I really want to do a well rounded review of this laptop, so I'll be analyzing all the other reviews here to completely cover everything. Firstly, this laptop went on sale this Sunday (March 6th) so all of these reviews are initial impressions. I'll start with my brief take: You're getting a lot for your dollar. $399+sales tax for a 15.6", AMD Phenom II x3 N830 (triple core, 2.1GHz, 1.5MB L2 cache, 1333MHz FSB w/ support for 64-bit and virtualization)., 4GB (2x2GB of DDR3 1333MHz RAM running dual channel), 500GB 5400RPM SATA hard drive, and AMD Vision Premium (ATi Radeon 4250 w/256MB of its own dedicated memory), the rest is shared with system RAM, usually 256MB or more to get a total of 512MB+... so better than most integrated solutions (especially those from Intel), but not a dedicated solution, but at this price, you won't find dedicated cards anyways. Main extras include: full number pad, HDMI out port, webcam and microphone, and multi-touch touchpad. The main negative of this laptop is the single speaker that it has. It's louder/better than any smaller netbook (~10" laptop), but it's worse than most full-sized laptops that have stereo speakers. In all honesty, I don't see this as a big deal, in that, laptop sound is always a compromise. This laptop is thin, light, and cheap... as a result, the speakers suffer. It does feature HDMI for video/audio out to a television or other display, as well as a heaphone jack for 2.0 or 2.1 speakers or headphones. So go ahead and use headphones or plug some speakers in if you want better sound. Now I'll start replying to the reviews already listed in chronological order: I agree that the bloatware on this machine is less than most. I only uninstalled the included Norton anti-virus, the New York Times links, and the Bing Search Bar. Setup was also rather swift: surely less than 15 minutes and you're up and running. The first reviewer: Dano16 talks about the screen being small for gaming but the speed being fast. This doesn't make sense. 15.6" is the 2nd largest, common size of laptop, so it's by no means a small screen. The 1366 x 768 resolution is the most common resolution as well. But saying that the speed is fast for gaming is misleading... this is *not* a gaming laptop. it lacks a dedicated graphics card. Really, if you're spending less than about $650-$1200, you're not buying a "gaming" laptop. Consider the Asus G73 if you insist on gaming on a laptop. Otherwise, stick to a desktop. The 2nd reviewer, RJC311 talks about the screen being unbearable as he can see "every pixel on the screen". Now, I have corrected 20/20 vision, and my head is about 2.5 feet back from the screen, and I cannot claim to see this. The bigger issue at hand, though, is that the screen size and resolution is a very common one, so, if RJC311 is upset with the screen quality, then he's going to be upset with the screen quality of the vast majority of laptops. Perhaps this is his first purchase. He then complains about the touchpad positioning, but its position is optimal. It is centered on the spacebar so one can type without having his or her wrist hit the touchpad. As a side note, I still recommend a wireless mouse with a laptop for increased productivity. The best mouse out right now for typical users is the Logitech M515 "Couch" mouse. The Microsoft mice w/ BlueTrack are not bad either, and you can find a cheap wireless mouse for between $15 and $40 depending on the sale and model. If you do this, Gateway features a Fn+F6 shortcut to disable/enable the touchpad. Lastly, he complains about the power cord plug area. I agree that it doesn't slide in indiscriminately, but, one should always pay special care to plugging/unplugging their laptop--this is a very typical area to be damaged irreparably. The anonymous review from South Florida is accurate: there are no indicators lights for caps or num lock, BUT! There is an onscreen display reminder when you hit them... so it's easy to notice if you hit one accidentally. Sadly, his review's accuracy ends there... he speaks about the Windows Experience score of i5 processors, but, WE scores are not based solely on the cpu. In most cases the score is limited to the graphics card or hard drive disk. When I first booted the machine, it had a WEI (Windows Experience Index) of 4.1, limited by the graphics, not the CPU. After updating to the latest AMD video drivers, windows updates, etc., the score re-tested to 4.2, still limited to the graphics. The processor's subscore is 6.2 (quite high for a scale of 1.0 to 7.9). This processor is difficult to compare to Intel Core i3's or i5's. In certain respects it can be faster (due to having more cores (three)). But depending on the model of i3 or i5, it will score lower (based on clock speed, amount of cache, hyperthreading, etc.). I think the most accurate place for it on ranking chart would be certainly above the Turion, Athlon, and Pentium chips, certainly below i7's and the vast majority of i5s... but somewhere closer to the lower to middle area of Intel Core i3 processors. Now, the funniest review is from collegeguy21 who gave it a 1-star. He says, and I quote, "The system was very slow overall and continuously crashed despite the multiple up-to-date anti virus systems i had installed on it." Now, if you're an advanced user, you will know that, having "multiple...anti virus systems" is awful! It will completely ruin your system. You always want only one, whether it be Microsoft Security Essentials, Grisoft's AVG Anti-Virus Free, Symantec Norton 360, etc. Never do you want more than one, and he claims to have multiple installed (I assume 3 or more). It's no wonder it keeps having problems. Not to be outdone, he says the system only lasted a year... well... that means he didn't review this laptop, as it has only been out for a few days. His review needs to be flagged as unrelated and removed so that his 1 star can be thrown out. As a side note, the only other semi-negative might be the keyboard and/or touchpad. They are a bit unique, and take some getting used to, but I typed this whole review using it, so... I don't find it to be an issue. I'm just happy it has a full numeric pad. As a side note on things I do like: the laptop is a matte, textured, black... so it doesn't get finger prints on it like a glossy laptop. It's thin and light. this might cause some to make it feel cheap, but it's rock solid and doesn't creak when I pick it up by its corner. Battery life is typical: Best Buy claims it was tested to a max of 3hrs 57 minutes. When I unplug it, I've seen it estimate as high as about 5 hours. Realistic use (e.g. internet surfing w/ flash) would be closer to 3 hours, which is just as much battery life as most laptops in or around this price range. The reviewer "NetworkAdminGuy" kind of contradicts himself when he says, "I'm certain that you might be able to upgrade RAM..." Certain that you might? Well are you "certain" or not? I, on the other hand, am certain that you can upgrade it to 8GB of RAM, but this would be a complete waste of money for most users. Firstly 4GB is a LOT of RAM, even with shared memory by the GPU, and Windows 7. But unless you are using very particular applications (like Adobe Photoshop CSX), adding to the RAM would do very little to increase your performance. There, I've gone over all of the reviews thus far. My favorite thing about this laptop: after upgrading the DirectX, AMD graphics drivers, and downloading Media Player Classic, I was able to use an HDMI cable to connect to my large 1080P TV, and watch a 1080P, 24FPS Blu-Ray rip (mind you, not Blu-Ray Disc) on my TV, without stuttering. Quite a deal for $399.99+sales tax. I can't wait to see how this laptop acts over the next few years. Please comment if you have a question I can answer.