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59 of 59 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Found the right Netbook second time around, February 14, 2010
This review is from: Gateway LT2118u 10.1-Inch Red Netbook - Over 10 Hours of Battery Life (Personal Computers)
Buying this Gateway was the result of owning an ASUS 1005PE for a week before sending it back to Amazon due to some quality issues and a general dissatisfaction with the ASUS Netbook design. I have pretty high standards when it comes to my electronics. The Netbook, even though essentially a cheap commodity computer, still needs to be well thought out and manufactured for me to buy it. I simply want the best value for my dollar.
After using the Gateway LT2118u Netbook for the past week, this is what I thought of it.
Chassis/Exterior:
This has to be one of the nicest looking Netbooks around, and I was immediately taken back by this Gateway while Netbook browsing at BestBuy. Even though I'm not a fan of Shiny outer lids because of the smudge factor, the thinly striped, candy red outer shell looks good, and does a decent job hiding finger prints & smudges. You'll still see 'em, but they aren't nearly as visible by comparison to the dark blue ASUS 1005PE I had.
When you open the lid, you'll unfortunately find a glossy black bezel surrounding the screen. This glossy bezel also happens to collect small bits of dust and lint rather quickly. If you can't tell already, I REALLY DON'T LIKE SHINY PARTS ON MY COMPUTER! Shiny plastics are only good for showing smudges & dust. Luckily, Gateway did a good job using a matte, gunmetal-grey colored palm rest & keyboard frame. Again, this sure beats the ASUS 1005PE's shiny, dark blue smudge-prone palm rest & frame. The brushed aluminium looking trim piece on the front of the Gateway palm rest which integrates the Track Pad buttons and indicator lights is a nice touch. I do however, have a problem accidentally clicking the Track Pad buttons at times with the lower part of my palms when they get too close to the Track Pad buttons.
The power button & wireless network lights look really nifty. They're located up at each outer edge of the screen hinges. The power button lights up with a blue wave, and the WIFI indicator lights up glowing red. This isn't a huge sell factor, but pretty cool nonetheless.
Looking under this Netbook, you'll find a typical looking black plastic shell with venting ports, hard drive/RAM access covers, and two small speaker ports facing towards you. The chassis feels sturdy and well built. In all, it's fairly clean looking, but the large capacity battery protrudes lower than the chassis. Don't worry though, it's not nearly as bad as the Toshiba NB205, or Sony's Netbook with the ugly, exposed battery hanging an inch off the computer. (A sorry by-product of small form-factor Netbooks needing a place for the battery to go.)
Battery Life:
I cannot complain about the battery life on this Gateway. It yields approximately 6 to 8 hours of standard use continuous operation. The ASUS 1005PE had better battery life by a few hours, but I can't imagine too many people who would need over eight hours of battery life in a single charge. Like I described in the chassis section, this battery does protrude from bottom case by about 3/8". On the topside of the Netbook, the battery sits up a little between the case and lid, but it looks well integrated with the design of the computer.
Keyboard:
In my opinion, Gateway nailed it on the keyboard design and layout. The keys are full sized at the cost of being a little scrunched together. I was glad to see normal sized "Shift" keys, a common keyboard problem with many other Netbooks. Another plus for me is that the keys are fairly quiet and solid feeling. No Clicky-Clacky noises when typing on this Netbook. After a week of use, typing became a breeze. Every once in a while, I still hit the wrong key, (I'm looking at you, Page up & down keys!) but the keyboard is generally hassle free and easy to use.
Screen:
The screen is a very typical 10" screen that you'll see in just about every other Netbook. I heard that LG supplies most screens for Netbooks. So, no matter what computer brand you buy, it's likely you're getting the same screen. The screen is nice and bright thanks to the LED back-lighting, but the vertical viewing angle is very limited. I guess with the slim profit margins for Netbooks, manufacturers need to make cost sacrifices where possible. The color and contrast is decent so long as you view the screen directly. Also typical of Netbook screens is the limited resolution. At 1024x600, this resolution beats the early days of 7-9" Netbook screens with their 800x480 resolutions, but it would still be nice to see more 10 inch Netbooks with a 1366x768 resolution. To save precious screen space, I prefer to auto-minimize the task bar on Windows to free up those extra pixels for applications that need it. Another thing to consider is using full screen mode if the application you're running supports it. When web browsing, it's almost essential to use full screen mode. Firefox does a really good job with full screen functionality.
Sound:
Sound quality of this Gateway isn't "that bad", but won't win any awards either. The speakers have the usual "tinny" sound most small laptop speakers have. They're loud enough to be heard clearly in a moderately quiet room, but in a noisy environment, you'd be lucky to make out what you're trying to listen to.
