I got a Gateway lt3103 for my sister recently. While VLC in Windows Vista 32b or Windows 7 64b cannot play 720p video, Kubuntu 9.10 alpha 4 amd64 ("karmic" with the new Radeon driver in the 2.6.31 kernels, using Kaffeine) played the 720p Batman Begins trailer (mp4 h264 in mov container) perfectly with between 60 and 80 percent CPU load, and even in composite windows (see youtube for kde4, formerly compiz effects). It almost played the 1080 trailer, but did drop a few frames. I think the reason for this is that VLC only has 32-bit builds for Windows, and the single core Sempron is more efficient with the 64 bit instruction set and its 16 extra registers. Unfortunately Flash video is just awful with scaling to full screen -- no operating system could make up for its inefficiency.

sorry to use the bugmenot password

-- gatoatigrado (nicholas tung) [email: ntung at ntung]

Just got the LT3103u earlier today, and I'm glad I got one of these instead of something smaller. The keys are actually bigger than the keys on my regular keyboard, and it has just enough muscle for what I intend to throw at it.

By the way, any word on the max RAM limit? I don't want to be pushy, just curious.

Just wondering, has anyone tried to run a "slingbox" on the gateway??

This small size would be perfect for taking on a motorcycle trip during football season. While relaxing at the hotel in the evening, it would be nice to watch a recorded football game with my slingbox...

Got the Gateway before the review but it basically cemented my purchase decision. Also, I discovered that if you reduce the resolution to 800x600 you can definitely play SD Hulu videos in full screen. It's a bit choppy, but I don't notice it enough to care

Thanks for posting such an in-depth article! I also registered just so that I could post this comment. I've come across the Gateway LT3100 series at Best Buy and I've wondered why none of the "major" sites (CNet, Laptop Mag, PC Mac) have reviewed it yet. It seems like a very good buy at $379.

I also read up on the Aspire One 751 and was strongly considering the version with the 6-cell battery and Win XP for $349 - until I read your review and analysis. Seems like it can barely handle some basic tasks in August 2009. I'd hate to see what it'd be like a year or two from now.

I can order a Lenovo IdeaPad S12 with the VIA Nano CPU, 6-cell battery, and free shipping for $382 (academic discount), so I'll either go that route, or perhaps go with the Gateway LT3100 series... problem is, I can't decide on which one to get. I'd love to add the Samsung NC20 to my short list, but it seems to be ridiculously overpriced at $489-499. That's nearly Acer Timeline 3810 money.

Did you try the CoreAVC to work with FFDShow for h.264 decoding? Works wonders on my 1st Gen Acer Aspire One. - ig33ku.

Nice review! How about taking a look on how well these netbooks support Linux? Regular Ubuntu 9.04 desktop? Ubuntu Netbook Remix? Ubuntu 9.10 beta?

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Another great review. Significant other has the 751 and she complains about the speed all the time (had hp mini 1000) previously. Think it's time to upgrade. Now I am waiting for the culv parts for $150 more to replace the asus 1000h.

Great reviews. IT's nice to see all the netbook (like) test/results in one place. gives you a good reference point.

AMD Application & Driver Support
1. AMD Driver and application support. Is it better to wait and use intel parts (atom, intel chipset) or does AMD do a good job of supporting there chipsets. Common problem it seems that if I purchase an Intel G2 SSD with this chipset, I will NOT get full performance. THanks for the great review.

I signed up just to say thanks for the review. The gateway was at bestbuy but I was afraid to try because of the 15% restocking fee. Good thing I waited because the price dropped to $379. I tried the acer from walmart (also $379 at select stores) and found the acer to be very slow at just the most basic tasks. Even with windows 7 the acer felt just as bad. My asus 900hd celeron running windows 7 felt better then the acer.

Thanks for including temperature results. Considering I would use these on the couch while watching TV, Testicle Roasting Power (TRP) is a critical benchmark.

Great timing with this review, I was going to buy one of these this Friday. Looks like the LT3103 is it.

Some small questions though. The Gateway uses an AMD chip, does this mean it can support a 64-bit OS? Also, what is the maximum capacity for RAM in these (OS-limitations aside). I know it's kinda silly to want more power out of these, but later on down the road, it might be useful.

would like to have seen the aspire run on XP - since that is a more reasonable os to run an atom on.

bet it'd run alot faster on XP

Scott, awesome review! I would love to see more information put out there regarding this model. Gateway/Best Buy have done a poor job at marketing this netbook. I have had practically every netbook to date and the Gateway is by far my favorite. It does really chap me that "Power Now" or "Cool and Quiet" has been gimped. Also, I don't understand why Gateway put the screen nubs on the palm rest, I have already lost one.

I am also surprised about the lack of the LT3103U listed in the support and downloads section of the Gateway site. I have never bought a netbook/notebook without the manual, drivers etc.being listed on the manufacturers site.

