X

Gateway's scaled-down sequel

Gateway's scaled-down sequel

Dan Ackerman Editorial Director / Computers and Gaming
Dan Ackerman leads CNET's coverage of computers and gaming hardware. A New York native and former radio DJ, he's also a regular TV talking head and the author of "The Tetris Effect" (Hachette/PublicAffairs), a non-fiction gaming and business history book that has earned rave reviews from the New York Times, Fortune, LA Review of Books, and many other publications. "Upends the standard Silicon Valley, Steve Jobs/Mark Zuckerberg technology-creation myth... the story shines." -- The New York Times
Expertise I've been testing and reviewing computer and gaming hardware for over 20 years, covering every console launch since the Dreamcast and every MacBook...ever. Credentials
  • Author of the award-winning, NY Times-reviewed nonfiction book The Tetris Effect; Longtime consumer technology expert for CBS Mornings
See full bio
Dan Ackerman

We really liked the recent 15.4-inch Gateway NX570 laptop. It was a highly configurable system that could run anywhere from $699 to almost $2,000, but the brushed metal accents and fingerprint-resistant design made it seem like a much more expensive system than you'd expect based on its low starting price.

The sequel keeps a lot of what we liked about the original but shrinks it down to a 14-inch package. The more-portable Gateway NX270 (replacing the NX260) should be available February 1, right after the Windows Vista launch and will have a similarly affordable starting price--$699--and much of the same configuration flexibility.