The Gateway NV51B05u is a new budget notebook from Gateway, powered by the new AMD Fusion E-350 APU. The NV51B05u may fall into the budget category, coming in around $470, but our initial tests found a notebook that is sturdy and more than capable enough to meet the needs of your average home or student user.
The Gateway NV51B05u has a 1.6GHz AMD Fusion E-350 APU which can deliver a better user experience because the graphics are built on the same chip as the processor. The notebook also has an AMD HD 6130 with 256MB RAM, a 500GB hard drive and has 3GB DDR3 RAM. The 15.6″ display has a 1366×768 resolution and along the upper bezel is a 1.3MP webcam and microphone for video conferencing. The notebook has a DVD Drive and wireless b/g/n.
Gateway NV51B05u Hands On Video:
One of the first things we look at when it comes to budget notebooks is how sturdy and durable they feel. This is one area where we were pleasantly surprised. The NV51B05u has a nice outer shell which is plastic, but won’t attract fingerprints thanks to the matte finish and ridges which make up the design. The hinges on the notebook are quite strong, keeping the lid closed when we wanted it to and also keeping it at the angle we opened it to. While there is some flex on the display, the overall body of the notebook had relatively little flex in the base of the unit and an overall sturdy feel.
As far as power goes, we’ve been browsing in a few Chrome windows and with a few tabs open in each and haven’t run into any issues. We’ve also streamed a Netflix movie and used a few office programs without problems. We’ll be testing HD video and seeing how this Fusion powered notebook can handle light photo and video editing for our final review of the Gateway NV51B05u.
The keyboard and mouse are adequate, we do like the chiclet style keyboard which has decent feedback and spacing. There is a dedicated social media button on the notebook which provides one touch access to Facebook, Twitter and others. We’re not sure if this button is really needed, but it doesn’t appear to have taken the place of anything important.
Gateway NV51B05u Gallery:
The Gateway NV51B05u is available from Fry’s for $469.99, you can find a similar looking Gateway NV51 model at Best Buy for under $400, but it has a slower processor.
Gateway NV51B05u Specifications:
- Operating System: Genuine Windows® 7 Home Premium 64-bit
- Processor: AMD E-Series Processor E-350 (1.60GHz, 1MB L2 Cache, 1066MHz FSB)
- Graphics: ATI Radeon™ HD 6310 Graphics with 256MB of dedicated system memory, supporting Unified Video Decoder 3 (UVD3), OpenCL™ 1.1, OpenGL® 3.1, OpenEXR High Dynamic-Range (HDR) technology, Shader Model 5.0, Microsoft® DirectX® 11
- Memory: 3072MB DDR3 Dual-Channel Memory, expandable up to 8GB
- Storage Drive: 500GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
- Optical Drive: 8X DVD-Super Multi Double-Layer Drive
- Display: 15.6″ HD Widescreen Ultrabright™ LED LCD Display 1366×768 resolution, 16:9 aspect ratio
- Sound: High-Definition Audio Support, Mono Speaker, MS-Sound Compatible, Built-in Microphone
- Webcam: 1.3 Megapixel HD Webcam (1280 x 1024)
- Communications: 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™, 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet LAN (RJ-45 port)
- Expandability: 2-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader supporting Secure Digital™ (SD) Card & MultiMediaCard (MMC)
- Ports: 3 – USB 2.0 Ports, 1 – HDMI™ Port with HDCP support, 1 – VGA Port, 1 – Headphone/Speaker/Line-Out Jack, 1 – Microphone-in Jack, 1 – Ethernet (RJ-45) Port
- Battery: 6-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery (4400 mAh), up to 4.7 hour battery life
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