Stylish version of the Acer Aspire seriesIt's taken a while but it's finally happened; the most sought after brands are making their way to the Indian market. Recently we covered the Alienware launch, which is just what we need to boost the gaming sector here. We also have Gateway, which is a very well-known brand in the US and Europe, and now being part of Acer has finally launched along with eMachines.
Acer has positioned Gateway as a brand that provides stylish and affordable gadgets concentrating more on the aesthetic appeal of the product. In a way it sees Dell and HP Pavillion as its main competitors and is trying to capture that portion of the market. So now that Acer has two more brands under its hood, we have eMachines for the value segment, Acer Aspire for the mid-level segment and Gateway that has been positioned as the lifestyle brand. As of now we have just a handful of products in each technology sector like the Gateway All-in-one desktop, a Netbook and the NV44 Notebook, which we'll be reviewing today.
Unlike the Aspire series the NV44 has a completely different look and sort of resembles the HP DV4 Notebooks. The overall finish of the Notebook is good with a sturdy build that should be able to take some abuse. Let's check out the bundle and ergonomics of the NV44.
Bundle
The notebook comes with a standard set of accessories like;
- Charger
- Instrcution manual
- Driver CD
- Norton Internet Security 60-day trial
The front lid sports a nice mosaic pattern with a greyish color scheme. The finish is glossy but fingerprints cannot be seen thanks to the pattern.
The left side features the exhaust vents along with the VGA port, LAN jack, HDMI, USB port and a microphone and headphone jack.
The rear of the notebook has the charger port and the modem port, which I doubt anyone uses nowadays.
The bottom of the notebook isn't very neat but you have plenty of vents underneath to help cool the components.
The hinge is built like a cylindrical barrel that provides extra stability and is also more durable. The plastic used is quite strong and blends well with the whole design of the notebook.
The design of the keyboard is pretty standard and don't have any special ergonomic design. But there is a good amount of spacing between the keys and good feedback as well, which makes it quite comfortable to use. There are a couple of shortcut touch sensitive buttons above the keyboard which let you access other features of the notebook like Eco mode, Backup, Wi-Fi toggle, and volume control.
Performance
PCMark Vantage
SiSOFT SANDRA 2009
Processor Arithmetic
Processor Multimedia
Multi-Core Efficiency
File System
Memory Bandwidth
Cache and Memory
Analysis
The graphs reveal that the aging T4200 shows its age when compared to the new range of Core2Duo processors. The Aspire 4736z, which has the same processor but faster DDR3 RAM, manages to outdo it when it comes to the Memory Benchmarks.
General and Multimedia Usage
Windows is generally smooth to navigate around and applications respond normally with a little delay. The keyboard is especially very comfortable to use and I really like the whole finish. The right hand side shift key is a little small but it's not too bad due to its large size. The palm rest and trackpad have a nice finish and do not attract fingerprints.
Gateway has styled the two mouse buttons differently with a single plastic strip which takes a little getting used to. The screen is bright thanks to the LED backlight and text and images are sharp and clear. The shortcut buttons respond instantly to touch, but I wish the power button was lit up.
Battery Life
The Gateway NV44 comes with a 6-cell battery with a 4400mAh capacity. We tried two types of tests as usual; first the BurnInTest and second actual usage. This is what we got.
Burn in Test
High performance mode was selected along with WiFi on and brightness set to max. With this we were able to get a backup time of two hours and 20 minutes, which is not bad for a 14-inch notebook.
Eco mode
In Eco mode the brightness is dimmed down to save power but we still maintained High Performance mode. During this time the notebook lasted around four hours and 30 minutes. This is about the most you can get out of a 6-cell battery with this capacity, so it's still pretty decent.
Pricing
The Gateway NV44 is priced at around Rs. 35,000, which is inclusive of all taxes. The pricing is not too bad considering the features and build, although we would have like it to be lesser. In this same price range we have the Acer 4736z that has more or less the same features but the Gateway has slightly better ergonomics and looks.
Verdict
To sum things up, the Gateway NV44 is the stylish version of the Acer Aspire series. The aesthetics are a lot better as compared to the Aspire series with a snazzier design and finish.
The performance of the notebook is good if not the best and it delivers what it promises. Plenty of connection options for the user including HDMI as well as Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The touch sensitive buttons come really handy when you need to toggle between functions, and the Eco mode helps prolong the battery life quite a bit.
My only main concern is the weight and the missing Express Card slot that should have been present by default. This notebook is available in most retail stores, so I would advise you to go and take a look at it yourself before you decide to take the plunge.
Specifications
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