I ordered the Gateway P-7805u FX online and then left to work. While on my way there, I got a phone call from them telling me that the laptop I had ordered was not in stock anymore. I asked the operator to e-mail me any other P-78 series Gateway laptops they have on stock so that I can decide upon one of them. She sent me an e-mail which contained links to the P-7807u FX model and the P-7809u FX, telling me that they have them on stock and they can ship it to me immediately. After realizing that the P-7809u is not worth the price, I replied with an e-mail saying that I would go with the first choice they offered me. The reply I got was crushing: “We do not have the item on stock”. This was 30 minutes after they had made me that offer. Fair enough, I said, maybe someone bought them all in 30 minutes. I sent another e-mail asking for the more expensive model and there was no answer.

Half an hour later, they called me telling me that there was a slight error and that they told me the item was not on stock because it was reserved for me. You do the math, I can’t divide by zero.

Next day, my laptop came through the courier. I was expecting the box to be bigger but anyway, it was ok. The first thing that shocked me was that inside the box there was only the laptop, the battery and the 2 chargers (European model and American). Hmm, no manuals, no anything? (Not that I need any). The second thing that shocked me were the fingerprints present on the screen. I immediately thought the laptop was already used but when I turned it on, I did get the first Windows screen you get when you get a new laptop. That being said, the whereabouts of those fingerprints will always be unknown.

The laptop behaved pretty nicely in Windows Vista but I decided to install Windows 7 because.. well, because I hate Vista and I love 7. Good enough reason, I know.

I tested the computer with the Windows Experience Index and got an overall grade of 5.8 (maximum of 7.9) because of the hdd but I was amazed by the grade I got in the 3D and game section: 6.7 ! It seems like that GF 9800M GTS does it job nicely. I also tested it on several extremely demanding games while on extremely high quality and it never even thought about not giving a good reply. I did have some problems with 1080p HD videos but I think it must have been because of the player I was using. I have to dig more into this issue.

What’s odd is that the laptop froze twice while in the browser but it didn’t show any sign of freezing into those well demanding games. This is another issue I have to look into

Overall, I am extremely satisfied by my laptop so far. I do need to buy a car now so I can carry it everywhere I like. Those 4.1 kgs it weights are a little bit too much for my back to handle. Oh, I also have to buy a new backpack, for sure.

Here is the configuration and a random pic of the laptop which I found online since I’m too lazy to take a picture of it.

17”(WXGA), Core2 Duo P8600 2.4GHz, NVIDIA GF 9800M GTS (1GB DEDICATED), 4GB DDR3, 320GB 7200RPM, SATA, DVD+/ -RW, Gigabit LAN, WIR, 1.3 MP Camera, eSATA, HDMI, DVI-D, 9CELL