FUN FACT: i bought a Chromebook for my mother on amazon and two years later when she gave it to me to service, i noticed the back plate was peeling and when i peeled it completely off it said "PROPERTY OF X SCHOOL DISTRICTS". I purchased this "brand new" btw.

@AaronShenghao

7 ай бұрын

It's quite common, seen people basically "stolen" school/work laptops and sell them overseas, or just use them themselves.

@KyouHatesU

7 ай бұрын

That's actually insane I wonder how many stolen computers are out there

@DanielScariti

7 ай бұрын

It may not be stolen. I worked with a school in IT and we sold our older chromebooks in bulk to another company and they probably resold them or something.

@deanbruckner1444

7 ай бұрын

@@DanielScariti Oh i totally agree that it wasn't "stolen property", more-so the fact that it wasn't advertised or sold as "refurbished"

@nossss329

7 ай бұрын

lol

It should be illegal for companies to reward you if you leave a good review. Contractors in my area love to “request a 5 star review” which is unbelievably tacky.

@twes003

4 ай бұрын

It is illegal lol it’s literally bribery but why should Amazon care if it means more people get scammed which earns them more money amirite

@FlintG

3 ай бұрын

Oh yeah that is very shady and should be illegal for them to do that. But somehow they get away with it.

@rogerthomas7040

3 ай бұрын

Amazon bans companies that does this if it finds out.

@bigbossgameing5982

2 ай бұрын

Walmart does the same thing. And they force their associates to make sure customers are clicking the 5 stars.

Amazon has gotten real rough lately. I just helped my parents pick out new laptops, went to "the acer store" on Amazon and picked out an inspire laptop for them. They both came and wouldnt charge so needed to be sent to Acer. Acer sent them back, with a letter saying that there were mon Acer parts installed and they would not put them back in. After calling Acer to find out how this was possible I learned, they do not sell on Amazon. This is just how Amazon lists sellers that sell Acer products...as " the acer store". Anyway i got one of them working fine and aside from the now obvious fact that it was not original it is a great laptop. The other had to be sent back as it had a ton of issues. Seems to me like someone just salavaged a bunch of doa laptops and mixed and matched parts then sold them on Amazon as brand new. Also Amazon seemed completely unphased at how counterintuitive it is to buy from "the acer store" when nothing is coming from Acer.

@twes003

4 ай бұрын

Amazon is unphased by everything because it earns them money. Doesn’t matter if it’s a blatant scam, review bribery etc. all they want is your money

@suzannelowry9561

4 ай бұрын

So grateful for this info. Go cheap or go home doesn't work on Amazon, you'd say?

@TrundleTheGreat

4 ай бұрын

@@suzannelowry9561 just pay close attention to what you are buying and from whom is what I'd say. The one that worked is a great laptop. But in this small sample it's 50/50...

It'd be fun if someone stickered over the brand labels of some brand name cheap and no-name cheap laptops and let Austin guess which is which. I bet some of these no-names would do okay.

@POVwithRC

7 ай бұрын

I sort of doubt it

@legerdemain

7 ай бұрын

@@POVwithRC I dunno, I think you could get a Galaxy Book Go in there and have it disappear in the crowd.

@Keither754

7 ай бұрын

I think that would make a great video.

@lucutes2936

7 ай бұрын

​@@Keither754woop

@lemagicalpotato8318

7 ай бұрын

This this this: can easily be made to be entertaining and would give a good idea of what is possible on a tighter budget

Looks like that "Ryzen 7" is a rebranded Ryzen 3 3200u, considering the iGPU is Vega 3, and not Vega 10

@privettoli

7 ай бұрын

Should be a crime

@ResultofFailedbirthcontrol

26 күн бұрын

@@privettoliit is

@alexscottthompson812

5 күн бұрын

@@privettoli it is lol

Gotta give it to whoever schedules these things, seeing follow ups whether positive or negative, is a huge plus.

