The Gateway LT23 netbook has been officially launched. Before I list down the technical specs, let me warn you that it’s typically typical. Nothing actually stands out except for the design of the lid. It has a pixelized, swirl pattern on the lid and the palm rest, as well as the nice, “Champagne and Pearl” color. Kinda stylish if you ask me. It also has a multi-format flash card reader and a touchpad that supports multitouch gestures.

Anyway, here goes…

Technical Specifications:

• 10″ 1024 x 600 pixel display
• 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 processor
• 1GB of DDR2 memory
• 160GB | 250GB HDD
• 6 cell, 4400mAh battery
• 802.11b/g/n WiFi
• Microsoft Windows 7 Starter

We can expect the prices to be around $330. Also comes in a more masculine black color.

SOURCE: Laptop Mag

[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.

Amazon.com is having, shall we say, a sale on their Gateway netbooks.

Gateway LT2113u (Red)
Gateway LT2114u (White)
Gateway LT2115u (Black)
$329.99 $289.99

• 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 Processor
• 1024MB DDR2 667MHz Memory
• 160GB 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 XP Home
• Over 10 Hours of Battery Life

Gateway LT2118u (Red)
Gateway LT2119u (Black)
Gateway LT2120u (White)
$349.99 $314.00

• 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

User review-wise, these machines get a high score so it’s definitely worth checking out.

The Gateway EC14D notebook has a netbook-sized 11.6″ display, and an Intel CULV processor and what? A built-in DVD burner? Looks like it. It’s the only 11.6″ laptop that I know off that has one that costs $629.99 (plus free shipping).

Technical Details via Amazon:

• 1.3GHz Intel Pentium SU4100 Processor
• 4GB DDR2 667MHz Memory
• 320GB SATA Hard Drive
• 8X DVD-SuperMulti Double-Layer Drive
• 11.6″ HD Widescreen LED-backlit Display
• Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
• Windows 7 Home Premium
• Up to 8-hours of Battery Life

Other 11.6″ CULV notebooks include the Acer Aspire Timeline AS1810 ($699.99) and ASUS UL20A ($559.00), although both does not have optical drives.

Gateway has announced their Pine Trail netbooks, the LT21 series netbook.

Lower end models (with 160GB HDD and an 8 hour, 6-cell 4400mAh battery) will be selling at $299.99 while you can pick out the higher end models such as the Gateway LT2118u with 250GB HD for $349.99 and will come out this month. The LT21 units come in night sky black, cherry red and new glacier white.

The LT2118u is also available for pre-order from Amazon.com for $349.99.

Technical Specs of the Gateway LT2118u are as follows:

• Intel Atom N450 processor
• GMA 3150 graphics
• 10.1” 1024 x 600 display
• 1GB RAM
• 250GB HDD
• 802.11b/g or b/g/n Wi-Fi
• 6-cell 5600mAh battery (10 hours)
• Genuine Windows 7 Starter Edition

Check out the Gateway LT Series here.

I usually do the Amazon Top Ten Netbooks list on Wednesdays, but I check the list out almost everyday. And what surprised me, and I do mean surprised me, at least enough that I’m taking time to write about it right now, is that there’s a NEW number one netbook on the list today. And it’s neither one of the two Asus Eee PC 1005HAs. And you’d never guess (at least I never guessed) what it would be… The 10.1″ Gateway LT2022u.

Here’s the technical details of this little, unassuming netbook:

• 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 Processor
• 1024MB DDR2 533MHz Memory
• 160GB SATA Hard Drive, Wireless 802.11b/g
• 10.1 Inch SD WSVGA High Brightness LED-backlit Display, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950
• Windows XP Home with Service Pack 3, 3-cell Li-ion Battery (2200 mAh)
• 10.17 x 7.24 x 1.03 inches (WxDxH)
• Weight: 2.62 pounds

Looking at the rather uninspired tecnical details (i.e. you can find the specs in every other netbook), it only has a maximum of three hours battery life. But then, I saw the price. List price was $299.99, it’s now selling for $229.00. That’s a $70.99, plus it’s a netbook with ALL the average netbook specs at below the $250 mark. Heck, it’s even below the $230 mark. So I guess that explains it.

Range 1 – Fast processor, lots of storage, so-not-worth-the-price

1.66GHz Intel N280, 250GB HDD, 6 cell battery. Available in Black and Red. $380

Range 2 – Meh, good specs, but same as everyone else

1.6GHz Intel N270, 250GB HDD, 6 cell battery. Available in Black* and Red. $340

*available for pre-order

Range 3 – The range where you really question why Gateway is selling 10″ netbooks at all. This config is available for $30 less and comes with a 3 cell battery

1.6GHz Intel N270, 160GB HDD, 3 cell battery. Available in Black and Red. $330

Bottom line – I’ve always maintained there’s a very specific user who opts for the Gateway netbooks. The netbooks never add anything new and seem to capitalize on the fact that netbooks are doing so well, their copycat netbooks might as well grab a bite of the profits too. The netbooks are completely standard, don’t offer the most competitive prices but do have high aesthetic values. They look good. But who buys a netbook based on looks alone?

