Gateway LT3101u 11.6" netbook impressions/thoughts/reviews

The DV2 is very thin and light and there's a guide here on the forums for undervolting it quite a bit, which substantially reduces heat and improves battery life.

When I use my roommate's LT3103 it FEELS like I'm using a netbook. When I use my DV2, which is only slightly larger, especially considering how much the battery sticks out of the Gateway, it feels like I'm using a notebook.

Just the free upgrade to Win7, the 320GB hard drive, better vertical screen resolution and the external DVD burner make the DV2 a no-brainer for me, not to mention the faster processor and dedicated video card that tears through HD content which is conveniently output using the DV2's HDMI connection ...

So for only $30 more you get a machine that CLOBBERS the LT3103 but is a little bigger and heavier. I can't tell the difference in carrying the two of them, really. But I can definitely tell a difference in USING them.

 

As for whether NFM is reputable, it's a HUGE store, part of a regional chain here in the midwest. The showrooms are freakin massive, the size of some small-to-medium sized malls.

 

so ur saying the reported 2 hour battery life when using it on full brightness etc and the extra 1.2 lbs and the fact that it kinds of looks like a 4:3 screen dont make you want to have the gateway instead?

i just have this thing in my head that if im gonna go above 12 inches then im just gonna go all out and get a nice $800 notebook

 

Well everyone has difference ideas of what "nice" is. IMO the HPis a nice notebook for the price. Maybe not the $800 price, but the $500 is.

 

i mean the timeline 1810t might be the thing to get soon, but id ont know when its coming out

 

The other Timelines seem to get more expensive as they shrink, so who knows what the 11.6" one will cost.

 

specs are sick for a 11 incher

 

So, back to the actual topic of this thread:

The guy who claimed SetFSB worked on the LT3103 was obviously full of it, right? No one else has gotten it working? Considering how much voltage I was able to take away from the Neo in my DV2 without any stability issues, I'd be surprised if the LT3103 (and the DV2) didn't have quite a bit of potential. Heat would quickly become a problem, though.

That's one thing I miss about my Wind: the one-button, painless 25% overclock for watching videos or flash-heavy websites.

 

i never used setfsb before, but i wish something would work for youtube hd, and flash

 

So Youtube HD is watchable if you're able to overclock the Atom proc?

 

No, it still won't do YouTube or Hulu HD, but the GMA950 doesn't help out with anything at all, unlike the GMA500 in the 751, the HD 3410 in the DV2 or even the X1270 in the Gateway.

Plus it's just cool to hit the button and go from 1.6Ghz to 2Ghz. The power LED even changes to orange.

 

spent a fair amount of time with it now, and I must say I really like it! First a little backstory, Im disabled (really bad back) and dont travel much so I traded my xps M1210 for a nintendo wii and a bunch of games and gizmos. I still wanted a simple portable machine for hospital stays and whatnot, so a netbook seemed ideal.

I liked the dell mini 10 at first, the low res screen was a slight bummer, (it wasnt that vibrant and had a few stuck pixels as well) and the difficulty in upgrading the ram was a deal breaker for me. The dell looked good and felt good (sans screen and touchpad), but it was a little too low frills compared to some.

The acer Aspire ONE ZA3 in a lot of ways bests my old XPS m1210 IMO. The 11.6" LED lit screen is simply beautiful bright clear and the 1366x768 res is actually nicer than the 1280 x800 of my M1210, and whole lot nicer than the 1024x576 my dell mini had. The 250 GB HD is nice and roomy, 2GB ram handles vista basic quite nice, and with all the netbooks, the lack of optical drive isnt a big issue for me, if I need to install a CD or DVD, I make an ISO from my desktop with magic ISO , put it on a flash drive, mount a virtual drive on the net book with the same program and there ya go....

