Gateway Solo 9300 XL

Faster mobile processors, larger hard disks and bigger, better screens have been the making of the high-end notebook. The once rather optimistic claims about desktop-level performance and desktop-equivalent display ergonomics have evolved from hype into fact. The new Gateway Solo 9300 XL doesn't yet come with a 700MHz Pentium III SpeedStep processor, but the 650MHz version inside it is more than powerful enough for most users. Along with a small number of other portables, the Solo boasts a screen with a native 1,280 « 1,024 resolution, comfortably surpassing the usable range of a 17in desktop CRT.

It's no use having ground-breaking performance and graphics if you ignore the basics, and the first vital factor is the notebook's build, which is slightly inconsistent. The screen is protected from crush damage by a magnesium alloy lid - a must on large diameter panels like this as plastic just isn't strong enough. The body of the machine, on the other hand, showed some flex, especially along the left side where the drive bay cut-outs weakened the overall construction.

By its nature, this is a big notebook, but Gateway restricts its thickness to 41mm, and it weighs 4kg. This is quite heavy, but still within acceptable bounds for a large three-spindle portable. Personally, we wouldn't want to travel with the Solo extensively, but it's fine for a typical office to home journey - this is acceptable considering that it's been designed for power, not effortless carriage.

Like its predecessors, the Solo 9300 XL has two distinguishing features in the form of some extra buttons above the keyboard and a set of play controls for the DVD or CD drive on the front edge of the case. These are lockable, to prevent accidental triggering while the notebook is being handled, and they make it possible to use the Solo as a DVD or audio CD player with the lid shut. The extra buttons on the keyboard are programmable, but are intended to call up your Web browser, email program and Windows help, plus one application of your choice.

The review machine came fitted with a six-speed DVD-ROM drive (CD and CD-R/RW modules are also available), and managed clean, smooth motion video playback. The external play controls, TV output and - unusually for a notebook - the S/PDIF digital audio output all offer encouragement to make full use of the DVD drive's potential. The ATi video capture/editing applet also allows you to do more on this machine, especially as it's been kitted out with an IEEE-1394 (FireWire) port, which means that it can be hooked up to some digital camcorders. Gateway also includes the more common composite video input.

As usual for a high-end Solo, the keyboard is a treat with plenty of space in the layout immediately providing the comfort and room necessary for longer typing sessions. The action is reasonably firm, and it's easy to hit everything first time without looking too hard.

Boosting the screen's resolution up from 1,024 « 768 to 1,280 « 1,024 yields quite an increase in the available Desktop area, but as ever there's a price to pay. There's more on the screen, but everything's smaller. Even so, after using the Solo for a while, we were satisfied that the equation works, and the display remains readable thanks to the TFT screen's clarity.

Overall performance was good for a 650MHz Pentium III notebook, easily equivalent to a typical 600MHz business desktop. This is particularly notable as the Solo only includes 96Mb of RAM. What really made an impression, though, was the Solo's battery life - it ran for almost four hours in one session, which is excellent going considering the power on offer and the large screen. Intel's SpeedStep technology helps by cutting the processor clock speed down to 500MHz, although you can override this, and experience suggests that it doesn't make a dramatic difference - around 20 minutes - so much of the credit goes to the engineers who designed the rest of the system.