Gateway is Back: A Closer Look

Gateway is back exclusively at Walmart. How do their offerings hold up? Photo by Wolfgang Hasselmann on Unsplash

When I saw that the Gateway brand of computers was making a return, it brought back nostalgic images of those cow-print boxes and logos the company was known for back in the late 90s/early 2000s. It was kind of exciting seeing a such an iconic brand from back in the day making a return. Acer ended up acquiring Gateway in the later 2000s and today the brand is back exclusively at Walmart. However, my excitement was short-lived when I took a deeper look into their offerings. The specs were a bit different than the original article from Walmart had stated when I read it a couple of weeks ago and most of the offerings are a bit disappointing. RAM and storage on a majority of the laptops lean towards the lower end, and I am skeptical that Windows 10 will run well on only 4 GB of RAM. The tablets are also a bit short on RAM with just 2 GB; less than what my phone has. A couple of the offerings caught my eye even though the specs aren’t optimal. Let’s take a look:

The Ultraslim series offers a 16 GB model with an Intel i5 processor which doesn’t seem too bad for $479. The only downside is that it doesn’t have a dedicated graphics processor, so gaming and other graphics intensive applications might not run optimally on this laptop. Other than that, this one should run most basic applications and Windows 10 with no problem. The other unit I took a closer look at was the Ultraslim with the Ryzen processor for $349. The downside to this laptop is that it only comes with 4 GB of RAM, which I think is a bit on the low side to run Windows 10 and gaming on this laptop is going to be out of the question.  Other than that it seems to be a great value. With these specs, it would be a perfect machine to throw Ubuntu on or to use as a cheap second computer. 

Now, I understand that Gateway isn’t trying to offer high-performance machines, but the hardware on most of their offerings seems unbalanced. Enough RAM but not enough storage, or dedicated graphics but not enough RAM. If you need something cheap, a Gateway might be your thing but if you need something that is inexpensive, good quality, and offers great value, think about getting a Chromebook or another brand of laptop that fits your needs. 

Gateway PCs are Back!

Remember Gateway PCs and their cow print theme?
Photo by Jean Carlo Emer on Unsplash

Do you remember Gateway PCs? Remember back in the early 2000s the PCs with the Holstein cow themed logo? Well Gateway is back with a new line of budget-friendly laptops and tablets available exclusively at Walmart. They are offering an Ultra Slim series and a Creators series for laptops, as well as a 2-in-1 and a couple of tablets. I’ll be taking a closer look at these soon to see if they’re worth looking into. At first look, the laptops and 2-in-1 look promising but the tablets seem a little underpowered. Check back soon for my take on these new budget-minded tech offerings from Walmart!