Gateway ID47H02: Good Looks and Feel

At a Glance

Expert's Rating

Pros

Sleek handsomeness
Good performance and display

Cons

Highly contemplative riddle covering
Cluttered software computer software

Our Verdict

Though non the quickest or most full-conspicuous laptop, Gateway has hit the pick up on the head in terms of design and overall appeal.

Why whatsoever company would take a sleek, fine-looking, decent-performing laptop and name IT the ID47H02 is a mystery. But Gateway has, and it doesn't act up its submit justice–by all-purpose laptop standards, the ID47H02 is a definite cut above in appearance. It also has "good" performance and squeezes conscionable over 7 hours of running time out of its battery. Still, aesthetics and biotechnology are the veridical reasons you should deliberate buying this laptop.

Some of the ID47H02's visual charm stems from its crushed profile–it's only 1.13 inches thick, which isn't bad for a 14-inch budget laptop (the model sells for about $700, as of Sept 1, 2011). Nevertheless, the minimalist figure ethic scads points as well. The unit has no bling, its lines are corking, its silver and gray is a posh color scheme, and steady the touchpad is a clean-looking one-piece rocking chair type that you press on the front corners to initiate button clicks. Said touchpad is nicely responsive to some finger swipes and clicks.

The keyboard uses Chiclet-style keys that are the same color as the keyboard deck. It has a nice feel, but the prostrate, unsculpted keys make for a little less secure finger placement when typewriting. Overall, though, the input bioengineering are very well. The 14-edge in, 1366 by 768 display yields a sharp mental picture, is evenly backlit, and delivers fat colors. However, its covering is highly reflective and suffers more than a modest number of glare under the legal injury lighting conditions.

The ID47H02 has at its heart an Intel Core i5-2410M C.P.U., 4GB of DDR3 retentivity, and a 500GB, 5400-rpm disk drive. With these components, it scored a competent 116 on PCWorld's WorldBench 6 test suite. Play frame rates are poor, reaching playable chassis rates only at resolutions ascending to 1024 by 768 at low detail. Budget laptops without distinct artwork chips can't expect to do better. High-resolution, high-scra-plac TV plays smoothly; even the sound coming through the speakers, using Dolby Home Theater, is best than norm.

Ports let in three USB (deuce USB 2.0, one USB 3.0), VGA, HDMI, mike and headphone jacks, and gigabit ethernet, nonnegative a Kensington lock port. Even a DVD-RW drive is on board–the ID47H02 achieves its low visibility with a thin screen bezel. You'll also find a 1280 aside 1024 webcam and b/g/n 2.4GHz wireless.

The ID47H02 runs 64-chip Windows 7 Home Premium, and bundled software includes respective of the usual suspects: Microsoft Office 2010 Starter, Norton Online Security and Relief, and a webcam utility. Nero Multimedia Suite 10 Essentials is as wel in the mix to support burning discs with the opthalmic drive.

Gateway still has a habit of cluttering dormy the desktop. In this case, you have links for eBay, Netflix, Gateway games, the Times Subscriber, Nook, Norton, and a few others. How you feel about this will depend on how useful you come up those apps; however, they do tend to spoil the minimalist effective looks of the political machine itself.

In the ending, the ID47H02, by virtue of its good looks and feel, exceeds the sum of its parts. The numbers, while good, Don't tell the completely story–you must undergo it and use information technology to appreciate it.