Info Decent Gateway budget laptop with 16GB RAM for $349

[igor_kavinski]

Robot or human?

An office mate bought this with only 8GB and about two weeks later, the same model with double the RAM pops up on Walmart with the same price. I particularly liked the full size arrow keys which many numbnut manufacturers (HP specifically) are used to castrating to keep the Shift key full size. Here's the geekebench score I got:

GPU Company GWTN156-4 - Geekbench

Benchmark results for a GPU Company GWTN156-4 with an AMD Ryzen 5 3450U with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx processor.

browser.geekbench.com

The SSD is a Netac model. Not super speedy but gets the job done. With 16GB RAM, I think it's good value.

EDIT: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Gateway-...Scanner-1-0MP-Webcam-HDMI-Cortana-W/832254517

This one's even better value in terms of processing power, if you can live with the smaller SSD and measly 4GB.

 

[Shmee]

The first option is not a bad deal if you can upgrade the SSD. I wonder how difficult it is.

 

[igor_kavinski]

2020 Gateway Ultra Slim Notebook Laptop Model GWTN141-4 Review - YouTube

Same laptop but with an Intel Core i5 CPU. SSD is upgradeable easily but the RAM seems to be soldered.

 

[Shmee]

Why do they mention SSD is only upgrade-able up to 1TB? I did not watch the video yet, but I see that in the description.

 

[igor_kavinski]

Nice of that user to share that important bit of info.

 

[F1N3ST]

Robot or human?

An office mate bought this with only 8GB and about two weeks later, the same model with double the RAM pops up on Walmart with the same price. I particularly liked the full size arrow keys which many numbnut manufacturers (HP specifically) are used to castrating to keep the Shift key full size. Here's the geekebench score I got:

GPU Company GWTN156-4 - Geekbench

Benchmark results for a GPU Company GWTN156-4 with an AMD Ryzen 5 3450U with Radeon Vega Mobile Gfx processor.

browser.geekbench.com

The SSD is a Netac model. Not super speedy but gets the job done. With 16GB RAM, I think it's good value.

EDIT: https://www.walmart.com/ip/Gateway-...Scanner-1-0MP-Webcam-HDMI-Cortana-W/832254517

This one's even better value in terms of processing power, if you can live with the smaller SSD and measly 4GB.

Interesting. I've been out of the game for a long time and need a decent budget laptop. May fit the bill, I have an extra ssd laying arou d too

 

[VirtualLarry]

Are you a human?

www.newegg.com

Lenovo with 5700U, 8GB / 512GB, $629.99.

 

[papaschtroumpf]

Ok I'm interested, my wife is starting a side-hustle business and needs a laptop for excel, word, stuff like that. I think that fits the bill.
Storage is not the greatest, anyone knows what windows and the like out of the 256Gb?

I've been out of it for a while so the score and processor speed mean little to me. I think the 16Gb will help apps like Excel run smoother?

Edit: out of stock

 

[papaschtroumpf]

Looks like this one is the 8G model at $50 more. Bah, hopefully something similar shows up by Black Friday

 

[igor_kavinski]

Looks like this one is the 8G model at $50 more. Bah, hopefully something similar shows up by Black Friday

Robot or human?

I like purple. You can save another $10 if you go for some other color. Yeah, it's refurbished but still comes with warranty. 256GB is more than enough for normal use. You would be left with 150GB+ after installing commonly used software like Office etc.

Robot or human?

Price increased. But I think it's still not that bad.

 

[papaschtroumpf]

I ordered ordered the 8Gb one for $329 in green.
I think 8G should be OK.
It can be returned till late Jan so i will keep monitoring for black Friday deals.



Anyone knows what Wi-Fi level is supported? I notice it is only Bluetooth 4.2, so i want to make sure wifi is not limit to 802.11a/b/g

EDIT: answering my own question, Amazon lists it as 892.11ac, which is great: https://www.amazon.com/Gateway-Ultra-Slim-GWTN156-4GR-1920x1080-Fingerprint/dp/B09B7Y9WRX

 

[papaschtroumpf]

Most of the reviews mention it doesn't feel like quality build, plastic-y, etc... but that they love the specs/components/speed for the buck.
Igor what does your friend think in that regard?
I may come back and update with a review in this thread, but I may not open the box for a while as I monitor for additional deals, should I decide to return it (the website says returns till Jan 25, but doesn't say if it's OK if the box has been opened). I'm hoping Costco may come through on Black Friday or CyberMonday deals, it feels like I buy something computer-related from them every BF

 

[igor_kavinski]

Most of the reviews mention it doesn't feel like quality build, plastic-y, etc... but that they love the specs/components/speed for the buck.
Igor what does your friend think in that regard?
I may come back and update with a review in this thread, but I may not open the box for a while as I monitor for additional deals, should I decide to return it (the website says returns till Jan 25, but doesn't say if it's OK if the box has been opened). I'm hoping Costco may come through on Black Friday or CyberMonday deals, it feels like I buy something computer-related from them every BF

I asked my friend to bring it to work and benchmarked it. The build is definitely plasticky. Feels somewhat like a toy laptop. Screen brightness at max is too dim for outdoor viewing but otherwise acceptable, at least to me. The keyboard is fine. Didn't note any other issues. Microsoft also presented Windows 11 update to it rather quickly during the initial launch days. Overall, my friend is quite happy with it because he has a really old Macbook that he was using and that has slowed down to a crawl for some reason so the snappy performance of this laptop really pleased him.