If the Gateway T-6828 is to be remembered for something, it would be for including a two-year warranty in a value price: $800 (street). Adding an extra year on top of the one-year standard warranty is a game changer for budget laptops. Otherwise, apart from a few features like the 3GB of RAM and a 250GB hard drive, the T-6828 offers little to distinguish it from low-priced systems by vendors such as Dell, HP, and Lenovo.

The T-6828 isn't embarrassing to take out in public, and it doesn't have a drab design like that of the Acer TravelMate 4720-6727 or the Fujitsu LifeBook A6120. Yet coating the exterior and palm rests with red paint is an old concept; the paint should have been applied with more imagination to have any real impact, given the interesting things that are happening in laptop design. Laptops like the HP Pavilion dv6500t and the Toshiba U405-S2830 are experimenting with decorative laminates, while the Lenovo IdeaPad Y510 impresses consumers with a textured surface. Another problem is weight. This 14-inch laptop weighs 5.7 pounds, as much as the 15.4-inch HP dv6500t. Gateway would have been better off going with a 13-inch form factor, as many manufacturers are currently doing.

The 14-inch screen is very pleasant to look at, but it has the modest 1,280-by-800 resolution found in many inexpensive laptops. By contrast, the Dell Inspiron 1420 gives you the option of a 1,440-by-900 resolution. The mouse buttons, like those of the Gateway M-152XL, make a noise that's noticeable in a quiet setting, but I really enjoyed typing on the keyboard. Above the keyboard, the river of multimedia buttons is another example of how Gateway is falling behind in terms of design. Touch-sensitive buttons would have been a better choice, as they are much easier to press.

These days a company—especially one that's not at the top of market—needs to throw in more in the way of features than people would normally expect. Yet with the T-6828, Gateway gives you just enough to get by. For instance, it omitted an HDMI port to cut down on costs. The T-6828 also lacks a FireWire port and an S-Video-out. The three USB ports and dual-layer DVD burner are no better than average for a 14-inch laptop. The T-6828 gives you 250GB worth of storage, but I can't really applaud Gateway for this, because adding storage capacity is cheap these days. Lenovo, by contrast, went the extra mile with its Y510 by offering a five-speaker system with a subwoofer. (The T-6828's speakers are decent, but ordinary.) The only thing that makes the T-6828 stand out is its two-year warranty, since the extra year alone is typically worth over $100.

Where the T-6828 really stands out is in performance. Kudos to Gateway for giving customers 3GB of RAM. The 1.83-GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5550 is an aging processor, but still, its SYSmark 2007 Overall Preview score beat those of both the HP dv6500t and the Dell Inspiron 1420, by 21 and 25 percent, respectively. Because it has more system memory, the T-6828's Photoshop scores also dominated the HP dv6500t and the Lenovo Y510. At this price point you won't get a good graphics card for gaming, but at least Dell and HP offer one as an option.

Battery scores produced by the T-6828's 49-Wh battery surpassed those of the Lenovo Y510 by 15 minutes, though the T-6828 lagged behind the Dell 1420 by 18 minutes. In other words, it meets expectations.

Performance is one area where Gateway, as usual, didn't disappoint. But as an overall package, the T-6828 doesn't do enough to stand out among laptops from bigger and more successful names like Dell, HP, and Lenovo. Oddly enough, this particular laptop can't be bought directly from Gateway; it's available only at your local Costco or some other third-party retailer. If you're paranoid about your computer breaking down, buy this laptop for the two-year warranty—but don't think you're getting a steal.

Check out the Gateway T-6828's test scores.

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