A budget notebook with decent specs? We’ve seen plenty. But one with a small, portable shape and luxurious design? That’s less common. The Gateway UC7807u, a 13.3-inch thin-and-light that starts at $749 looks and performs like a more expensive notebook. There are, of course, some trade-offs: the UC Series isn’t the lightest system in its class, and we wouldn’t advise playing demanding games on it. But otherwise, this small system holds a lot of value.
Design
The UC7807u’s sleek, industrial design (which is a Gateway re-badge of a Packard Bell notebook sold in Europe) belies its $799 price tag. Although the glossy, putty-colored lid is simple enough, when you open it you’ll find a black, brushed metal chassis. Other nice touches include a silver, brushed-metal hinge, responsive touch-sensitive volume and multimedia controls that glow red, and a circular touchpad.
However, at 5.3 pounds this machine is a bit heavy for a 13-inch notebook. For instance, the recently redesigned Apple MacBook, which also has a 13-inch display, weighs just 4.5 pounds. Moreover, the MacBook is just an inch thick, whereas the UC7807u is 1.5 inches thick. All in all, the UC7807u feels much heavier and chunkier in hand. Similarly, the Samsung Q310-34P weighs 4.8 pounds and the HP Pavilion dv3 (which we have not yet tested) has a rated weight of 4.3 pounds.
Touchpad and Keyboard
Despite its unusual shape, the trackpad on the UC7807u was easy to use in our tests: it’s spacious and provides just the right amount of friction. Unfortunately, the touchpad has no dedicated scroll area.
The touchpad button is just a single, brushed-metal button, as opposed to the traditional two distinct buttons on most machines. Nevertheless, it was responsive, if a bit stiff.
The keyboard has flat, close keys that’s neither an island layout (à la the MacBook line) nor a typical plush keyboard. Although we like the look of the layout, as well as the size of the keys themselves, the keyboard felt a bit mushy and it was noisier than we would like.
Display and Audio
The 13.3-inch display (1280 x 800) provided versatile viewing angles, despite its glossy finish, both from the sides and head-on, when we watched an episode of Heroes on DVD. The screen was noticeably dimmer than the 13-inch panel on the HP Pavilion dv3510nr, but not disturbingly so.
The speakers, which flank the multimedia controls above the keyboard, produced pleasant, but weak sound. Even with the volume cranked, when watching a movie alone in a quiet room with the notebook a few feet away, we still craved more oomph.
Ports and Webcam
In addition to a slot-loading 8X DVD burner (another stylish touch) the UC Series has three USB 2.0 ports; HDMI and VGA ports; an Ethernet jack; Kensington lock slot; and headphone and mic ports. We like that all of the ports are on the sides of the notebook, and that the USB ports are divided between the two. We also like the glowing red power button, which is built into the left side of the hinge. The notebook also has an ExpressCard/34 slot and a 4-in-1 memory card reader.
Although the 1.3-megapixel webcam produced smooth video, both video and still photos had poor resolution and dull colors. We like Gateway Web Camera’s large viewing box and simple interface, although it’s annoying that every time you finish recording a photo or video you have to confirm the location to which it will be saved (we could not change this in the settings).
