I bought SHADY Laptops from Amazon...

[@deanbruckner1444]

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]

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

[@KyouHatesU]

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

[@DanielScariti]

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]

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

[@catchh1xalt]

lol

[@staples6]

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]

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]

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

[@rogerthomas7040]

Amazon bans companies that does this if it finds out.

[@bigbossgameing5982]

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

[@TechnoBots1]

God forbid they ask for a review that helps build their business lol

[@TrundleTheGreat]

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]

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]

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

[@TrundleTheGreat]

@@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...

[@The_10th_Man]

Amazon is basically wish now

[@sohu86x]

Sorry that you're careless

[@JessePlays3434]

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

[@privettoli]

Should be a crime

[@ResultofFailedbirthcontrol]

@@privettoliit is

[@alexscottthompson812]

@@privettoli it is lol

[@balpreetsingh6834]

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

[@StuffJason437]

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".

[@legerdemain]

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]

I sort of doubt it

[@legerdemain]

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

[@Keither754]

I think that would make a great video.

[@lucutes2936]

​@@Keither754woop

[@lemagicalpotato8318]

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

[@gryfyn71]

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

[@snesguy9176]

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

[@The_10th_Man]

Amazing what a crap machine can do when you rip all the MS spying out.

[@homermorisson9135]

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.

[@keithbrown7685]

After all this time, off'ing bloatware and malware from systems, I have determined that bloatware *IS* malware.

[@phonephan1281]

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

[@cloudiicat]

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"

[@JaiKumarKairamkonda]

Womp womp

[@bodhi1271]

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]

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.

[@staciefreshener4032]

@@sali-ali stll nice , my own pc with equivalent cost + 100$ is Core i3. Altho I bought my pc long ago, when 2GB of ram cost same as 8Gb of ram. I own 8 Gb of rm right now , but 4Gb cost me 40$ , while next 4GB ram cost me 10$ Prices drop crazy. My own 150GB HDD is expensive than my 500GB HDD which is more faster. ! I think it's old vs new pricing so yeah . else most can get good pc at 340$, My is 2012 one core i3. GPU was 210 then fried (overclock ) and then GT610

[@privettoli]

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

[@gabinomorales106]

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]

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

[@jasonlewis810]

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

[@harsha1179]

​@@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]

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

[@SteelFlexInc]

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

[@fearbot69]

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]

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]

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]

@@TheCommanderTaco Same with Packard Bell, I think.

[@floydlooney6837]

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

[@wetzinalvarado6930]

​@@floydlooney6837Walmart

[@FlightTVyt]

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]

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

[@TheSpotify95]

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

[@THE_CARBON]

I got a pos hp for 80$

[@Plondysaurus]

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]

I think they are technically owned by acer now.

[@Plondysaurus]

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

[@isaigutierrez1617]

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

[@Arachnoid_of_the_underverse]

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.

[@FlyingFun.]

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

[@josephzeh8600]

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?!

[@MayaPosch]

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]

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

[@technophile_]

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

[@X-xXRealSigmaXx-X]

Me watching this on a $10 tablet:

[@Karubatman]

😂😂

[@chandran_sosuke]

Me watching with my $30 Moblie phone

[@keithbrown7685]

Oiiiii

[@keithbrown7685]

Oiiiii #2 🙂

[@staciefreshener4032]

@@chandran_sosuke which one ?? there are some but I am curious , I like phones and specs :0

[@sonicmario57]

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]

i just steal mine

[@preposterousi]

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.

[@AmazedStoner]

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.

[@lilman227]

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

[@watercannonscollaboration2281]

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)

[@buntafujiwara3289]

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

[@Vinny_The_Cat]

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.

[@keithbrown7685]

I think it's a kind of justice. They try to screw you? Screw them right back. 🙂

[@TheMicro4]

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

[@lbsiuk]

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]

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]

@@KoolGuy420 Exactly!!

[@da_pawz]

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

[@MalteserLP]

It’s a 3200U!

[@WebstersYouTube]

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.

[@habelincoln1665]

the bitecool looks so much like a chromebook i stg those bezels are thicker than my mother

[@Jrodsly]

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.

[@philruu]

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 😆

[@Alentir]

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

[@JusticeForQ]

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

[@clausehardcastle8649]

The song with the cow😂😂😂

[@endymir3X]

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

[@keithbrown7685]

Imo, if it's cheap, like these ones are, there's bound to be at least 1 catch. The whole thing makes me depressed.

[@habelincoln1665]

i got a crazy price on an asus laptop from office depot. 16gb ddr5, 6 core i5, 512gb NVME, 300 nit lcd and MADE OF ALUMINUM for $360. thing is i also got a $40 visa gift card and 30% back in credit towards the store which i just used for sheaves of paper. ended up costing around $220

[@narwhal4304]

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

[@AutoYoung]

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

[@ecalz2100]

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]

It’s because the chip is a 3200U.

