Hard-core gaming laptops were once thought of as sticker-shock items, but they've changed sharply of late in both looks and price. In their new incarnation, they're acting as big-screen media centers and desktop replacements, now that prices for the fastest parts have plummeted to a level that makes them affordable to the masses. At $1,800 (street), the Gateway P-7808u is aggressively priced for a gaming rig, with a mobile Intel quad-core processor and a powerful Nvidia graphics card built into a light 17-inch platform. Though its looks could use a huge splash of imagination, this hard-core gaming laptop is a terrific deal no matter how you look at it.
From the outside, you wouldn't be able to tell that the P-7808u is marketed as a gaming laptop. Its design, exactly the same as that of last year's P-171XL FX, is as bland and generic as that of some of the cheap desktop-replacement laptops. The only hint at its true nature is a big "FX" logo denoting Gateway's mobile gaming line. The glossy top and the copper-colored accents simply aren't as cutting edge as those of the LED-studded Dell XPS M1730 (Penryn) and ASUS G71G-Q1. Its minimalist design has advantages, though. The 8.9-pound frame is the lightest so far for a 17-inch gaming laptop, compared with the Alienware M17 (9.4 pounds), the CyberPower Gamer Xtreme M1 (9.6 pounds), and the Toshiba Qosmio X305-Q725 (9.2 pounds). To find even lighter alternative you would have to settle for a smaller screen, like the one found on the 15-inch MSI GT627-218US (6.1 pounds).
Design wasn't the only aspect of this laptop to suffer from the cost cutting needed to achieve its price. While the 17-inch widescreen offers plenty of real estate for multitaskers and gamers, the 1,440-by-900 resolution isn't as grand as the 1,920-by-1,200 ones found in the Alienware M17, the ASUS G71-Q1, and the CyberPower M1. And although the full-size keyboard and adjacent numeric keypad were pleasantly responsive, they aren't illuminated like the ones found in the M1 and the M17. Since gamers often play in low-light environments, an LED-backlit keyboard would have been a persuasive selling point.
The feature set is as solid as that of any high-end gaming laptop. It's one of the few Gateway-branded laptops that come with a FireWire port. The three USB ports and a separate eSATA port will support assorted peripherals. The included HDMI port, which lets you stream content to a bigger display, is becoming a standard on media laptops. And while the Alienware M17 and the CyberPower M1 chose to bolster speeds with a fast, 7,200-rpm hard drive, the P-7808u opted for capacity: Its slower, 5,400-rpm drive has twice the capacity of its rivals—500GB. By contrast, the ASUS G71G-Q1 and the Toshiba X305-Q725 support dual hard drives that offer attractive capacities without skimping on rotational speed. For an optical drive, a dual-layer DVD burner is your only option; the G71G-Q1 trumps it by supplying a Blu-ray reader (standard), and the M17 and M1 offer Blu-ray (read-only) drives as optional extras ranging from $200 to $400. The M17 and M1 offer optional Blu-ray drives, which range from $200 to $400. As with all Gateway laptops, a one-year parts-and-labor warranty is included with your purchase.
Source : www.pcmag.com
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