Rising like a Phoenix, the re-emerging Gateway continues to produce well featured notebooks at attractive price points, one of the latest being the MX6932b. This is a powerful system that, as the label proudly boasts, is Windows Vista Premium ready - which basically means that it has enough poke in all departments to allow you to use the Aero interface in Microsoft's latest operating system.

Like most current Gateway laptops it's available from Toys-R-Us, so you would imagine it has all the bells and whistles a home user would want. But strangely, apart from having Windows XP Media Center installed as the OS, the MX6932b's features list reads more like a capable business system (even though it weighs a hefty 3.2kg) rather than an all-round system for home use. You certainly can't play any of the current high frame-rate FPS games on it, for example, because of the graphics chipset. And despite having Media Center installed you don't get any integrated TV capability.

In terms of looks it's very businesslike too, yet not boring. Somehow its gunmetal grey and black finish seems to suit it and the colour scheme is enhanced by the use of bright blue LEDs. There's one behind the power button, two more on the front of the chassis indicating battery level and mains power, while the usual symbols for hard drive use, caps lock and so on are also back-lit blue.

At the heart of the MX6932b sits an Intel Core Duo T2250, a dual core CPU clocked at 1.73GHz and backed by a gigabyte of DDR2 memory; maybe not the fastest combination in a laptop, but there's still plenty of poke to power all the usual apps.

The graphics sub-system is powered by Intel's integrated GMA950 solution which shares up to 128MB of the system memory (the minimum needed to drive Vista's Aero graphics) hence the lack of gaming performance; we measured a measly 6.5fps in FarCry. On the other hand, the 15.4-inch Ultrabright widescreen display is bright and sharp, while the native resolution of 1,280 x 800 gives a good deal of working space.

The mouse buttons are nicely recessed into the top of the chassis making them comfortable to use, as is the keyboard which has hardly any flex and keys that are good and responsive to the touch. The mouse buttons and the trackpad (which has scrolling enabled) sit just left of centre, which looks a little odd but makes them all easy to use when typing.

For storage the MX6932b comes with a 120GB, 5,400rpm, Western Digital SATA hard drive. To keep this uncluttered and to perform backups there is also a dual format, dual layer DVD drive installed. If you want to back up files onto some other media there is also an integrated 4-in-1 flash card reader that takes the usual suspects; SD, MS, MS Pro and MMC.

To allow you to keep in touch with the outside world, the MX6932b comes with 802.11a/b/g Wireless, 10/100Mbps Ethernet and a V.92 modem. Battery life is pretty good, lasting for just over two and a half hours when watching a DVD, while using the MX6932b for everyday office use sees just over four hours of battery life.

If you are not interested in playing games on it then the MX6932b is a powerful, well balanced system for use in the home, but it also makes a useful - if a little heavy - tool for the business user. Either way it's a lot of notebook for the price.