Love at First Sight: The Gateway One

Tue Oct 30, 2007 8:03AM EDT

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I'm usually not swayed by a pretty face, but the Gateway All-in-One PC is one of the handsomest machines I've ever seen. It's been sitting in my dining room while I check it out, and it's become a major conversation piece for anyone who enters.

In the past, Gateway hasn't exactly been synonymous with groundbreaking design, but that's been changing. (See my review of the new Gateway XHD3000 monitor.) The new Gateway One is a streamlined, sleek PC housed in a glossy black console that's only about 3.5 inches thick. The console houses most of your computer: A 19-inch widescreen LCD, the hard drive, invisible but rich-sounding speakers, a DVD drive, and even a TV tuner (optional) are all built right into the display.

The only loose parts are the keyboard, mouse, and remote—they are wireless, beautifully engineered, and quite responsive. The major benefit, besides getting oohs and ahhs from your friends, is how neat things get when you're not squirreling a chassis and wires below your desk.

The first thing you'll notice is how quick a setup can be. The shoebox-sized power brick has one single cord that attaches to your PC. That's it. One wire and you're off and running.

The other thing you'll notice immediately is how quiet the fan is. Then rev up some music. The sound emanates from within, but you see no speakers. Vibrating transducers are hidden behind the glossy back, producing 8-channel sound that's probably one of the weakest links in the performance, but still more than respectable.

On the inside, the Gateway One features a Core2 Duo processor and an on-board graphics processor (Intel) with an upgrade to the ATI graphics card for even better performance. A 500GB hard drive is upgradeable to 2TB, so it's unlikely you'll run out of storage any time soon. There'se 3GB of RAM memory, as well as connectivity available through Ethernet, 802.11n wireless, and Bluetooth 2. This PC also comes equipped with seven USB ports and a fast slot-loading DVD. It runs Windows Vista Home with a trial version of Microsoft Office 2007. The price, fully loaded, will run you about $1,800.

Apple, Sony, and HP all make all-in-one machines, but Gateway is far from a me-too with this design.

Ben Patterson took an early look at the Gateway One. I've been running it for about three weeks and the love keeps growing.

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  • 66 Posted by teefertaylor on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:59PM EDT Report Abuse

    The mac users, as usual, stay negative. You certainly cannot get a mac with the same components as this gateway for1800. You get what you pay for and mac has ALWAYS been overpriced for what they deliver.

  • 67 Posted by dbfraser301 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:38PM EDT Report Abuse

    Oh,wow. It comes with a TRIAL version of Office 2007

  • 68 Posted by hiabex303 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:18PM EDT Report Abuse

    Yep; I get stuck as soon as I think 'Microsoft' & 'Windows'.

  • 70 Posted by tohearyourvoice1 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:14PM EDT Report Abuse

    ill keep my imac, this thing is a cheesy rip off. doesnt even compare to a mac. never will

  • 71 Posted by blackcat3556 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:08PM EDT Report Abuse

    Nice try, but I love my iMac and I wouldn't give it up for anything!

  • 72 Posted by maxgain2001 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:12PM EDT Report Abuse

    While the mac OS is better, the hardware is virtually the same. Macs are using the same processor, and often the same video boards and hard drives. Everything else is just a fancy box. At least in the PC world, the mouse has more than one button.

  • 74 Posted by bdlrampage on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:04PM EDT Report Abuse

    I'm kind of indifferent, but did any of you even try out this PC? Or did you read the article and automatically become skeptical? That seems kind of immature, i'm guessing you all just have a mac and read this article and thought to yourselfs "Well thats a bunch of bull, the Mac is so much better than any machine they could come out with". Why don't you just try it out before you go trashing it already? And why would you want a Mac when sometimes it can be so much trouble finding software that is compatible with it? When you buy a PC, you already know that anything you want is going to be compatible with it and as long as you aren't treating it like trash, its not going to crash on you. Windows OS's aren't getting worse, they're getting better if you remember the amount of crash's windows 95 and 98 used to get. Window's XP have virtually no crash's and I bet vista is the same. While i do like the Mac systems because they are very reliable, the prices can be pretty steep and i know what kind of prices i'm getting with a PC. Try it out before you go bashing it people, please. The latest greatest has to be checked before you hate it.

  • 76 Posted by ave_hein on Fri Nov 9, 2007 12:32PM EST Report Abuse

    Why cry so much over a power brick people? And does the weaker hardware make this in some way uncomparable to the iMac? Bottom line is if you bought an iMac (which they are comparing to) then you weren't serious about hardware performance anyway and so yes this is very comparable and visually much more attractive IMO. Personally, I'll stick with my MacPro so I can get something thats for more than just show. The iMac and this new Gateway are excellent for people who just wanted to surf the net and have a pretty computer.

  • 77 Posted by xenos69247 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 10:53PM EDT Report Abuse

    I don't love PC's and quite frankly would switch to Macs in a heartbeat. But the price point of most Macs are just too high.

  • 79 Posted by tbush04 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:57PM EDT Report Abuse

    3.5 inch thick monitor??? I don't know about the imac but my cinema display is a little over an inch and a half. 3.5 is the size of a standard business card to give some perspective. PC companies are just trying to get in the range of what a mac has to offer. You shouldn't waste your time building something that is going to turn into complete crap in about 2 years. For everyone that thinks they can't buy a mac because they are too expensive... I just read an artical saying it's more expensive to get a PC because the resell value on a mac is so much better than a PC. You can use your mac 5 years down the road can you do that with a PC and get the same quality. NO.

  • 80 Posted by kieran27 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:50PM EDT Report Abuse

    Gotta love the mac folks. They say the lamest things. "You never see a virus on a mac do you? Cause its so great". NOO, why would you spend six months writing a virus that will only effect eight percent of the entire internet? Get over the pain Macboys, Apple lost the personal computer wars. Why do you think they made Ipods?

  • 81 Posted by justinficker on Thu Sep 3, 2009 4:45PM EDT Report Abuse

    macs are toys... not computers. i like macs for there great applications when it comes to video production and music production, but if i want to get some actual work done, i use a PC. for my career as a software engineer, macs are useless.

  • 82 Posted by prussojr on Thu Sep 3, 2009 8:20PM EDT Report Abuse

    Looks like a black iMac to me... But... No built in camera? Smaller screen? Giant power brick? Did you read how excited the guy got by the fact that you only needed one cord to get it running. (BTW Same goes for the iMac) HMM... now where did I hear that before... "There is no step three" the only positive i see the the 7 usb ports. It's pretty, but not an iMac killer by any stretch.

  • 83 Posted by lynnking04 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 7:01PM EDT Report Abuse

    Apple iMac is still the superior machine hands down.

  • 84 Posted by swrs3001 on Thu Sep 3, 2009 9:52PM EDT Report Abuse

    The mac is not overprices compared to this horrible machine.

  • 85 Posted by bharma on Thu Sep 3, 2009 3:06PM EDT Report Abuse

    Nice looking machine; I've owned a laptop from Gateway for over 4 years, and that thing is a champ. In the meantime, my cousin has had to return two DOA iMacs, and a friend has done little but complain about her Mac since she bought it last summer. Still, this story is a great opportunity for the iMac fanbois to slam PCs. Funny.

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