If you’ve been disappointed with the lack of alternatively-configured netbooks in the market, you might want to haul your act over to the Gateway LT3013u, which brings a somewhat refreshing change of specs into the netbook scene. Powered by a 1.2GHz AMD Athlon 64 L110 at the helm, we finally have something different to compare the Atom-packing netbooks to.
The 11-inch LCD is the first big difference here, offering a little more screen real estate than the standard 10.1-inches we see in many netbooks today. While some higher-end netbooks do cross over into this size, they usually do it with a considerable spike in price – not this unit, though.
Apart from the processor, the LT3013u features AMD RS690E chipset, ATI Radeon X1270 graphics, 2GB DDR2 RAM and a 250GB HDD. On a netbook with an N280 Atom processor, we’d expect a machine with these specs to clear $500. Fortunately, this AMD-powered beauty doesn’t.
In terms of looks, it’s pretty standard – nothing to tell your friends about. Keyboard was particularly good-looking, with chiclet-style keys. Sadly, after typing on it, it felt a little cheaply constructed, though we had no untoward problems during the duration of our use. Touchpad is fine on the size end and supports certain multi-touch gestures a la Aspire One, but is still not as comfortable to use as we’d like.
The screen was a high point. It’s hard to imagine the different one additional inch can make until you actually try it. Added to the fact that it supports a 1,366×768 resolution and you’ve got the best netbook screen available in its price range hands-down.
Performance was surprisingly better than most Atom netbooks we’ve tried at the price range, possibly because of the extra RAM Gateway managed to fit in. The ATI Radeon X1270 graphics made for pretty good movie viewing and some decent gaming, although video streaming in HD still suffered in parts. To put it simply, this is easily a top performer for a netbook, even next to many of the more popular models out there.
So what’s the catch? Only one – battery performance. Since this was a full-on Athlon 64, instead of an AMD Neo, power consumption was a bit less manageable. On a full charge, the notebook only lasted a little over 3 hours, making finding an outlet a requirement for most people looking to use this.
At its $380 price point, though, the Gateway LT3013u has virtually no competition among its peers. Everything else that offers similar performance and screen size is priced higher, well into the $450+ range. If you can sell your existing netbook away, I’d suggest getting this one instead (provided you can live with the battery drain).
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