Last week week was a boon for various PC and laptop news outlets. With the official launch of next gen Intel Centrino Duo (Santa Rosa) mobile processor platform, every laptop vendor felt obliged to announce that they have something with the new chip inside to offer.
Unfortunately most of these new products are not ready just yet and you’ll have to wait a few weeks before they start shipping.
Gateway E-265M is one of the first Santa Rosa based notebooks you can actually buy.
Gateway E-2650M is a 14.1″ business notebook that starts at $1299 and features:
- Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7100 (1.80GHz, 800MHz, 2MB L2 Cache)
- 512MB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (1-512MB module)
- Chassis w/ Integrated Intel® GMA x3100 Graphics (with up to 128MB Shared Memory), Intel® 965GM Chipset
- Integrated Intel® 10/100/1000 Ethernet Adapter
- Integrated Intel® 3945 802.11a/ b/ g wireless networking
- (4) USB 2.0, VGA, IEEE 1394 (FireWire), S-Video (TV-Out)
- 14.1″ WXGA TFT Active Matrix (1280 x 800 max. resolution) display
- 60GB 5400rpm Serial ATA hard drive
- 24x CD-ROM drive
- 7-in-1 media card reader (MemoryStick®, MemoryStick Pro®, MultiMedia Card™, Secure Digital™, xD-Picture Card, Mini Secure Digital®, RS-MultiMedia Card™)
- Primary 6-Cell Lithium Ion Battery w/ 1 Yr. limited battery warranty
And if you have some cash to spare, you can upgrade your Gateway E-265M laptop to a maximum configuration with:
- Intel® Core™ 2 Duo Processor T7700 (2.40GHz, 800MHz, 4MB L2 Cache)
- 2048MB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (2-1024MB modules)
- Chassis w/ ATI Mobility™ Radeon® X2300 HD 512MB PCI Express Graphics (256MB GDDR2 Dedicated Memory with up to 512MB using HyperMemory™ Technology), Fingerprint Reader, Intel® 965PM chipset
- 14.1″ WXGA Ultrabright TFT Active Matrix (1280 x 800 max. resolution)
- 100GB 7200rpm Serial ATA hard drive
- Primary 12-Cell Lithium Ion battery w/ 1 Yr. limited battery warranty (To accommodate additional cells, this battery extends beyond the end of the system)
This bundle will cost you $2577. And if you want even more power, you can exchange 1GB SDRAM modules to 2GB DIMMs on Gateway E-265M laptop.
But bigger DIMMs ad something like $700+ to the price of each additional Gigabyte of RAM, so unless you really need that memory, paying $1450 more for 4GB of RAM is not worth it.
Overall, with Gateway E-265M you get lots of mobility and power - 10 1/2 hrs of battery life with 12 cell battery - in a really compact, 1.3″ thick package.