This is a budget notebook attractive to many consumers looking for a portable multimedia laptop (suitable for photo editing, movie watching, music and more). The M-6816 has a lid design featuring dark spots which gradually fade away. It appears durable and eye-catching in the same time. Above the laptop’s keyboard (black surrounded by silver) is a brushed-metal multimedia control panel and a touch-sensitive volume adjustment. The screen provides rich colors, superb clarity and good brightness. Horizontal viewing angles are average and the backlight brightness remains even across the screen while there is some minor color inversion when you view the screen from sharp vertical angles.

The keys aren’t as silent in operation as those found on more expensive business class notebooks, but it’s ok and they have an excellent travel. The touchpad was responsive with a nice texture and felt durable. The scroll section of the touchpad is clearly marked and immediately responsive for page scrolling. The touchpad buttons have deep, cushioned feedback and responded well to normal pressure. The touchpad (black as the keyboard) buttons also make an annoying noise which is unpleasant for most business workers. The built-in speakers on the M-6816 are average for a consumer 15.4″ notebook, but it does an excellent job of controlling both internal heat and noise.

Besides the media buttons, on the M-6816 you also get a 1.3 MP Webcam. The T5250, with its 2MB of L2 cache and 667MHz and the Intel Core 2 Duo T5250 (1.5GHz) processor, provides excellent performance for an entry-level consumer laptop, while the Intel X3100 integrated graphics with up to 384MB of dynamically allocated shared memory proves to be enough for an average consumer machine. Input and Output Ports include: 3x USB, Microphone in and headphone out jacks, Ethernet, 5-in-1 card reader, ExpressCard 54 slot, Modem jack, Kensington lock slot, VGA out, and DC power jack. Battery life, with the standard 6-cell battery, is about 2 hours and 30 minutes with the screen brightness set to full, wireless on, and Vista power settings.

Gateway M-6816 Specifications