Edit: Gateway now lists the download section for the LT3103U as of today.

Other then the little things that bug me, it is by far the best netbook I have had to date.

Thanks Gateway

Only true netbooks are the 9-inchers. :) Those are some tiny notebooks.

#1, #2, I personally enjoy the blog posts, whether I agree with every opinion in particular or not. If you don't like the blogs, don't read them, but don't ruin anything for the rest of us. I don't like the podcasts, but I wouldn't think to piss and moan, because I know there are a lot of people that do like them.

Now, as for the subject at hand, I only read the conclusion to this article and I am caught with a slight bit of desire for the Gateway model. I personally never need even four hours of unplugged computer use. And that model has a performance level that I can start to respect. Maybe I should get one "for the wife"? Yeah....

Thanks for the article TR. I look forward to a blog post on your continuing experiences with the Gateway.

Hmm, my experience of the 751s performance is slightly different. My normal laptop broke down on a trip and I got the Acer as an emergency replacement. Uninstalled all the bloatware and diabled ALL the XP visual enhancements (themes service, animations, et al.) and I'm currenty watching a DivX in VLC while browsing the web (with FF3.5 and adblock plus installed though, which does unload a lot of the Flash) and performance is actually really good, no delays, even on sites with several embedded videos. I imagine that going back to the win95 look in win7 may have a similar effect on performance...?

As nice as seeing your hand is Scott a better way to give us a feel for the size of a laptop is to include an object with a standard size - a C jewel case, DVD case, or even an 8.5x11" piece of paper.

Wonder why don't Intel and AMD start launching the 'golden' Pentium-M and Turion64 in the 45nm node for netbooks? They will give a lot more oomph than the Atom and its ilk, be cool, offer better battery life, use existing die design with only a shrink, and be a fair differential to the real deal duals, whilst accomodating a wide range of apps with decent performance.

Wow - the Acer couldn't even run something like World of Goo reasonably. That is seriously crippled.
Even the original Asus Eee 2G (GMA900, 570MHz Celeron with no L2 cache) can run that and similar games fine. Now I gotta try Barbie:Deerhunter! ;)

When I first saw the Acer at Walmart, I was very impressed by the external features. Huge screen and huge keyboard (for a netbook). However, I was disappointed in the guts. I wonder if cramming an Ion in there would do the job.

always low tech at this netbooks... maybe thats the reason they are cheap

what i would like to see fit on the gateway reviewed:

sempron sargas @ 1,4 ghz (45w at 2,7 ghz on desktop part)
amd-ati 760g or 765g with sideport ram installed

everything else looks ok

Excellent reviews, (battery life, weight, hulu). It seems video playback is still a bit off on the netbooks. I wonder if Ion will fix that. Either way this is the Netbook I have been looking at.

ZZF has an ASUS 1005HA for $307 shipped.

http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=10010560

Nice review.(as I've already said in SBR ;) More detail on the power features of these chips would be nice, even if it confirms that there are none. From my own experimentation, I found that the AMD L110 has no intermediate power states, so that could mean no power saving mode.

I own a Gateway LT 3103 and can vouch for it. The screen, touchpad, and keyboard are phenomenal, and everything I've thrown at it so far, from demoprods to Aero run smoothly. The exception is high resolution flash video in full screen mode. Even so, the LT 3103 is about as perfect as a netbook can get these days. Sure, the next generation might be better, but I have a feeling in a few years we'll look back on the LT 3103 with a similar status as the Radeon 9500 and Radeon 4850.

Question:

In Windows XP the AMD CPU drivers must be manually installed (in other words they are not included in the default OS driver pack) in order for Cool'n'Quiet to work. Is this also the case with Windows 7 or does Microsoft include AMD drivers by default this time?

Does AMD overdrive work on the Gateway?
Are there any undervolting options in the BIOS?
What voltage is the CPU running at?

If the options are there then you should be able to get 1.2ghz with 0.8v (or less). I wish someone would use the 1.2ghz Turion X2's that Raon Digital was using the Everun notes.

I also want to see what AMD can do with the Congo platform. Addressing the power consumption is paramount, and if the IGP is at least as good as the dv2's RV6x0-class IGP, it should make for a very interesting solution for small notebooks.

Err, what's the problem with 945 and Aero? Should work just fine...

Look at the NC20 go. Good performance and battery life.

Without excusing the lower end CPU in the Acer, I think Flash is so bloated as not to be counted against either machine. Flash has a tendency to cause audio static on my much beefier laptop.

That said, I think the Gateway's an interesting machine and future iterations with an updated AMD platform could give The Green CPU Team the Atom Killer they probably need (even if they don't think so).

Of course, low power Core chips could get cheaper in response, shoving Atom chips into phones. Which would be great, too.

I think netbooks/slimlines will be truly awesome within the next two years, but standard laptops will remain the word for power users for some time to come.