GATEWAY NV5214U REVIEW

Gateway NV Series notebooks are known for their good looks and decent performance. NV5214u is no different. It has designer looks, consumes less power and delivers excellent performance. The NV5214u is available with both AMD and Intel processors.

System specifications of the laptop for review
Operating system: Windows Vista Home Premium (SP1, 64-bit)
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 2.1GHz QL-64 (1MB Cache, 667MHz FSB)
Display: 15.6" HD WXGA Ultrabright LED-backlit Display (1366 x 768 resolution, 16:9)
RAM: 4GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM
Hard Disk Drive: 320GB 5400rpm Toshiba Hard Drive
Weight: 5lbs 11.6oz with 6-cell battery

Build and Design
With clean lines, subtle curves and well thought out color schemes, Gateway NV5214u looks classy. Build quality is good, but the screen lid could have been stronger. Users who would like to upgrade their notebooks will be happy with the design of NV5214u as it has easy access panels to the internal components.

Screen and Speakers
The 15.6" LED backlit display has 16:9 aspect ratio. The display is of decent quality, but vertical viewing angles aren’t very good. The display is bright enough to become visible in bright office settings.
Audio quality is average. There is no built-in subwoofer. Peak volume levels will easily fill a small room with music. Headphones are still a must for private listening.

Keyboard and Touchpad
There is a full-size keyboard with number pad. The keyboard is very comfortable to type on. Keys can be activated with very little pressure. The touchpad is big. It shows good sensitivity with very little lag.

Ports and Features
Port selection is OK. There are four USB ports, HDMI, VGA, LAN, modem, and audio jacks, but no eSATA. There is an SDHC-card reader for digital camera users.

Performance
The AMD Athlon 64 X2 QL-64 processor and the ATI HD3200 integrated graphics deliver excellent performance. While the integrated ATI graphics can’t handle the most recent games, it will easily play less demanding games. It can also decode 720p and 1080p video content with minimal efforts. Another very useful feature is the HDMI output, which would allow you to display HD content with digital audio in your TV or home theater system.

Heat and Noise
Heat and noise levels are well within control.

Battery
At 3.5 hours, battery life is good for a notebook of this size.

In short
This is a capable multimedia notebook with designer looks and good build quality. The AMD QL-64 processor and ATI HD3200 integrated graphics are capable of handling almost every task. A must buy for $500.