NetbookTech

The folks at the Tech Report have put together a fairly comprehensive review comparing two of the latest 11.6 inch netbooks – the Gateway LT3103u (you can see our review here) and the Acer Aspire One AO751h.

While both systems feature beautiful 11.6 inch displays, the internal composition couldn’t be more different. The Gateway netbook is powered by the AMD Athlon 64 L110 processor, and utilizes ATI Radeon Mobility Graphics. The Acer netbook utilizes the Intel Atom processor and Intel integrated graphics (although the Atom found in the AO751h is the Z520 processor as opposed to the more common Atom N270/N280 processor)

So what about the performance?  As expected, the Atom Z520 processor is slower in many of the performance benchmarks than the Athlon 64 L110 processor. The Acer AO751h excels in battery life tho – getting approximately 5+ hours on a six cell battery compared to 3-4 hours with the Gateway. Graphics performance –  nothing to write home about here with either system as Flash performance is next to nill.

So what about the conclusion? Here’s a snippet from the review:

“The Gateway LT3103 is the most successfully executed of the two systems, because its Athlon 64 processor and Radeon graphics give it the performance to match its larger screen and keyboard. The grown-up looks and finish of the Gateway set it apart from the Aspire One 751, as well. If you like to fret over the semantics of "netbook" versus "notebook," the LT3103 will positively put you into a tizzy of hair splitting and confusion—endless hours of fun. I could see this system replacing a full-sized laptop for an awful lot of users. It’s a heck of a bargain, too, compared to the Aspire One 751, since it comes with a larger battery at the same price.”

[Check it out via CrunchGear]