The Gateway One ($1,799.99 direct) evokes the design of the circa-1997 Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh (TAM), the all-in-one PC considered to be the granddaddy of today's iMac. The One looks more like the TAM than today's iMac, thanks to the fact that the "slab" reaches all the way to the table surface. The One can be considered a competitor to the current Apple iMac, with a built-in widescreen LCD display, notebook-sourced Intel components, and a smooth slab design. It has innovations such as tool-less drive bays, true expansion possibilities (imagine that in an all-in-one PC!), and a competitive price—although the multimedia-oriented $1,800 version I reviewed (the GZ7220) is overkill for most users. The mid-level $1,500 (the ZX190) and base $1,300 (the GZ7108) versions are more compelling.

The chassis of all three iterations of the Gateway One can be considered "one cord," even more so than the Apple iMac with which it is most readily compared. The One's Ethernet port, four USB 2.0 ports (for the NTSC/ATSC TV tuner, printer, etc.), and digital sound ports are built into the power brick, which keeps these necessary cables permanently off your desk. (The power brick can also charge devices, such as MP3 players or phones, that can charge off of USB.) The single hardwired (nondetachable) cable to the desktop is a proprietary one, passing these signals from the power brick up to the system. This is an elegant solution, but it does lock you into using the Gateway-sourced power brick. If you travel with the desktop, you'll need to bring the proprietary brick, whereas if you travel with an iMac, you could use a standard three-prong computer power cable in a pinch.

The external TV tuner included with the Gateway One is an NTSC/ATSC tuner that works with an over-the-air (OTA) antenna. That means you need to have either a set of "rabbit-ears" or an old-fashioned antenna mounted somewhere high in your house to get a signal. It also works with the unscrambled analog channels on your cable system, but if you want prime channels such as HBO and Showtime, you're out of luck. In the past I've been an advocate of TV tuners in the PC space. While that's still the case, the changing state of the TV industry is conspiring against the usefulness of OTA tuners. Online downloads (both network-sourced and illicit), IPTV/Internet TV, and subscription-based cable/satellite offerings basically mean that aside from the top broadcast networks (ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, and the CW), most TV programming isn't accessible to PCs with OTA tuners. Thus I think an NTSC/ATSC tuner is still a good thing, but at this point a digital CableCARD tuner (such as the one that came with the Velocity Micro CineMagix Grand Theater) will be more compelling once it gets out of version 1.0.

Everything else is wireless: keyboard, mouse, and networking, if you have an 802.11 a, b, g, or n Wi-Fi network. I would have liked a pointing device such as a touchpad or pointing stick on the keyboard because the mouse is less usable if you lean back with the keyboard in your lap, but that is a minor gripe. Last but not least, the One eliminates the external IR receiver by integrating an IR sensor on the system's front face. It's a needed standard feature I've been harping on for all-in-one PCs (especially Windows Media Center units). The One's IR remote is as svelte and attractive as the rest of the package, and fits into even small hands comfortably. There is no remote "caddy" like on the ones found on notebooks such as the HP Pavilion HDX9000, but the remote will stand up on its own.

The main body of the One is attractive, with its glossy black visage—though like the iMac, the One has a "Jay Leno chin." The lower front panel (the "chin") does double duty. It covers much of the system's internal components—including the motherboard and optical drive—while also acting as the system's speaker. This audio system is an example of the One's innovation. It uses NXT's SoundVu transducer to vibrate the front panel, creating the sound you'd normally hear from external or built-in cone speakers. This method is predictably weak on bass and high frequencies, but midrange sounds such as vocals are clear and easy to hear. It's kind of hollow sounding compared with a more robust 2.1 speaker system found on many mainstream tower desktop systems, but it is usable for Web sounds as well as some music and videos. Gateway reps assured me that the panel will remain buzz-free over the three-year expected life cycle of the One. Part of me isn't so sure, though I admit I am more sensitive to case buzz sounds than the average user. The system itself is quiet. You're likely to only hear fan noise if you place your ear right up to the One's case, and even then only if you do so in a silent room.

While it doesn't feel as if it would tip over more easily than the iMac or the Sony VAIO LT series, the One's smaller foot looks like it would be less stable on a wobbly surface. It's mainly a design perception, however, since I was able to tilt the One through its range of motion easily, and the system did stay at the desired angle when I removed my hand.—Next: It's What's Inside that Counts

It's What's Inside that Counts

The One's internals are innovative. Much of the system is user serviceable, with a pair of easily popped tabs at the bottom of the case. If you lower the system onto its "front," the permanently affixed back panel lifts up like a clamshell, exposing the memory slots, twin tool-less desktop drive bays, two mini-PCI slots, and the space for the system's MXM-port graphics card. If you get a model with an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2600 XT card, be careful of the card's surface, as the one in my system registered a scorching 178 degrees Fahrenheit even after the system had sat idle for a few hours. That's enough to burn you if you're not careful, and is likely to be even higher if you'd just been playing a 3D game. Thankfully, this isn't an issue when the case is closed, since the back panel does a good job of insulating you from the hot panel (and, frankly, it's not like you'd prop the system on your lap anyway).

The MXM-based graphics card slot is mainly there for ease of troubleshooting hardware failures or to allow base units with integrated Intel graphics to upgrade to the Radeon 2600 XT. Gateway currently has no plans to offer other card solutions or upgrades. Right now, MXM cards are platform-specific, so you won't be able to, say, rip the GeForce 7900 card out of your Dell XPS notebook and install it in the Gateway One. Retail cards are also hard to find and brand-specific. (Cards made for Asus notebooks will not fit in the One and vice versa.) This is definitely a drawback for this GZ7220 model.