Track Pad:
One of my complaints about the ASUS 1005PE was the Braille-like bumps on the Track Pad. It seemed to reduce the overall accuracy of your finger tracking. This Gateway also has bumps, but unlike the ASUS, Gateway's Track Pad bumps are barely noticeable. You'll feel them, but they just feel like little painted on dots. As you slide your fingertip over the Track Pad, there is very little resistance in comparison to the seemingly GIANT bumps on the ASUS Netbook. Two finger scrolling, and side scroll actions don't always work exactly the way you would like. Sometimes you just have to click and hold down the side scroll button with the Track Pad button to get things done. Mainly, dialog and pop-up boxes have these scrolling issues. Other than scrolling, the Track Pad works pretty well. One more minor annoyance using this Track Pad is that due to it being flush with the palm rest, you can sometimes miss the Track Pad with your finger altogether (Especially the side scroll.) in a dark room, or when not looking at the Track Pad.
Operating System/Performance:
When a new Windows OS comes out, it tends to be more bloated than the last one. Vista was the pinnacle of a bloated, sluggish OS. Windows 7 changed all of that. Windows 7 feels much lighter on it's feet than Vista by a noticeable amount. Boot-up time feels quick. (Maybe 25-30 seconds.) Navigation in Windows 7 has also been greatly improved. The whole document structure has been totally reworked into libraries so you can actually find what you're looking for in a pinch. On the downside, this Netbook (As well as most other Netbooks) comes preinstalled with Windows 7 Starter edition which means customization and features is rather limited. You cannot even change the desktop background image. One of the really cool features of Windows 7 premium and above, "Aero Glass effects" is disabled by Starter edition, so you won't get to experience it unless you shell out $80 to upgrade. When will Microsoft come to their senses and offer just ONE version of Windows? ~Sigh
Although Windows 7 runs good enough on 1GB of RAM, having 2GB makes a noticeable difference when running multiple applications. I bought the Crucial brand 2GB RAM module with this Netbook. The install was very simple. After removing the one screw from the RAM cover, you just push away the two tabs on each side holding the RAM in place. The module will just pop free, allowing it's removal. (See the customer images I posted for this Netbook to view the RAM removal for yourself.)
Video performance on this Netbook works OK in most instances. Flash video in standard quality plays smoothly. Higher quality Flash videos such as Hulu & YouTube HQ/HD can be choppy at times. If you use the Google Chrome browser, you can opt-in to YouTube's HTML5 video format which is less resource intensive, and can play hi-def videos more smoothly. If you watch videos using Microsoft's Silverlight (Such as Netflix online streaming.) video performance will also play smoother than Flash.
As with most Windows retail PC's, make sure to remove all the crap-ware Gateway preinstalls on your Netbook to help lean things out. Most importantly, remove Norton Antivirus, and install a decent antivirus. Microsoft's own Antivirus, "Microsoft Security Essentials" is free, and has been shown to work as good, if not better than most third party antivirus software. It also won't bog down your system while charging you money like Norton antivirus.
For a simpler Netbook experience, I also installed Ubuntu Netbook Edition to dual boot alongside Windows. For those not familiar with Ubuntu, and/or Linux, it's just another operating system similar to Windows. Google it sometime. Ubuntu's Netbook edition is a free, open source OS, and in my opinion, has a much easier to use interface for small screens like this Netbook. The menus, folders, and applications are all laid out in the open, making it easy to find what you need.
Another reason to use a Linux based OS is that viruses, Trojans, and other malware do not exist on Linux in the wild which gives me a greater peace of mind. Now, Linux isn't for everybody, and I don't expect most people who read this to immediately go out and install Linux on their computer. You can try it by running it off a USB stick if you're interested.
Other features:
I don't have too much to say about the other features of this Netbook. I was a little disappointed that Bluetooth...
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An excellent netbook, good value, February 15, 2010
This review is from: Gateway LT2118u 10.1-Inch Red Netbook - Over 10 Hours of Battery Life (Personal Computers)
I looked at a Gateway because of one my wife has. She has a Gateway laptop that is now 5 years old (bought 2.20.05) and works perfect. For the past three years it has been on 6-8 hours EVERY night, as she streams internet radio while sleeping. It is used for basic email, internet,etc for perhaps 30 minutes a day. It still has the install of XP on it that it came with. The battery of course is about gone, but otherwise it is still perfect. Amazing!..
