$600 Notebook Roundup - Crowning the Affordability King

The NX200S' keyboard offers good tactile feedback. However, some of the keys have a tendency to give you that slight rattling noise when typing on them.  We noticed it most with the arrow and backspace keys, while the rest were relatively problem free. 

The function key is located to the left of the left CTRL key, keeping the CTRL, Windows and ALT keys in their normal order; it takes a little getting used to if switching from a normal desktop - the main issue being that the key in the left-most corner of the bottom of the keyboard isn't the CTRL key, which can definitely throw you off. 

The keyboard also features dedicated home, end, pg up and pg down keys, which are a must-have for anyone who does a lot of typing or editing.  The majority of the keys are normal sizes, with the exception of the four aforementioned keys that are noticeably smaller and stuck off to the side of the keyboard. 

Gateway outfitted the NX200S with a trackpad and a scroll area that can be used for scrolling vertically.  Both the trackpad and the scroll area worked just fine, but unlike Gateway's competitors, there was no easy-to-access button that could be used to disable the track pad.  The track pad features two mouse buttons, a larger left button and a small right button.  Whether or not this setup appeals to you will really depend on your personal preference, although in our use of the notebook, it didn't really pose much of a problem.  The caps and num lock indicators are located below the trackpad as symbols that glow blue when activated, matching the blue power LED. 

A nice feature for Gateway to include is the ability to turn off the power LED by hitting fn + F1.  The feature's usefulness is definitely limited, but it is easy to implement and can be nice to have. 

As you can guess, at the $600 price point, there are no options for keyboard lighting on the NX200S nor on any of the other notebooks in this roundup. 

Like the rest of the notebooks in this roundup, the Gateway NX200S didn't do much in terms of heating things up.  The underside of the notebook became slightly warm at best, but didn't make us uncomfortable at all - it is one of the benefits of the very cool Celeron M processor.

Unfortunately, like the Compaqs, the Gateway was a noisey notebook.  The problem is strictly fan noise; when it's not spinning, the notebook is silent, but at speed, it is definitely noticeable.

While the NS200S can't offer performance greater than the Inspiron 2200, it does come in a close second place, offering better overall performance than the Compaqs.  The kicker though is its battery life, as the Gateway offering managed to give significantly better battery life in all of our tests, when compared to any of the Dell or Compaq solutions.  You have no mobility without a good battery life, and that's where Gateway wins.