Gateway LT3103u Netbook

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PinchedNerve

Limp Gawd
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Jul 30, 2008
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Has anyone seen this netbook "Gateway LT3103u" or possibly even owns one? I am interested in getting a netbook & this one looks interesting.

Warranty Terms - Parts 1 year limited
Warranty Terms - Labor 1 year limited
Product Height - 1"
Product Width - 11.3"
Product Weight - 2 lbs.
Product Depth - 8"
Processor Brand - AMD
Processor - AMD Athlon™ 64
Processor Speed - 1.2GHz
Display Type - WXGA high-definition LED-backlit with Ultrabright technology (1366 x 768)
Screen Size - 11.6"
System Bus - 800MHz
Cache Memory - 512KB on die Level 2
System Memory (RAM) - 2GB
Type of Memory (RAM) - DDR2 SDRAM
Hard Drive Type - SATA
Hard Drive Size - 250GB
Optical Drive - None
Direct-Disc Labeling - No
Digital Media Reader or Slots - Yes, digital media card reader
Graphics - ATI Radeon X1270
Personal Video Recorder (PVR) - No
TV Tuner - No
MPEG - Yes
Built-in Webcam - Yes
Modem - None
Networking - Built-in 10/100 Ethernet (RJ-45 connector)
Wireless Networking - Wireless-B+G
Bluetooth-Enabled - No
S-Video Outputs - None
Audio - High-definition support
Speakers - Built-in stereo
PCMCIA Slots - None
USB 2.0 Ports - 3
IEEE 1394 FireWire Ports - None
Parallel Ports - None
Serial Ports - None
Game Ports - None
Laptop Weight - Ultraportable (5.5 lbs. or less)
Battery Type - 6-cell lithium-ion
Battery Life - Up to 5 hours
Pointing Device - Multigesture touchpad
Operating System - Windows Vista Home Basic with SP1
Included Software - Microsoft Money Essentials 2007, Adobe Reader 9 and more
ENERGY STAR Qualified - Yes
HDMI Output - No
Blu-ray Player - No

Here is a link to the Gateway listing.

Here is a link to the Bestbuy listing.
 
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Interested due to the proc speed vs. an Atom, discouraged because of the 3 we got in the first shipment, 2 had issues right out of the box.
 
Yeah I've been dying to get rid of my mini9 for something bigger. Seemed like all of the 12" netbooks were lacking in someway. I was considering the HP 110 series until I stumbled across this little gem yesterday at my local Best Buy. It basically what I've been looking for an smallish light weight laptop with a usable screen and keyboard.

I've been playing with it non stop since I bought it. No real issues other than the fugly "buckle". Plays HD content without issue. Its a little sluggish, but to be fair I'm used to SSDs. I love the keyboard, even though I could do without the "chiclet" style. Pad supports gestures...I cannot comment as I haven't really tried it yet.
Acer owns Gateway, so this basically an AAO 751h with beefier hardware. Supposedly Acer is going to release an intel version as well the Timeline 1810t but when and at what price?
 
I would like to hear more on this as well, as I am buying a net book on Friday.
 
Feel free to hit me up with any questions. I think I'm going to load 7 on it tonight.
 
Bit of a mini review for everyone;

I honestly think you can get 6 hours of surf time with this. You can watch 2 full length movies easily. This might improve if you turn off the WiFi and lower the screen contrast. The 6 cell add quite a bit of weight to it though. But this definitely is the sweet spot for up time. Although the Acer 751h 3 cell can bring down the weight, and the 9 cell can improve the up time. Either on can be easily had on ebay for $50

Good construction. It has a good feel to it. Textures are nice. Lower frame is really stiff. 0 flex. Hinges seem sturdy enough you would have to go out of your way to break them. Upper frame has some flex but I wouldn't call it flimsy. You can press on the back (top?) and the LCD doesn’t notice.


Is it worth it? The cost is kinda…meh. I think all netbooks are overpriced. Let me put it this way. I had a mini 9 and it was great but I had a few issues with it.

The Size of the mini9 was great for toting around but sucked if you wanted to 2 hand type on your lap. It would move all over the place because it was so small. I don’t really need a lap dance from my netbook. The gateway, being wider, behaves while typing.

The keyboard and pad on the mini9 was ridiculous. The HP 110 I tried out, KB was useable, but the pad was horrid. This one is just right.

The weight of the mini9 was spot on. This feels a bit heavier but only slightly. I think a 3 cell battery would actually make it lighter than the mini9

Performance on the mini9 was snappy if it was within the realm of the Atom’s capability. This is more of the same but with more head room. Let’s face it, these are not i7s. But to be fair my mini was a bit of a netbook beast, Vista 64, 64gb Runcore SSD and 2gb ram, 512mb RAMdrive, WiFi draft-N. It was heavily modded and cost me a little over $600. In all honesty I will probably upgrade this gateway as well. I’m still using the OEM Vista install and it has plenty of bloatware in it. A fresh install of Windows 7 64 should help. I also cannot deal with the slow HDD. I’ve become an SSD snob, I guess. I love the speed & durability of SSD. This along with a WiFi upgrade to wireless n card should be quite speedy. Stepping down to a 3 cell battery should help with that extra heft. The 2gb RAM is sufficient for now. 4gb will be the last thing I add, if at all.

