Gateway MC7803u Review

by Kevin O'Brien

The new MC7803u is Gateway’s answer to the new 16:9 notebooks that many manufacturers are starting to release. These notebooks offer a wider display that is friendly to newer high definition videos and come in an in-between size of 16” and 18.4”. Offering an all-glass LCD panel, touch sensitive multimedia keys, backlit keyboard, and leather palmrest; Gateway really tried to take it up a notch with this notebook. Read on to see how well this notebook performed in our battery of tests and if it deserves a spot on your lap.

Gateway MC7803u configuration:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T5800 (2.0GHz/ 800MHz Front Side Bus/ 2MB L2 cache)
• Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit
• 4GB DDR2-800 RAM (2x2GB)
• 16.0" WXGA (1366x768) glossy finish
• ATI Radeon 3650 with 512MB DDR2 dedicated memory
• 320GB 5400RPM Hitachi Hard Drive
• DVD Super Multi (+/- double layer) with LabelFlash
• Intel Wireless WiFi Link 5100 AGN (802.11a/g/n)
• Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
• Built-in 1.3 megapixel webcam and microphone
• Ports: 4 USB, Kensington Lock Slot, Modem, LAN, 2 Headphone/Mic, HDMI, VGA, SD Card Reader, ExpressCard/54
• Battery: 8 Cell Lithium Ion 60Whr (4.8AHr)
• Size: 1.3"-1.70" (H) x 15.28" (W) x 10.43" (D)
• Weight: 7lbs 11.5oz
• Warranty: 1 Year standard
• Retail MSRP: $999

Build and Design

The design of the Gateway MC-series notebook is more elegant than previous models, including an all-glass front panel, leather palmrest, and glossy touch sensitive multimedia keys. Opening the notebook up you just see a perfectly smooth front panel, one piece, and a smooth silver border. I don’t always like notebooks with the super reflective glass panels, but this one pulls it off well. The keyboard area looks great with the backlit keys, and touch sensitive surround that just looks clean and simple. The leather palmrest is soft and smooth, giving some mild padding to your wrists while typing. I can’t say how well the leather will hold up long term, but through the duration of our review it held up quite well.

Build quality is above average, with a very solid feel in both the screen cover and main frame of the notebook. Coming in at over 7.5lbs, it is not by any means a lightweight machine, but it is built like a tank. The glossy surface surrounding the keyboard and covering the LCD feel fairly tough, and didn’t scuff or scratch in our testing. While I don’t generally agree with glossy display covers found on some newer notebooks, they do give an added layer of protection against impacts oo even wandering finger tips.

The leather palmrest is one area that concerns me with long-term use. With constant abrasion from your wrists and sweat buildup it may fade or crack over time. It does to have a lacquer finish, which should protect the leather, but long term use will tell if it will hold up or not.

Display

The WXGA (1366x768) display rates average compared to other notebooks, with bright colors and decent contrast, but narrow viewing angles. Vertical viewing angles were limited, with a small sweet spot before the screen started to wash out or have colors go inverted. Horizontal viewing angles were better, but the screen becomes difficult to see at steep angles from the reflection off the glass panel cover. The screen cover does add a nice seamless look to the front panel, but at the cost of adding excessive amounts of reflection. In most lighting conditions I can see my face on the display while I type, something that isn’t really common on even glossy LCDs.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The thin backlit keyboard is easy to type on and comfortably spaced over the wide 16” body of the notebook. The backlit keys are highly visible in all lighting conditions, and when you are typing on the keyboard, light leakage around the keys is minimal. Individual key thickness feels less than other notebooks from the odd flat shape of the key top, but it is much easier to type on than a Sony/Macbook style keyboard. Key presses are very smooth, with only a light touch needed to trigger a key. Audible feedback is minimal, with only a small click with each full press.

The large touchpad is easy to use, with a matte textured Synaptics interface. Sensitivity was great, easily tracking my finger with no discernible lag. The surface area is greater than most notebooks, but still falls short to the gigantic touchpad surfaces found on Apple notebooks. The buttons are large and easy to hit with the side of your thumb, and give a mild soft click with shallow feedback.

The backlit panel surrounding the keyboard with touch sensitive multimedia keys worked very well, and weren’t too bright or distracting. Another great feature that Gateway has included in the past is a function key that lets you disable all of the indicator lights. This comes in handy if you are watching a movie in a dark setting or just want to save a bit of battery power. You can toggle the multimedia keys off (which also disables them), just the keyboard off, or everything off.

