Gateway All-in-one Desktop is affordable but lacks speed, storage – The Dallas Morning News

It has been a while since I’ve had a desktop PC at my house. My wife and I have been laptop users for the last 10 years or more. We have two desks at home, but neither desk is used for computing unless one of us is working from home.

I’ve been using one of the desks to test the new Entrance 23. 8-inch All-in-One Desktop computer, which has a budget-friendly price of $399.

Unfortunately, to meet that price point, it has some specs that I’d find hard to recommend to many people.

Let’s see what it has inside, how it feels to use and see if we can figure out who should buy it.

The 23. 8-inch All-in-One (model GWAP42424) looks just like any other monitor on my desk, but this one has the PC built into the back of the screen. The ports face the particular bottom plus side.

The entire assembly is mounted to a height-adjustable stand, and the screen may rotate 90 degrees for a vertical orientation. The particular stand will be solid and easy to adjust. The computer can also be removed from the particular stand and mounted on a wall.

There are 2 stereo speakers behind the screen, facing downward, yet don’t count on them to provide any more than the minimum acceptable sound.

They’ll be fine for the Zoom call or YouTube videos, but they are not suitable with regard to listening to music. Luckily, there is a headphone jack on the side associated with the display. Almost any kind of external speakers will be an improvement.

The 23. 8-inch IPS FHD display has a resolution of 1, 920 by 1, 080 pixels. The particular panel is very bright plus clear.

Inside, the computer is powered by a quad-core Intel Pentium Silver J5040 CPU running at 2. 0 gigahertz. The processor was introduced in late 2019.

The PC has four gigabytes of RAM and a 128 GB solid-state drive, and it comes with Windows 11 Home.

I want to stop here regarding a minute in order to say this particular RAM plus storage configuration is less than I would recommend to anyone buying a new PERSONAL COMPUTER.

I recommend a minimum of eight gigabytes associated with RAM and 256 GB or 512 GB of solid-state storage space if you want a reasonably speedy system.

This one doesn’t meet those specs, so you may expect slower response, yet you may be willing in order to put up with that for the cost.

There is a 2-megapixel camera intended for attending video conference calls.

The camera housing is usually hidden behind the display screen, and when you want to use the digital camera, you grab it plus slide this up. When you are finished with the call, you can slide it back down, out of sight.

The camera quality is good, not great. If you are operating from home, you’ll look just good on digital camera.

Ports include four high-speed USB 3. 1 slots, HDMI, VGA, Ethernet and audio in/out.

The side panel includes two USB two. 0 ports, audio in/out and a SD card slot.

The COMPUTER has 802. 11ac (Wi-Fi 5) plus Bluetooth 4. 2 .

It ships with a wireless keyboard and mouse.

Product dimensions are 21. 2 inches simply by 12. 8 inches by 2. 1 inches, and it weighs 11 pounds.

It is available in black or white and is exclusively sold by Walmart, in stores and online.

Design

This is the good-looking computer. I have this on the desk next to a 24-inch Dell monitor, and they look exactly alike.

The ports are usually easy enough to reach, especially since the screen rotates to get easy access.

This is basically a laptop computer constructed into the back again of a monitor.

The electric cord does have a power brick, which is to become expected.

The particular included wireless keyboard plus mouse don’t weigh very much, plus they seem cheap, but they work well sufficient.

This PC is for the particular user on a serious budget. The $400 price is hard to resist for someone looking pertaining to a cheap computer.

If you need to buy the computer meant for your kid to do some schoolwork, this one will do the job. If they try to install games, they’ll likely end up being disappointed along with the results.

If a person just need a PC designed for browsing the internet, reading email, using social media and perhaps making the occasional movie call, this particular PC will do, with some caveats.

Working in programs like Microsoft Teams seemed in order to bog down the pc. Resizing windows or moving between tabs was noticeably slow.

If you buy this PC, you will certainly not be blown away simply by the speed, and I doubt the particular CPU and RAM may be viable in three or four years.

Conclusions

I hate to become hard upon a product that is definitely clearly not aimed at me.

I realize there are PERSONAL COMPUTER buyers who are on the limited spending budget, and this PC might be a good choice for them.

I really wish Gateway offered a configuration with eight GB associated with RAM plus a 256 GB solid-state drive. I also wish it had the more practical processor, but it does not.

I can’t recommend the Gateway Helpful for many users, yet I do understand why this exists. If this PC meets your needs and fits your budget, it’ll do the job.

Pros: Inexpensive, nice design, sharp display.

Cons: Slow CPU, and RAM and storage are lacking.

Bottom line: Most will buy this one based on price, not specifications.

Jim Rossman is a tech columnist for Tribune News Service. He can be reached at [email protected] com .