Gateway Launches Athlon-powered Netbook

By Jane McEntegart
published

Gateway has officially announced its LT3103u netbook packing AMD's Athlon 64 L110 and we have to admit, this netbook has us excited.

Weighing in at 3.04 lbs. and 1.03 inches thick, the LT3103u packs AMD’s Athlon 64 L110 single-core CPU (1.2 GHz, 800 MHz FSB, 512 KB L2 Cache), 2 GB of DDR2, ATI Radeon X1270 graphics coupled with an AMD RS690E chipset, a 250 GB hard drive, 802.11b/g, an 11.6-inch high-def WXGA Ultrabrite LED-backlit display, 3 x USB 2.0, VGA, multi-card reader, high-def audio support, a mic, audio out and a 0.3 mp webcam.

Alright so the size of the display (11.6-inches in case you got lost in all the numbers) along with the fact that it ships with Windows Vista Home Basic means it definitely falls into our “this is not a netbook” category. However, its netbook pricetag makes up for all of that. There’s no word on a specific launch date but when it does go on sale, the computer will be available at Best Buy and you can take one home for just $400, which definitely isn’t a bad deal.

What do you guys think? Is there anyone on the market for a netbook and would consider the Gateway LT3103u an option? Let us know!

Jane McEntegart
46 Comments Comment from the forums
  • gaevs
    Good, nice specs, way better than Atom, i want one..., the questin, it will have the option to upgrade to Windows 7?
    Reply
  • kawininjazx
    Yea, that 1.2Ghz Athlon is going to run like a dog on Vista Basic. The 2GB of memory will help, of course I don't know why all netbooks don't come with two, the cost difference is like $3!!! I would stick with an atom, but I wouldn't mind a netbook bigger than 10 inches.
    Reply
  • sakanagai
    Is the lone requirement for a netbook these days simply no optical drive and a slow processor? Designation aside, it should be interesting to see how an Athlon performs in the ultra-cheap sector. The last AMD netbook I remember was the OLPC XO-1 (running a 400 MHz Geode). Any ideas what kind of battery life to expect?
    Reply
  • tomtom_32
    Although the cpu is very weak, but i would love something compact and cheap which dosn't shout i'm a netbook, cause of course it's 11 inches!
    this could be my ideal laptop.
    Reply
  • zodiacfml
    think, it could be twice as fast as the atom.
    250GB HDD and 11.6inch screen for $400 is nice. anything about it is good except maybe for the battery life which we don't know yet.
    Reply
  • trinix
    It sounds like the best of all worlds. Strong enough to do most of your on the road things, what you'd want a netbook for, yet cheap enough to rival competing Atom netbooks as being better and able to handle things the atom can't.

    If I needed a netbook/small laptop, this would be the thing I would get. I'd go for something a bit stronger and bigger though. I want to do more than just that, so it's either going to be a heavy laptop or just a pc, but probably another pc for me.
    Reply
  • paranoidmage
    I think Tom's needs to review this and compare it to Atom based netbook.

    I have no idea how well this processor can perform, but the better graphics should help.
    Reply
  • ricardok
    Why compare it just with Atom? Didn't TH did an ION review? Grab one of those new Athlon Netbooks and throw it in the middle to do a review on all three.. We already know that the ION can kick atoms' butt, but I think that the Athlon does offer a better performance than the Atom at any giving time (tho I think the graphic card will suffer if compared to the 9400M)..

    Also, netbooks are all about battery life.. So that has to be reviewed too.
    Reply
  • TheMan1214
    Based on the above i would totally go for it, and as for it having windows 7;depending on when it comes out i'd assume there would either be an upgrade deal or just coming with it. Beats a lot of the other netbooks i see out here
    Reply
  • thomaseron
    I would buy it. :-)
    Reply