Gateway's NX860S series includes powerful multimedia laptop computers that feature extra-large screens for viewing movies and other media on the go. The NX860S starts out at $900--an excellent price for a laptop with a 17-inch screen.

That display offers a deep 1440x900 resolution, so images are quite sharp. And it's as large and wide than most desktop LCDs, so it works very well when two applications are open and tiered alongside one another.

Even at the sub-$1,000 price tag, Gateway includes good core power on these laptop computers. The default processor is an Intel Dual Core Pentium Mobile T2080 with twin 1.73GHz cores operating on the same chip. Gateway pairs that CPU with a decent 1GB of very speedy 667MHz DDR2 memory.

But after the beautiful screen and the good core power, Gateway doesn't offer too many other standout components. These laptops ship with just a 60GB 5,400rpm hard drive by default--one of the smaller drives we've seen on a new laptop in a while. You can upgrade, of course, but it will cost you close to $100 just to double the size of the drive.

The optical drive is rather basic as well. It's a combination DVD-ROM/CD-RW drive that lets you burn CDs and play DVD movies, but it doesn't have any DVD writing capabilities. The upgrade option here is a bit more palatable: For less than $50, you get a DVD writer that can burn to traditional DVDs as well as 8.5GB DL media and DVD-RAM media for large or repetitive backups, respectively.

Graphics are integrated on these laptops (you'll have to step up to the NX860X to get dedicated graphics). This is especially unfortunate because that large screen would be great for 3D gaming. Connectivity options are quite good, with a modem, gigabit Ethernet, and 802.11a/b/g wireless built in. You can upgrade to the new faster 802.11n or Bluetooth connectivity, but each of these options adds another $50 to the price tag.

These large laptops feature four USB ports, a Firewire port, and a 6-in-1 media card reader, so you'll be able to hook up high-speed peripherals or swap photos and files from a digital camera or PDA easily.

With such a large display, there's room enough for a full-sized keyboard including a 10-key number pad so typing feels as comfortable as most any desktop keyboard. While some of the components are rather basic, if you're looking for a large-screened laptop at an excellent price, the Gateway NX860S is a great place to start.


Pro: Beautiful widescreen, nice price
Con: Integrated graphics, basic components

Warranty
1-year limited