Is it perfect? No. But it definitely is a lot closer to what I wanted. A light, capable, smaller screen notebook.
IMO Netbooks should be considered a secondary, portable, do it all, monotasker, not your main rig or something specialized like an HTPC.
 
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Interesting product.

For $399, you get 2GB Ram, 250GB HD, and Win Vista? The only other netbook that offers that kind of hardware for that price is the AAO.

There's a few points that question me:

-How does this Athlon 64 L110 compare to the latest Atom (N270 & N280)?
-What's the battery life and power usage?
-This gateway boast a 6-cell (5200mAh battery) and a low watt Athlon but we all want to know how does this compare to the Atom.

-How is the build quality? (a product this cheap must have had corners cut in order to meet this price.

On a side note, it is quite interesting to see something different in the Netbook market. The provided X1270 chipset is definitely better than most netbook's GMA 950 and even my own laptop's GMA X3100.
 
It’s definitely faster than the Atom. It’s not going to blow you away either. The dual core Atom might be a more fair comparison to this.
See above regarding battery
I was thinking the same thing. They had to cheap out somewhere, but it’s surprisingly study. The keyboard, to me, is the cut corner. I just don’t like the look or feel of the chiclet style KB’s. It’s also a little springy, but not enough to really be a negative.

This is all subjective BTW :)
 
Aha, thanks for the review/info.

It's definitely attractive with the specs, if only Best Buy sold them cheaper, for say, around $350, I'd get one and upgrade it.
 
Running Windows 7 64 RC. I doubt this would be eligible for a free upgrade to W7. I think it's only for XP. Even then I think its only on regular laptops and desktop systems. I don't think the stripped down version qualifies.
 
Please let us know if you can watch youtube and hulu videos on it. Particularly hulu.
 
I just got one of these as well, it is great. I can watch hulu and you tube videos on it with no problem.
 
I wasn't able to find a picture, but I'm assuming the 9 cell is quite a bit bigger? Anyone have a pic?

I've been considering the 1000he because of the battery life, but this little guy is pretty nice. 5 hours is pretty good, but having more never hurts.
 
Tried to play Quake Live & its pretty choppy. I'd like to update the video, cpu, & mobo drivers.

Edit: Reduced the resolution & some settings & its playable but its not as smooth as I was thinking the X1270 would be for such an old game.
 
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PinchedNerve said:
Tried to play Quake Live & its pretty choppy. I'd like to update the video, cpu, & mobo drivers.

Edit: Reduced the resolution & some settings & its playable but its not as smooth as I was thinking the X1270 would be for such an old game.
Click to expand...

I think to run cool and keep battery life up they have underclocked the X1270.............
 
i've owned a few eee's, so that's where i'm coming from netbook-wise. my take ...

Positives:
* price
* comes with 2GB ram
* HDD is fast, big
* excellent graphics capabilities for a netbook
* amazing display for a netbook - clear, crisp, highest resolution of any netbook
* full size keyboard and keys
* good processor (for a netbook)
* uses standard 2.5" SATA drive
* Windows Vista and 7 run like a charm on it
* multi-gesture touchpad

Negatives:
* 0.3 MP webcam (but i don't use them anyway, so don't care)
* no luck yet getting an SSD working. recognized by BIOS, but no luck with any Windows drivers. tried MS drivers, AMD drivers, drivers from other vendors ... nothing works yet. fortunately the stock HDD performs great.


with the eees that i have owned, the tiny keyboard, shitty display quality, and limited storage space have been the big drawbacks. the gateway effectively addresses all of those problems.
 
fyi, readyboost w/ the sdhc seems to work well. i'm using a sandisk extremeIII 4gb card.
 
TANWare said:
I think to run cool and keep battery life up they have underclocked the X1270.............
Click to expand...
Possible. I looked in the bios & the video memory is, I believe 384 megs. I would think this GPU & memory should run Quake Live without breaking a sweat. Now of course I didn't buy this for gaming but I am going on a trip in a few hours & I wanted something to keep me amused when sitting around doing nothing.

In any case, I hope I can update the drivers (CPU, GPU, & Mobo) in the near future. Updated the Realtek HD Audio to version 2.28 yesterday.
 
PointandClick said:
I assume the 6 cell is flush?
Click to expand...

3 cell sits flush look up images for 751h and you'll see.

6 cell stick out the back look up images for the LT3103u and you'll see.

9 cell stick out just as far as the 6 but with another row of cells on top (2x thick) It's about as thick as the net book itself.
 