Pros of the ACER ZA3

Nice big clear vibrant LED screen

Solid build

very thin and light, about 2.5 pounds with batt (by itself it actually looks larger tham my xps m120, but its not, much thinner, 1", a little less wide, and a ton lighter)

Huge keyboard, easier to type on than my desktop

Decent touchpad (a lot better than the dell mini, that one has serious issues )

loads of ram and roomy HD

Fast for what it is, no real gaming and minimal multasking and your golden

Decent sound, much better than the dell mini and my old XPS

Little 3 cell battery looks nice on the unit and is good for a few hours (2-3 depending on use) no outlet use

Cons

Cute little battery is only good for a few hours of no outlet use, larger 6 and 9 cell aftermarket batteries seem plentiful for around $50-$80

Bloatware, the dell had very little, the acer has all of it.....20 odd game demos, trial software galore, and loads of "acer" crap and ad driven software that just popped up when ever it felt like. Took about an hour to clean it off.

1.3 ghz atom cpu just like the dell mini I tried (1.6 would be nice but probably wouldnt be a dramatic change)

For $398 I think its a good deal, does everything i need it to and I cant say enough good things about the screen, kill the bloat, tweak it abit, and stick to single tasks, and you have a very nice super light super usabel machine, this ones a keeper

The Acer was $100 more than the Dell mini 10, same cpu, but,

the ACER has an 11.6" 1366x768 LED screen to the Dells 10.1 1024x576 TFT

The acer has 2GB ram installed, the dell mini 10 has one and you have to completely take the machine apart to upgrade, your not just popping the keyboard, you completely take it apart.

The acer has a 250 gb drive vs the Dell minii's 160

Battery life is about the same

size is awfully close, of course the acer is larger, but not by much

Performance wise the acer wins big even with vista basic due to the extra ram, , wifi and other like aspects seemed pretty on par.

Bottom line its great for my needs, if i were still travelling alot for buisness/pleasure, I'd want a stouter CPU and better graphics, since I dont do that anymore, this machine is perfect for me when I'm stuck on the couch away from desktop, stuck in a hospital bed, or spending an hour or two in waiting rooms.

I was skeptical about ther acer brand, they seemed to have done things right with the aspire one series, build and (relative) performance tops my dell XPS I had for a long time, as well as the brief stint I had with the dell mini 10.

(sorry if i ramble and repeat, had another minor surgery this morning so i'm a bit out of it)

I'm happy to answer any questions any of you have about it.

 

heres some pics, screen on battery level brightness,

 

How are the touchpad buttons, are they clicky, which i personally hate? Nice pics.

 

Depends what you mean by clicky....they arent the cheap mouse clickity sound you can hear across the room,, they do make a pretty quiet "deep" sound when you hit them, more like a very quiet thud? rather than clickity clackety, the keyboard keys are very quiet.

 

Almost pulled the trigger, got to BB too late though. In a way I'm glad though as I really want the RED one..............

 

SetFSB does work for me.I have a packard bell dot m/a (the european version of the gateway) and with the clock generator ics932s421bglf,I can get to 1.6 Ghz.This is with setfsb 2.1.84.1. + youtube HD is working smooth

 

Hello all.. I'm back in the forum and I see people have not had the same luck as I did with overclocking the Gateway.

I have been on travel/vacation for a while so I'm just catching up.
I tested overclocking again, and it works just just like I posted in the forum earlier.

I'm using the Clock generator set at ICS932S421BGLF
Make sure DON"T TURN ON the Ultra setting. Then click the Get FSB button, and it will retreive the current setting of 1.1ghz

Also... DON'T make big jumps in timing or it will lock up tight and force you to reboot. THis works great for me, and I have tested it both in Vista and XP.

Just make sure to get the latesd SetFSB

Hope this helps.

 

Specifically what SetFSB version do you have?

 

2.2.125.92
THis is the latest from the author here: http://www13.plala.or.jp/setfsb/

I set up a shortcut on the desktop to making overclocking to 1600 one click...
Here is the string I used in the "Target" box on the shortcut:

"C:\Program Files\SetFSB\setfsb.exe" -cg[ICS932S421BGLF] -w0 -s267 -q -i15 -b

THis increments the FSB in steps of 15mhz to 267mhz (1600mhz Processor speed) quietly in the background
To set it back to the standard speed make another shortcut with the string

"C:\Program Files\SetFSB\setfsb.exe" -cg[ICS932S421BGLF] -w0 -s200 -q -i15 -b

Good luck...

