Out of the sub-$1,200 all-in-one desktops, the Gateway One ZX6951-53 excels in its performance, features, and touch interface. Like most Gateway desktops, it's jack of all trades and master of none, but you get a lot of value for your money. It doesn't quite unseat our Editors' Choice for all-in-one desktops, but it gets real close, and that's worth a look if you're in the market for an attractive desktop with the power to get things done.

Design and Features
The ZX6951-53 has personality in its design: Its curved lower façade rounds out the sharp corners usually found in the all-in-one PCs. The large backlit power button right below the screen is more prominent and easily identifiable than the one found in the previous Gateway all-in-ones like the ZX6900-01e ($1,019.99 list, 3.5 stars). When the system is asleep, the power button flashes like a heartbeat. In between the power button and the screen is an ambient light bar, which illuminates the keyboard or desk in front of you in low-light conditions. There's a touch-sensitive strip on the screen bezel that controls brightness for both the ambient light and the screen itself. The sides are equally minimal: Two USB ports on the right along with audio ports. On the left is a tray-loading Blu-ray drive and a digital media card reader. Under a cover in the back are the standard 3-prong power connector (the built-in power supply saves space), old-school PS/2 mouse and keyboard ports, 6 USB ports, Ethernet, VGA, and a coaxial cable connector for an antenna. There's also an HDMI port, but it's connected to the built-in monitor. An attached label instructs you not to disconnect the HDMI cable. So technically you can't use the HDMI port, unless you want to discontinue using the monitor. Thankfully the monitor cable and the HDMI port are hidden, because if it were exposed it would look a little kludgy.

The Gateway One ZX6951-53's built-in monitor has a 1,920 by 1,080 resolution, so you can view all the pixels in 1080p HD videos, a plus point for watching Blu-ray movies. So HDTV, 1080p Web videos, and Blu-ray movies came up and played smoothly on the ZX6951-53. You can enjoy those movies from the couch, since the system comes with an IR remote and built-in IR receiver.

The system's large 23-inch widescreen monitor is multitouch, so you can drag things around, swipe to your heart's content, and use the onscreen keyboard. While Gateway's Touch Portal interface is more complex than the simple interface found on the Dell Inspiron One 2305 ($849.99 list, 2.5 stars), it still trails the advanced HP TouchSmart interface on the HP TouchSmart 310 ($1,159 direct, 4 stars) .The Touch Portal has a bunch of good programs built in, like a touch-optimized overlay for the Internet Explorer web browser; and a TouchMediaShare utility that helps you share photos, notes, and other facets of your digital life over social networks, like Flickr and Facebook. Other touch-optimized programs are pre-loaded like Microsoft Surface Globe and Paint.

The system comes pre-installed with a bit of bloatware: The usual suspects are eBay, Netflix, Gateway Games, and Skype. Norton also packs in a couple of trialware packages: Norton Internet Security (60-day trial) and Norton Online Backup (30-day trial). Thankfully, Microsoft has updated the usual Office trial to the non-expiring Office 2010 Trial. Another annoyance is that the included CyberLink PowerCinema program isn't integrated with Media Center, like the PowerDVD on the Dell Inspiron Zino HD (Inspiron 410) ($849.99 direct, 4 stars). So if you want to watch a Blu-ray movie, you'll have to pop out of the MCE interface and start another program. The system comes with a wireless keyboard and mouse, but the system doesn't have space below the screen where you can stow it. Other things missing from the system are an HDMI-in port (for a set top box or cable box), eSATA port, and 802.11 a/n 5GHz support. None of the minor annoyances in this paragraph are individual dealbreakers, but they are a pack of annoyances just the same.

Performance
The ZX6951-53's multimedia performance is exemplary for the price. While it beats the Apple iMac 21.5-inch (Core i3) ($1,199 list, 4 stars) on only two of our ten tests, the rest of the results outclass all the other $800-$1,200 all-in-one desktops. The ZX6951-53 can complete the Handbrake test in 2 minutes 22 seconds (slightly faster than the iMac (2:29)), and the Photoshop CS5 test in 4 minutes 33 seconds (iMac 4:21). Contrast this with the Lenovo IdeaCentre B305 ($949 list, 3.5 stars), which takes 3:25 for Handbrake and 8:01 for CS5. Likewise, the ZX6951-53 is pretty fast on the PCMark Vantage test, which measures performance on day to day tasks: 6,405 points for the Gateway vs. 6,842 points for the iMac. The iMac is a lot faster on the 3D benchmarks, however, since the iMac has discrete ATI Radeon HD 4670 graphics, while the ZX6951-53 has integrated Intel GMA HD graphics. Oh well, no 3D games for you!

The Gateway One ZX6951-53 has its peaks and valleys: On one side it has a larger screen than its competitors; on the other it has such aggressively placed bloatware. Its minor faults may have added up over the course of testing, but its solid touch interface and competitive performance numbers against the Apple iMac help it succeed. The Gateway One ZX6951-53 may not come out ahead in the all-in-one desktop race, but it falls as an honorable second to the HP TouchSmart 310,the Editors' Choice for touchscreen all-in-one desktops; and Apple iMac, the Editors' Choice for multimedia all-in-one PC.

BENCHMARK TEST RESULTS
Check out the test scores for the Gateway One ZX6951-53

COMPARISON TABLE
Compare Gateway One ZX6951-53 with several other desktops side by side.

More desktop reviews: