Review of Gateway M255-E

It's unlikely you'd trade in the latest Macbook, Qosmio or VAIO for this Gateway laptop. However, when you consider the M255-E's dual core processor and sub $1000 dollar price tag, you can see that this affordable notebook is a worthy entry level business or college machine.

Gateway M255-E Technical Specifications

Processor

1.66GHz Intel Core Duo T2300, 667MHz FSB

Memory

512MB DDR2

Harddrive

60GB 5,200rpm SATA

OS

Windows XP Professional

Weight

5.47 pounds (2.48 kg)

Screen

14.1 inches

Screen resolution

1280x800

Graphic Card

Intel GMA 950 IGP

Battery Life

2.5 hours

Full review of Gateway M255-E

Mobile professionals of the world, Gateway is hoping that you give them the time of day. Put down your Sony's and your Toshibas. Turn in your Apples and your Acers. Gateway has the new M255-E laptop for you. Let's be honest, though. If you got your $2,000-plus business notebook on the corporate dime, you ain't giving that up for the M255-E. So really, we should say that Gateway has an offering for you if you're a small business owner or another professional who has to crack open his/her own piggy bank to buy a cheaper laptop.

That makes the best feature of the new Gateway M255-E its affordable entry level price tag of $984.99. OK, backtrack again. Perhaps the best two qualities of the M255-E are its price tag and its 1.66 GHz Intel Core Duo T2300 processor.

Then again, Renaissance business men who are in tune with both sides of their brain may also appreciate its aesthetics. The M255-E is a shoulder's best friend at only 5.47 pounds, and is 1.39 inches thick by 13.36 inches wide and 9.76 inches deep. That's small enough to fit in tight spaces in trains, planes, and automobiles. The chassis is decked out in standard business silver and black, but the lines are rounded and the silver buffed to give it more character than your typical stiff corporate handout.

And oh yeah, another quality that's attractive about the Gateway M255-E is its 14.1-inch glossy widescreen with Ultrabright screen treatment on top of the WXGA resolution. Then there's the FireWire, four USB port, PC Card, S-video and Ethernet ports. Plus a 6-in-1 removable memory card reader and Intel PRO wireless.

I've lost track of all the pros to this Gateway notebook, but it's definitely more than the original one. So maybe the Fortune 500 folks will want to ditch their high-powered

ultraportable laptops for this affordable Gateway.

Probably not, and here's why: a standard RAM of only 512 MB, pretty low for a truly multitasking professional. The standard hard drive is only 60 GB, perhaps not enough to house a multimedia library. And last but not least, there is no standard security measure, such as a fingerprint reader.