The Gateway is built by ACER as are many others brands. Who makes ACER? Your guess is as good as mine. lol Through my perusing the net, I have learned there are only a handfull of companies who make laptops for all manufacturers. Like you however, I have always had very good luck with Toshiba products in general, but I must say that ASUS is another company you should consider. I build my own home machines, and always buy ASUS boards, but also while perusing the net, I learned that ASUS was one of the top, trusted names in laptops. I don't own one, yet, so can't comment on reliability, customer service etc. I just bought my HP dv6-6117dx for $429 from Best Buy nov 27th, and was able to get it at the store which was nice, imediate gratification. lol This thing has Beats Audio which is great over headphones, the speakers are so/so, but over full on headphones, it's awsome as Beats puts out 2 clean watts unlike most that only put out 1 watt. Some think Beats Audio to be a gimick, but it is not, and you won't really be able to tell by listening to the laptop speakers, you must use phones. This one has the AMD 3500m CPU w/6620G graphics which is the best you can get graphics-wise from a laptop in this category; The under $700 or so, and unheard of in a $429 laptop, it will play all newer games where some games won't even load with Intel based HD3000 graphics which is Intel's current best. Anyway, I have had some problems with the HP, and am probably going to return it for an ASUS i5 model - U56E-BBL6 - for $549 it looks to be a great deal If I can get my hands on one. (
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Asus+-+Laptop+/+Intel&%23174%3B+Core&%23153%3B+i5+Processor+/+15.6&%2334%3B+Display+/+6GB+Memory+-+Aluminum+Lake+Blue+Hairline/3411128.p?id=1218399206867&skuId=3411128&slref=10&slloc=01 ) Best Buy site says they still have them. I really hate to give up this HP though, their service is top notch! I couldn't be more pleased, and that is saying something. However, The Hp Laptop, brand new, and out of the box, had some cosmetic flaws I decided I could live with, but it then started having some screen problems, flickering line at the top of screen which a change in power scheme settings proved effective in clearing up, but just a work around, not a solution. HP, while in chat about this last night, had me install new drivers, but havn't had a chance to test them out to see if the settings still cause the lines. It's related to the "never turn monitor off" setting which for some, especially when on battery, is a must have. It will sleep fine, but if set to turn off, the lines appear? lol Who knows, and again, something I was willing to live with, and again, support has been great! However, I noticed yesterday the laptop sags in the middle which disallows the lid/screen from sitting flush against the base. It's only about a 16th of an inch bowed, but the base is warped, and I know this will only get worse, and will require a complete new frame/casing from HP. If Best Buy wants to knock off another $75-$100, I might decide to keep it, and send it in, but that ASUS I refer to above, from what I have read, is an actual Aluminum casing, frame. I read it has the aluminum on the keyboard/pad part of the base, not sure where else it may have the aluminum, but even having it just on the part of the laptop which gets the most use is a real plus. I am into sound, reason for going with HP, and their Beats Audio, it really is excellent, and HP has a real good reputation as well so keep them in mind when looking. Bring some good ear buds, or phones along with a mem card with some music on it, and test it for yourself, if you also care about sound. I am going to do this with the ASUS, but I don't expect the same quality, but one can always hope. lol Anyhoo, at the price, that ASUS looks good if you havn't bought a computer yet, and it's very stylish if your into this aspect, it has that I'm an expensive laptop look! lol But, as we know, it's very reasonable for what you get. Hope this helps, and sorry for being so wordy, I get going, and it's difficult to stop, love to write. Hope you find what you are looking for, and if You already bought, and like any of the above or the HP I list below, Best Buy has returns until mid Jan. Mine is defective so I hope they don't try to hang a restock fee on me as these were sold out long ago, or I would simply exchange for another as I am real happy with it. They do have another model of this, but it's $629, $200 more. (
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/HP+-+Pavilion+Laptop+/+AMD+A-Series+Processor+/+15.6&%2334%3B+Display+/+8GB+Memory+-+Dark+Umber/4038134.p?id=1218450209175&skuId=4038134&IcsCsid=2-39-2064-25-5-122287-169037-25-2064-20-25-2064-3497-0-1 ) I have $485 on my return, and am willing to go another $100, but that's it. I simply can't afford to go higher, the reason for buying the HP dv6-6117dx in the first place was it's value at $429, one of those buys you rarely come across. LOL, ok, I'm done, hope this helps, hope you got, or get, what you want. Take care all.
P.S. I can't leave without stating another aspect. Customer service is unbelievable at HP, meaning extremely good. Had trouble building recover discs with top of the line media from Verbatim which has always worked fine for me, very few coasters, and HP sent me backup/recovery discs without charging me. Have had 3 chats with them online for various problems, and all went well, and fast. Hp has great support. So, that is another aspect to look into when buying your laptop, look for the reviews of what kind of service to expect from any given company. or instance, My experiences with Samsung have been nothing short of horrendous, and it was a simple matter, but they held firm until I spent hours writing, and on the phone. I love Samsung products, but am now very hesitant to buy that name again. I also had trouble with another S.Korea company so wonder if it's just the nature of South Korean companies to hold out to the end because I was at the point of suing before they gave me what I had deserved all along, a simple key to unlock software that came with my Samsung SSD drive, which is a great drive by the way, but customer service? Non existant in Samsung's case. I am going to look around after this for reviews regarding ASUS, and will most likely call them, try to get them in a chat, etc. This is a good way to test service before buying from anyone! Take care.