Performance

The performance of the Gateway MC7803u was excellent, handling day to day tasks with ease. Loaded with the Intel T5800 Core 2 Duo processor, ATI Radeon 3650 graphics, and 4GB of RAM it worked well as a multimedia hub, including HD movie watching and gaming. Playing Half-Life 2 at the native resolution of the LCD and all settings on high, the MC7803u managed a consistent 60FPS even under high action scenes. Day to day use was great, with fast boot times, and little lag opening up software such as Internet Explorer, Microsoft Office Word, or using Windows Media Center. Synthetic benchmark scores backed up many of our findings, although our 3DMark06 score is skewed because of the odd notebook resolution. Normally we run all of our 3DMark06 benchmarks at 1280x800 resolution, but this notebook required 1366x768, making the score artificially lower than expected.

wPrime is a program that forces the processor to do recursive mathematical calculations, this processor benchmark program is multi-threaded and can use both processor cores at once, it measures the amount of time to run a set amount of calculations.

wPrime comparison results (lower scores means better performance):

Notebook / CPU	wPrime 32M time
Gateway MC7803u (Core 2 Duo T5800 @ 2.0GHz)	43.057s
Gateway P-7811 FX (Core 2 Duo P8400 @ 2.26GHz)	33.366s
HP Pavilion HDX18 (Core 2 Duo T9600 @ 2.8GHz)	27.416s
Acer Aspire 6920 (Core 2 Duo T5750 @ 2.0GHz)	44.457s
HP Pavilion HDX (2.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9500, Windows Vista 64)	28.978s
Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 (Core 2 Duo P8400 @ 2.26GHz)	34.628s
HP Pavilion dv5z (Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80 @ 2.1GHz)	39.745s
Dell Inspiron 1525 (Core 2 Duo T7250 @ 2.0GHz)	43.569s
Dell XPS M1530 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	37.485s
HP Pavilion dv6500z (Turion 64 X2 TL-60 @ 2.0GHz)	40.759s
Sony VAIO NR (Core 2 Duo T5250 @ 1.5GHz)	58.233s
Toshiba Tecra A9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	38.343s
Toshiba Tecra M9 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	37.299s
HP Compaq 6910p (Core 2 Duo T7300 @ 2GHz)	40.965s
Sony VAIO TZ (Core 2 Duo U7600 @ 1.20GHz)	76.240s
Lenovo T61 (Core 2 Duo T7500 @ 2.2GHz)	37.705s
HP Pavilion dv6000z (Turion X2 TL-60 @ 2.0GHz)	38.720s

PCMark05 measures overall notebook performance (higher scores are better):

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
Gateway MC7803u (2.0GHz Intel T5800, ATI Radeon 3650 512MB)	5,152 PCMarks
Gateway P-7811 FX (2.26GHz Intel P8400, NVIDIA 9800M GTS 512MB)	6,815 PCMarks
HP Pavilion HDX18 (2.8GHz Intel T9600, Nvidia 9600M GT 512MB)	6,587 PCMarks
Acer Aspire 6920 (2.0GHz Intel T5750, Intel X3100)	4,179 PCMarks
HP Pavilion HDX (2.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9500, Nvidia Go 8800M GTS 512MB)	6,921 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad SL400 (2.26GHz Intel P8400, NVIDIA 9300M GS 256MB)	5,173 PCMarks
HP Pavilion dv5z (2.1GHz Turion X2 Ultra ZM-80, ATI Radeon HD 3200)	3,994 PCMarks
Dell Inspiron 1525 (2.0GHz Intel T7250, Intel X3100)	4,149 PCMarks
Dell XPS M1530 (2.20GHz Intel T7500, Nvidia 8600M GT 256MB)	5,412 PCMarks
Dell Inspiron 1520 (2.0GHz Intel T7300, NVIDIA 8600M GT)	4,616 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	4,153 PCMarks
Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB)	4,189 PCMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	4,234 PCMarks

3DMark06 comparison results:

3DMark06 represents the overall graphics performance of a notebook. (Higher numbers indicate better performance.)

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
Gateway MC7803u (2.0GHz Intel T5800, ATI Radeon 3650 512MB)	3,143 3DMarks
Gateway P-7811 FX (2.26GHz Intel P8400, NVIDIA 9800M GTS 512MB)	9,355 3DMarks
HP Pavilion HDX18 (2.8GHz Intel T9600, Nvidia 9600M GT 512MB)	4,127 3DMarks
HP Pavilion HDX (2.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9500, Nvidia Go 8800M GTS 512MB)	8,791 3DMarks
HP Pavilion HDX (2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7700, ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB)	4,205 3DMarks
Gateway P-171XL FX (2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo X7900, NVIDIA Go 8800M GTS)	8,801 3DMarks
Toshiba Qosmio G45 (2.50GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T9300, NVIDIA Go 8600M GT)	3,775 3DMarks
Toshiba Qosmio G45 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA Go 8600M GT)	2,934 3DMarks
Dell Inspiron 1720 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8600M GT)	2,930 3DMarks
Dell Inspiron 1420 (2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	1,329 3DMarks
Sony VAIO FZ (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	532 3DMarks
Dell XPS M1330 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	1,408 3DMarks
Asus F3sv-A1 (Core 2 Duo T7300 2.0GHz, Nvidia 8600M GS 256MB)	2,344 3DMarks
Alienware Area 51 m5550 (2.33GHz Core 2 Duo, nVidia GeForce Go 7600 256MB	2,183 3DMarks
Fujitsu Siemens Amilo Xi 1526 (1.66 Core Duo, nVidia 7600Go 256 MB)	2,144 3DMarks
Asus A6J (1.83GHz Core Duo, ATI X1600 128MB)	1,819 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	827 3DMarks
Sony VAIO SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	794 3DMarks

