Dealing with warranties is one thing -- it's almost always a crap-shoot, and you're continually pressing your luck when trying to get something covered without any out-of-pocket expense. But how's about the tech support that's so whimsically promised with so many laptops these days? Our pals over at Laptop put in an inordinate amount of work in order to find out, pinging a full dozen manufacturers via phone and chat in order to measure hold time, level of support offered and overall satisfaction. Just about every major laptop maker was included (Acer, Apple, Dell, Lenovo, HP, Toshiba and Fujitsu, just to name a few), and an in-depth report of their findings was posted for each one. In general, though, they found that most companies wouldn't hang around long enough to answer those nagging questions that typically end up in forums ("How do I remove bloatware?"), oftentimes pointing the caller to a paid alternative that would actually take the time to address their issues. If you're considering a new machine, and you aren't exactly one of those nerdy go-getters who can troubleshoot everything yourself, you should certainly give the source links below a look. Just try not to get too depressed, cool?Laptop's 2010 tech support showdown reveals ugly truth: you're (almost) on your own originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 14 Jul 2010 18:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |  Laptop  | Email this | Comments

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We're not sure why Gateway's waited so long to release the details and pricing on the LT32 -- considering it's pretty much a rebadge of the Acer Aspire One 721 we just reviewed -- but lo and behold the HD-capable, 11.6-inch ultraportable will be hitting the street soon for $450. Just like the $430 Aspire One 721, the LT32 is powered by AMD's 1.7GHz Athlon II Neo K125 CPU, runs Windows 7 Home Premium, and packs a 250GB hard drive and 2GB of RAM. It also has ATI Radeon HD 4225 integrated graphics, which as we saw on the recent Acers handles 1080p flash and local video like a champ. From the looks of things the LT32 also seems to have a similar chassis to the 721, so we're not totally sure why you'd choose it over the Acer when it's $20 more, but perhaps there's just some Gateway diehards amongst us. Hit the break for the full release.Continue reading Gateway LT32 to hit retailers soon for $450Gateway LT32 to hit retailers soon for $450 originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

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Oh sure, Acer may have spent the first half of the week convincing us that its newest laptops and netbooks were the sweetest systems around, but now it's turning the attention to its Gateway brand only tempt us with equally as enticing options. The ID series has been on our radar ever since we saw its blue-glowing touchpad at Computex, and luckily both the 14-inch ID49 and 15.6-inch ID59 will hit US retailers for less than $800 in the coming weeks. The exact configurations are unclear, but they'll have Core i3 / i5 CPU options as well as NVIDIA Optimus graphics. On the netbook front, Gateway's bringing out the 10.1-inch LT23, which looks the same as the LT22 we caught a glimpse of a few weeks back. Powered by an Intel Atom N450 CPU, 1GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive, the netbook will start at a tempting $329. Check out the gallery below for some shiny press shots and the full press release after the break. Oh and Acer, we're giving you permission to chill on the new laptops for a bit! Gallery: Gateway ID and LT series press shotsContinue reading Gateway's glowing ID laptops arrive along with new LT series netbooksGateway's glowing ID laptops arrive along with new LT series netbooks originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:01:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

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Who needs a backlit keyboard when you have a backlit touchpad? Okay, that's really a rhetorical question, but Gateway's newest 13.3-inch EC339C and 14-inch ID49C08u do in fact have glowing blue touchpads. The pad itself only lights up when you put your finger to it, and like HP's ClickPads have integrated mouse buttons. The rest of the thin and light machines are equally as impressive -- they have nabbed Acer's chiclet style keyboard and have that dedicated social networking key that Gateway seems to be adding to many of its systems. The key, which may very well have the cutest logo of all time stamped upon it, launched a social networking widget that allows for adding Facebook, YouTube and Flickr feeds to a timeline. Internally, the EC39C packs a Core i5 ULV processor and NVIDIA Optimus for switching between the GeForce 310 GPU and Intel's integrated HD graphics. The ID49C08u has a standard voltage Core i5, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB hard drive and an onboard optical drive. Your guess is as good as ours about availability and pricing, but we did grab you some nice hands-on shots and a video of that crazy touchpad after the break. Gallery: Gateway EC39C and ID49C08u hands-onContinue reading Gateway gets snazzy with glowing touchpads on EC39C and ID49C08u laptopsGateway gets snazzy with glowing touchpads on EC39C and ID49C08u laptops originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Jun 2010 05:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

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Just in case you were wondering where and when you might get a taste of the Optimus elixir, NVIDIA has handed us a detailed list of Computex debutants that will be taking the graphics switching technology with them to retail. A total of sixteen new Optimus machines are on show in Taipei, and although ASUS is still the biggest purveyor (with six SKUs, not counting previously announced products), Lenovo and Acer have also jumped on board, with the IdeaPad Y460 and a pair of Packard Bell EasyNotes, respectively. Notably, the FX700 above from MSI is marked as using an "unannounced" next-gen graphics chip, which we suspect might be the GTX 460M, a mobile GPU that NVIDIA is showing, but not talking about yet. Guess that'll be slotting in just below the recently unveiled GTX 480M. We've got pictorial evidence of the 460M's existence after the break, along with the full list of new Optimus-ized machines, which you can also scope out in the gallery below.Gallery: NVIDIA Optimus at Computex 2010Continue reading NVIDIA shows 16 new Optimus laptops at Computex, teases GTX 460M GPUNVIDIA shows 16 new Optimus laptops at Computex, teases GTX 460M GPU originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Jun 2010 08:05:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

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