Gateway Solo 9150 XL

In April I looked at the Dell Inspiron 7000 366LT (reviewed issue 54, p160), and it was the first thing that sprang to mind when I saw the Solo 9150 XL. The concept behind both machines is the same: rather than concentrating on size and weight, the emphasis is on power and ergonomics. In other words, both notebooks are desktop replacements, not travelling companions.

The body of the case is good and solid, and although the lid surface isn't unduly yielding the wide screen makes for a narrow bezel, and the lid itself is a little flexible as a result. To be fair, it's still stronger than many I've seen, and you get the impression that some thought has gone into making it as rigid as possible under the circumstances.

There are two bays in the front of the case, one for the battery and one for a combo module that can be a 24-speed CD-ROM and floppy drive (supplied with the review sample) or a DVD/LS-120 sandwich for an extra £105. You can fit a second battery in the drive compartment if you prefer, or marginally reduce the weight of the machine by using the blank included with the accessories.

Sensibly - given that this is supposed to be a desktop replacement - Gateway provides a PC Card modem to fill one of the usual pair of expansion slots. The machine is fitted with all the other expected ports, including an expansion bus for Gateway's docking station or port replicator options, and some additional connectivity for your multimedia needs as well.

Analog video capture and output to a TV or VCR is catered for by a pair of composite video jacks. You also get the standard audio line in and out, headphones and microphone mini-jacks, plus a Dolby Digital AC-3 output for use with an external decoder and a 5.1 speaker setup. This is intended for use with the DVD-ROM drive option, which will also get a boost from a C-Cube Cobra hardware MPEG-2 decoder, although both components were surplus to requirements on the CD-ROM-equipped test machine.

If you want desktop-style audio the Crystal SoundFusion sound chip will do a tolerable job, complete with 3D spatialisation and a software ten-band graphic equaliser. You'll need to use external speakers if you want to hear the results, however, since the integrated ones were muffled and rather lifeless.

The Solo's big feature is its 15in TFT screen, which really brings an extra degree of readability to its default XGA resolution. This is hardly surprising when you consider that its picture diagonal is close to that of a typical 17in CRT. The pixel pushing is done by an ATi Rage Pro LT on the AGP bus with 8Mb of local memory, which is becoming a popular choice for the power notebook/ desktop replacement. But while it's good for 2D, it doesn't stand up as a 3D accelerator.

Chunky machines can be less comfortable to type on than slimmer ones because the thickness of the case - in the Solo's case about 35mm - raises the palmrest rather high off the working surface. Gateway's designers have made an attempt to improve matters by fitting tilt feet on the base and this does help to reduce the difference. Thanks to the large case, the keyboard itself is well designed, with a long spacebar and large Enter, Shift and Backspace keys. The action is light but decisive, so most people should take to it quite well.

Battery life is impressive for a powerful machine with such a big screen; realistic running times stretch to around the three and a half hour mark under normal usage.

The mobile Pentium II/366 processor with its full-speed cache has pushed up notebook performance noticeably. While desktops remain the only choice for really demanding apps, the typical business user is well served by a portable such as this. The CPU couldn't do it on its own of course, and a good showing from the Toshiba hard disk and the Rage Pro graphics, not to mention a reasonably generous 96Mb of RAM as standard, ensured that the overall performance stayed snappy.