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>> Hi I'm Michelle Thatcher, Senior Associate Editor for cnet.com and today I'm looking at the Gateway MC7803u. What a conquerer of a name but the case design is quite a departure from Gateway. You've got a nice glossy black lid finish but there's chrome and pleather detailing throughout--that gives it kind of a lux look. The interior of the laptop matches the minimalist elegance of the exterior. You've actually around the keyboard deck a nice glossy black plastic section that includes hidden light touch media controls. When you turn off the laptop these media controls disappear and you've just got a nice clean black surface. There's also a backlit keyboard that's really great for working in bed or other low light situations and it's really comfortable to type on. I'm a fan of this keyboard. The crowning feature of this laptop is its 16-inch screen and that measurement actually gives you the 16 to 9 aspect ratio that's necessary for watching HD video; and you'll notice to that it has a kind of frameless look. It's actually edge to edge plastic without a display bezel which gives you a nice smooth surface for watching your movies. My biggest beef with this laptop is that it's got this great HD-friendly display and no Blu-ray optical drive to back it up so you're going to have to get your HD content online. However, without the Blu-ray drive that helps keep the laptop's price low and this Gateway is priced less than $1,000. I'm Michelle Thatcher and this was the First Look at the Gateway MC7803u.
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