Gateway ID49: Mixing the Bag
by Dustin Sklavos on September 23, 2010 2:46 AM ESTGeneral Performance with the ID49C
Our testing suite remains consistent with our previous test results, but what may make this a bit more interesting is the spread of i5-powered notebooks. Thanks to our ASUS reviews, we've got i5-430M and i5-450M notebooks sporting GeForce GT 325M and 335M GPUs, along with the Studio 14's Mobility Radeon HD 5470. This gives us a fairly level playing field when we move on to gaming performance.
The ID49C is performing pretty much where we'd expect it to, falling in line with the other i5-450M notebooks and even actually posting a slight lead on the ASUS machines.
Starting with the Futuremark benchmarks, PCMark Vantage's predisoposition to faster storage subsystems allows the ASUS units with their 7200 RPM hard drives to sail past the ID49C. PCMark05 is a bit more balanced, where the 450M is bested only by the quad-core 720QM in the Dell Studio 17; the 720QM has a nominal 1.6 GHz clock speed, but it turbos up to 2.4 GHz on two cores, allowing it to close the gap with the 450M in less heavily multithreaded applications. Peacekeeper remains inscrutable, with the ASUS units running at slower clocks posting minor leads.
When you spread out to Cinebench and the x264 benchmarks, the story remains the same, with the ID49C falling in line exactly where it should be. While it posts leads on the other i5-equipped notebooks, these leads are minor and within the margin of error. The extra 266 MHz the i5 is capable of under turbo mode allows it a slight advantage over the 720QM in the Dell, but that advantage is ceded the instant the two additional physical cores come into play. In almost all cases, the unfortunate Phenom II P920 in the Toshiba A660D brings up the rear. The 1.6 GHz clock speed is devastating to an architecture that's already slower clock-for-clock.
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Dustin Sklavos - Thursday, September 23, 2010 - link
I'm not sure I have such a low opinion of the average consumer that I would assume they'd have to buy this thing just because it has a glowing touchpad. While I do like some of the styling (it's nice to see aluminum on a notebook at this price point), I take issue with the fact that rather than choosing to invest in putting together a more well-rounded machine, Gateway whiffed and just gave us a crappy screen and a touchpad that lights up.There was potential here. Dedicated volume controls are common from most manufacturers, they didn't need to replace useful document navigation keys with them. Instead, they somehow managed to make a bad keyboard worse (and a regular consumer checking out units on the shelf may very well test the keyboard), and again, burned their budget making the touchpad light up instead of improving something...ANYTHING else.
AnnonymousCoward - Saturday, September 25, 2010 - link
$849 for this POS? Negativity was not overzealous. Your 1st paragraph isn't supported by the rest. In the rapist rapper's voice, Welllll, obviously, most people won't notice the shitty screeeen, and the crappy keyboard. He's climbin in your windows...I would never pay $800 for 1366x768 and a crappy keyboard, even if there's a quantum CPU with data crystals inside.
Minion4Hire - Monday, September 27, 2010 - link
I wouldn't expect you to buy this. As I said, this model of laptop is not designed to target Anandtech readers in the least. But its target audience is known to lower their resolution (while remaining entirely ignorant of aspect ratio) in order to get larger text. As such 1366x768 isn't a problem in the least. As for the "crappy" keyboard, while it does flex when under pressure I think the key layout is acceptable, and unless you pound your keyboard while typing you'll never notice said flexing; it takes a decent amount of force (more than any typist would use) in order to cause the keyboard to bow.Even Dustin admitted that its "pricetag is justifiable". It's not a great laptop, but the flaws that we see often do not exist in the eyes of the consumer, either because they don't care (don't know better) or view said flaws as positives (ie. 1366x768 resolution) so it's all very relative.
AnnonymousCoward - Monday, September 27, 2010 - link
There's no question that this laptop, like any crappy product, is acceptable to the average consumer. When it comes to average/bad products, I'm sure you'd agree that AnandTech should lean zealously negative. When poor design choices are made that affect things that AnandTech readers care about, it should be a big deal.andrepang - Thursday, September 23, 2010 - link
Not too sure if you guys have noticed, this particular gateway notebook have very similar physical design compared to Acer's timelineX 4820TG....Looking at the side ports, DVD tray and even the back cover plus and the battery's shape looked the same.. And of course not forgetting the keyboard.......
I wondered if its a design copy or are they sourcing the design from the same OEM...
Just my thoughts...
infodan - Thursday, September 23, 2010 - link
Acer owns gateway, so thats not a surprise, but in the US the gateway brand is more popular, unlike in europe (and especially the UK) where the gateway brand is all but dead.Roland00 - Thursday, September 23, 2010 - link
The big differences between the two (besides looks)Is the Acer TimelineX either uses intel i3/i5 integrated graphics or has an ATI HD5650. The Gateway ID series either uses intel i3/i5 integrated graphics on their cheaper models, on their more expensive models they use nvidia Optimus with the GT330m (this is what Dustin reviewed).
Also the TimelineX comes with a Six-cell, 6000mAh (up to 8 hours in mobile mark with intetgrated graphics ) or a Nine-cell, 9000mAh (up to 11.5 hours in mobile mark with integrated graphics). The Gateway ID series comes with a Six-cell 4400mAH battery (up to 6 hours in mobile mark with integrated graphics).
So Timeline X gives you bigger battery with ATI (and the faster video card) whilethe Gateway gives you a smaller batter with Nvidia Optimus.
Roland00 - Thursday, September 23, 2010 - link
I have seen and operated one and it is a good laptop for the money.I just hate they keyboard, hate, hate, hate...
One thing that wasn't mention by Dustin is that when you click the touchpad (which is one large button), the button actually lowers, it actually deepens. For a person who loathes touchpads and always carries a mouse, I found this option to be intuitive and better than most touchpads I have operated.
zoxo - Thursday, September 23, 2010 - link
Seriously, how much extra would it cost to have a decent screen?Pirks - Saturday, September 25, 2010 - link
judging by MacBook Pro prices - about a grand extraforget about it, PC user