 

Crap...I really like the ACER, but its going back....

Found this for the same price, same goodies, better CPU and much improved graphics as well as bigger batt....

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?skuId=9370272&type=product&id=1218093001788

 

Thanks, I see this is a new release 7/10/09 so maybe that is what is getting everyone. I most likely will order the RED one this weekend but we can only get these shipped so I'll have to wait..........

 

pll errors everytime, doesnt work for me

 

I would love to OC this but I'll be fine if I can't. I just want it for lite web surfing, email, database, web site editing, file posting and the like. I'd like the freedom at times to have some mobility around the house or even outside. The P7805u is absolutely wonderful but way to bulky for much other than a DTR.

On that note I am more concerned with connectivity and range. So questions for owners is how is the connction speed to your routers? Also what kind of distance can you get from your router and still maintain a decent connection? Does this change with AC power as compared to battery only?

Edit; Even if it will OC I'm not going for bust. If it will do 1.6 I'd only oc to 1.5Ghz to be safe with it and only where requied, like playing video's............

 

Thats really strange... It works great for me.
Maybe there are different clock chips being used or something.

One thing...but I don't think it makes any difference. I am running XP SP3, but I tested this a while back on Vista as well.

Have you tried the command line arguments that I have in my desktop short cuts ?

 

wifi connections work fine to me, same as my main laptop
i tried the command line arguments also and i get pll error

im using windows 7 x64 i dont know if that matters, id love to be able to OC this to 1.5 to watch hd, thats the only thing its really missing

battery life aint too great tho

 

Good to hear about the connection, I've seen 9 cells for about 50 on ebay that will work with these.

 

yeah that will make it bigger and heavier tho right

 

Yes my understanding is about 4-5 oz more and the cells are just stacked in the rear making it thicker there............

 

Shouldn't be a bad deal for a 7-8 hour battery life. You could realistically carry that around all day now. Good deal for a netbook (got to love the portability)

 

that puts this at pretty much 4lbs, same as a 12 inch core2duo hp...ehhh

either way i keep trying FSB and i cant get the clock chip to read on that setting.......it reads on a couple other settings, weird.......

 

Exactly, and at the size, along with the weight, you don't mind carying it around either...............

 

it should be a hair over 3 Lbs so that would put it at about 3.5 Lbs. Lighter and much cheaper than the HP DV2 with a dual core and I'll bet better battery life too............

 

Let us know how it turns out, especially the mouse buttons. I might be in the market for a smaller notebook.

 

This one is a keeper...(I hope!) it is for sure unless I find something with more useful features at the same price like this last swap) Its the same shell as the acer with prettier trim, and more upscale compmonents inside and out. You would love the touchpad I think ZaZ, its a synapsis with the scroll seam on the side, nice and roomy, one piece button bar, not stiff at all, but nice SILENT but tactitle feedback for a button press, you dont hear it, but you know if you've pressed it. The screen is the same as the acer, but looks even better! nice clear and beautiful, acess to innards is better on the underside, the palm rest is lightly textured, a feature I like, keyboard is bascially the same size and feel wise with more function button control. Visually it looks like the next trim level up on a new car, a littler prettier, and a few nice upgrades, it also feels a little more solid.

Performance wise, in most reapects it kills the acer with the atom, the only drawback is on the few occasions hyperthreading is useful, you miss it a little, if you ask too much of the cpu multitasking wise, it'll hang on you a little more often (but not much and usally just a few seconds) , used as intended, the athlon 64 shows a lot more muscle than the atom, and the graphics power is great for a book of that class and size. The ATI IGP handles videos perfectly, the atom books stuggled a little with simple video streams from youtube/espn etc.....plus very modest 3d gaming is possible with this machine. I tried audiosurf ( love that game and is a perfect on the go game in its own right) on both atom machines, and even with the 2GB ram acer.... it ran but wasnt playable, everything minimal, low res and windowed, it ran but slowly and poorly with lots of hangs.....the ati chip allows me to play it at standard settings full screen max res flawlessly, if you crank up the detail to premeium ( its just pretty backgground effects) it slows it to a crawl, it was the same way with my nvidia 7400 go as well.

