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The good:Features a high-end Centrino 2 CPU and Nvidia GeForce 9800 graphics card for an incredibly reasonable price; higher screen resolution than previous models; 4GB of RAM and 64-bit OS.

The bad: Lacks a few basic amenities, such as Bluetooth and a fingerprint reader; 200GB hard drive is merely average.

The bottom line: We don’t know how Gateway makes money selling these things, but the combination of high-end components and low price makes the 17-inch Gateway P-7811FX the best mobile gaming deal going right now.

Specifications: Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo (2.26 GHz); RAM installed: 4 GB DDR3 SDRAM; Weight: 9.3 lbs; See full specs

Price range: $1,449.99

Gateway’s budget-minded, 17-inch gaming laptops have impressed lately, offering high-end graphics and enough CPU power to make for a decent gaming experience. Our only real knocks against the Gateway 6860FX and the 6831FX were for their merely average processors (Intel Core 2 Duo T5450 or T5500) and 1,440×900 resolution, which is good for a high-end 15-inch machine but less ideal for a desktop replacement.

The new P-7811FX manages to fix most of the issues we had with those earlier Gateway budget-gaming laptops. It bumps the processor all the way up to a 2.26GHz Core 2 Duo P8400 and the Centrino 2 platform, adds Nvidia’s new GeForce 9800M GTS graphics card, and ups the screen resolution to an HD-friendly 1,920×1,200. Amazingly, it does all of this for $1,449. Sure, the P-7811FX costs about $100 more than those previous models, but for the PC gamer on a budget, we don’t know of a better deal on a laptop right now.

Gateway’s FX line of laptops, including the P-7811FX, skips the glowing alien heads and flashing lights of 17-inch gaming rigs from Alienware or Dell. Instead, it features a glossy black plastic chassis, with brushed aluminum detailing and copper accents around the keyboard. It makes for a subdued, yet sporty, look (although, it attracts fingerprints like crazy).

The full-size keyboard and separate number pad have roomy, comfortable keys. Above the keyboard is a row of media controls, with buttons cut right into the brushed metal border. These backlit buttons look cool, but are not as easy to use as the touch-sensitive controls found on most new laptops. There is one touch-sensitive control–a volume slider–which is responsive, but adjusts the volume too slowly for our tastes.

One of our chief complaints about the Gateway 6860FX and 6831FX models was concerning the 1,440×900-pixel display resolution, which is fine for an upscale 15-inch laptop, but not great for a 17-inch desktop replacement. Gateway apparently heard our gripes and upgraded the screen to the same 1,920×1,200 resolution one found on high-end gaming and multimedia laptops. It’s also great for downloading and viewing HD-video content, and almost makes us wish we could pay a little more for a Blu-ray drive. Sadly, Gateway doesn’t offer a Blu-ray-equipped model anywhere in its 17-inch P series. If your idea of entertainment drifts toward HD movies and away from 3D games, the HP Pavilion dv7-1025nr will hold some appeal. HP’s $1,499 desktop replacement doesn’t offer quite the graphics horsepower of the Gateway P-7811FX, but some models in the line feature a Blu-ray drive, and the laptop boasts a unique “frameless” bezel.

With only three USB ports, there isn’t as much connectivity as a laptop like the Dell Studio 15 offers, but we like the eSATA port for hooking up an external hard drive. Our review unit had a fingerprint reader and Bluetooth, but those two extras have been stripped from the final shipping version of the P-7811FX. We also expected to see a 250GB or 320GB hard drive instead of the 200GB unit here, but at least it spins at a quick 7,200rpm.

The Core 2 Duo T5000-series CPUs in the Gateway 6860FX and 6831FX were fine for playing even high-end games like Crysis on the 14-inches wide by 9-inches tall display, and we were happy to sacrifice some processing power for the GeForce 8800 graphics card that was the main selling point of those aggressively priced systems. The P-7811FX offers an excellent upgrade in that department; it moves up to a 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 CPU, part of Intel’s new Centrino 2 platform. Combined with 4GB of RAM, the 64-bit OS needed to make use all that RAM, and a desktop-speed, 7200rpm hard drive, the Gateway was a strong performer in our round-up of high-end back-to-school laptops. It matched performance with two other P8400 systems, the HP Pavilion dv7-1025nr and the Sony VAIO FW140. (It’s worth noting that some software and hardware can have additional compatibility and performance issues with the 64-bit version of Vista, although the specific applications we used for benchmarking worked well.)

The high-end Nvidia GeForce 8800 GTS graphics card we liked so much in the Gateway FX series has also been upgraded in the P-7811FX–to the GeForce 9800 GTS. We were able to get 117 frames per second in Unreal Tournament 3 at a modest 1280×800 resolution–far more than the 78 frames per second we got with Toshiba’s similarly priced gaming rig, the Qosmio X305-Q701, which has a Nvidia GeForce 9700M. Bumping the resolution up to 1,900×1,200, we still managed to get a very impressive 58 frames per second. The only laptop that comes close is the Alienware Area-51 m17x, which combines the same GeForce 9800 graphics card with a 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Extreme X9000 CPU, and is, naturally, much more expensive.

Our battery testing, using CNET Labs’ video playback battery drain test, gave us 2 hours and 42 minute of battery life, which is fairly impressive for a desktop replacement. Because desktop replacements spend most of their time tethered to a single location, battery life isn’t usually a big factor here.

The system includes an industry-standard, one-year warranty, with parts-and-labor coverage and return-to-depot service. Gateway offers a 24-7, toll-free, technical-support phone line, and the Web site has the usual driver downloads

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