Gateway Solo 9300cx (Gateway Solo 9300)

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Product:	Gateway Solo 9300
Date:	30/06/00 (64 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Long battery life

Disadvantages: crash too often

The toughest, most popular kids get picked first for kick ball, but sometimes it's the last kid who ends up team MVP. In the leading-edge laptop troupe, the Gateway Solo 9300cx's extensive battery life, cushy usability, and cutting-edge ports make it a first choice for any team. But cheaper leading-edge notebooks pack enough punch to be equally valuable players.

$6 Million Battery Life
The Solo 9300cx impressed us most with its battery life, lasting nearly 3.5 hours on drain tests. But the Solo will last this long only if you set its SpeedStep processor to battery-optimized performance, causing it to run at a slower 500 MHz. Running at its maximum 650-MHz performance, the Gateway still achieved a lengthy 2 hours and 49 minutes.

Thankfully, you won't need to worry about lagging performance, should you decide to use battery-optimized speed. When watching a movie at both 500 MHz and 650 MHz with the Solo's 6X DVD drive and huge, 15-inch TFT, we noticed no difference. As CNET Labs' business applications tests show, either speed also works fine for basic tasks such as Word, Web surfing, and email. Of course, the system's ample 128MB of RAM and fast 8MB ATI Rage Mobility graphics chip played a significant part in its satisfying performance. And you'll be able to store several years' worth of files on the Gateway's massive 18GB hard drive.

Smooth Operator
The Solo 9300cx looks just as great live as it does on paper. The system offers internal DVD and floppy drives, yet it manages to maintain a svelte, 1.5-inch-high chassis, weighing in at 8.5 pounds. Gateway has squeezed plenty of usability pleasures into the Solo's skinny case, including four programmable buttons for one-touch application launching; external CD buttons that let you play discs without booting up your system; and an expansive, comfortable keyboard. One nit to pick: We'd prefer to see a space between the right Shift key and
the inverted-T cursor pad, to prevent your right pinkie from hitting the up arrow and misplacing the pointer.

The 9300cx also offers the latest ports, including one each of composite video-in and -out, two USB, and one FireWire. We see the value in the video and USB ports, as many devices support these standards. But currently, only a handful of expensive FireWire devices exist, most notably digital camcorders. So unless you're a digital video pro, we suggest saving several hundred dollars by choosing a lower-end model without FireWire, such as the 9300cs, and spending $100 on a service and support plan beyond the default 12-month parts and labor warranty. Fortunately, you won't have to pay extra for a decent software suite, since the 9300cx ships with Microsoft Office 2000.

The Gateway Solo 9300cx would no doubt make an excellent addition to any organization. But at $3,949, it will also make quite a dent in any savings. Your best bet is to order this system sans FireWire, or if you really want to pinch pennies, go for a thousands-cheaper laptop, such as the Quantex W-1511.

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