Gateway's 17-inch M680 laptop
posted March 31st 2005 12:48PM
Gateway introduced a new 17-inch laptop today, the M680. The styling is nothing to get too excited about, but the M680, which weighs 7.7 pounds and is just 1.24 inches thick, is pretty light and thin for a 17-inch laptop (or at least one that isn't also a PowerBook). Comes in two versions, the budget-priced M680S and the top of the line M680XL, both of which have 1680 x 1050 resolution displays:
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The M680S has a 1.6GHz Pentium M processor, 512MB of DDR2 RAM, a 40GB hard drive, DVD/CD-RW combination drive, built-in 801.11b/g WiFi, and an ATI Mobility RADEON x700 graphics card with 64MB of video RAM. Retail price: $1,399.99.
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The M680XL sports a 2.13GHz Pentium M processor, 512MB of DDR2 RAM, a 60GB hard drive, an 8x DVD+/-RW drive, built-in 802.11a/b/g WiFi, and an ATI Mobility RADEON x700 PCI Express graphics card with 128MB of video RAM. Retail price: $2,864.99 (yeah, it's fully-loaded, but damn, that's steep).
Click to see a few more pics.
most notable to me is the existence of a numeric keypad.
"most notable to me is the existence of a numeric keypad."
Almost all 17" PC notebooks have a numeric keypad these days, that I've seen.
I personally wouldn't want one in any laptop because it forces you to type off-center from the screen. With a desktop, you can just move your keyboard over a bit so you stay centered... can't do that with a laptop. Bad for ergonomics.
I got my Gateway M675 right after they came out with it, and it's been battered and brusied and I still love it. But, I am now seriously coveting the M680. Two things I hope they've fixed with the M680 are: the very loud fan and the flimsy-ish LCD. Mine developed a crack along the back within a few months, and while my duct-tape repair job works just fine, it's still a pretty flimsy thing when it's opened. Hopefully the M680 has some extra support.
i'm running my desktops at that resolution. best palce ive found for 1680x1050 wallpaper is here
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper/resolutions.php?w=1680
they have bigge too but who has 2560x1600 screen! omg
"Almost all 17" PC notebooks have a numeric keypad these days, that I've seen."
Really?
Sony's does not, Toshiba's does not, Apple's does not, Dell's does not.
^_^
Numeric keypads are a good thing; they are not common on large laptops as far as I have seen.
As to typing "off center" that is a strange thing to worry about; I never adjust my keyboard to "center" with my screen anyway. In a large, widescreen laptop I never end up using the right side of the screen for anything anyways, except for using as space for things that I am not currently working on.
Numeric keypads are a good thing; they are not common on large laptops as far as I have seen.
As to typing "off center" that is a strange thing to worry about; I never adjust my keyboard to "center" with my screen anyway. In a large, widescreen laptop I never end up using the right side of the screen for anything anyways, except for using as space for things that I am not currently working on.
Well besides I think that is an ugly laptop, I just wanted to agree with the center of screen typing. My keyboard (which has a 10key pad) has the alpha keys centered with the screen. I can't stand typing to the left of the screen.
Not to keen on this design... DELL's 9200 looks alot better.
I agree with #2. It just feels akward. I usually rest my palms on my laptop and it feels weird if my hands aren't evenly spaced out.
Maybe I'd get used to it after a while but for $2,8k I demand perfection. And by that I mean, just the way I want it to be. YMMV.
(Hell, $2,8k? When I was in high school, you could get a decent car for that and have a nice little summer project that you could sell at the end of the summer if you wanted to.)
wow, at that price, my top-of-the-line powerbook is cheap. And lighter. And thinner. Didi I mention better looking? the built in bluetooth is handy for the phone sync, and the back lit keyboard just impresses the sh!t out of people (yeah, laugh it up. But you know it's true) the bigger hard drive is never to be sniffed at either. Hey, I thought macs were expensive...
But, I will hand it to you, I would like a little numeric keyboard too. Oh, and a decent audio in port that takes a standard mic. C'mon apple, wtf is up with that! And don't get me started on single button mice....
"(Hell, $2,8k? When I was in high school, you could get a decent car for that and have a nice little summer project that you could sell at the end of the summer if you wanted to.)"
Huh, odd comparison... think you could still do that today.
OTOH, if you want an actual analogy, when I was in highschool a top of the line notebook fetched $8k, inflation adjusted to over $10k. By today's standards sure it's expenso, but nothing really breaks the bank like it used to. Laptops are so much more consumable nowadays.
Price is pretty good considering that I returned the Dell XPS2 which which cost $900 more. Problems booting up the Dell and then trying to reach someone to get the issue resolved were what caused me to go to Gateway. The 128MB ATI video card in the Gateway definitely allows me to play any game out there very enjoyably (WoW, C&C Generals, HL2, Warhammer 40K Dawn of War are the games I like to play). I dont think the $900 difference justified the 256MB card, the pretty lights, and crappy Dell support and service. The Gateway feels pretty solid and I like having the numeric keypad. You quickly forget that the keybaord is not centered to the screen. The screen is beautiful. I also like the styling because I dont feel like I am carrying around a toy especially when I use it for work.
