Review: Gateway MT6825b notebook computer

Gateway's resurgence in the PC market appears to be good news for bargain hunters and the MT6825b, available from Tesco, is the company's latest budget notebook computer.

There's nothing about the design that suggests it costs just £500.

Sturdy, solid and even reasonably stylish, the Gateway MT6825b certainly gives a good first impression.

This feeling continues when you open it up to reveal a glossy 15.4in widescreen display, well-sized keyboard and a smart looking brushed-aluminium panel where you rest your wrists during typing.

The screen looks great when viewed straight on, although brightness does start to wane if you view it from more of an angle.

Instead of opting for the lower-priced Home Basic version of Vista, Gateway has sensibly gone for Home Premium. This means you'll get to put Vista's eye-catching Aero interface to good use as well as play with features such as Media Center.

A reasonably fast Intel Core 2 Duo T5200 processor provides the power which, as required by Vista Home Premium, is supplied with 1GB of memory. It might not be Intel's fastest processor, but it will be enough for all-round home use.

A 100GB hard disk ensures you won't be short of storage space for your digital movies, music and photos, all of which can be uploaded via the multi-format card reader or USB ports. The Gateway also comes with built-in Wifi and a multi-format DVD writer.

At such a low price, there have to be some drawbacks and the inclusion of integrated graphics won't impress those wanting to play games. Although fine for Windows applications and Vista's Aero interface, the MT6825b will struggle to cope with games at any sort of detail level. So, if you're partial to the occasional gaming session, this most certainly isn't the computer for you.

The lack of a built-in webcam is another cost cutting measure, but a slightly bigger issue is that Gateway only supplies a one-year warranty. Although most problems occur within the first year, it would be good to see at least a two-year warranty as standard.

Battery life on a 15.4in screen notebook computer such as this is never going to be amazing, but we managed to get just under two-hours out of the MT6825b before it yelped for the mains.

This test was performed watching a DVD, so under less demanding use it should provide an extra half an hour. At 2.83kg (3.3kg including the power supply), it's light enough to be carted around on short journeys, but it's not something you'd want to lug with you on a daily commute.

Along with Vista, Gateway supplies Microsoft Works 8.5. Although not a patch on Office 2007, it provides basic suite of office tools (including word processing) that will keep the average home user happy.

Despite its poor gaming performance and one-year warranty, there's no getting away from the fact that this notebook computer is outstanding value for money. It houses one of the latest processors (albeit not the fastest model), a decent 100GB hard drive and 1GB of system memory, while combining it all in a sturdy and attractive chassis.

If you're in the market for a portable Vista PC and gaming isn't important to you, finding a better value for money portable computer won't be an easy task.

Vista compatible: Yes

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