Acer Review, Asus Review – Netbook 10

There’s a sale on Gateway netbooks on Amazon, and while user reviews seem to be favorable, we’d still like to see the netbook in action. The Gateway LT2118u is one of the netbooks that are currently on sale ($349.99 $308.99), and even though it’s currently one of the least expensive netbooks, and doesn’t boast of anything out of the ordinary netbook specs, it’s also one those that’s worth your 300 bucks.

[Rating:6/7]

Features and Drawbacks

• Cool design – It won’t pass for a designer netbook, but I think the bright red lid is kinda cool with that silver stripe accent with the Gateway logo. The unit in question is red, but I think the black one looks better and classier.

• So-so keyboard and touchpad – The Gateway LT2118u has an island-style keyboard where typing felt a bit uncomfortable at first, but with practice, I’m sure your fingers would get the hang of it. The touchpad is covered with white spots and is not textured. It also has a single mouse button. The mouse button also needs a little getting used to if you’re used (or prefer) dual buttons. The touchpad is easy to use and responsive, and it supports multitouch gestures. Pinch-to-zoom worked really well and desktop navigation is fairly easy with the touchpad.

• Glossy screen – Could be a feature, could be a drawback. The glossy screen offers sharp images and bright colors, but then you can expect reflections at an angle. Videos also played fairly well, especially 720p vids, but you can expect poor performance for HD videos. The speakers could use a little, okay a lot, of work.

• Average performance – If you think that’s a bad thing, it actually isn’t. That only means that the Gateway LT2118u can handle your everyday computing needs such as documents, photo-browsing, web-browsing, music and movies, just like other more expensive netbooks. Basically, that means you’re getting the same performance from a Gateway LT2118u and from a, let’s say, Asus Eee PC or an Aspire One. That also means, you can’t really stream HD movies or play games.

• 9-hour battery life – A netbook that can give you 9-hours of battery life on a single charge of its 6-cell battery is nothing to thumb your nose at. Netbook leaders such as the Toshiba NB305 and Asus Eee PC1001P can both give less than that, clocking in at 8 and a half hours each.

Rating – 6/7

Value for Money – 1
Speed and Performance – 1
Screen – 1
Keyboard – 0.5
Portability & Battery Life – 0.5
Looks and Design – 1
Extensibility & connectivity – 1

Technical Specifications

• 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 Processor
• 1024MB DDR2 667MHz Memory
• 250GB SATA Hard Drive
• 802.11b/g/Draft-N Wi-Fi Certified
• 10.1″ WSVGA High Brightness LED-backlit Display
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 3150
• Windows 7 Starter
• Over 10 Hours of Battery Life

Bottomline
The Gateway LT2118u is one of the best options if you’re in the market for a cheap, decent netbook. It has a long battery life, decent screen, and good performance. But if you’re looking for something with a better speaker, or a better keyboard, then you might want to shop around. But all in all, this baby is not such a bad choice for your 300 bucks.

Related posts:

1. Gateway LT21 Pine Trail Series, Available for Pre-Order
2. Review: Gateway LT2000
3. Review: Gateway 12″ netbook
4. Lenovo S10-3t Review: Slow, Sluggish, Disappointing
5. Gateway Netbook Deals from Amazon

Filed under: Gateway Netbooks