[Rating:4/7]

Features

Gateway seems to think that colors are features, and offers the 10″ model in Nightsky Black (LT2001u) and Cherry Red LT2021u – the same colors as the 12″ line.

• Slim build – the LT2000 series has a depth of 1.04″ which makes it very thin. It’s still pretty heavy at 2.62lbs though. The LT2000 netbooks share the sleek chasis design as the larger LT3000 series.
• Built in stereo speakers – I mean, that’s kind of cool.
• Muti-touch features – basic ones…

Drawbacks

• Nothing new - it’s all same old same old with this one. Nothing great to report, no flaws to mention. Keyboard looks kind of old school.

Rating – 4/7

1. Value for Money  – 0.5
2. Speed and Performance – 0.5
3. Screen – 0.5
4. Keyboard – 0.5
5. Portability & Battery Life – 0.5
6. Looks and Design – 1
7. Extensibility & connectivity – 0.5

Specs

Processor – 
Intel Atom N270

Chipset – 945GSE, Intel GMA 950

OS – 
Windows XP

Memory – 1GB RAM

Storage – 
160GB HDD

Display – 10.1″ (1024 x 600)

Connectivity –802.11 b/g

Ports –  
3 x USB

Battery –  
3 cell

Dimensions –1.03″ x 10.17″ x 7.24″

Weight – 2.62lbs

Colors: Night sky Black, Cherry Red

Bottom line

Meh. Buy an Asus Eee PC instead. For an extra 20 dollars, you can get an Asus 1000HA which will give you 7 hours of battery life. You’ll also sleep better knowing your netbook is sturdier – 1″ sounds a little too thin for the Gateway line.

The Gateway LT2000 series will be available at Best Buy in the next few days.

[Rating:5.6/7]

It’s surprising that Gateway is entering the netbook market since it is owned by netbook bigwig Acer. It’s also surprising that both Acer and Gateway would launch 12″ netbooks at the same time. It’ll be interesting to see how both the Gateway LT series and Acer’s AO751h fare over the next month.

Features

• AMD processor – the Athlon 64 has a slower clock speed than most standard Intel netbook processors (only 1.2GHz), but has by far the fastest bus speed at 800 MHz. The chip can support 62 bit Windows, but the netbook ships with 32 bit Windows.

• ATI graphics chip - The X1270 graphics chip won’t let you play super-power intensive game, but you will be able to play in better, faster modes. The X1270 has a bus speed of 350MHz whereas Intel’s GMA500 and GMA900 range between speeds of 100-333MHz.

• Good HD video playback – The 11.6″ screen and higher resolution implied the netbook would support better HD and movie playback, and the AMD and ATI chips actually do support both 720p and 1080p playback. Big win for movie -and HD YouTube – lovers. Here’s a detailed gadling review on the HD video playback.
  

Note: The Acer AO751 HD playback wasn’t very smooth, so the Gateway LT series would be a better, more affordable choice for HD viewing.

• Multi gesture touch pad – like the iPhone, it supports pinch and swipe.

• Affordable – the LT series costs only $400 which is only a little higher than most 10″ netbooks cost, and a lot less than 12″ netbooks are rumored to cost.  (Except the Acer AO751h which costs $400 for a 3 cell and $450 for a 6 cell/8 hours battery life).

Drawbacks

• 5 hour battery life – Better than a 3 hour, not as good as a 6 hour battery life. Keep in mind it’s 5 hours on a 6 cell, so there’s no room for improvement. Yes 5 hours is decent since the netbook is bigger, but the 11.6″ Asus 1101HA battery can last 11 hours. So don’t sell yourself short.

• 0.3MP webcam – 0.3 megapixels is a lot less than standard netbooks which have 1.3MP webcams. This either means the Gateway LT netbooks’ webcam is awful or that it takes photos at 1.3MP and video at 0.3MP. Couldn’t find clarification on the net, I’ll trek out to Best Buy and play around with a model if I can. In the meanwhile, take this into consideration.

Rating – 5.6/7

• Value for Money  – 0.8
• Speed and Performance –  0.8
• Screen – 1
• Keyboard & Touchpad – 0.9
• Portability & Battery Life – 0.5
• Looks and Design – 0.8
• Extensibility & connectivity – 0.8

Specs

Processor – 
AMD Athlon 64 L11 processor (1.2GHz, 800 MHz bus speed)

Graphics – 
ATI Radeon X1270 graphics

OS – 
Vista Home Basic – no free upgrade to Windows 7. meh.

Memory – 
2 GB RAM

Storage – 
250GB HDD

Display –11.6″ HD (1366 x 768, 16:9 aspect ratio)

Connectivity – 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.1

Ports –  3 x USB ports, VGA port

Battery – 6 cell battery, 5 hours battery life

Dimensions –  3.1″ x 14.8″ x 10.1″

Weight –  3.04lbs

Colors – Red and Back

Bottom line

The Gateway LT series netbooks are good netbooks and are very well priced. But they aren’t anything special. If price is a major concern, go ahead and buy it. If not, the Asus 1101HA would be a better buy because of its 11 hour battery life. When compared to the Acer AO751h, the Gateway LT series wins with better HD playback and affordability. You can buy the Gateway LT line at Best Buy.

(Gateway LT series Product Page)