Gateway announces $1350 8800M GTS notebook

Author: Tim Smalley
Published: 8th January 2008
Comments (17) Stumble
Gateway announces $1350 8800M GTS notebook

Gateway hits a pretty awesome price point with its P-6831FX notebook.

Gateway showed off its latest P-series FX notebooks at CES and from what we understand, they will be available to buy in US stores from January 13th.

What made Gateway’s notebooks interesting was the entry-level model, the Gateway P-6831FX, which is priced at just $1349.99.

It comes with a 17-inch display with a 1440x900 WXGA+ resolution, an Nvidia GeForce 8800M GTS 512MB, an Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 (1.66GHz, 2MB shared L2 cache), 3GB of RAM, a 250GB 5,400 RPM hard drive and a multi-format dual-layer DVD-R/RW/DVD-RAM drive.

While the specs aren’t that impressive at face value, what makes it breathtaking is the price point that Gateway is trying to hit with this machine. I really didn’t expect to see this kind of power available at this price point this early in the year.

I’m not a fan of the notebook’s aesthetics personally, but given the price point that Gateway is looking to hit with this model, I’d probably be willing to sacrifice looks a little for the power that would be on tap.

If this comes to the UK, we can probably expect it to hit around £800 (inc. VAT) - let's hope that it does! Do you think the P-6831FX is destined for success? Let us know in the forums.

Quote Krikkit 8th January 2008, 15:54
A laptop with such power for so cheap is brilliant.

I like how they kept the screen at a sensible size and resolution - that way you'll be able to play a lot of the latest and future games at decently high settings without getting stuck in performance.

I don't even think it looks too bad, the orange around the keyboard is quite nice imho, alright it's nothing special, but it's more of a Q-laptop once you get the stickers off it. :p
Quote Paradigm Shifter 8th January 2008, 16:00
Even if the ROB syndrome makes it close to £1000 in the UK, that's still a fair degree of power for a good price. A slightly higher res (say, WSXGA+) and a faster processor and it'd be a nice machine. Numeric pads are always handy, too. :D

...If it's like the high-end-but-not-horrifically-expensive Acer laptops, though, the build quality or screen quality will suffer for it.
Quote Tulatin 8th January 2008, 16:40
With a price that low though, i'd imagine they have to cut corners.

I do anticipate:

Thin plasticy casing
Weak 6-cell battery
Cheap, plinky keyboard
Shitty, ugly display
NONIntel chipsets...
Oh, and cheap wifi.

I hope none of these come to pass.
Quote Mankz 8th January 2008, 16:48
Why 3Gb of Ram?
Quote hughwi 8th January 2008, 17:28
So you dont get the whole 3.25gb 32bit problem? other than that, 4gb and preinstalled 64bit xp or vista would seem to be the more sensible option!
Quote Redbeaver 8th January 2008, 17:47
nice price!!!! *drool*

could use some of this to game on the go!
Quote Jordan Wise 8th January 2008, 18:01
gts? what exactly is the difference between the 8800m gts and gtx? and is it noticable at 1440x900?
Quote BoomAM 8th January 2008, 19:41
Wonder if the specs can be changed, and bought over here in the UK?
Quote sandys 8th January 2008, 20:43
Thats a good price, I bought my Gateway laptop in 2004, it was the great gaming laptop, best I could find with a 9700 mobility in it, cost me $1350 back then and there was a rebate of $200 which I could cash in, I couldn't believe it as the same thing would have cost> £1400 here in the UK, almost bought two
Quote DXR_13KE 8th January 2008, 23:03
that is insane.....
Quote tecate 9th January 2008, 06:56
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tulatin
With a price that low though, i'd imagine they have to cut corners.

I do anticipate:

Thin plasticy casing
Weak 6-cell battery
Cheap, plinky keyboard
Shitty, ugly display
NONIntel chipsets...
Oh, and cheap wifi.

I hope none of these come to pass.

That is a very good list of possible mishaps that might spoil this nice laptop. Wouldn't it be better to decrease RAM to 2GB and plug in newly announced 45nm T8300 or T9300??
Quote notatoad 9th January 2008, 07:34
or for ~$1800 right now at tigerdirect
Quote Dr. Strangelove 9th January 2008, 22:56
nice price, anyone know why the touchpad is off center?
Quote ulasamosa 12th January 2008, 00:05
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tulatin
With a price that low though, i'd imagine they have to cut corners.

I do anticipate:

Thin plasticy casing
Weak 6-cell battery
Cheap, plinky keyboard
Shitty, ugly display
NONIntel chipsets...
Oh, and cheap wifi.

I hope none of these come to pass.

fear not. I work at Best Buy and was playing Call of Duty 4 and Crysis on it today.

high quality airline grade ALUMINUM case
decent 9 CELL battery
high quality very responsive thicker then usual laptop keyboard
decent 17' 1400X900 display (COD4 and Crysis looked awesome, and played AMAZINGLY WELL)
YES Intel chipset
INTEL wifi B/G/N

all in all this thing is amazing. Look for it to go on sale as well within the next 2 weeks at USA Best Buys for $1199.
Quote Tulatin 12th January 2008, 00:06
Whaaaaaat! Waaaaant. The screen could be better, but hey. Sweet spec!
Quote zerolock 1st February 2008, 08:02
sweet, does anyone have a clue when these will be available in Europe? :)
Quote sammo1999 22nd February 2008, 01:48
Good luck getting one, I called best buy's national customer service today and they told me that no store in America has them in stock. I also called gateway to see where else I could get one and they told me that retail best buy stores were the only place that they are sold. Also best buy wont give me a rain check for the sale price. I'm pissed.
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