Gateway P-6860FX

Gaming laptops have started becoming a rage and gamers are ready to spend mega bucks to be able to game on the move. Alienware has always been known for gaming laptops and PCs but now several companies like Gateway and Dell have also jumped into this field. Gateway introduced its latest gaming laptop P-6869FX last month with upgraded components.

Gateway P-6860FX specifications :

• 
• Dimensions : 15.7″ x 11.7″ x 1.7″
• Processor : Intel Core 2 Duo T5550 1.83 Mhz
• Chipset : Mobile Intel PM965 Express
• RAM : 2×2 GB DDR II SDRAM 667 MHz
• Hard Disk : 320 GB SATA-300 5400 rpm
• Graphics : Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS
• Video Memory : 512MB GDDR3 SDRAM
• Display : 17″ TFT active matrix
• Display resolution : 1440 x 900
• Optical drive : DVD±RW
• OS : Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit Edition
• Webcam : Integrated 1.3 megapixel
• Battery : 9-cell Lithium cell battery
• Warranty : 1-year
• Approx. price : $1350

That surely is a bit list, and promises to deliver good gaming performance. If you look at the specifications closely, then you will realise immediately that the processor is the weakest component of this machine. We will get to the performance aspect later though.

The laptop has a glossy black plastic chassis and aluminium finishing can be seen around the touchpad and the keyboard. Having a 17″ screen does have its benefit apart from the obvious disadvantages, the laptop keyboard has a separate numeric keypad along with the standard keyboard. Media buttons above the keyboard have become the favorite place among manufacturers to place them and same is the case here. The volume control buttons is touch sensitive.

Talking about the display, the 17″ display has a resolution of 1440 x 900. The picture quality was clear and crisp and the glossy screen gives you sharp texts and amazing movie viewing experience. The resolution is good enough to run games as well as watch high definition movies.

Coming to the ports section, this one has quite a large number of ports and some unexpected ones too. HDMI port has be included which is slowly becoming a standard. The surprise is the inclusion of an eSATA port for hooking up external drives, the port has not made its way to newer desktop motherboards also yet! Bluetooth and Wi-Fi capabilities are nothing to boast about, a Blu-ray drive would certainly have been, but that isn’t the case.

Finally, lets come to the performance of the laptop, which is of utmost importance as it being a gaming laptop. The processor as I mentioned earlier, is a weakling, and is a shame that Gateway decided to include this when higher end processors like T8xxx series has been out for quite some time now. 64-bit OS has been bundled to make sure the RAM gets detected as 32-bit OSes can detect only upto 3GB RAM, but that would hardly affect gaming performance. The high-end graphics card ensures that you get good frame rates in games. It notched up impressive scores in Quake III and Crysis. A better processor could have gone a long way in improving the scores but then it would have added few extra hundred dollars.

The battery lasted a cool 2 hours while watching a high-definition movie, which is excellent for 17 incher. Gateway includes a 1-year only warranty with the laptop. Overall the laptop offers excellent value for every penny spent on it.

Pros :

• Excellent performance
• Great display
• Big hard drive
• Inexpensive
• High-end graphics
• Excellent battery life
• eSATA port

Cons :

• Poor processor
• Not configurable

Final Thoughts

The Gateway P-6860FX is an amazing system as if offers high-end configuration as an extremely affordable price. 4GB RAM, 8800GTS, 17″ display and 320GB hard disk are too hard to resist at this price. The low-end processor can be forgotten as it won’t hamper your gaming experience too much.

My Rating : 4.5/5