Gateway One ZX6810-01 23-inch All-In-One Desktop PC

Jan 8 2010 - Gateway's ZX6810-01 is a surprisingly powerful all-in-one system for its $1399 price tag. It comes with a wide number of features including multi-touch display, solid state drive and even a quad core processor. The problem is that Gateway has decided not to include a number of media features that makes it fall short from its full potential. It certainly is a good system for those looking at a fast all-in-one desktop but isn't the ultimate media center design.

Jan 8 2010 - Gateway's ZX6810-01 is their current flagship all-in-one desktop that offers a high level of performance. Rather than relying on mobile processors, Gateway has decided to use an Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200S quad core desktop processor that gives the system a high level of performance that is only rivaled by the new iMac with its Core i5/i7 options but at a much higher cost. Combined with this is 8GB of DDR3 memory that prevents the system from running into any issues from lack of RAM.

The storage has both good and bad aspects to it. Rather than relying solely on a hard drive, Gateway has placed a 64GB solid state drive in the ZX6810-01 in addition to a 1TB hard drive. The solid state drive is the primary partition that provides quick boot times and application loading. The only downside is that it is relatively small in space so users are advised to install infrequently used or very large applications onto the hard drive rather than the solid state drive.

Gateway missed a big opportunity to make an ultimate home media station by only installing a standard dual layer DVD burner into the ZX6810-01. It would have been nice for them to put a Blu-ray compatible drive so that the system could also watch full HD Blu-ray movies. Sure, the HDTV tuner is a nice touch but more and more people are getting their media by satellite, cable or even online. In fact, an external HDMI input connector for plugging in an external device would have also been very useful.

In terms of the display, Gateway has used a 23-inch multitouch compatible screen in the ZX6810-01. This is a nice addition to the system with Windows 7's touch interface but isn't quite as nice as some other options. The screen itself lags slightly on the touch input and the extra TouchSuite software has some nice features but falls well behind HP's TouchSmart offering.

As for the screen itself, it has a full 1920x1080 resolution that provides a very bright picture. There was some noticeable backlight bleed on the edges of the panels in certain low light conditions which could be distracting. Viewing angles were acceptable. The graphics are handled by an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4670 that provides excellent HD video acceleration. It is possible to play 3D games on the system as well but don't expect extremely high detail or full resolution in the most modern games. Still, it is one of the fastest found in an all-in-one currently.

Overall, the Gateway One ZX6810-01 is a solid multimedia all-in-one desktop with some surprising performance. At its $1399 price tag, it has some nice features that set it apart from others. It falls short of being an excellent multimedia station due to no Blu-ray or HDMI input. Still, it is one of the highest performance all-in-ones for the price for those interested in heavy computing tasks.