Gateway M680XL Review


Originally Published 05/09/2005
Gateway M680XL - Reviewed.
This is my first review, so please forgive me if it's not the greatest. I feel one is necessary on this notebook though because not many people are doing them and there seems to be a lot of interest. This is my 25th laptop computer. I tend to trade up every 6-12 months. Usually someone wants to buy my existing one (as is the case this time around) and so I sell it and get the latest and greatest. I have owned numerous Gateways and Dells. I have had several Thinkpad's, Toshiba's, HP's, Compaq's, Acer's, and my fist two laptops were a Samsung and a Sharp (never owned a Sony though). I'm fresh off 2 bad screen experiences with the Inspiron 9300 and thought I would give the M680XL a try. I never thought I would try Gateway again primarily due to quality issues (case in point on top of my desk is a three year old Gateway Solo 3500 which has long been dead, and my 9 year old daughter is still using my 5 year old Dell Inspiron 2500, and has been since she was 6). I'm giving the Gateway a try since it oddly is the only notebook that has everything I've ever wanted. I was looking for a 17" "Killer" screen, full size keyboard, all the power options i.e. Pentium M, lots of RAM, and as a web/graphic designer a great Video Card. But it also had to be mobile. I wasn't going to be carrying it occasionally, but rather every day. I went the HP zd7000 route, my back just twinged when I typed zd7000, oops there it goes again. Anyway, lets just say I didn't want to do the 11-12lb thing again. Here's what I purchased: M680XL PM-2.0 2 Gigs RAM (400MHz DDR2) 128 X700 Graphics Card 80Gig 5400RPM HDD 17" WSXGA Screen DL DVD R/WR Drive And everything else comes pretty standard. I figure I can't mess up too much on the review since most everyone wants to see pictures, and that I feel I have delivered on (as promised in previous posts). Pictures aside, everything else is always just an opinion anyway. Who's to say my reality is yours, and just because you don't see it my way, it doesn't mean it's not there. Perception is everything and below is mine. So, here we go..... The Unveiling I was a little taken back at the condition of the box. The first thing that went through my mind was,"Oh no, here we go. This thing has come half way around the world and is probably going to be in soar shape when I open in.". Well to my delight and despite the small size of the box it was well packed. (Quick note: Clicking on any of the images will open a Photo Tour. Good or bad shots I included them all. A photographer I am not.)




Disaster averted. Made it through shipping just fine. As previously stated, it was packaged well. Right away I noticed a difference in this laptop from the other Gateway's I have owned. Quite obviously the industry as a whole has improved, but the initial quality is much better over previous experiences. Everything is tight and nothing squeaks or creeks.
	I'm truthfully quite taken back by the initial quality. I'm embarrassed to say, I expected a lot less (one might ponder why I ordered it). But proud to say I'm thrilled with how solid a machine this turned out to be (2 days and counting).
It's kinda deceiving to look at. It's very large, however when you pick it up, you're pleasantly surprised with how light it is. Certainly far from an ultra portable but equal in distance from what I affectionately call DESKLAPTops. You know the 9,10,11, and 12lb beasts. Heck, Acer makes one that's 15lb+. "Laptop"? hmmm, I think not.
	Thin and light (for a 17" Notebook this side of MAC) and good looking. I've read that some people think it's ugly and some think it's sexy. Both are on opposite ends of their own extreme. I say it's a good looking laptop and a "looker" in it's own right. It was definitely turning heads today (does that constitute sexy, I guess it could).

The Performance I'm not going to put a lot of time into bench marks and the like. First I don't have a ton of time and second there is already a lot of that material out there. It's quite obvious that it does not have the fastest Video Card on the market but at the same time it is extremely fast. I didn't reformat everything out of the box which is what I would typically do. With my last notebook I found it equally as effective and a whole lot less time consuming to first uninstall anything I didn't want and then install my favorite StartUp Control panel application. I've always downloaded it from SnapFiles.com, click on freeware and then search "Startup Control Panel". I install so much of my own software I find myself right back to the slower speed if I don't stop all but necessary app's from starting. I also tool around in the system settings and OS services but decline to get into suggestions in those areas. Over all it's very fast. I am able to run PhotoShop CS, Illustrator CS, Indesign CS, Dreamweaver, Ulead Photo Impact, Several background app's like Messenger and ZoneAlarm, along with several instances of Internet Explorer and Firefox. Additionally I always have Microsoft Outlook running and periodically open and close Adobe Acrobat, MS Word and MS Excel. I'm a pretty demanding user and I tend to over do it. I hate to shut down one app just to open another, I don't think I should have to, so I typically won't. I would hang up occasionally on my Acer Aspire 2020 which has a 1.8 P-M and 1.25Gigs of RAM and an 80Gig 5400 RPM HDD. I have not had that happen yet with the M680XL. I'm very pleased with it's performance so far. I'm a light gamer. Usually every evening sometimes every other. I play Unreal, Call of Duty, Soldier of Fortune, and Black hawk Down. I don't need to know the frame rate to see that this halls along with the settings cranked and with no trouble at all. The Inspiron 9300 was great with games, but both the screens I went through were terrible. Question: Not to pick on Dell, because I have owned several of their notebooks, and probably will in the future. But what's the point in having blazing fast graphics if the screen you're looking at looks like crap anyway? Bragging rights. I think not. Enjoy your 256MB of video memory. But in my never to be humble opinion, unless you're one of the lucky ones who got the right LCD screen, you're one of the unlucky ones. No insult implied.

