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39 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very good netbook, at a very good price, November 30, 2009
I bought this notebook (Black LT2032u) at Best Buy a few days before Black Friday, and so far, I'm rather impressed. Bought this more my wife, since she can never seem to get on my computer (I'm always on it). Plus, it's so small and light, we can leave it downstairs on the entertainment center, instead of her having to go upstairs to the computer room to use a computer.
It's form factor is just about the perfect size. My only complaints are:
1. The keyboard is a bit cramped for my bigger hands (but it's a netbook, so I can't really fault it for that, as I knew what we were buying)
2. The fact that the edges of the lid don't have any lips or hold points, so opening the cover when it's closed can be a bit tricky. A lot of times, I have to use my fingernail to start prying the lid from the base. Overall, not a deal breaker by any means, but can be annoying sometimes.
3. It comes with a Gateway Backup Utility for backing up your PC, but since the Netbooks don't come with a writable DVD drive (or any for that matter), the utility says no drive is available, and won't do a backup. Personally, I think this a flaw that Gateway should have considered, and modified the program to let you write to a DVD drive if you have one, or write an image to the Hard Drive, so you can move it to another PC on the network, and burn it to a DVD there.
The pc itself runs good. It came with the standard Atom 270, 1 GB RAM, built in Video Card, built in webcam, etc, except, this had a 250 GB HDD instead of a 160 GB HDD, and it came with Windows 7 Starter. While I don't care for how scaled down Win 7 starter is, again, I can't fault Gateway for that (blame Microsoft). I immediately upgraded the RAM to a 2 GB chip (replacing the 1 GB), and it is rather quick with this addition. Plus, I installed Google Chrome (which is much quicker than IE, and even Firefox by a bit), and it cruises the web with ease. I also uninstalled all the Norton bloat ware, and installed Windows Security Essentials Antivirus, which, believe it or not, is really very good and light (great for a Netbook). Oh, and it's free! Also pulled of the Microsoft Office Trial, and installed OpenOffice (also good and light, and great for a Netbook).
After two weeks of playing with it (yeah, I know, I supposedly bought it for my wife!!), I find myself not going upstairs to the computer room to use my main PC (a 6 month old new Toshiba Laptop) as much, and instead, I can do most of what I need on this one.
Really haven't run into to any other issues (other than those mentioned above), and I have to say, we're very glad we got it. Plus, when it was on sale at Best Buy for $279, it was a great price, considering all the other netbooks with Win 7 and a 250GB HDD were at least $350. I was originally considering the Toshiba NB205-N330, but that was $399+. Yeah, it may have had a N280 instead of the Gateway's N270, and a little bit fast BUS speed, and Bluetooth (I can buy a USB Bluetooth adapter for $4 if I need one), but, to save over $120, it was worth it. I don't think I would have really noticed the difference too much (at least not when I was playing with both at Best Buy side by side).
I'm very glad I purchased it, and I highly recommend it. Even a few of my friends who've come over, and I showed it to them, were very impressed. Save yourself a few bucks, and go with this over the higher priced Toshiba, Asus, etc. You won't be disappointed!
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23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good, basic, Win 7 Starter = Sufficient for most needs, October 30, 2009
This review is from: Gateway LT2030u 10.1-Inch Red Netbook - Over 7 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Starter) (Personal Computers)
Have enjoyed my Gateway LT2030 netbook for about a week now.
Keyboard - pretty good, can touch type immediately without difficulty. Multitouch is fun, espec for photos.
Display - excellent, albeit locked into 1280x600 on the book, you can go larger with an external monitor
Win 7 Starter - I like it. setup took about 4 minutes. Saw a lot of posts about only being able to open 3 apps, but this hasn't been an issue. I have Chrome (you can have as many web pages as you want), word, paint, Win Media player, and a chess game open right now. No crashes so far. The "Do you want to let this program make changes?" on installs is more tolerable for some reason. Cloud apps are the plan. Haven't installed a lot yet.
Software - lots of gateway junk games, but Chess Titans is not included. ???? This is a miss. Can watch netflix wirelessly without lags. Basic Works, MS offerings otherwise.
[...]
I can carry this thing around the house, throw it in the car, feed my attention deficit in many new settings. Great basic tool. [...]
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16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great unit with a few small modifications. . ., November 26, 2009
This review is from: Gateway LT2030u 10.1-Inch Red Netbook - Over 7 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Starter) (Personal Computers)
I bought the LT2030 about 1-2 months ago. While shopping in Best Buy, I was looking for a small unit with good battery life, a little more ram/hard drive space, and the capability to do low level gaming if it interested me. I had several choices which had decent prices, including an ASUS, Dell, Toshiba, and Gateway. In the end, the Gateway won me over. Firstly, it looks GREAT! It's a really awesome Candy Apple red. Secondly, the battery power can run as much as 7 hours long. The Asus ran a little bit longer, but the Hard Drive space was the major factor. The LT2030u was the only model with 250GB HD space. The other 3 models had about 100GB. For the same price as the other three ($349), the Gateway was obviously the best value.
Now, I've read some complaint over the internet about the system running "hot" but I have yet to encounter that problem. I upgraded from Starter 7 to a fully working version of the OS and I added 1GB Ram to the system. I carry my Netbook EVERYWHERE with me and have even been playing World of Warcraft on the system. Now obviously the graphics aren't meant for highly intensive graphics with games, but I find that it works just fine for me.
I'd definitely recommend the system. Granted, there aren't any back up disks, but there is a hidden folder on the system for taking your system back to it's factory settings, which is a great feature if you think you screwed up the system. I read some complaints about the lack of disks, but these people obviously never took the time to really read the information on the computer or look deeper into what they were buying.
By the way, Logitech has a Wireless Laser Mouse which is the same Candy Apple Red and looks great with the netbook. The USB part is super tiny and easy to forget about and pack up in whatever case you end up using. It's definitely a great edition to have!
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