The gateway laptop has a Walmart inventory sticker on it. These have/were on clearance for $98 for quite a while

@snesguy9176

7 ай бұрын

Yeah I got one last December as an impulse buy to watch media in bed. Couldn't run KZread above 480p without stuttering. Put win 10 on it, still shit. Put Linux mint on it, and its usable now. It can run KZread at 1080 perfectly as long as you don't try to do literally anything else 😂

The gateway Laptop is using a tablet motherboard. However, many of those cheap Laptops are using tablet motherboards pinched from business tablets hence why they came with Windows PRO installed and had modified CPU firmware to make the hole thing function properly if at all. That Ryzen is basically a recycled Intel CPU ....As the saying goes in China "If there's a way to cheat, you cheat".

Man. I remember my family getting our first computer which was a Gateway back in the Win98 days. It was so exciting opening up that cow box in the kitchen and setting it up. I didn't know they still made computers or even kept up with the cow theme.

@TheCommanderTaco

7 ай бұрын

They were bought out by Acer, but they still sale in retail stores as usually the cheaper option, especially if you want a touch screen laptop.

@Yodagamer1

7 ай бұрын

They don't really make them anymore. There was a company walmart worked with out of china to produce the evoo laptop line. I'm guess walmart thought they'd sell better with the gateway brand and acer licensed the name out and they started rebadging the evoo laptops.

@pabblo1

7 ай бұрын

@@TheCommanderTaco Same with Packard Bell, I think.

@floydlooney6837

7 ай бұрын

They went out of business for a long time, another company now owns the brand name

@wetzinalvarado6930

5 ай бұрын

​@@floydlooney6837Walmart

I think that kind of review soliciting is illegal here in the UK. From my understanding, the US is waaaaay behind on regulation and consumer protection laws.

Wow that Gateway laptop’s box has an old Walmart backroom case label on it.

Man, i remember Gateway from waayyyyyyy back. They made mediocre Desktops in the windows 98-XP era, but i think they were a very consumer focussed "computers for the family" derivative of like HP or Dell or someone...

@alfredoaraujo9294

7 ай бұрын

I think they are technically owned by acer now.

@Plondysaurus

7 ай бұрын

@@alfredoaraujo9294 ah that's interesting based on what's in the notebook in this video...shame.

@isaigutierrez1617

7 ай бұрын

​@@alfredoaraujo9294I thought it was Emachines that was with Acer and Gateway was with Dell

Amazon is pretty awful these days, really have to watch what your buying and who you are buying it from.

As a gateway enjoyer that introduced me to laptop gaming…leave them alone man they’re trying lol I bought the gateway creator laptop that came with a GTX2060 and let me tell you almost 3 years later and I’ve played every new major game without a problem. I’m currently playing MK1 on my laptop and my runs of cyberpunk and BG3 have been awesome.

@Crazy09starkillor

7 ай бұрын

I had an rtx 2060 laptop too, the lack of vram is definitely the main thing killing it in 2023

@jasonlewis810

7 ай бұрын

I have that same laptop, with the 10300 cpu. I've been pretty happy with it overall

@harsha1179

7 ай бұрын

​@@jasonlewis810I have a same processor with gtx 1650 I bought two years ago I am thinking about switching for fsr gf but till now I am happy with

@cflynn3684

Ай бұрын

I had a core i5-1035g1 15.6 inch model that I recently gave to my mom because I upgraded, but I’m impressed with its specs for the $350-$400 price range. Walmart sells plenty of these with 16gb ram and modern quad core CPUs like the one I got. It’s not a gaming laptop but impressive value. Only downside is the cheap plastic

After a quick search, gateway is just owned by Acer now! So the quality and warranty shouldn’t be bad, I think the 140$ price tag is what made the model a PoS

@ExtraSauceOnTheSide

7 ай бұрын

The brand is owned by Acer, but the laptop is actually made by another different company that licensed the Gateway name from Acer.

@TheSpotify95

4 ай бұрын

At $140 you get what you pay for. You're really better off going used at this price point.

