With a premium aluminum-alloy design and an ultra-thin bezel that squeezes a 14-inch screen into what's usually a 13-inch space, the Gateway ID47H02u makes a very good first impression. For a reasonable $699, this thin-and-light laptop also includes a powerful Core i5 processor, USB 3.0, and Dolby Home Theater sound. Is this the best 14-inch notebook around?
Design
Sporting a brushed aluminum-alloy lid and deck, metallic-colored keys, and a slick dark blue-tinted touchpad, the Gateway ID47H02u oozes style. Even the matte-black bottom and sides have a smooth surface, with a minimum of extraneous holes and grooves. The remarkable 0.2-inch black bezel surrounding the screen not only fits a 14-inch display in the same space normally reserved for a 13-inch panel, but it also adds a unique design flair.Thanks to its thin bezel, the 13 x 9 x 1.1-inch Gateway ID47H02u is about half an inch shorter than many other 14-inch notebooks, such as the 13.3 x 9.8 x 1.1-inch ASUS U41JF and the 13.5 x 9.6 x 1.1-inch Acer Aspire TimelineX 4820TG. At 4.4 pounds, the ID47H02u is also lighter than the ASUS U41JF (4.8 pounds) and the TimelineX 4820TG (4.6 pounds). The HP Pavilion dm4t is a little thicker, but it has the same weight and depth, at 13.4 x 9 x 1.3 inches and 4.4 pounds.
Keyboard and TouchPad
The island-style keyboard on the ID47 provided reasonable tactile feedback, good key placement, and a comfortable deck that allowed us to achieve a strong score of 86 words per minute with a 1-percent error rate on the Ten Thumbs Typing Test, 8 percent faster than our average score. However, the keyboard did show a small amount of flex, particularly when we pressed down on the G and H keys. We do appreciate that the function keys are reversed so you can adjust the brightness and activate media controls without using combos.The fairly large 3.9 x 2.3-inch Synaptics ClickPad has a slick, glossy surface with a unique blue color. Navigating the desktop wasn't difficult, but the touchpad picks up fingerprints easily and creates a little more friction that we'd prefer. Multitouch geatures such as pinch-to-zoom worked, but they were jerky. Those who use the touchpad with two fingers will experience some jerkiness and occasional unintended zooming. You can also scroll with two fingers and show the desktop at any time with a four-finger swipe down.
Heat
The Gateway ID47H02u stayed pleasantly cool throughout our testing. After streaming a video for 15 minutes at full screen, we measured the touchpad at 84 degrees, the keyboard at 85 degrees, and the bottom at a chilly 79 degrees Fahrenheit. We consider temperatures below 95 degrees comfortable and those below 90 degrees imperceptible.Display and Audio
The Gateway ID47H02u's 14.1-inch, 1366 x 768 200-nit glossy screen provided sharp, rich images. When we tried watching both a 1080p QuickTime trailer for Immortals and a 1080p YouTube trailer for Don't Be Afraid of the Dark, images were crisp and motion was smooth, but colors inverted at even 45 degree angles. Dark areas also showed a high amount of backlight bleed.
The stereo speakers located on the bottom of the Gateway ID47H02u provided accurate audio that was loud enough to fill a room. Bass-heavy songs from the Forget Me Nots, Kool and the Gang's "Summer Madness," and the Isley Brothers' "Between the Sheets" offered a rich, clear separation of sound. However, guitar-laden tunes such as Motley Crue's "Looks that Kill" had a rough, distorted tone that became more palatable when we turned down the volume a notch. The Dolby Home Theater v.4 software makes a huge difference, as all songs were flat when we toggled the application off.
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