Originally Posted by Thunderroad
Glad to see that no one in this thread has recommended Gateway, but I'll nevertheless warn the OP and any other readers away from it. My laptop itself is OK, BUT Gateway customer service and technical support are the worst I've experienced with any company. To make a long story short: repeated and very time-consuming problems, starting with my being given wrong information by the telephone sales agent re what my unit included, continuing through having to repeatedly call Gateway just to get the unit shipped, and continuing yet again with having to make numerous calls and send numerous emails over the course of a over month (and getting completely conflicting responses) to get a (fully warranteed) problem fixed that should only have taken a few days. I suspect that, perhaps because the company is financially squeezed, it does not bother with training its personnel or updating its systems. Regardless, Gateway is a disaster.
Consumer Reports features new portable computer support and reliability data in their March issue. It turns out that Apple has led both categories for 5 years, their lead growing progressively each year. Gateway didn't do so well...
For portable support:
1. Apple 84
2. IBM 69
3. Toshiba 58
4. Dell 57
5. Gateway 55
6. HP 54
7. Compaq 48
8. Sony 46
Portable Reliability (%age needing repair over 4 years of use)
1. Apple 16%
2. Toshiba 17%
3. Sony 17%
4. IBM 19%
5. HP 20%
6. Dell 20%
7. Compaq 23%
8. Gateway 24%