@THE_CARBON

4 ай бұрын

I got a pos hp for 80$

Funny story I once did the review free gift card thing and they asked to email them a screenshot of my 5 star review and I just photoshop my user name over someone else review and still got my gift card.

At this point, you can just rename your channel to Austin Mystery Tech Evans 😂

If you only have $200 to $300 to spend on a laptop, you're better off buying an older ThinkPad like the T480S.

@sali-ali

7 ай бұрын

I got 2014 MacBook Air for $220 with 4th gen i7. Installed Windows 11 it's flying. The screen is terrible sadly, but you get used to it.

As with most reviews, if you have to give them before you have used the device they're not worth the paper they're written on.

This is the most Austiny Austin to ever Austin. Subscribed.

That bitecool was probably the most surprising as it at least had upgrade options but even at that I still don't think it is worthy of a recommendation. But Despite this it was exactly what I was expecting inside these machines.

Fun fact that gateway appears to be dead stock from Walmart as the black box sticker on the side I recognize that as the backroom inventory sticker we used when worked there a while back

They didn't scam you in the processor in the first laptop. You needed to install Ryzen Master and restart the device. This sometimes happens to ryzen cpus when booting up for the first time without Ryzen Master.

Wonder how good the warranty support is on the Gateway? Since the brand has been sold around a few times, this might be a good time to see whether the New Gateway is at least trying to be a company worth supporting again.

@joeyhillers9460

7 ай бұрын

So, I work at Walmart and used to sell a bunch of them. Honestly, they’re not terrible and I actually have the 11.6 in from the video. We sell it new for $199 with aftermarket warranty. Warranty outside of that is so so, but that’s pretty much every laptop. I lent mine to my brother and he cracked the glass. To replace it, it would cost $125. So more than it’s worth

dude, that gateway was from a Walmart. that QR sticker at 10:39 minutes a backroom sticker. it was scanned into the back " store storage" on 12/15/22.. What?!

-What kind of Dual Core? -Don't worry about it

My husband bought a Processor "brand new" off amazon, it came and the box was already damaged like someone opened it, the processor itself was used as it still had some thermal paste on it. We were making a completely new computer build, I told him not to use it because you don't know, and I don't want the PC damaged. We sent it back and went to microcenter. Also it was from "The Intel Store"

@user-jm5qd2gm2d

Ай бұрын

Womp womp

You actually missed a huge part here for a vid titled "shady" and saying it's about "can you trust"... you didn't even once check the laptops for their bloatware and especially if they have malware pre-installed. That's actually the big issue with no-name electronics, they extremely often come pre-loaded with malware, just check out similar videos on Android set top boxes, etc.

I think Gateway is now used by Acer for branding budget laptops in Walmart, which would explain the Walmart inventory sticker. If their earlier laptops are an indication they’re ODM laptops so expect some similar designs elsewhere. A year or 2 ago they had a creator laptop with a RTX 2060 and that was a decent device (albeit an ODM design so very similar to other devices)

Anytime I can add ram and an M.2, it gets a pass from me

This is why I don't buy computers off on Amazon you never know if it'll work

with this video i'm starting to appreciate more my hp laptop at least I didn't get scammed by those cheap amazon laptops

Dat Mike Tyson resolution on thefirst laptop lol!

Randomly hearing polish in that cow meme caught me off guard 😂

Try searching the characters on the "Ryzen 7". It'll tell you exactly what chip it actually is. I believe all 3rd gen Ryzen chips require you to do this, similar to Intel laptop chips (on Intel you search up the 5 character code printed on the substrate beginning with an S, e.g., SR0CH, etc).

@KoolGuy420

7 ай бұрын

I don't understand why he acted like it's impossible to find the chip. He's already got the serial number just pop it into Google...

@gentle285

7 ай бұрын

@@KoolGuy420 Exactly!!

@da_pawz

7 ай бұрын

@@KoolGuy420 well... same like that one 'big tech youtuber'... Less research for faster production and upload lol

@MalteserLP

7 ай бұрын

It’s a 3200U!