Natrually it consumes a little more power, so they give it a 6 cell battery, giving about 30% more overall life than atom equivelents with a 3 cell, at the cost of a little more wheight, 3.1 pounds total I think. On medium power savings expect about 4 hours battery life.

Bottom line at $399 its a hell of a deal, and really blurs the line between netbook and performance thin and light netbook, the ati graphics really give this an edge over the atoms, and at the same price for the 11.6....I say go for it, $400 gets you a high res beautiful 1366x768 led screen,250gbhd,2gb ram, huge keyboard, nice touchpad,solid attractive build, plus an amd athlon64 1.2 ghz CPU, ATI radeon graphics, , solid wifi and ports/vga out, nice webcam, comes loaded with vista basic like the acer but with much less bloat, the speakers also sound louder and have more clarity than the acer.

Being acer and gateway are the same company now, I didnt expect as many differences except for under the hood, the gateway is just as good or improved over the acer at the same price in all respects. I love it!

If used as intended this is a killer machine that will do a lot more than one would think it could. Basically dont try and hardcore video encoding, pro level photoshopping, high end gaming or extreme multitasking and its a great on the go machine, perfect for office apps, web browsing, media playback etc. This gets an A+ from me for what it is and what it costs.

Some pics!







(Screen is 2nd notch from highest brigtness) that setting looked best in pictures, plus shows it can go brighter if wanted.

Feel free to ask any more questions/make comments etc

One possible negative, aside from the slight excess bulk from the larger battery, the unit naturally produces a little more heat due to the beefier cpu and graphics chip, I believe its still fanless (cant hear or feel anything), but where the atoms barely got warm at all, this does get "warm" not hot, and far from uncomfortabale, considerably cooler than my xps m1210 with fans blowing hard or my insprion 6400 with fans run high, to me its a non issue, just pointing it outfor those that may find fault with it, its still comfortable to hold and when you pick it up, the surface it was resting on wont feel like a griddle ready to fry some eggs and bacon.

 

Gateway machines scare me with the Gateway support. There machines are nice enough but there support is some of the worst i have encountered. Let me know IF you end up using the support how they treat you. It has been a few years.

 

I usually dont need support outside of outright hardware failure, plus very few places have ideal sustomer support. In the end its how you deal with them relates to how they deal with you, rule of thumb, dont get snippy, try it thier way first, if that fails, offer your point of view calmly and clearly, as soon as you get the "I cant" phrase, calmly demand to speak to someone who can....

Back to the book....I'm impressed, loaded up the halflife2 lost coast stress test and it ran horribly as to be expected, even on the lowest settings, its a stress test after all, so i didnt expect much. Loaded up half life 2 the game, and at 1280x800, medium detail,textures, high shaders simple reflections and low shadows.....its butter smooth and looks darn good, impressive indeed for a sub $400 "netbook" I'm thinking of trying to snag a cheap copy of XP and see if that gives any real tangible gains.

I'm quite impressed with this machine, i know a lot of folks scoff saying you can get a dual core,better graphics, yada yada for the same price....or less....in a hulking 15" buky package, power and portability used to come at an obscene price, this is a nice mix at a great price, and the best screen I have ever personally used on a laptop period.

 

Thanks for the insights. I been thinking of another notebook for when I want to be smaller, but I don't need that too often. $400 is still a lot for a secondary notebook that won't get a ton of usage. Hopefully they won't sell too well and there will be some deals. I can only use two or three computers at a time. As good as the LCD is, I doubt it's as good as my IPS.

 

Apparently the gateway juat slid into the field, I can find much info on it aside from poduct annoucments sarting in late june, and still no reviews, or even reviews of the AMD CPU that powers it.

