useful, the recessed touch pad was a nice touch and the "minimalist" design was thoroughly lauded. Reviewers did find time to bash the shallow key travel, the omission of a Blu-ray drive and somewhat sluggish performance in a few of the benchmarks, though. Evidently those negatives weren't enough to put a damper on the system as a whole, as it still managed to snag a 3.5 out of 5 golden star rating -- still not quite high enough to buy blind, but it's probably solid enough that you don't need to refuse shipment on the one that's already halfway to your doorstep.

Filed under: Laptops

Tags: gateway, MC7803u, review, reviewed

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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

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LonnieDvD @ Nov 27th 2008 9:21AM

Gateway makes some solid laptops, I had one for two years. Perhaps their desire is to one day replace 15.4-inch laptops with 16-inch ones. Anyway, I wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving!!

Highly Ranked

Patriks7 @ Nov 27th 2008 9:29AM

I like how you say "great rig for the price", but don't even include the price in the article..

Neutral

Rafyta @ Nov 27th 2008 11:49AM

$999 (it´s in the Read link).

Highly Ranked

The Dude @ Nov 27th 2008 12:59PM

The bad:
[...] lacks Blu-ray drive [...]

I notice that this lack of a bag of hurt is omitted from a certain line of laptops that Cnet has reviewed also. And given higher ratings. And given editor's choice.

Neutral

Luis @ Nov 27th 2008 1:04PM

Who the hell cares about a shitty BluRay drive?

Highly Ranked

The Dude @ Nov 27th 2008 1:20PM

I don't. I'm just saying Cnet must purposefully find something to list as a con when they feel they haven't listed enough. But that one con, say the lack of Blu-Ray, isn't used on other laptops. Not even laptops in the same price range. How can the lack of support for a medium that has yet to become the standard a con, especially with a $999 laptop?

Bottom line: Either make it a con for all laptops you review in a price range or shut the fuck up about it, Cnet. I could understand if the laptop was priced higher, but it's not. You're getting what you pay for.

Neutral

Ben @ Nov 29th 2008 10:20PM

I've noticed this too, and on other review sites as well. You can pick your available technology, if it's not an option on a particular "PC", it's a con. I've seen a lack of built-in 3G, dedicated media buttons, and SD card slot listed as cons for many PC's, but rarely do these show up as cons in Macbook reviews. I've surmised that when websites do these reviews, especially Cnet, they really only compare them to other models the same company makes, and sometimes it's competitors. So Dell's are noted if a model lacks color options, because many of their other models have that option. Since no Mac has blue-ray, it's not considered an omission by Cnet. Macs are sort-of considered a different kind of computer by a lot of reviewers (so it seems to me), so you'll rarely find comparisons to other laptops, except for benchmarking.

Neutral