Is Gateway's 11.6-inch netbook not a netbook?
The average size of those little PCs that we love so much has been slowly increasing to include full-sized keyboards, yet they retain their usual slim profile and low power demand. These larger devices are beginning to fall somewhere between the category of Netbook and Notebook.
Today, Gateway launched its first "full keyboard netbook": the 11.6" LT3100 series, one of these in-between devices.
Now that Gateway is owned by Taiwanese PC maker Acer, one has to wonder what makes this product different from, say, the Acer Aspire One 11.6" which was announced just two months ago.
Well, Acer intends to market the products differently, as it revealed in its subsidiary branding strategy last year. The company recently said that "Gateway [has] found more affinity with a user group that looks for a reliable brand that can offer simple, easy-to-use devices, with which they can identify and acknowledge their own personality. Trends and Lifestyles are the reference segments."
But design- and price-wise, there are practically no differences between Acer's 11.6" Aspire One and the new Gateway product. In terms of internals and OS, though, they're quite different. So different, in fact, that while Gateway calls the LT3100 a netbook, it really shouldn't be considered such a device...and if you want to know the reasons, you might have to ask AMD.
| Gateway LT3100 | Acer Aspire One 11.6" | |
| Processor | AMD Athlon 64 L110 single-core 1.2 GHz, 800 MHz memory bus, 512 KB L2 cache | Intel Atom Z520 single-core 1.22 GHz, 490 MHz FSB, 512 KB L2 cache |
| RAM | 2048 MB DDR2 SDRAM | 1024 MB DDR2 SDRAM (upgradeable to 2 GB) |
| Graphics | Integrated ATI Radeon X1270 | Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 |
| Storage | 250 GB, 5400rpm SATA HDD | 160 GB, 5400rpm SATA HDD |
| Screen | 11.6" WXGA backlit LED (1364 x 768) | 11.6" WXGA backlit LED (1364 x 768) |
| Wireless | 802.11b/g | 802.11b/g, Bluetooth, optional 3G wireless |
| Profile | 11.26" x 7.99" x 1.03" | 11.6" x 7.79" x 1" |
Weight
| 3.14 lbs |
2.75 lbs |
|
| OS | Windows Vista SP1 | Windows XP SP3 |
| Features | multi-card reader, Webcam, multi-touch touchpad, 3 USB 2.0 slots | multi-card reader, Webcam, multi-touch touchpad, 3 USB 2.0 slots |
| Chassis Colors | Black, Red | Black, Red, Blue, White |
| Cost | $399.99 | $379.99 |
Interestingly, Gateway went with the single core Athlon 64 instead of the faster Athlon Neo which is designed specifically for "ultraportables." AMD was yet another of the many companies that did not want to touch the "netbook" form factor, so it premiered the Athlon Neo in the HP Pavilion DV2, a slightly heavier $600 non-netbook notebook which we first took a look at during CES this year.
Inclusion of a single-core Athlon 64 L110 chip in Gateway's new portable does come as a surprise, and it has certainly caught a number of reviewers off guard. This "not quite a netbook" is equipped with a marginally slower processor paired with the ATI Radeon graphics chip, a unit more suited for gaming graphics than the Intel IGP found in the Acer Aspire One 11.6" and many other true netbooks. But one of the most glaring indicators is that this system is equipped with Vista, the OS not typically ascribed to effective netbooking.