These have the new "pinetrail" Atom processor. Read some user reviews and decided on the Gateway LT2104u, went to Best Buy and picked it up. Nice packaging, nice small power supply and an overall attractive unit. Windows 7 Starter was very easy to set up, and connected to my WIFI without a problem. Had some bloatware, but this seems to be better than it used to be. I uninstalled the bloat, including MS Works, and all the Norton crap, and tweaked a few things. I also had a spare 2 gig memory stick that I was thrilled with because it fit! I put MS Office 2003, Photoshop CS3, Firefox and iTunes and some eReader software on it (plus a few other odds and ends).
Works great. MS Office and Firefox are perfect. Runs just as good as it does on my overpowered desktop. Photoshop runs fine, a little slower on some editing, but very usable and no problem. ITunes works perfect, 30 gigs of music, iPhone apps, syncs fine with my iPhone. Works great as an eReader (Adobe Digital Editions, Kindle for PC...etc) and the screen is great!.. Oh yes, the screen is wonderful. This little rascal will burn your retinas on the max brightness setting. Full and vibrant colors, with good text clarity. The keyboard is 93% normal size, and takes but a short time to get used to. I hate the touchpad's on laptops, but this one is better than most. The gesture feature is very usable, and once you get used to it works fine. Battery life is wonderful. Charged it the first time and got nearly 7 hours before hitting 10% (web, reading, Word with screen on ½ and power saving mode). I charge nearly everyday so I really don't run it down, and that says a lot. The laptop I had before would die at 2-2 1/2 hours so this is like a miracle. Another feature most would not think about is the fact the screen will go back almost flat. Most netbooks you find yourself holding and tilting to get a good screen angle. This one, the range of movement of the screen is such that you will not have that problem.
In the office I use it plugged into a 19" LCD monitor, external keyboard and wireless mouse. No problems with that set up, easy to connect/disconnect.
Downsides are really nitpicks. The lid is a fingerprint magnet. It is simply impossible to keep it even remotely clean looking. I really don't like the on/off button, probably a personal thing, but I just don't like it. It is a netbook, so forget gaming, except casual or retro (yes it runs Doom). All laptop speakers are a joke, but the ones on this are a complete comedy routine. Window's 7 starter is fine for me, but if you like to customize your desktop you will not like it. Since I gut any version of Windows I get, in order to get more speed, it works great for me.
Great little laptop, as long as you understand the limitations of a netbook and that fits your needs. For me it's just about perfect. Highly recommended.
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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
best netbook for the price, February 8, 2010
i spent a lot of time researching, and as of the time i am writing this, the gateway lt21* netbooks offer the best features for the price.
netbooks are a fairly simple animal to price, as compared to laptops in general. there are really only 3 differentiators,
1. CPU
2. disk size
3. battery
for CPU, there are intel atom N270, N280, and N450. the first two are the last generation. the N450 is the next generation. it's not a lot faster than the N2* series, but it is supposed to have slightly better performance and better battery life. more importantly, the production methods used make it cheaper than the N2* series ... that is why you see the better N4* series laptops at the same price at the older, slower N2* series. don't buy an N2* series netbook at this point.
for disk size, you will see either 160 or 250GB. you usually pay $20-$40 more to upgrade to 250 GB.
for battery, older netbooks may have 3-cell. modern netbooks will have a 6-cell battery, either 4400 or 5600 mAh. you again pay $20-$40 for an upgrade to an 5600 mAh battery. specs say that you get +2 hours battery life for the 5600 mAh battery.
some other things you should know about netbooks:
a. no optical drive - no CD or DVD playing, no installing software from CDs or DVDs
b. reduced keyboard - no num pad, but fairly usable beside that
c. weak CPU - whatever CPU you choose, it is very weak compared to a "regular" laptop CPU. this is the price you pay for extended battery life and a cheap price tag
d. limited memory - most netbooks come with 1GB ram, expandable to 2GB only (looks like around $50 to upgrade to 2GB after market). 2GB is still quite weak for a modern OS. your ability to multitask apps will be very limited.
e. windows 7 starter - while you can get windows XP or linux on some models, most come with windows 7 starter. w7 starter is almost a trial version of windows. the most complained about limitation is the inability to customize the desktop (e.g., can't change wallpaper).
as for this netbook (LT2120), it is top of the line with respect to the 3 features above - N450 / 250GB / 5600 mAh. the construction actually feels fairly high grade. if it was made cheaply, it does not feel like it. the look is sleek and modern, very nice.
gateway has many different LT21* models ... they are all hard disk / battery / color permutations. for example, for this "silver" color, they are:
LT2120 (this model) - 250 GB HD / 5600 mAh battery
LT2123 - 250 GB HD / 4400 mAh battery
LT2110 - 160 GB HD / 4000 mAh battery
different vendors carry different models. for example, bestbuy carries the LT2123, but does not carry the LT2120 (this model). this could of course change over time though.
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