NeutralAxis

A few months ago, I bought an Acer Timeline 5810TZ laptop computer.  My first impressions review of it is at this post.  The summary of that review was that I wasn’t happy with it and returned it for a refund.  Since then, I had been gravitating toward the Asus UG50, which uses a Core2Duo version of Intel’s ultra low voltage processors.  These ULV processors are helping manufacturer’s make full size laptops with light weight, a thin profile, and battery life up to 8 hours.  I’ve finally pulled the trigger on my new purchase, but it wasn’t the Asus.

The Asus UG50 I had seen at Best Buy had all the features I wanted and the Core2Duo processor helped it run my test video, the HD trailer for the movie ‘Moon’, without a hitch.  The Acer, with a Core2Solo, wasn’t able to play it smoothly.  The only nagging doubt I had about the Asus was that none of the Asus laptops on display at Best Buy had properly working touchpads.  Every Asus they had that used the Elan touchpad had some glitch in which the multi-touch gestures didn’t work despite confirmation that they were enabled.  Best Buy staff wasn’t able to explain why they didn’t work.  On a pre-Christmas business trip into Lee’s Summit, MO, I had the opportunity to stop at a Best Buy and found that the touchpads on all their Asus laptops worked just fine.  With that confirmation that it wasn’t a systemic problem, I pretty much made up my mind to go with the Asus.  At least until later that same day when I saw the Gateway EC5802u at a MicroCenter in Overland Park, KS.

In 2007, Acer bought Gateway, and the Gateway EC58 series bears a striking resemblance to the Acer Timeline 5810TZ.  It even has the same capacitive buttons for backup, WiFi, and power saving mode.  Also like the Acer, it uses a Synaptics touchpad that allows for two finger actions and spiral scrolling.  Unlike the Acer, the key tops were textured.  One of my complaints about the Acer had been that I didn’t really care for the feel of the keys.  The texture fixed that problem.  Also, this notebook has a Core2Duo processor and played my test video smoothly.  At $799, I wasn’t thrilled with the price though, and didn’t buy it on the spot.

An online check found that there are two 15.6″ models, identical except for color.  The lid of the EC5802u has a blue brushed aluminum finish while the EC5801u has a silver brushed aluminum finish.  Amazon.com had the EC5801u for $680.77 (since dropped even lower).  I took advantage of Amazon’s offer for a free trial of Amazon Prime to get free two day shipping.  It arrived today and I couldn’t be happier with it so far.  The silver aluminum finish is beautiful, but I’ll need to find a nice sleeve to keep it looking nice.  I was also impressed with the packaging. The laptop was tucked into what basically a soft cotton pillowcase to keep it clean. This is my first non-XP laptop, with Windows 7 Home Premium.  I was fortunate enough to avoid any use of a computer with Vista. So far, Windows 7 hasn’t done anything to annoy me, but after it gets a good charge on the battery, I’ll put it through its paces and get Ubuntu installed onto it.

I took a bunch of photos, including some with my old Gateway that this is replacing.  That old machine was double the cost in 2005.  While shopping for a new laptop I was really surprised at how my old one was thinner and lighter than nearly everything new.  You can see in the photos that this new Gateway is a very close match in thickness to the old.  I’m actually going to be sorry to let it go because with the exception of HD video capability it still worked fine.  But it will become a hand-me-down for my father.