OUR FAVORITE VALUE NOTEBOOK: GATEWAY M255-E If it's one thing SMBs need to watch, it's the bottom line. Getting the most for your buck is synonymous with success in that arena, so we take anything with a 'value' prefix seriously. Unfortunately, most manufacturers seem to equate value with anemic features or even outdated hardware. What we loved about Gateway's M255-E SB is that 'anemic' simply doesn't apply. Ju If it’s one thing SMBs need to watch, it’s the bottom line. Getting the most for your buck is synonymous with success in that arena, so we take anything with a ‘value’ prefix seriously. Unfortunately, most manufacturers seem to equate value with anemic features or even outdated hardware. What we loved about Gateway’s M255-E SB is that ‘anemic’ simply doesn’t apply. Just a sub-$1,500 price tag. We reviewed the M255-E in an earlier configuration back in June of 2006 after reviewing it for a couple of months. That one ran a basic Intel embedded video subsystem and a fairly quick Pentium 4 CPU. Later in 2006, Gateway was kind enough to send us the newer M255-E SB, this one configured with a 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo, 1GB of RAM, an 80GB SATA hard drive, a CD-RW/DVD drive and a 14-inch ultrabrite screen as well as Windows XP Professional and Microsoft Office Small Business Edition–and it still came in under $2,000.You can opt for a Core 2 Duo CPU anywhere between 1.6GHz and 2.16GHz, a RAM count between 512MB and 4GB, a hard disk as small as 60GB or as big as 120GB, and an optical drive that goes from a straight CD-ROM, a CD-ROM writeable-DVD playing combo or a DVD writer. All this can drop your final price as low as $1,300 to over $2,000–though that actually takes effort. No, the M255-E doesn’t look as sexy as an ultra-portable or a brightly-colored fashion notebook. But it has it where it counts–under the hood. It’s also a great size and weight for traveling, fitting easily into any notebook briefcase or backpack and weighing about five and a half pounds. ON THE ROAD With that much muscle and a nice form factor I immediately adopted the M255-E as my own–figured the programmers could bite me. When they sniffed around, I misdirected with an offhand comment about ‘value’ and slunk away shnozzing for richer hardware. Meanwhile, the thing took everything I tossed at it without blinking. Microsoft Office ran without a problem, and our annual budgeting and sales spreadsheets (which are both rather large) zipped along with nary a blink. Video conferencing, Skype, podcasting, all the geekazoid stuff ran without a hitch, too. A nastier test came during an emergency sales demo where the M255-E had to be setup as an Apache/Tomcat server with a MySQL back-end. Software installed, duty done. I even had it running Debian via VMware clicking back and forth between that and XP with no trouble. Then came Vista. We tried RC1 on the first Gateway M255-E we received earlier in the year (the one we reviewed in June) and it couldn’t run Aero. This meatier version, however, handled Aero without trouble. Intel attributes this to an upgraded Intel video subsystem on the newer Core 2 Duo motherboards. I wouldn’t try to run the really high-end Vista Ultimate graphics toys or the newer high-end games if you’re looking for smooth performance, but for mainstream Vista visions, the M255-E does the trick while still maintaining a value-class price tag. Tres impressive. Traveling with the machine was done often and with little trouble. She got dropped only twice in the four months we had the machine, but it suffered no ill effects. It’s light enough that running through an airport is still possible provided you’re not an invalid. Battery life average around three to three and a half hours with the mainstream battery that Gateway provided. There is however a long-life version available that should bump you up to about 5 hours with little trouble. Connectivity was also solid. The machine has 10/100/1000 on the wired side and 802.11 a/b/g on the wireless side. External ports were enough, though a little of the M255-E’s valueness peeked through here. The only video ports are external VGA and S-Video. Enough for external projectors, but for a good display, a DVI port would have been better-then again that would have also required a higher-end video card. You’ll also find four USB 2.0 ports (good) and one FireWire port (nice) as well as a SmartCard reader and a 6-in-1 media card reader (all good). PC Cards, however, are restricted to a single Type II slot that doesn’t support the new Express Card standard. That would have been a real-nice-to-have, especially considering that the M255-E is really built for traveling and all the new broadband wireless cards (like a Verizon EV-DO card or a T-Mobile EDGE card) will be coming out in this format. OVERALL Overall, we liked the M255-E because you’re getting exactly what you need for the biz traveler on the go. It’s fast, it’s tough, it runs exactly what you need it to run and it’s got a price tag low enough that you can buy two of them for the price of one of the high-end jobs. I was ticked when Gateway finally insisted I send it back. Technology Industry