Gateway's MD / UC Series laptops get reviewed

The ink is still drying from Gateway's introduction of the MD / UC Series, but already both machines have been thoroughly tested and reviewed. Starting with the more mainstream MD7801u, Gateway trimmed a number of features in hopes of producing a lower-cost machine that bargain-minded buyers would take interest in. To that end, there was nothing really remarkable about the MD, but that's exactly what the company was going for; all in all, it ended up as a solid, well-rounded rig that should handle basic tasks with ease. Moving down (size wise, anyway), the UC was deemed "incredibly stylish," and it was found to be impressive in pretty much every testable aspect. Of course, it won't handle gaming or hardcore video editing, but given the $799 price tag, we know you weren't expecting it to. Feel 'em both out in the read links below.

Read - MD Series review
Read - UC Series review

[valerie @ Jan 9th 2009 2:39AM]

the uc is most definitely prettier.

http://www.jobstaxi.com

[salvaking$ @ Jan 9th 2009 2:59AM]

Is that a round touch pad...WTF i guess i dont like because its different.

[Lamp @ Jan 9th 2009 10:48AM]

i dont like it because the screen is a RECTANGLE!
i dont care how outside the box this design is,
having a trackpad as a different shape than the screen is completely illogical.

[trotsky @ Jan 9th 2009 3:27AM]

I think the round touchpad is only cool if they do something with it--like scrolling if you trace your finger around the outside. Otherwise it seems rather gimmicky.

[glenskey @ Jan 9th 2009 3:29AM]

you may not believe me, but i swear that i just saw an advertisment for campbells soup on engadget.

:')

[Level 5 @ Jan 9th 2009 6:56AM]

Wow.. Dell AND Gateway finally stepping up the designs. There's been an incredible amount of penis envy between manufacturers when it comes to design. We all know Apple has their design cues and other fun stuff but I've gotta say that Dell and Gateway before 07 were blah. Lenovo was just about the only manufacturer capable of keeping up. It's good to see the bar raised. I might actually contemplate one of these if I can customize it with 4GB of RAM. It's a little thick but a very pretty slab of note indeed.

[Skazer @ Jan 9th 2009 8:20AM]

The UC is seriously one beautiful notebook. Brushed metal body? Dell's new 13" XPS has nothing on this in terms of style!

[bill cant fart @ Jan 9th 2009 8:31AM]

Waah! Too much reflection!!

[jbuers @ Jan 9th 2009 12:52PM]

I will never buy another product from Gateway, AKA Acer, AKA eMachines(the logo was on the return packaging instruction), AKA flaming pile of crap.
The company I work for used to buy their computers exclusively, even after they got bought by Acer.

The problem grew out of a motherboard that the USB ports had died on. I set up the RMA and they shipped us a "new" board. When I opened the box with the replacement board there was dust on the expansion slots, the heat-sinks were bent and dusty, and the socket for the processor had thermal grease IN the receptacle. I promptly called them up and asked for another replacement, which, to their credit, they had no problems doing. However, upon inspecting the next board: blown capacitors and thermal grease all around the CPU socket. Finally the fourth board we were sent was dusty, but the capacitors were intact, no grease in the CPU socket, and it worked as it should.

Bottom line: Never trust a company that has eMachines attached to it...