Gateway P-7811FX

As I indicated earlier, this machine looks in most respects identical to the Gateway P-172X FX. Yep, the same styling and copper trim. But it's more than that. Both share many of the same features. Like the P-172X FX, our review unit sprouts eSATA and HDMI ports, three USB 2.0 ports, FireWire, a flash card reader, and a PC Express card slot. I'm not surprised not to find a BD-ROM drive on board, considering the price, but you do get a DVD-RW drive (however, the side-loading slot of the P-172X FX is gone in favor of a plain ol' disc tray).

The keyboard and mouse introduced with the P-172XFX return here. The keys themselves provide solid feedback, though the keys themselves feel a little slick to the touch. No doubt, it's a coating to keep Cheetos and chip grit from smudging away the letters. Also, in a nod to the gaming crowd, this machine provides a more "gamey" font for the keys themselves and tops it all off with a full bank of backlit multimedia buttons running along the top of the keyboard. One thing I found odd--and to a degree, still can't completely get behind--is stacking the mouse toward the left side of wrist rest. Not only is it obnoxious for southpaws, it makes it harder for gamers to play since the mouse now sits below the W, A, S, and D keys that are pretty much standard command keys.

The only thing I'm really bummed to see return is the same sad-sack audio that held back the P-172XFX--you're forced to listen to stuff piping through two tinny, top-mounted speakers. It's hardly a flaw unique to Gateway, as other notebooks--even supposedly multimedia machines--have similarly stumbled. Short version: Buy headphones.

Also expect to find some bloat (Wild Tangent games) and some PDF documents that serve as your manual. You also get the basic Microsoft Works suite(I know, I know--OpenOffice does more, and does it better), plus a couple of Cyberlink apps that pull their weight (disc-burning and label-making programs). You also get a recovery app that lets you create a factory restore disc and a driver/application backup disc. While I'm a little cheesed that I need to burn my own factory restore discs, at least you get the option to back up your own apps and drivers as well. And Gateway, here's an idea that you--or any other vendors reading this review--are welcome to take: Make a couple of useful gamer-centric applets and add them to this gaming machine.

You know how business notebooks have security suites and all those extra productivity apps? How about some game-optimization features? Or maybe create some proprietary apps that let users turn off drivers or features that slow down the system during games. Hey, I'm not saying that this machine was a total slouch--quite the contrary--but if you're billing something as an affordable game machine, an easy way for it to get more oomph is to provide ways for users to easily tweak it.

That tangential issue aside, the P-7811FX offers a healthy balance of good gaming and low cost for those on a tight budget. Gateway's got a good gaming notebook line on its hands. Next time, though, I'd really like to see better onboard audio.

--Darren Gladstone