The Gateway One: A Windows PC with an Apple Design

The Gateway One is the probably the sleekest and stylish desktop PC that Gateway ever produced.and is probably Gateway's answer to Apple's iMac but at price that is slightly higher.

The Design of the Gateway One is slim, stylish, sleek, and minimalist. You won't see any CPUs here, everything can be found at the back of the 19 inch screen. You will also do away with wires since the Gateway One has a wireless keyboard and mouse, and the only wire you can find on the Gateway One is the one at the back of the screen. So where do you put your USB and audio cables? The cable found at the back of Gateway One runs down to a power module where you can find USB and Ethernet ports so you can eliminate cable clutter by stashing the power module under your desk, preserving the wireless aura of the Gateway One.

Underneath the Gateway One's stylish facade, you can find a 2.0 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 processor, Intel P965 motherboard, a whopping 3 GB 667 MHz DDR2 memory, 256 ATI Radeon 2600 XT Graphics card, and a 500 GB hard disk drive. Other features and specifications of the Gateway One includes, an external ATSC/NTSC TV tuner, 16x dual layer DVD burner, 802.11n wireless network, and comes bundled with Windows Vista Home Premium.

The Gateway One comes into the category of the all-in-one desktops which can provide you with Internet browsing, gaming, music, and TV viewing capabilities which would make it perfect for your living room or kitchen. The screen even resembles a flat panel TV. There's also no need for speakers as the Gateway One already has "hidden speakers" found on the front panel. While keeping the speaker in the front panel keeps up with the minimalist design of the Gateway One, the sound emanating from it leaves you wanting to plug in your own speakers. The speakers on the Gateway One is their own patented, NXT SoundVu. Maybe next time Gateway will partner with Altec Lansing or Harman Kardon to bring better quality sounds on the Gateway One, if they ever decide to make a second generation of the device.

One good thing about the Gateway One is that upgrading your key components is easy. Like the HP Blackbird, the Gateway One has a tool-less chassis. You simply pop out the back panel by sliding two latches and you will get access to the inside of your PC. Unlike conventional desktop PCs where you have to struggle with wires and cables to add or remove a hard disk drive, with the Gateway One, you simply slide a hard disk drive unto one of the drive bays and you're good to go.

The Gateway One is slightly pricier than the Apple iMac. While the iMac costs $1,649, the Gateway One costs $1,799 but you can get one with a slightly lower configuration for $1,299. The Apple iMac has a larger screen (20 inch compared with Gateway One's 19 inch) and a faster processor (2.4 Ghz vs. 2.0 Ghz) than the Gateway One so I don't get why there's a $150 premium. However, if you're tired of seeing Apple everywhere and you're used to working with a Windows PC, then Gateway One is a good alternative.