Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Pros: Good performance, nice size screen
Cons: Large, heavy battery, battery life
I got this netbook to have something small and light to do light stuff like surf the web and write the occasional letter. When I opened the box I was surprised by the size of the battery. It did not look like the one in the picture. When I inserted it, it stuck out of the back of the chassis for about an inch. You do not see this in the pictures. The battery shown in the pictures is inaccurate, and appears to be a three cell battery rather than the chunky six cell battery that this thing actually comes with. So beware, with the battery this thing is nine inches wide, not the 7.9 listed in the specs. It also adds at least a half pound of weight to the listed 3.02 pounds in the spec. And for all this, you still only get about four hours of regular use. If you are looking for a small, light netbook that will run on battery all day, this is not for you.
On the other hand, if you are looking for performance that is equivalent to a low end laptop but much better than the average netbook, this is the one. It comes with 2GB of memory instead of the 1GB standard in most netbooks. It has a larger screen than most. It comes with the full version Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit instead of Windows 7 Starter 32 bit (read handicapped). This means that you get Windows 7 Aero and all the other normal Windows stuff that is missing from the starter version.
I uninstalled Windows Office trial and MS Works. No need to buy much software these days. I then loaded OpenOffice (MS Office compatible office suite), VLC Media Player (plays any media you need), Google Chrome (the fastest browser out there), Picassa (for organizing and sharing photos), Photo Pos Pro (great full feature picture editor), and TrueCrypt (creates encrypted virtual partitions to store the stuff you don't want seen if the netbook is stolen), all free open source programs. I also uninstalled the Norton 60 day trial software and installed Vipre (not free, but currently the best protection). Then I tested watching videos, editing photos, working on documents, spreadsheets, and presentations, etc. This little guy handled everything without a hitch, many times handling having several of these programs open at the same time.
In conclusion, I really like this netbook and have started using it for more things than I originally envisioned. If you want a mini laptop, this is it. You just have to live with the clunky battery.
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Gateway LT3119u 11.6-Inch Netbook (NightSky Black)
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