5:11 Can we have a $30 gift card to give you? Wtf are you saying Austin? Good lord…

Well I have 10 cents in my pocket sooo....😂 And those who are wondering why I have 10 cents is because I'm from Pakistan and I have 50 PKR.and I love watching laptop videos because I am in 12th grade and everything we learn in computer science now is all code and I have an old 2011 pc but here electricity is miracle to be on time and wastes my work.and I'm the middle child so some may know how they are treated and I love technology and use it. Once my brother's rich friend had an ipad and it was so fun to use... So moral of my story: you guys should be thankful for what you have ok....😉😊

@Freestyle80

7 ай бұрын

and being terminally online isnt changing that

@cutebunny3404

7 ай бұрын

​@@Freestyle80so you want me to spend my 10 cents😢😂

@Nxrmal_Leo

7 ай бұрын

@@cutebunny3404he wants you to go and get a job 😊

@lukedavis436

7 ай бұрын

I have 48 Pence man....I feel you, But I also have a shedload of older computers in my collection XD

@cutebunny3404

7 ай бұрын

@@lukedavis436 😢🥰

I was just wondering if you know that the "cow song" you played after thank mooo is about hard drugs and how good they are?

That Gateway sure reminds me of the Acer netbook I had several years ago when they were a thing.

Love your vids keep it up ❤

Love you Austin

4 gigs of ram reserved for graphics on amd ? is ok ! on intel doing the exact same thing ? "yooo wtf dude ,they partitionned 4 gigs of vram ohlala...." 8gb ram = 2gb vram reserved ,12gb ? 4gb of vram ,etc ,AAAAnd you can modify it on the bios

@benreed4957

7 ай бұрын

Came here to say this. No one partitioned anything, it's just reserved.

@nooneinpart

7 ай бұрын

Intel iGPUs don't (usually) reserve VRAM in a way that takes away from the total system RAM. My laptop has 16GB of RAM and an Intel Iris Xe, 15.7GB is visible in the Task Manager and the GPU has a visible 7.8GB of shared memory. I guess used VRAM counts towards total RAM usage instead of a specific amount being cordoned off specifically for the iGPU, which AMD chips do.

Watching this on a on a shady laptop from Amazon

@what3ver912

3 ай бұрын

😂😂

7:21 I recognize that keyboard. That is an HP layout. Yep they got their hands on HP B stock for their keyboards

I picked up the gateway laptop from a salvage store for super cheap. I used it to stream my desktop in other rooms. The touchscreen randomly stopped working after a while.

@butterfox863

7 ай бұрын

i just steal mine

Austin and Friends, your channel is one of the best for the variety of the content.

One of the features for the Bitecool laptop was sata ssd/ hdd. You thought it was empty space.

I was NOT expecting a dancing segment lol!

great vid man

The mention of banding when talking about the Gateway immediately brought back memories of banding in Magic. Not good memories. I'm probably the only one that jumped to that, but still.

Next you should make a video about the mini PC's!

15:34 lol, mono speaker

The song with the cow😂😂😂

Bro you got me laughing my guts out😂 you got a new sub here. i landed on your vid because im currently waiting on two laptops from amazon, even tho i just bought and have the unopened box of the Robo and kala 2 n 1 lap top, yeah i know i never heard of them either, but it was advetised as the surface pro killa ,anyway im afraid to open the box on account that im wondering if i can open the box, use it ,decide if like it or not ,if not return it for my $ back.

The gateway laptop, appears to have had a Wal-mart VizPick Label on it, Likely a Reseller that got them on clearance for cheap cheap

11:33 “Oh no! No! No!” 🤣

I bought one of those blue gateways from Walmart when I needed a laptop (not that model, it was $500 I believe) and it was so bad. The keyboard crapped out on me after hardly even a year and THE SCREEN FELL OFF. It sure was fun having to find the right stuff to stick the screen back on. The only reason I got that one is because it was the only one at that price point I could find in person with 16 gigs of ram.