[@_lun4r_]

11:07 he fr included 3 seconds of a polish song about drugs that happened to be associated with a cow meme

[@skiboleckurde]

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

[@cutebunny3404]

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]

and being terminally online isnt changing that

[@cutebunny3404]

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

[@Nxrmal_Leo]

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

[@lukedavis436]

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

[@cutebunny3404]

@@lukedavis436 😢🥰

[@swarnendubanerjee502]

00:58 Red and Blue Colours just got mixed af 😅😅😅

[@paddlesouth]

Celeron 4020 should never be sold again in a laptop. They are way way to old to run windows 11. Thats why it took 10 min to boot.

[@Joe-xr2xl]

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?

[@bryans8656]

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

[@vedanshchn]

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

[@snausages43]

I know someone who has that same Gateway. They wanted me to fix it. It’s unfixable. It’s a POS out of the box. You get what you pay for.

[@jeanpips]

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]

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

[@nooneinpart]

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.

[@FlyboyHelosim]

Imagine being shocked that there's no full-size keyboard on a laptop with only an 11.6" display.

[@xtrabaka]

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

[@RodimusPrime29]

I was NOT expecting a dancing segment lol!

[@mattnordsell9760]

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.

[@megalofightback]

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.

[@ivancabrera3289]

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

[@caldwellfisher5288]

Its really true then...cheap crappy laptops really are cheap and crappy.

[@prodbyafterdrk]

11:33 “Oh no! No! No!” 🤣

[@theapplegamer9055]

15:31 I have one of these, but different brand, different model, different specs, and it doesn't even look like that wtf!

[@Chromithius]

Watching this on a on a shady laptop from Amazon

[@what3ver912]

😂😂

[@MrZombie999]

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

[@Joe-fy3js]

The Gateway is an absolute piece of junk. The wife and I bought one a couple years ago on black Friday and they both have had nothing but problems and are just junk.

[@mrlodwick]

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

[@TRKLynx]

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

[@joltdude]

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

[@cjbht19minaret]

It’s a shame. I really liked gateway’s product 10 years ago. Their logo and name really stood out to me. I would like to see them make a comeback with solid products. If they’ve managed to stick around for this long, I’m sure they could afford to make something more consumable.

[@EdHadder]

Really Great Video Austin 👏🏻

[@belgianstar]

Is the gateway brand real? Like they used to be a legit brand but got bought by acer.

[@systemerror50]

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

[@Wruff]

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

[@Rottidog68]

1:45 I got a Zhiyun Smooth Q4 gimbal from Amazon. It was advertised as having a light kit with it. When it arrived the light kit wasn't there. The seller told me to add a good review, 5 stars & they'd send it to me. WTF? Nope, not doing that. I got the light kit from someone else.

[@idrkginaf4204]

What if you buy the laptop and get the giftcard, and then return the laptop to amazon 💀

[@suddenlyacat]

the warranty void sticker at 14:25 is *completely decoration (in the united states at least)* because of some ruling quite some time ago

[@mike_0213]

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?

[@wateriver]

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.

[@keithbrown7685]

They aren't. Their just a brand being passed around, like a cheap hooker.

[@pennguinnorth3352]

My wife just passed by and said “is that Logic” when she saw Austin. I just need someone else to know about this

[@joerussell9574]

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?

[@newfoundlandlaker9]

We the people want you to show us a GOOD cheep laptop pc.Please! 😢

[@newfoundlandlaker9]

$299.99- please.

[@jeffparks25]

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"

[@suzannelowry9561]

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

[@SMG.Trill.92]

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.

[@FullMetalPanicNL]

"Use this code to activate your 1 year warranty" *Laughs in European Union*

[@79huddy]

Im still trying to figure out why everyone uses the Prodigy video for a sound test with the wrong music 😢

[@jj926]

Can they play doom?

[@REACHHIGH]

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

[@samperrett575]

hey austin can i have a single stick of ddr4 ram for my dell g15 its a decent gaming laptop but i cant really upgrade much and im broke as a student sooooo cheers

[@FGB-Flo]

Can you also test a teclast laptop?

[@wowee766]

prices?

[@ogddonoff8293]

Moooo! Polish song „tylko w głowie mam” nice day for everyone !

[@northerncarplads1945]

Hi, don't know if you can help but you seem to know the most. Can you tell me what is the best budget laptop to buy $500 or under please

[@EdHadder]

I Love Austin Evans Videos 💙

[@zachclawges6932]

Did Gateway used to be respectable? In like 2005?

[@albak0]

to hear a song about cocaine in my mothertounge, in one of your videos - priceless

[@gregmckenna3858]

Great review😁

[@candidgem]

My mom bought one and straight up the battery was non existence and few days later the keyboard didn't work