Most 17-inch notebooks are geared either for gaming or multimedia use. The Gateway P-171X, on the other hand, is a little bit of both, making it an all-around notebook with a large screen. It sports a glossy, black laminate coating and weighs it at 8.6 pounds- light enough for room to room moving. The 17-inch glossy, widescreen display is capable of displaying 1440 x 900 resolution and offered wide viewing angles. The notebook has a touch-sensitive volume control strip, a built-in 1.3-megapixel camera, and an overly-sensitive fingerprint reader lodged between the mouse buttons which usually launches the software for every accidental swipe. Benchmarks scores for the P-171X were below average, though the reviewer noted that it had more than enough power for productivity chores as well as multitasking. Boot-up time was at the slow side, clocking in at 2 minutes and 8 seconds. What the P-171X lacked in power, it makes up with its battery life, as it ran for 3 hours and 24 minutes with Wi-Fi on. Throughput, on the other hand was below average, providing 11.6 Mbps at 50 feet. Nevertheless, if your notebook need is just for light media use, the Gateway P-171X is worth the second look.