I think $400 is going to be the average price for a high res 1366 netboosk for awhile , and while not cheap, i feel better about taking it out in the big wide world to places like hospitals and such than the dell, which when new was considerable more than that, and with the trade, I ended up getting just around $850 worth of stuff if all was bought new.

I will warn you if you start looking at netbooks, stay away from the 1366 screens if you dont want to pay for one, because you will want, and likely need one after comparison to the lower res norm.

the gateway is new kit appatrently in every way over the current standard netbook, CPU/GPU/Screen, and at its price point I think its a hell of a deal, and depending on sales will dictate what hits the shelves this fall and into the holidays.

For the same price the

Acer

1.3 GHZ atom

intel 950 graphics, which couldnt even handle the vista ribbon screensaver let alone full screen low res video all that well

and just slightly cheaper feeling comopnents overall

The gateway

1.2ghz athlon 64

Proven ATI IGP that can handle modest 3d with ease and then some

Plus the gateways just looks and feels more solid, honestly, if the cpu were dual core and could multitsk....it would the perfect road/counterpart t my desktop. REveryboddies needs are different, and I dont think I weould have had a long honeymoon with a typical netbook, the gateway however looks like it will fot my life perfectly, honestly the only thing I really wish it had was better multitasking, and playing around with less demanding OS'es might be the fix for that. at $400 the gateway (and even acer) were right on the cusp of netbook and notebook, so the pricing I think is fair for now, and really seem them climbing steeply as they gte more hosepower before trickling back to being priced fairly.

Jusy wish there was more info on the gateway and the cpu it uses.

 

I just picked this up tonight from Bestbuy with their 18 months no interest on purchases $499 and up.

I thought it only had wireless b and g?
Mine is connecting to my wireless router set for 2.4Ghz n.

I changed the setting from g and n to N only make sure. In Vista it shows a connection at 150mbs, but the speed also seems to fluctuate. Using bandwidth Monitor It was jumping to 60mbs and then to 15 and back up. While if I set the router to G only, the speeds are consistent, although much slower at around 20mbs but very consistent.

 

That sux, maybe there is an update for the network card?

 

I changed a couple of settings for the wireless card in the device manager. I can now get consistent 40mbs download speeds from my 50mbs FIOS connection. It's not jumping around anymore using the wireless N. Although I need to do a transfer from my LAN and move it closer to the wireless router to see if I can get any faster speeds. But 40mbs with N is still much faster than the normal 21mbs download speed you get with wireless g.

I also need to download all the WIndows updates to see if that makes any difference too. I see the netbook only comes with IE7 so the update will install IE8 along with several hundred megabytes of other updates.
Plus I still need to remove any extraneous software.

 

How much different is the performance index with Vista? In Vista the Experience index shows up as 2.7(CPU:2.8, Memory:4.5, Graphics 2.7, Gaming Graphics 3.0, Primary Hard drive 5.6)

 

2.7 sounds right, 2.3 is low, maybe he ran it off battery or something. Win 7 should actually up the CPU score, not bring it down...........

 

Win 7 probably uses a different scale than Vista. So I wouldn't compare the numbers too closely.

 

I would never get a 1024x600 screen. They do make a Neo dual-core CPU. You could swap it if you can find one.

 

Iceman, do you know how some MMORPG's like WoW or Runes of Magic run on that machine? I'm curious because I'm thinking about getting a laptop for school and occasional MMO's but I need to keep my budget low. At first I wanted a gaming laptop but if this netbook can handle games like RoM then I can save several hundred dollars.

 

Seems more like a Gateway thread now so I moved it.

 

i had this netbook for 2 weeks now, the only reason that im selling it is because it cant handle mlb.com flash video, or youtubehd....i use mlb.com flash video on the road quite often and this refuses to play it. windows 7 runs snappy on it and its very nice, but i need the extra processor power to watch videos

 

If it can't handle Youtube HD, then I'm guessing it's not going to handle the games I play... Even my e1405 with GMA950 can handle Youtube HD, although it does have a Core Duo.