The Keyboard & Touch pad Let me just start by saying it is a high quality keyboard. The keys don't rattle and there is no flex (had that big time on my Inspiron 8600). It is firm and gives and seems to provide just the right amount of resistance in the feel of each keystroke. That said, it took a little getting use to for me. Most if it has to do with my being use to a different laptops setup. However, I wish there was a way to swap the the Fn key with the Ctrl key. I keep hitting Fn C to copy, and well that just doesn't cut it. There is no way to reverse them in the BIOS. Additionally, the right shift key is a reduced size, primarily to make room for the arrow keys. The arrow keys are a little small for my tastes but truth be told, I'm kind of already use to all three of my previous grief's, if that's what you'd call them. Just short of those, which took a little getting use to, I would say it's top notch an second only to the Thinkpad's which one has to wonder if they will ever lose that throne. Note: Where you would rest your left palm while typing get's slightly warm. Not hot at all but a little warm. Not a problem for me, but worth noting.

	The touch pad is great. I was able to adjust it to be just right for my tastes. I have had experiences in which I just couldn't tweak the touch pad to the right setting. It was either too touchy or the surface of the touch pad was sticky or was to sensitive to heat. This feels just right and is actually enjoyable to use. The buttons click just right. You do not have to push too hard to make them click. They don't have a really short travel rate causing accidental double clicks. The touch pads location is off center of the screen so that it can be centered with the main typing area of the keyboard. It is well positioned and even though there is no feature to quickly disable it, I have not accidentally bumped it while typing.

The Screen Well what can I say. This is where this notebook shines the most, pun intended. This has to have just about one of the best screens I have ever laid eyes on. I am not going to waste a ton of space with a tone of pictures of it. You would only be able to see it as well as your screen would let you. But take me at my word when I say I am amazed. Gateway hit the nail on the head. It really is not too glossy and I've seen some glossy ones. I don't know, maybe it's the lighting, but I've seen some I'd swear were doing double duty as mirrors. I think we have all been walking through a Best Buy, Circuit City, or CompUSA and have done a double take at one of those screens. This seems to be just right. The WSXGA at 1680x1050 is again, just right. The 1440x900 WXGA is not preferable when doing graphic design. Forget about 1920x1200 if you ever plan on typing something. This resolution seems to be optimal for a 17" screen. It has gorgeous color definition and amazing contrast. I work in a Marketing department with studio lights and I have not had any problems with reflection, something I was afraid would happen. I was prepared to send this back if that was the case. I glad to say it's not. This is not to say there is no reflection at all, it's just either not noticeable or not a problem. I've heard it compared to a Sony xBrite, and I'd say that's a fair assessment. Different, but similar to the Sony xBrite. I'd say the xBrite is a hair brighter. The M680XL has a very bright screen though, it's crisp and clear.

	The pictures won't do it justice so I almost didn't include them, but then thought that since it's a review, I'll include them and you can make up your own mind. I just can't stress enough that of all the pictures I took, I am dissatisfied the most with the way the shots of the screen came out. Please just keep that in mind. I have NO DEAD PIXELS, something I've read several times from other users. There is no light leakage, no faded areas, and no quality concerns to speak of. If you view the photo tour you can see more shots of the screen.

