Unboxing the Gateway 14.1" FHD Ultra Slim Notebook

Specs

✓ Intel Core i5-1035G1

✓ 16 GB RAM

✓ 256 GB SSD

✓ 14.1" 1920x1080p display

✓ Fingerprint scanner

✓ Windows 10

Purchase Price: $399.00

Buy on Walmart

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A New Beginning

We often look back at dead stores and brands with an affinity we didn’t have when they were alive or else they’d probably still be around. It seems to be a trend in technology to relaunch once household named products starting with the revival of Nokia phones half a decade ago. In the Windows laptop space, the once mighty enterprise giant, Gateway, has resurfaced from the ashes onto Walmart shelves in 2020. This isn’t your Dad’s Gateway that you may remember, but it sure hits many nostalgic points.

In the 2010’s Acer acquired the rights to the Gateway intellectual property. Instead of incorporating Gateway into a sub-brand, it looks like Acer has decided to license the IP to budget laptop maker EVOO to produce new laptops under the Gateway name exclusively at Walmart. What we ended up getting as a product is an affordable laptop that looks and feels very similar to the same laptops Walmart sold under the EVOO branding just last year. 

With that background established, the reason why the Gateway Ultra Slim Notebook is so attractive is due to its often discounted sale price of $399. At that affordable price point, Walmart is offering you a pretty decent looking laptop powered by an Intel Core i5-1035G1 processor with 16 GB of RAM and 256 GB of SSD. We’re looking at integrated graphics, but at this price point if a buyer is intending to use this laptop for enterprise or school purposes, I actually think its performance should be well suited for those tasks. We’ll discuss this after using the laptop for an extended amount of time in our full review.

A Bit of Throwback

The Ultra Slim Notebook comes packaged in a cow colored black and white box which I’m sure will attract nostalgic shoppers. If you’re going to license the intellectual property you might as well use every aspect of it and I love the tribute here. I’m not old enough to have been able to purchase a Gateway laptop during their heyday, but I am well acquainted with their laptops as I still use one in the lab at work. I can tell you right now that while the build quality of these new Gateway laptops aren’t something you’d brag about to your friends, they’re plenty acceptable. Old Gateway laptops had glossy plastic casings and while they were well built, they too weren’t anything special at the time. When you first unbox the Walmart Gateways you’re greeted with the iconic cow shield on top of an aluminum lid. This laptop is a mix of relatively premium material (metal) and plastic. In fact, the entire bottom lid is made of a very distinctive plastic that feels significantly different to your touch than the lid does.

Pleasant Surprises

Speaking of the bottom lid, there are fans that cool this laptop seeing as it uses a Core-i5 processor. There’s also a bottom door that, when unscrewed, reveals a M.2 SSD expansion slot. There was a time when almost all laptops provided access to expansion and upgrade for their users, so this is a welcome throwback.

With a built in fingerprint scanner on the top left corner of the trackpad, we’re getting access to Windows Hello. This is something we take for granted as there are lots of other laptops within this price category that don’t have a fingerprint scanner or even a face scanning log in method. 

As far as the keyboard and trackpad go, you’ll have to live with a very clacky plastic feeling. This is an obvious place that showcases the true nature of the product and its price point. The trackpad and keyboard work as they’re intended to of course, but I can’t help but feel the response time for the trackpad seems a little slower than it should be.

Overall Thoughts

Regardless of aesthetic preference and name brand recognition, laptops like these are a huge win for consumers. We need $399 laptops with capable processing power that can be someone’s daily beater in our market. It would have been easy for Acer to go the VAIO route with Gateway and aim for a premium segment product, but because these laptops are easily purchasable through Walmart at a competitive price, if you’re looking for a good valued laptop with underpriced performing specs, this route is much easier for North American consumers than importing a Chinese laptop.

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