I don't expect a whole lot from a gaming laptop that costs $699—maybe an entry-level discrete GPU, low-end CPU, and a basic display. Certainly not an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 paired with a 120Hz panel. Yet that is what this deal entails, along with a quad-core Intel 10th Gen Core i5 10300H Comet Lake processor, with Hyper-Threading support to boot.
This is the same laptop I wrote about last month when it went on sale for this price, and it did not last long, unsurprisingly. Laptops that cost as little as this typically tout something like a GeForce GTX 1650, or just integrated graphics. Same goes for some that cost a little more—case in point, the AMD version of this laptop is also on sale, for $799, and pairs a Ryzen 5 4600H with a GeForce GTX 1650, to put this deal into perspective.
That said, there are some corners that have been cut. Namely, the RAM (just 8GB) and storage (only a 256GB SSD). Those are not exciting capacities by any stretch. However, both can be upgraded without much fuss, if you are comfortable doing that—just remove a few screws and pop off the bottom panel.
What about the Gateway brand? That's a throwback to a bygone era. Gateway was a dominant OEM from around the late 1980s to early 2000s, before it fell on hard times. It's now owned by Acer, and from what I can tell, these are essentially rebranded Evoo laptops.
That is not a bad thing, considering the bang-for-buck proposition. Other perks include USB-C connectivity, an audio system tuned by THX, and a microSD memory card slot, all wrapped in a package that measures 0.8 inches thick and weighs 4.2 pounds.