Man I didn’t know Gateway was still making computers. Brings me back to the days of being at circuit city and seeing the likes of compaq and Acer computers on display.

Hmm now I’m nervous about buying one of these off brands. Thought I would check here first and glad I did 👍

I had to do sound engineering for my marching band on a gateway laptop the glare was horrendous and the cow wasn't it lmao

8:06 Many Windows laptops sound quite out of the box. Try using "Loudness" eq from sounds settings!

I would look in the bios and see if some of the cores are disabled for some reason.

Hi Austin!

Great video

I always wondered about the jumper brand

Great viseo. I always stay away from brands I never heard of. Bought a few HP;s but bow only buy Lenovo..

For the first laptop, it might be because of system configuration disabled those cores in windows, run MSconfig you might be able to enable those cores back.

@MalteserLP

7 ай бұрын

It’s because the chip is a 3200U.

The way the iGPUs work with the memory is using about 2GB of memory, I have an APU in my system and when I was using the integrated video, it did take the 2GB, but now that I have a video card, there is no decreased memory.

I would've loved to see how Windows is activated on each device.

Austin Maybe the next video could be mini, micro, stick pc’s?

you know it might be preconfigured in msconfig to limit the max cpu cores

I hate that I recognized a vizpick label on the gateway laptop

I never tire of watching this dude 😂

I have one of those Gateway convertibles, it's not great performance wise but if you are just using it to stream or watch youtube videos it's a great machine. Plus the battery lasts forever from my experience. It's better for travelling than my Lenovo.

Damnit I had an idea for a keyboard cover but do not have the fortitude nor capital to back it up and get it going(well maybe I do but the risk lol). I was wondering if there are any high end keyboard covers in the marketplace to keep the crumbs out of my keys lol?

8:12 lol I love it

Friend of mine many years ago bought basically a Chinese android laptop, note I didn’t say Chromebook… was a very odd thing esp in where they cut corners

8:10 that was very very unexpected

Lol last time i danced like that - i really had crabs.

5:06 THE MONSTERS INC EMPLOYEE IS SO ACCURATE

@8:09 CIA requested a 10hr loop video of this

Can you also test a teclast laptop?

The fact that the second laptop had a whats app or whatever QR code for the "lifetime warranty" is pretty shady.

no available captions? I'm early :D

Is there a way to read a SSD chip? My laptop broke a while back and they could not fix it so they refunded me and I put it towards a new(better) one. They sent me back the hard drive and the SSD, I was able to read the hard drive using one of those external things but is there any way to read the SSD without putting it in the laptop?

i thought gateway went out of business over 20 years ago "Defunct October 2007; 16 years ago Fate Acquired by Acer Inc.; brand revived in 2020"

the cow theme is a gateway thing

9:55 yeahh that can be fixed in bios

wait, what would happen if you bought all the "we give you $30 gift card" laptops and then sent them back for free? do that 15 times and you can buy a free laptop then 😆

This man is so bad ass makes my day

Im still using my old Sony Vaio (the 2nd Gen) upgraded to 12Gb Ram (and Win 10), Its slow and horrible but I wonder how it stands up against these ScamTops

0:46 I am dead🤣

First ever laptop my parents bought me was a Gateway and I loved it

lifetime warranties from sketchy companies means jack all. most of the time the business or product is no longer in business/available so it doesnt even matter that u have a lifetime warranty

So glad I watched this exposé and had the sense to not buy anything this small or unknown again. Kudos!

Im not going to lie I have a strong inclination that the random Ryzen is one of them "embedded APU SOC" mostly used for commercial equipment. Minus the GPIO.

The intel sticker could have come from numerous sources of parts should look at the spec sheet probable some intel parts doesn’t have to be the cpu

04:10 is comedy gold

3:43 is it possible that SMT is off in the bios making it read the 4 cores 4 threads as 2 cores 4 threads?

7:40 even the editor knew💀