NetbookTech

Your source for Netbook/Mini-Notebook News and Info

Unboxing the Gateway LT3103u 11.6 inch netbook

Comments

As mentioned yesterday, the new Gateway LT3103u 11.6 inch netbook is now readily available over at Best Buy. Yes.. I couldn’t help myself so I decided to pick up the new netbook system yesterday at the list price of $399.99 (I actually got it for less since I had some RewardZone coupons on hand). The LT3103u is Gateway’s first 11.6 inch netbook – as well as the first one to offer up the AMD Athlon 64 L110 processor and ATI Radeon X1270 graphics. 

While I’m still putting the netbook through its paces, I thought I’d at least share some of the unboxing pics of the LT3103u.

Packaging:

266

267

268

269

270

The Gateway LT3103u:

271

272

Here’s the top-front of the netbook (with the top plastic still attached):

273

Here’s the bottom of the netbook:

274

The right side:

275

The left side:

276

The battery attached:

277

The netbook opened:

280

281

282

283

284 

Early Impressions:

Form Factor:

The LT3103u certainly has more heft to it than the majority of netbook systems out there. It’s not a fatty by any means but you’ll notice the 3+ pound weight especially if you’ve been using a system that weighs a mere 2+ pounds.

The battery juts out and downward a bit from the back – lifting the netbook up at the rear and providing a more comfortable typing experience. A good portion of the weight comes from this large battery which unfortunately only provides a supposed 4-5 hour battery life. (yet to be confirmed).

About the only real complaint that I have with the form factor is opening the netbook itself. There’s a small lip that hangs over the center of the netbook cover which you use to lift up the cover. This lip is a bit small to grip onto – especially for big fingers.

Oh yes.. the top cover is a fingerprint magnet.

Otherwise the netbook is quite sexy!

Keyboard:

I’m loving this keyboard folks! The Samsung NC10 was my previous favorite but the LT3103u  takes the cake thus far (although the new Toshiba will probably compete favorably here also) simply because the form factor as a whole is larger. 

Trackpad:

The LT3103u  has a multi-gesture trackpad although I haven’t had time to test it out yet. The pad itself is roomy and the mouse buttons are well constructed.

Display:

I absolutely love this display.. and here are the main reasons:

  • 11.6 inches!
  • 1366 x 768 resolution
  • Bright!

Did I say 1366 x 768? Yes.. I’m done with that 1024 x 600 resolution display!!!

Performance:

I really can’t say much in this department as of yet since I’ve yet to run actual benchmarks. The LT3103u comes with Windows Vista Home Basic which isn’t my first choice for an OS but luckily Gateway bucks the netbook trend by bundling the LT3103u with 2GB of RAM. The system “feels” somewhat comparable to other “Atom” based netbooks I’ve played with but again – I won’t really know until I’ve executed the software benchmarks. It is important to note that this system runs a single core Athlon 64 processor. No dual core goodness or even hyper-threading goodness here.

And finally.. we are talking about a 64 bit processor here..

Yes.. since the LT3103u does come bundled with an AMD Athlon 64 I decided to try Windows 7 RC x64 on this netbook and yes.. it installed just fine. I had to install the wireless networking drivers and then update the graphics drivers but other than that – things went without a hitch. I’ll probably downgrade back to Windows 7 RC 32 bit shortly for testing purposes but then revert to 64 bit Windows 7 for the remainder of my time with the LT3103u.

Overall.. the Gateway LT3103u is very promising although I’m not exactly keen on the 4-5 hour battery life of the netbook. I also wish Gateway packaged the new AMD Athlon Neo processor instead of the single-core Athlon 64 L110 .. but oh well.. I’m sure component pricing had something to do with that one and when you consider you get an awful lot for $399.99, the LT3103u doesn’t look like too bad of a deal. Stay tuned for a full in-depth review.

Written by flung

June 29th, 2009 at 1:53 pm

8,167 views

Viewing 52 Comments

 

Trackbacks

(Trackback URL)

close Reblog this comment
blog comments powered by Disqus

Related Posts