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4.5 stars
"Best combo of features, looks, and weight"
Pros: Stunning 17" UltraBright LCD, fast HD and processor, 4hr battery life, gaming video card, number pad, light for its size, scroll bar on touchpad, good sound quality, low-profile case
Cons: No DVI port, headphone/mic plugs on front rather than side, no hardware audio volume dial, speakers are not as loud as I would like, minor light bleed-through on edges of screen
Summary: I am going into my first year of college and needed a computer that was portable, but also one that would deliver the gaming performance I was used to in a desktop, since I'm leaving my PC at home.
Additionally, I was looking for a large screen. After using my PC through a Dell 2005FPW 20" widescreen LCD, a 12" laptop with 1024x768 just wouldn't be enough screen space to effectively work on spreadsheets, web browse, and play games.
The M680X more than delivered. I ordered it from gateway.com, and the box showed up, from China, many days before their estimate.
My configuration:
Pentium M 1.73GHz processor, 533MHz FSB, 2MB L2
2x1024MB PC4200 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM(I bought two sticks from newegg for about the same price Gateway charges for one)
ATI Radeon X700 128MB GFX Card
17" WXGA Ultrabright LCD (1440x900)
100GB 5400rpm HD
Integrated 802.11b/g
8x DL DVD+-R/RW and CD-RW Combo Drive
The Processor:
The Pentium M is outstanding. While I haven't benchmarked the processor, it seems to perform to the same level as the 3.06GHz P4 in my desktop. Gateway charges outrageous prices for RAM -- do like I did, go with the lowest level (2x256MB), and get two sticks of aftermarket Kingston, Corsair, or OCZ for hundreds less.
When the M680X showed up, the first thing I did was swap out the two sticks and have had zero compatibility issues.
The Screen:
The Ultrabright WXGA is a stunning display. It has a shiny, glasslike surface that reflects light, rather than absorbing and diffusing it. The result is a screen that you can tilt to get rid of annoying reflections, rather than a dull matte surface that looks muddy in bright light. At 17", I think the midrange resolution looks better than the uber 1680x1050. While 1680x1050 looks good on my 20" wide panel, there's no way I'm packing the same pixels into 4 fewer inches. With 1440x900, text is perfectly legible, and I have enough space to spread things out. Best of all: no dead pixels.
I do have one issue with the screen. I notice that, during startup, when the screen briefly goes black, you can clearly see some light bleeding through around the edges. Nevertheless, I wouldn't trade in this display for any other.
Gaming Performance:
The ATI Radeon X700 128MB card is a huge jump in the right direction for the mobile gaming community. It doesn't suck down battery like the GeForce6800 does in the XL and other gaming rigs. Still, I was clocking 2200-2400 in 3dMark2005, which is great for a laptop. For comparison, my desktop, running a GeForce FX5700LE, 3.06GHz P4, and 1GB PC3200, was consistently getting 400-405 on the same test. Currently, I only have Need for Speed Underground 2 installed on the notebook, but I can play it with every setting turned all the way up, from particle generation to motion blur and 4x antialiasing, all while maintaining flawless framerates.
Important to note -- when running on battery, the default settings will turn the processor and graphics card down to about half speed, which wreaks havoc on your framerate. I couldn't figure out why things were suddenly glitching when I unplugged and tried to show off the impressive performance to one of my friends. Just customize your power management settings and it will behave how you want.
Physical limitations:
This is a big laptop, I know. I was hesitant to buy it when I saw some other tiny models boasting 3 and 4lbs. And yes, if you're some business guy that's going to be using your notebook for email and composing the occasional word document, by all means go for one of the smaller models.
At 7.7lbs, this computer is not quite a lightweight. As a student who will be carrying this computer to classes almost every day, I had my doubts. However, I couldn't bring myself to settle for integrated graphics and a 14" screen when this will be my primary computer for at least a year or two.
My rationale is this: When using almost any laptop, I start to feel clostrophobic. There's barely enough room to work, to web browse, to play a game. Come to think of it, throw gaming out the window, because the framerate is always abysmal. The keyboard is usually undersized and lacking a numberpad, so I have to hunt and peck through that row above the letters -- torture when configuring IP settings or using Excel. I can't wait to get back to using a real machine so I can just relax.
With this computer, I don't have any those issues. I actually prefer using it over my desktop. As a result, the weight becomes a non-issue; I don't have a problem carrying an extra pound or two if it means no daily computing anxiety. I even found a backpack that is made to fit it (ebags.com was a godsend).
Overall:
If you are a poweruser, someone like me who is used to a computer that just works, and one that you don't have to make endless compromises with, then this is the laptop for you.
Other desktop replacements like the Dell and HP gaming machines are beasts of computers, checking in near 10 pounds each. They're thicker than most textbooks, which makes them a pain to carry. Sure, you can run 70fps in Doom3, but you can't move it around. With the M680X, I found the perfect balance of performance and form factor.