I'm stopping at the local best buy to check this out...may pull the trigger on one soon.

What are boot times like with default install and with win 7?

any luck with hackintosh?

regardless of all of this, I may end up going for some kind of linux in the end...just have to hope I can squeeze it into the budget haha
 
thisperishedmin said:
I'm stopping at the local best buy to check this out...may pull the trigger on one soon.

What are boot times like with default install and with win 7?

any luck with hackintosh?

regardless of all of this, I may end up going for some kind of linux in the end...just have to hope I can squeeze it into the budget haha
Click to expand...

Hackintosh will prob. never work because of the AMD processor. Well at least not as well as the Atom counterpart.
 
I saw it at my BB when i was looking at the new 1005HA Seashell.

The gateway seems to be built pretty solid, i like the circular shaped keyboard rest area, feels very solid. But i dont like the overall look of the netbook, its almost the size of a 12-13" laptop, and considering its still a netbook with its pecs its big for what it is...

Ill go out and check it out again, didnt give it much though other than the shape.

Are the any benchmarks that compare the atom to AMDs CPU along with the video chips? 945GSE is the latest in atoms i think.
 
I think I am going to have to pick one of these up... I currently have the Acer 751 11.6, I love the screen, and actually like the full size ugly keyboard. The form factor is perfect for me. I love the size...

However, performance wise it is a dog. It's clocked at 1.2ghz and chokes on a lot of video.

The Gateway looks nice, I'd be interested to see comparisons on the two chipsets/processors/gpus. I have a few days left to take the Acer back to Costco, and I NEVER take things back, but this is one time I may have too.
 
thisperishedmin said:
What are boot times like with default install and with win 7?

any luck with hackintosh?
Click to expand...

bootimes are after a full shutdown. Timed from button push to fulley loaded desktop
Vista basic with the bloatware was stupid...like close 60 seconds.

Clean Vista Ultimate 32 fresh install was half that @ 35 seconds.

W7 64 fresh install slightly better ~28 seconds.

for refrence i also threw in 1 of my spare Falcon ssd in there. it booted w7 64 in under 15sec.

all of this was very infornal so take it with grain of salt.

no dice on the hackintosh from what i've read. u need an intel machine. 1810t if/when itcomes out might be a winner for your apple needs.
 
no_control said:
Batteries

Take your pick...the 751h is the weaksauce version of the LT3103u
Click to expand...

Can anyone confirm that the batteries for Acer AO751h and the Gateway LT3103u are interchangeable.

From the eBay pics they look very similar, but the Gateway battery model UM09B44 does not seem to find any matches. I would love to get a 3 cell baterry to make the Gateway more portable.

Also if anyone has a 751h can you please check the battery stats and report back. My Gateway battery has rating of 5100mAH, 11.1V, 57Wh
 
abax said:
Can anyone confirm that the batteries for Acer AO751h and the Gateway LT3103u are interchangeable.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't have posted that link without confirming it.

3 cell - 11.1v 2200mAh
6 cell - 11.1v 5200mAh
9 cell - 11.1v 7800mAh

Sometimes it helps if you do a little more reasearch. Acer owns and makes Gateway pcs the LT3103 uses the same shell, screen, battery, keyboard, touchpad etc...as the 751h. It fits. I know this because I have a 3cell AAO751h 3 cell battery on my LT3103u
 
no_control said:
I wouldn't have posted that link without confirming it.

3 cell - 11.1v 2200mAh
6 cell - 11.1v 5200mAh
9 cell - 11.1v 7800mAh

Sometimes it helps if you do a little more reasearch. Acer owns and makes Gateway pcs the LT3103 uses the same shell, screen, battery, keyboard, touchpad etc...as the 751h. It fits. I know this because I have a 3cell AAO751h 3 cell battery on my LT3103u
Click to expand...

I tried researching as much as I could, and did not find any info about UM0944 which comes with the Gateway.

Also difficult to understand why there would be a 6-Cell for the Acer @ 5200mAh and the Gateway @ 5100mAh !!!

Anyways, thnks for confirming. Just knowing that the 3 cell works with it makes it that much more appealing.
 
abax said:
Also difficult to understand why there would be a 6-Cell for the Acer @ 5200mAh and the Gateway @ 5100mAh !!!
Click to expand...

wasn't try to bust balls or anything. the mAh is just how long the battery will last. The numerical difference is between the 2 is minor.
 
The LT3103u has gone global! It has launched with different specs and badged as PackardBell in Europe

Looking at "dot M/A-NC-200' over at PackardBell.dk the specs show up as

XP Home
Athlon L110
ATI EXPRESS 1270, 512 DEDICATED (dont know how much memory the Gateway model uses)
6 hours 6-cell (Gateway does not show battery life on their website, but in some press release I had read, they mention it as 5 hours 6-cell)
11.6" WXGA LED GLARE 1366x768
320 GB (We get 250GB)
Rest is the same
 
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