What gives? We've been more or less smitten with every Gateway system that's entered our lair in the past few months, the M-151X being no exception. Maybe the magical Gateway gnomes have been spiking our Evian? (Magical gnomes...sheesh!) Or maybe the engineers at Gateway have just been taking the time and effort to pound out fine products. We're thinking (hoping?) it's the latter. The brand new 15.4-inch (1280 x 800) M-151X comes in three hues (red, silver, and blue) or wrapped in a blue and white floral graphic called Arctic Bloom. Our review model came in the latter, which, while a nice design, isn't the first choice for geeks with Y chromosomes. While the M-151X is, at heart, a mid-range laptop, its 1.66 GHz Core 2 Duo, 2 GB RAM, and 250 GB hard drive should provide all the power and storage you need for just about anything that's not specialized: gaming is decent, graphics are solid, and video editing is easy on this machine. The sea of mainstream laptops is littered with lackluster look-alikes, and while the M-151X isn't perfect, it manages to occupy that sweet spot between price and performance, not to mention style.
Review: Gateway M-151X
What gives? We’ve been more or less smitten with every Gateway system that’s entered our lair in the past few months, the M-151X being no exception. Maybe the magical Gateway gnomes have been spiking our Evian? (Magical gnomes…sheesh!) Or maybe the engineers at Gateway have just been taking the time and effort to pound out […]
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WIRED
Silver keyboard looks great with the brushed metal bezel that surrounds it. Touch-sensitive volume slider and slot-load DVD burner: score! Bluetooth, HDMI, 5-in-1 card reader, fingerprint reader, 1.3MP webcam with mic. Solid 2 hours of battery life - even while running multiple multimedia apps.
TIRED
Only 3 USB ports (no room for 1 more?), no FireWire. Speakers leave much to be desired, namely bass. Screen is very reflective, most noticeable with dark images, as when watching movies.
- RAM Size: 2 GB
- Clock Rate: 1.66 GHz
- Hard Drive Size: 250 GB