HDtune results:

One discrepancy that we noticed with our MC7803u configuration compared to the Gateway listed configuration was the type of graphics memory used. Gateway lists 512MB of GDDR3 memory, while GPUz indicated 500 MHz clock speed GDDR2 graphics memory. Our benchmarks reflect the difference as well, with most graphics cards that have faster video memory giving much better 3DMark06 scores. The memory module code also supported this, showing up as “HYB18T512161B2F - 512-Mbit x16 DDR2 SDRAM - Qimonda AG”.

Ports and Features

The MC7801u is packed with quite a few external ports, but missing some common features like eSata and Firewire. With 4 USB ports, I would have gladly sacrificed one for an eSata port, or even an eSata/USB combo port.

Port List:

• VGA and v1.3 HDMI
• Four USB
• Modem and LAN
• Two Headphone and one Microphone jacks
• Multi-Card Reader and ExpressCard/54
• Kensington Lock Slot and AC Power

Front: 2 Headphone/Mic

Rear: Display Hinge

Left: Kensington Lock Slot, AC Power, VGA, HDMI, LAN, Modem, 2 USB, ExpressCard/54, Multi-Card Reader

Right: Optical Drive and 2 USB

Speakers and Audio

Speaker performance is average, with front mounted speakers below the palmrest that easily get blocked with the notebook on your lap. Bass and midrange are lacking from the small speaker driver size and position, and volume levels could be improved.

This notebook offers 2 headphone jacks to share a movie with someone else on a plane ride (if the battery will last long enough). The audio output from the jacks were great, and peak volume levels were above my comfortable listening levels.

Battery Life

With the notebook set to the Windows Vista “Balanced” profile, wireless active, and screen brightness set to 60%, it ran for 3 hours and 47 minutes before it had went into sleep mode. For a 16” notebook with a battery that doesn’t extend out the back of the notebook, or protrude out from the bottom, the results were impressive. In our battery test I also disabled the keyboard and multimedia lights, since they added about half a watt to the power consumption while on.

Heat and Noise

The Gateway MC-series notebook cooled itself very well, designed with hot parts away from the shell of the notebook, keeping the palmrest and underside cool under stress. Fan noise was minimal, going just above a whisper level under stress, and off or very low under normal use.

Conclusion

The Gateway MC7803u turned out to be a very nice notebook in our testing, with a great design and excellent build quality. The design is very elegant, and the smooth surface multimedia keys and all-glass LCD work very well together. It has a simplistic look with very little clutter, and the backlit keys give it a wonderful look. Performance under light day to day work and mild gaming was fine, proving to be a good multimedia desktop replacement with almost 4 hours of battery life. I think the only thing that could make this notebook more perfect would be a higher resolution 1080p display and Blu-ray drive.

Pros:

• Smooth and supple leather palmrest
• Good performance
• Full backlit keyboard and multimedia keys (that turn off if you don’t want to be distracted)
• Great battery life for a 16” notebook
• Cool to the touch, even while gaming

Cons:

• Highly reflective screen

 

Gateway MC7803u (2.0GHz Intel T8500, ATI Radeon 3650 512MB)
pls edit it immediately

 

Its weird that you can no longer buy direct from Gateway. I wonder if there is any way to buy with a 30 day money back guarantee. The way these things are massed produced in China etc.. I don't like the idea of buying a system and then finding out it has a sub par screen, dead pixels what have you then have to send it in and deal with even more issues. The day Gateway stopped CTO systems put me out of the running. But other then that I think this system looks like a winner.

 

Nice review, and it's a relatively nice notebook too. Very unique in the least.

I'd like to have the ability to disable all of the indicator lights on my notebook - now that's a useful feature.

The resolution would kill this notebook for me. Seriously, 1366x768? I bloody need more vertical space than that, and with each new generation of aspect ratios, it seems we get less and less.

Nevertheless, I feel a need to go to Best Buy and check this Gateway out.

 

*....whistles*

I wish more notebooks had the kill-all switch. So many LEDs are super bright and annoying, and if you have them located under the screen, can ruin a movie at night. Last thing I want to see is machine gun lights flashing at me.

 

I just discovered the kill lights switch on mine.

