Digital Trends

The M520S really is a disappointing system. Gateway is trying to brand the system as a multimedia powerhouse, but other than the processor, there really is nothing “multimedia” about it. The 15” screen is small, there is no FireWire capabilities built into the system and there are no media card slots. We also do not understand why Gateway chose to stick with the Intel integrated graphics chip which only has 32MB of memory on it. Add to that a scroll touch pad is basically useless and you have a very unpleasant system on your hands.  There were not any software products that came with the M520S that enhanced the system to brand it a “multimedia” laptop either.

The truth is that you will be very hard pressed to find a real desktop replacement notebook with 512MB of RAM and a desktop class processor for under $1000. We checked out desktop replacements from Sony, Toshiba, HP and Dell and could not find a system that matched or beat the Gateway M520S in price. Our recommendations: finance or save $500 dollars more and get the Sony A320 notebook which is a killer multimedia system and only costs $1799 — money well spent. If you just cannot see yourself spending that much on a system consider going with a Centrino based system such as the Gateway M320, or Gigabyte N512.