Does anyone beside this new Gateway have this:
1. Bright 1680 x 1050 resolution
2. Pentium M
3. Sanoma technology (nice but not required)
4. Numeric keypad
Just wondering what anyone thinks of the display on the 680. I have an older Gateway that I like, but the screen is just not very bright. Right now I am using a Toshiba Satellite but I'm returning it because I hate the ALPs touchpad. The 680 has Synaptics, right??
I am waiting for my new 17 inch gateway m680xl laptop for about 2K!
The major specs-
1.8 gig Pentium M processor
17 inch WSXGA screen
1 gig ram
100 gig 5400rpm hard drive
3 year warranty with 3 year Accident Insurance
dvd burner dual layer
128MB ATI Radeon X700 graphics card
I got my tracking number the other day and anxiously where it is. Since its not here yet- I thought I give a shout out that this should be an awesome laptop based on reviews online.
This was a review that impressed me.
http://notebookforums.com/showthread.php?t=81817
I was deciding between 17 inch laptops of Sony Vaio, Dell inspiron 9300 and Gateway. The sony has great screen but the performance was not that great and more expensive because of the brand name. The problem with Dell was that there were a lot of complaints about the screen and its TruLife glossy screen. If the screen sucks and its hard to read why even have a 17 inch screen? Dell did offer a 750 instant coupon but when you add all the upgrades- it came to over 2000. They seem to mark their price up and then offer the discount so the end result is their pricing is very similar to other vendors. The gateway seems just right with performance and screen. Only problem was that Gateway was a little more expensive than the Dell. So I chatted with Dell rep for over an hour and got him to price match my dell quote saving a couple hundred bucks. Not only that but I got better components such as 5400rpm 100 gig hard drive vs slow 4200rpm with dell, faster 1.8 gig M processor vs 1.6 or 1.7 processor with dell, and from various reviews on the net the gateway screen is so much better than the Dell and is comparable to the sony Xbrite. Dell does have the faster video card but what is point of having fast video card if screen sucks. And it seems Gateways video card is fast enough to do just fine with all the games and apps out there. And my package included the 3 year Accident insurance too that Dell had- which I conside a must since laptops can be easier to break taking it around. I had a screen from previous laptop that broke somehow at the airport. So accident insurance is just peace of mind that I will have a a great laptop for long time without having to treat it with white gloves. I have dell desktop and I have never been a gateway customer before so this would be my first time. I will post my opinion when I get my laptop.
ps- Fedex tracking says my laptop just left FedEx Ramp Jun 5, 2005 9:01 pm SHANGHAI CN Wooohoo! I should be getting it this week.
I've had the Gateway m680xl for couple days.
Here are my thoughts on it so far.
I'm at Barnes and Nobles right now playing on lappy and its so good to surf freely instead of being chained to a desktop.
I like it! I like it very much!
The lappy is sturdy sleek thing design. Its solid yet still light for its size- not bulky.
The 17 inch screen is indeed bright, big, clear and glossy. However, I actually lower the resolution to 1024x768 to reduce eye strain and it is still sharp. I keep it at highest brightness. Even at the highest brightness - I still get almost 3 hours on the 8 cell battery. My brother's lappy gets only 1 hour. So very happy with battery life and low power consumption.
I went ahead and formatted the hard drive and installed Win XP on it. It came with XP Home. The only problem is I had to go look for all the drivers with some help from Gateway chat support. Most drivers were on gateway website and on driver/apps CD I created. Luckily I created the driver/apps CD before formatting the hard drive. It has most of apps and drivers for the lappy. I had to get the wireless adapter driver from Intel website. For the of ATI Mobility video adapter I had to go into Device Manager and do an Update video driver and have it point to the driver CD to install it. Now everythings working and chummy.
The touchpad is awesome- it is like the touchpad on an ipod- I increases the senstivity on it so the cursor zooms with just a light touch. And it has a neat scroll pad so my fingers never need to leave the pad scrolling down webpages. This is so much faster than mouse. It just requires playing around with the settings to get the sensitivity you like.
Only minor complaint is keyboard is off center which causes me to mistype few times since it is not centered like a regular keyboard. But I guess this is just me getting use to it.
Playing around with Photoshop on it and its pretty quick with all the filter renderings.
Overall- a great sturdy machine with a big beautiful screen. Very happy with it.
Anybody know why Gateway doesn't offer an option to get the Pentium M 760 processor on the M680? I can't afford the $400+ option for the PM 770 processor but I'd like a little more power than the 1.8ghz 750. How does the Pentium M stack up against a Pentum 4 w/ HT? If anybody knows I'd greatly appreciate it. I am strongly considering getting the M680x with the PM750.
Hey, benlm64...I'm faced with the same problem regarding the processor. They did offer the 2.0GHz at one point but must have ran out. I went on to Live Chat at Gateway with a cs rep to inquire about the 2.0 but was surprised what they can do. I suggest you call Gateway and ask about the 2.0.