Gateway M405XL (Pentium M 1.5 GHz, 256 MB RAM, 40 GB HDD)

Design of Gateway M405XL (Pentium M 1.5 GHz, 256 MB RAM, 40 GB HDD)

The Gateway M405XL is big for such a basic notebook. Our unit weighed in at a portable 5.86 pounds, 6.6 pounds with power brick and cord. Only essential features such as its VGA monitor port, modem and Ethernet jacks, and two USB ports interrupt the breadth of its charcoal-gray case. You won't find frills, such as FireWire and video-out ports or memory-card slots, that would appeal to video and photography buffs.

The M405XL's electrostatic touch pad has only three buttons.

Inside, it's equally basic. Below the 15-inch LCD screen (with a standard 1,024x768 resolution) sits a well-proportioned, slate-gray keyboard and an electrostatic touch pad with three buttons. Though standard size, the touch pad looks miniature amid the vast expanses of plain gray running off to either side. The area to the right is big enough to hold a sandwich, and the left-hand spot could easily support a coffee mug (though we don't recommend mixing lunch and laptop in such a fashion). Even without food in the way, crossing the empty zones is a slight strain. We found ourselves having to stretch forward a bit too far to reach the keyboard, leaning closer than otherwise necessary to see such a large screen. Aside from that, typing was quite pleasant. The keys feel solid and never rattle. Depressing them requires a bit more effort than on the light-touch keyboards from vendors such as IBM and Fujitsu, but they are certainly no harder to move than the keys on a standard desktop PC.

Text is easy to read on the bright LCD screen, but colors are slightly disappointing at default settings. Digital photos and a DVD movie (Pirates of the Caribbean) had a slight amber cast, and blues appeared a bit faded. Minor tweaks of the integrated Intel 855GM graphics system greatly reduced the color biases, however.

Considering all the empty space around the keyboard, we were surprised to find the Gateway M405XL's stereo speakers tucked into the edge of the notebook under the palm-rest area. Oddly, the reasonably powerful speakers sound best when you're sitting back from the notebook. As the keyboard forces you to lean in, the sound is somewhat muffled by being located beneath your ears and slightly blocked by your arms. A better plan might have been to shift the keyboard a bit closer to the front and mount the speakers under the LCD, as on the Toshiba Satellite M30 notebooks.