With this being my first laptop, I am completely blown away. It's fast, compact, beautiful, and it does everything it promises. I'm having a hard time thinking of anything I don't like about it. Maybe it could have another USB port, and I'm still not sure if it has bluetooth or not. I think it needs that, but that's it. When those little netbooks came out, I was considering getting one of those, but I'm so glad I found this instead. I LOVE IT!

I have owned this laptop for three days now and so far it is living up to my expectations. I was looking for a solid system with the Core 2 Dual and 4g of memory so that it would be able to run Vista 64 which I have heard is more stable than Vista 32. I also wanted a sizeable hard drive and at 320g you can't get much bigger. For $500 brand new this model was too good to be true. The sales woman at Compusa couldn't explain to me why this was cheaper than other laptops with less under the hood. I normally buy online, but this deal was too good to pass up.

It's small, with a 14 inch screen it fits very easily into my backpack and I hardly know it's there because it weighs next to nothing. The screen is bright and vivid. The full sized keyboard is very responsive and easy to type on. The speakers are pretty impressive for a unit this size. I can watch movies without having to lean into my screen to hear them. The mouse pad is normal, although I prefer the up/down button scroll to the ruler pad slide on the side. It has three usb ports, an HDMI port, card reader, VGA output and the standard headphone and mic jack. I would love to see companies replace the vga output with some standard RCA outs. It would make life so much simpler when connecting your computer to a TV.

The unit is pretty fast and stable. I have already installed a ton of software on it and it doesn't seem to have any problems when multi-tasking or loading. The DVD burner is great. It takes me about 45 minutes to burn a full leangth DVD. The tray can take one or two tries to push back in, but it's not a big deal. It doesn't put out a great amount of heat. I feel comfortable leaving it on my lap for an hour.

I like the subtle silver and black design with all blue lights. The hot buttons above the keyboard for quick DVD and windows media launch blend into the unit well. I have had quick launch buttons on other laptops and never use them. There is a great volume control next to the hot buttons that is very responsive to slight finger taps. The whole design is simple and sleek.

I havn't tested the battery life yet, but it was advertised as having a three hour life span. Seems reasonable. I had it unplugged for a bunch of printing and the battery indicator never dropped below full. It is very quich to shut off the screen when on battery power, which is great for conserving energy.

With it's small size and high power performance, net book users may want to consider this over an underpowered net unit.

For the price, I think this is probabaly the best deal on the market. It is my third Gateway laptop and I hope it lasts as long as the other two which each held up very well for about five years. I have no buyers remorse and will update if I discover any faults.

First off i will say that this laptop was worth the 500ish bucks i paid. It was shipped on a 5 day shipment but arrived in less than two days, now that's fast. I do want to note the pros and cons:

pros:

320 gbs(284gbs when u first load it up because of the preinstalled software)

built in web cam(thats what i call sweet)

4gb of ram( talk about fast connections)

the screen isn't too big nor too small so it fits right next to my tv. and takes hardly any space up.

its light and comfortable.

easy to carry and take around with you.

very cheap

3 in 1 card reader

cons: all software is preinstalled into the laptop(i would have liked it if it came with discs)

the back up software freezes the laptop.

crashes occasionally at start but the updates will fix it.

updates take a chunk of the memory

the keypad is all bunched up together

the mouse pad is unresponsive so you have to click it a couple of times.(on occasions)

that's it, i would give it a 5 out of 5 because it gets the job done at the end of the day, but i believe this laptop could have been better.

It is everything that it says in the specs but when i unpack it...i was breathless!!!!!!!!! The performances is totally wonderful quick, beautiful, and very modern. I even recommended it to a few friends of mine and for $499.00 you cant go wrong.

If you purchase this computer because you think it will qualify for the Windows 7 Upgrade Option you are mistaken!! I purchased it, and subsequently returned it, because it does not qualify for the option. I received written confirmation from Microsoft and verbal confirmation from Amazon that it would qualify, but Gateway did not want to play ball.

I tried calling Gateway and was told that the T-68 models do not qualify. There is no conscionable reason for it not to qualify other than that Gateway does not see the need to provide minimum customer service to their customers. I do not recommend purchasing from Gateway. Also, for those of you that are bothered by this - customer service representatives at Gateway do not speak English as a first language!

I admit the computer works fine.

Cons: Screen resolution is max 1200 X 800ish. I would have hoped for better.

The speakers are weak and not the clearest.

The CD/DVD drive is a little flimsy.