Fingers crossed that the next 15" FX line is built on this chassis with a 4650 or 4670 GPU. It would be cool if the 17" chassis gets an update like this too.

 

I see they finally fixed the Fn and Ctrl key locations! They need to make it where people with older Gateway laptops can have the keyboard replaced or at least a way to remap the keys. The "Fn" and "Ctrl" key locations still mess me up.

Overall, notebook looks like it's a nice performer... other than the resolution being kind of dull.

 

Nice notebook and review. For those interested in comparing with other choices, the Sony FW is smaller, thinner and lighter with a bigger screen and higher resolution.

This Gateway measures Size: 1.3"-1.70" (H) x 15.28" (W) x 10.43" (D)
and Weight: 7.7 lbs with 16" screen and 1366x768 resolution

While the Sony FW measures Size: 1.3"-1.50"(H) x 15.1"(W) x 10.3"(D) and weight: 6.7 lbs. with 16.4" screen and 1600x900 or 1920 x 1080 resolution.

 

Gateway got bought by acer... acer doesn't do CTO.

acer is the reason I won't consider a Gateway.

 

Thanks Kevin. I just realized that my FX has a multimedia light kill switch as well. Very useful.

Superhob:
As for comparison purposes, maybe you should add that the FW is about $200 or 20% more expensive with the same hardware @ $1189. To those who are price conscious, that may be a substantial difference.

 

very nice review and i like the look of that laptop.

 

Wow, everything about this Gateway looks awesome.

The pricing is also very good; I suspect it might be some kind of cruel joke.

 

I like everything except for the stripe down the middle of it.

 

Nice review,thx

 

Great review, thanks. Best Buy had one of these on display, and I agree, it's much more elegant in design than the previous generation. I'm quite surprised to see what appears to be a MXM graphic card in it, instead of it being integrated to the mainboard like the previous models.

 

Might as well be integrated. The implementations differ so much from notebook to notebook, that MXM is a standard in name only.

 

I love it, as an FX owner i think the things i appreciate the most though is the 4 usb, Backlit keyboard, and frameless display. The things that id like to see is a better GPU/CPU option, better screen option and a FULL keyboard These things would make this a Perfect notebook overall i think id recommend this notebooks to anyone as it is still a hell of a deal for the price.

 

That's pretty sleek.

 

I just priced a FW on the sony site

similar stats, with the 3650 which has ddr3 ram not ddr2 and also a free blu-ray drive and 1600x900 screen which is already better than the smaller one on the gateway

the final price was $1189.99, yes it is 190 dollars more but you get:

1. bigger screen (might even be better in quality, but that's personal opinion)
2. ddr3 ram in the video card
3. blu ray drive
4. smaller size and ligher

of course the sony doesn't have that one extra USB and the 3 provided are in poor spot. and of course the kill switch on the lights is a nice touch and should be a feature on laptops.

btw any reason why the ram on the ati card is only ddr2?

The design is also quite good, not tacky or flashy, subdued, somehow the design reminds me even of the FW. Wonder if this will be sold in canada.

 

I don't think it has a backlit keyboard either. Also, do you mean higher resolution or a physically bigger screen?

 

no backlit keyboard, but then for me this is not an issue, the screen resolution is what I meant, 1600x900 or 1920x1080 depending on what screen you opt for. 1366x768 is a bit too small for me.

 

Great review!

Once again, Gateway has come out with a notebook that provides a lot of features for little money. I've always thought that Gateways were underrated; with this notebook, Gateway has built an almost perfect notebook. If only Gateway offered a higher-resolution display, made the notebook thinner and lighter, and actually used GDDR3 graphics memory like they say they do, then this notebook would be perfect. I'm not sure how well the leather would hold up, though.

On a side note, the placement of the CPU, GPU, and cooling setup bears a striking resemblance to my HP Compaq nw8440. I'm interested in seeing what the actual CPU and GPU temps are after benchmarking/gaming; my nw8440 has gone as high as 87C before under intensive tasks (it typically idles around the mid-50s)

 

How is this not an Editor's choice? Hardly any negative comments in the review and basically only praise for the laptop.

 

I guess there's no chance of this thing playing Crysis at High/Medium-High, is there? It's got the Ctrl key in the right spot and it's got the kind of battery life I'm looking for... although I do dislike the newfangled wide screens when it comes to work.

 

nice review. i've never been a fan of gateway, but this is a really handsome notebook. a better screen would be a huge selling point for this notebook.

 

nope, unless you go down all the way to 800 * 600, but then theres no point, seeing as 1366 * 768 Low would look better

 

Exactly, if you want to compare both, bring up the main differing characteristics.
Incidentally, does the 3650 in the FW come with GDDR3?
The currently free Blu-Ray upgrade certainly makes the FW more bang for the buck, assuming you have the extra budget.

 

Yep, the 3650 in the FW2** is GDDR3.