New! The Graphics It's obvious the 128MB X700 isn't going to compete with the 256MB 6800/6800Ultra cards or even it's big brother the X800. But after playing a game or two, I would say it definitely holds it's own. Far faster than the 128MB 9700 card in my previous notebook. I cranked all the settings and everything was quite fluid ("To the naked eye. You need only to read some forum discussions to understand what I'm talking about with regards to the "Naked Eye" and how many frame rates it can actually perceive). I have included the test result from the 3DMark2005 test I ran for anyone who is interested. I have also included some screen shots from Call of Duty run in 1280x1024 although for file sake I reduced the to 800x600. Just click on the image below and it will open up the photo gallery..
3DMark 2005 Test Score

The WiFi The wireless card worked right out of the box which is to be expected. It's pretty amazing though. When I connected, I found 4 more wireless networks in my neighborhood than I realized were even here. Sitting right next to my new M680XL was my Acer Aspire 2020 with Centrino and it only detected my wireless network. Now granted the 4 additional it picked up only had 1 or 2 bars on the signal strength, I think it's a testament to how well it works. I have DSL and regularly run bandwidth speed test. Keeping in mind I have not changed anything else, typically am in the 1,800kbs (1.8MB/Sec.) bandwidth range. I ran a bandwidth speed test on the M680XL and it was 2,214kbs (2.2MB/Sec.). This is not to imply that you could not get these results with any other new system, it's just to say I have with this. I wish I had thought to do a few of these test with the 9300 but I didn't keep either of them long enough. Needless to say, I'm please with the wireless performance.
	I also broke the 300K download barrier. The fastest I have ever downloaded an application previously was in the low 200K range.

The Battery I purchased the 8 Cell. I personally feel the way the 12 cell protrudes out the back was a bad design decision. I'm sure it was made to keep the wait down though. I'm happy with my decision to go with the 8 cell. I haven't tested it thoroughly but I did immediately charge it and then unplug it. It usually takes me a minimum of 5-6 hours to get a new notebook setup with all my applications loaded up and files moved over. With the screen on full brightness, and installing programs (using the DVD/CD drive continually) downloading updates, and just tooling around in between, I squeaked about 3:05 min out of the battery. I only took it down to 10% though and then plugged it back in. I let it charge a but and then unplugged it again to see what the difference in the screen brightness had. Turns out dimming the screen to half brightness (which is plenty bright) will get you and extra 20-25 minutes added to the bottom line. I'm confident that with the added non-use of the DVD/CD drive you could get close to 3:45-4:00 hours out of the 8 cell. That is to say if you were just surfing the web or using word. I wouldn't stake my name on it because i haven't tried it yet, but that's a reasonable estimation. Note: The Inspiron 9300 was 3 hours or less with the screen dimmed so much you could barely see what you were working on. Fast forward update..... Out of the box I would advise charging the unit to capacity. Then drain it until it's in critical battery low state (about 5%). Then give it a full charge. I originally had estimated just web and application power to last 3:45-4:00 hours. I'm now adjusting that to approximately 4:30-4:45 hours with the screen dimmed to half and the video card on power maximizing mode. Note: If you have already charged and unchanged the battery randomly plugged in a little and unplugged a little you're still in luck. This is a Smart li-ion battery, most are these days. You can go into the BIOS and "Re calibrate" the battery cycle. Then complete the above steps. Then your battery will know (and hopefully your system too) just how much power it has. I think it goes with out saying, although I will, this will very depending upon use and user circumstance. This has been my experience.

The Functionality (and everything else) It is large but I am able to comfortably place it on my lap. It does get warm on the bottom, but then again most notebooks do. The Inspiron 9300 actually didn't. I think that was due in part to the fans running at high speed non stop. That would keep anything cool. The fan does not run constantly but will kick on when ever it's warranted. When it does come on it blows warm air out the left side by way of the vent. I have not used the DVD/CD burner yet but I'm sure they will function as expected. I did pop a DVD movie in and I'll just summarize that with WOW! I am very please with the over all performance and I would score this a win. Definitely deserves the 4 1/2 stars it received from laptop magazine. I would give it the same. I would also recommend this to anyone serious about getting work done but also having fun. Speakers are above average. Obviously not desktop quality, but right up there with what I would have considered the best I've ever had. The Harmon Kardon's on my HP zd7000.

Not Perfect If I were CEO of Gateway for a day..... I would have included Bluetooth. Call it a momentary lapse in judgment, but leaving Bluetooth out was ridiculous. I would have made the touch pad just a hair larger even though it works great as is. Always room for improvement. I would have included easily accessible audio controls. I would have swapped the Fn and the Ctrl keys. I would have added a DVI port.

Just because.....the port replicator. Just because I got it and someone may be interested I have included the port replicator. I received the port replicator today, the day after I received the notebook, which was yesterday. Just kidding, gotta have fun every once in a while. I got the laptop on May 9th and the port replicator on May 10th. It has all the standard ports except a DVI. This was disappointing. But none the less, it works as it should. It's very light and sleek. It goes great with the notebook. Note: You have to put a little more pressure pushing down on it to get it to dock than I think you should have to but works well just the same.


Thanks for reading my review :) Check back again if you like. I will update this review as necessary. A couple of days is far from an ideal test period. There are more pics in the photo tour.