Pricey gaming laptops are great for bragging rights. Of course, some of us also have bills to pay and beer to buy. Gateway's solution for the penny-pinching gamer set is the P-6831 FX. The concept behind this nine-pound behemoth is simple: maximum flash for minimum cash. The flash comes in the form of a swank piano-black and brushed-metal chassis, slick integrated media controls, and a touch-sensitive volume slider. An HDMI port and Nvidia's GeForce 8800M graphics card also add an air of legitimacy to this otherwise bargain bin rig. But then there's that whole minimum cash thing we mentioned before ...
Gateway had to cut some corners to keep the price out of the stratosphere. Although its 17-inch WXGA display looks sharp, it's pegged at 1400 x 900 native resolution. It's arguable whether this is ultimately a deal breaker. Our test unit could run Crysis at a respectable 62 fps, and since it didn't support high-def optical the native resolution wasn't a huge setback. Still, the option for a little more visual 'oomph' would've been nice.
Similar shortcuts were taken with the horsepower. At its core, the P-6831 made for a decent desktop replacement with its 1.6-GHz Intel Core Duo processor. Performance across a number of demanding applications was respectable but that's clearly due to the whopping 3 GB of RAM rather than the mediocre processor. Foibles aside, the P-6831 is still a surprisingly agile system outfitted with a smokin' GPU. With its unbeatable price, it's an ideal go-to for gamers who want to have money left over for ... you know, games.