Like the Toshiba Satellite E105 and the HP Pavilion dv3510nr offered through Best Buy, the name of the game these days in consumer laptops is exclusive configurations, and the Gateway M-7818u is another such entry. Available only from Office Max, this 15.4-inch budget mainstream model has a good mix of components for its $779 price. Performance is adequate, though as with all budget models, you will have to live with some trade-offs.
Design
The glossy Garnet Red chassis of the M-7818u looks great and makes the notebook seem like a pricier model. The 6.3-pound weight is similar to other mainstream portables and is fine for occasional travel. The color carries onto the keyboard deck, where a full-size silver keyboard in a black frame continues the striking design. Above the Function-key row you’ll find Gateway’s multimedia control buttons: an aluminum strip with razor cuts separating the different key areas. The controls look great and were very responsive (unlike the first generation of those controls, which were stiff), though on the M-7818u they aren’t backlit—the first indication that costs had to be cut somewhere.
Display and Speakers
The 1280 x 800-pixel resolution on the Gateway M-7818u’s 15.4-inch widescreen is lower than you’ll find on pricier units, but the panel was comfortable to work on and delivered a bright, vibrant image. Colors popped, and motion and color reproduction on our Pirates of the Caribbean DVD were excellent. The panel’s horizontal viewing angle was wide, although looking at the screen from above showed a brightness shift.
Another place where the M-7818u’s low-price roots show is in the built-in speakers. Pop in a music CD (we used The Killers’ Sam’s Town) and you’ll hear thin, weak audio that sounds like an old transistor radio. Audio quality is passable for other chores, such as online video or for dialog in a DVD movie, but more bass and richer sound is in order, especially for a laptop with multimedia leanings.
Webcam
Above the screen is a 1.3-megapixel webcam. Gateway’s Camera Assistant utility can be launched from the system tray or by revealing the applet by hovering the cursor along the left side of the screen. The camera supports five resolution levels ranging from 160 x 120 to 1280 x 1024. You can capture video, audio, and stills, and add frames or other clip art (though the choices tend to be a bit cutesy). The camera’s bright-light performance is typical for such webcams, with good color reproduction and a reasonably sharp image.
Low-light situations confused the M-7818u’s camera on our trials. When we first enabled the camera in a dim room, the preview window showed our image momentarily, then went almost completely black. Similarly, changing settings in the applet’s control panel would make our image flicker to life, only to go dark after a few seconds. Bringing up the lights a bit helped, and the camera was then able to capture an accurate, albeit grainy, image. This is in contrast to better cameras we’ve tested, which needed only the light from the laptop’s LCD panel to deliver a usable image.
Ports and Features
The M-7818u’s specs are mostly typical for a mainstream laptop. You get an 8X multiformat dual-layer DVD burner, a 250GB hard drive, 802.11a/g/n wireless, a 5-in-1 card reader, an ExpressCard/54 slot, three USB ports (but no FireWire), Gigabit Ethernet, and a modem. Gateway has included both a VGA port and HDMI for displaying the PC’s image on an external monitor, with the latter enabling audio and video output with a single cable. Unfortunately a Blu-ray drive is not an option.
