Gateway One ZX4800-02 review: Gateway One ZX4800-02

Editors' note: This review is part of our 2009 Retail Laptop and Desktop Holiday Roundup, which covers specific fixed configurations of popular systems found in retail stores.

The good news about the Gateway One ZX4800-02: it's not a Nettop. Nope, instead this is a full-fledged, $750 all-in-one desktop, complete with a touch screen and wireless networking. It suffers from the curse common to most all-in-ones, that you can buy a more capable standalone PC and monitor combination for the same price, but if you value the self-contained convenience of an all-in-one, this Gateway is one of the best for less than $800.

The Gateway One ZX4800-02 is an attractive all-in-one with a respectable display and most of the basic features we expect at this price. Its glossy, rounded, black chassis creates a friendlier profile that we usually see, and the bundled wireless mouse and keyboard help you maintain a clean desktop.

We don't expect the world from a $750 all-in-one, and you'd be wise to keep your expectations in check if you're considering such a system. The Gateway One ZX4800-02's touch screen is its most non-traditional feature, but with limited supporting programs, the touch input has few practical benefits. You can navigate around easily enough with a finger or two, and icons for a touch media player, a touch notepad, and a touch photo browser sit on the main Windows desktop.

"Peel" back the upper right corner of the system and you get Gateway's TouchPortal, home to a handful of other touch-specific programs, most of which come directly from Microsoft, such as Microsoft's 3D interactive globe. Unlike HP, Gateway hasn't invested in any substantial touch programs. The few that are here do no harm, so you don't lose anything because this is a touch PC, but we can't say you gain much either.

We haven't reviewed any other touch PCs in this price range, although both Dell and HP offer touch-based PCs around the same size as the Gateway One ZX4800-02 that cost substantially more, component-for-component. The Gateway's specs next to the Acer Aspire Z5610 aren't unreasonable, although it's worth noting that you get a faster CPU and a much larger screen with the Acer for only $150 more than the Gateway. One of the Gateway's most standout features is its large hard drive. Even Apple's $1,199 iMacs don't have a 750GB hard drive. Gateway might have kept the costs down by sticking with a smaller display and a slower CPU, but at least it made up for it by giving you plenty of storage space out of the box.

With no other $750 all-in-ones in our test results database, we have a broader spread of PCs than we might normally compare with this review. We still think the results are instructive. The Gateway stands out from Nettops from Averatec and Lenovo by a dramatic margin. The Averatec goes for $450, and the Lenovo sells for $549, so there's a clear price difference, but the benefits of spending a bit more for a real computer are clear. The Acer system surpasses the Gateway, as expected, but to drive home the point we made earlier about all-in-ones, the $450 Gateway SX2800-01 slim tower desktop blows by even the Acer. As long as you understand that the Gateway One ZX4800-02 isn't the fastest computer you can buy for $750, you should be satisfied enough with its performance in day-to-day productivity and light-duty digital media tasks.

Aside from the touch input, the Gateway One ZX4800-02 offers very little in the way of extra features. Its Webcam and 802.11n wireless networking are more or less expected in all-in-ones at this price, but there's no TV tuner, no Blu-ray drive, and no dedicated HDMI or other video inputs like we've seen on some higher-end systems. We didn't necessarily expect to find any of those advanced features, but with a lot of hype about all-in-ones recently, it's easy to conflate features between different models.

We were disappointed in the number of ports that you get in the Gateway, though. The left side features two USB 2.0 jacks; the right edge provides an SD Card input and a pair of analog audio jacks; and on the back you'll find a few more USB ports, an Ethernet jack, and a single audio output. We don't expect to find everything in a $750 desktop, but with no FireWire, eSATA, or even digital audio, this system is without features common to desktops that cost much less. Most of you probably won't miss those extra ports, but you'd be right to feel disappointed when the FireWire port you assumed would be there at this price is nowhere to be found.