The Bottom Line
Gateway has made a very strong laptop value with the M-6843. With its Core 2 Duo processor and 3GB of memory, it has a very strong performance level for a system in this price range. There are a few downsides to it such as no FireWire for importing digital video from miniDV camcorders and speaker noise through the speakers with no audio and on batteries.
Pros
* Strong Intel Processor
* Three Gigabytes of Memory
* Labelflash Support
Cons
* Lacks FireWire Port
* Speakers Noise When Running Off Batteries
Description
* Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 Dual Core Mobile Processor
* 3GB PC2-5300 DDR2 Memory
* 160GB 5400rpm SATA Hard Drive
* 8x DVD+/-RW Dual Layer Burner with LabelFlash
* 15.4-inch WXGA (1280x800) Wide LCD with 1.3MP Webcam
* Intel GMA X3100 Integrated Graphics
* v.92 56kbps Modem, 10/100 Ethernet, 802.11a/b/g Wireless
* Three USB 2.0, ExpressCard/54, 5-in-1 Card Reader
* 14" x 10" x 1.5" @ 6.3 lbs.
* Vista Home Premium, Works 9, Power2Go, Norton 360
Guide Review - Gateway M-6843 15.4-inch Budget Laptop Computer
Most of the budget laptops on the market tend to use older generation Intel processors or the AMD Athlon X2 series. While these are great from a value perspective, they tend to offer lower performance. Gateway has instead used an Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 dual core mobile processor that gives it very strong processing power for its price. Combined with the 3GB of memory and it should have little problem running memory intensive applications.
Storage is a bit mixed on the system. The 160GB drive is starting to get small for budget laptops, but it still provides a fair amount of storage space for applications and data. On the optical side, the dual layer DVD burner is pretty much what one would expect on a notebook these days. The drive does support burning labels straight to LabelFlash compatible media. This is a nice feature but it can be harder to find the media compared to the LightScribe format.
The 15.4-inch wide LCD screen is very bright and did extremely well when watching DVD movies. With the glossy coating, the colors were very vibrant. The glossy surface does have the drawback of causing more reflections and glare than a matte surface however. Since it uses integrated graphics, don't expect the M-6843 to really be capable of tasks such as PC gaming or accelerated high definition video. The speakers also showed noise interference when no audio was playing while the system was running on batteries rather than AC power.
One area of disappointment is the lack of a FireWire connector. This makes the system a bit more of a hassle for those looking to use it for digital video editing. The FireWire connector is the most common interface for miniDV digital camcorders. Those looking to use it for that will need to get an ExpressCard FireWire expansion card.