Customer Ratings & Reviews

I'll be honest here: I bought a Netbook just because I wanted one. I really don't have any lofty needs for one, but after considering the pros and cons of one, I decided that since I do often take data and other information to friends' and family houses, it would do well to have one. Plus I rather wanted the ability to be lazy and do my online course work without being tethered to a desk. After doing a lot of side-by-side comparisons in store, I decided to pick this one up over other offerings by Asus, HP and Dell. I'm glad I did. For further clarity I should mention, upon purchasing, I also purchased a 2GB ram upgrade because, unlike some Netbooks, this one is easily upgradeable. No fuss, just swap parts and go. Likewise, I decided to perform a Windows Anytime Upgrade from Windows 7 Starter to Windows 7 Home Premium. Windows 7 Starter DOES NOT have a 3 application limit as one reviewer here has posted, but it does have significant restrictions such as the inability to change desktop wallpapers. The N450 Atom processor, which just released in January, is a powerhouse of a portable mini-CPU. On par with the late Pentium 4s, the Atom N450 is a hyperthreading processor which gives you two separate IO streams on a single core. This, alone, increases the abilities of this Netbook. With the 2GB of ram installed, Windows 7 Home Premium boots extremely fast and performs extremely well. Baseline RAM usage on Windows 7 Home Premium with only startup background services running is 450-465 megs, including running the modified Aero Glass UI. At one point, I was multitasking Mozilla Firefox, Adobe Photoshop Elements 8 and Microsoft Excel 2007 and the system still hadn't capped out ram usage. The CPU handled having two processor and memory intensive applications open at once very deftly. A screenshot included shows Windows Task Manager performance on this machine while running Adobe Photoshop Elements 8. Even with these upgrades, battery life was impressive: 7 to 8 hours on a full charge, 5 to 7 if I ran a lot of intense applications. However, it's not all sunshine and rainbows. The display seems to be matte but is just glossy enough that it can glare and become washed out with too much light. Additionally, the touchpad and buttons are not to my liking. The textured touchpad seems to have a life of its own and the button(s) are so sensitive that a light touch registers as a click. Windows 7 Starter will likely be fine for most people, however, for anyone who wants media center access, or the ability to customize their systems, an anytime upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium is a MUST. No, you won't be gaming on it, but you wouldn't be gaming (at least not very well) on a $499 laptop either. All said, I am officially impressed and happy with this purchase. This little netbook easily outperforms low end laptops with a simple 2gb ram upgrade.

After owning two terrific Gateway Desktop PCs just purchased last year, I was a bit biased toward the Gateway family when making this purchase. Believe it or not, though, I really wanted a Dell netbook and sort of liked the Asus and Acer models, which were very similar. I also really liked the Nokia netbook. However, the new form factor accompanying the Dell netbooks with the N450 processor are very ugly and I couldn't see myself owning one. The Asus and Acer models scaled back features such as hard drive space and the Nokia was too pricey without an AT&T service contract. I saw several models on Gateway's web site and then saw Best Buy carries this one, which is fairly new. I was initially not very impressed seeing it in person (not sure why - maybe the lack of shininess on the area containing the touchpad?) but after carefully looking at several other models and reading reviews of this one, I must say this unit is perhaps the best of the whole bunch. It has the N450 processor, RAM is easily expandable to 2 GB (some aren't expandable - and some require you to take the keyboard apart to get at the memory), it has a 250 GB hard drive, has a very sharp, bright screen, and Gatway's claims of 8 hours of battery life are very close to plausible. Finally, it has everything that you need - no more, no less. Windows 7 is really a plus. It also really is sleek and stylish and has a very small footprint - something neat freaks can leave on their living room coffee table all the time. Bluetooth, TV Tuner, and GPS are all nice - but aren't really something you would necessarily use very often and drive the price of a netbook up a lot. Once you bog down the computer, it becomes less portable. Overall, after using this computer for many hours over a week, I'm very happy with the purchase I made. Gateway truly does have a great family of high quality, well-priced products. This computer will quickly become your best friend. You won't be sorry if you buy!

After much hesitation, I entered the netbook market since I found it quite inconvenient to be hauling around my much more hefty macbook to school. However, since I knew netbooks aren't exactly cheap (300 dollars is still a lot of money), I decided to investigate and thoroughly research before making a purchase. I narrowed it down to Asus and Dell since I didn't think I needed the Samsung or Toshiba. I went to Best Buy to check out the models for myself and was just so surprised at how cheap-looking the Asus was. Sure, it's a great value, but it looks cheap. The trackpad and keyboard were not comfortable. Thus, I moved on to Dell and I found that it was great, but for the 349 price, the specs were not good enough (N270 processor). Then I laid eyes on a bunch of boxes stacked next to the netbooks, which were the Gateway LT2104s. They'd just been released a week ago, but I was curious about the specs. For an N450 250Gig hard drive, the price of 329 wasn't bad at all! Cheaper than the Dell. I went to the display, tested it and felt comfortable with the keyboard and track pad. Since purchasing, I've taken it to school and it doesn't disappoint. compared to a macbook, it's still a little slow, but it gets the internet/email thing done without problems. I've even got Office 2010 Beta on it and it runs just fine. My only complain with this machine is that it is only available in black at the stores - for the White and Red models, you have to order it online, which entails a long wait. Not only is the machine very useful for on-the-go people, but it's incredibly lightweight. I compared the Asus EEe PC and Dell netbook and found Gateway's to be the lightest at 2.81 pounds. The others are pushing 3 pounds or so. This makes a world of difference when you're already carrying pounds of heavy books for school. Bottom line is that you get quite a good value for the price; an N450 processor, 250 gig hard drive, Windows 7 Starter, Webcam, and even a slot for SD cards and other types. For all this, Dell wants close to 400. However, since this is a new model, there is not yet ample research as to the product's longevity nor professional opinions. Still, it is a great machine so far and I strongly recommend this over a laptop since laptops are becoming quite an inconvenience as of late. If you can wait, order them online so you can choose your color. If not, the store carries only black :(

I noticed this netbook a while back at another retailer. I looked at the specs but the price was a little high. I went to my nearest betbuy and picked it up on sale. Took it home and set it up. I knew that it was running the new atom processor a little faster than the first atom processor in earlier models. it loaded up pretty quick. the big hard drive is good for all my documents, pics, and music files. the display looks sharp and very clear. I have added some programs like adobe photoshop, office 2010 and other big programs and it works great. I should mention that I upgraded the 1gb memory module to a 2gb memory module from corsair. I noticed an increase in boot time and the way it performs. I also added a bluetooth module since it did not come with one. overall its a really good netbook the battery life fully charged gives me a little over 8hrs. I also like the keyboard its pretty close to standard size and with me having big hands i do not seem to have a problem with it. I am very happy with it and even do its small, dont underestimate what it can do.

I have owned this netbook for a couple weeks now and really it is so great! I love the vivid display - colors are brilliant - the keyboard is so easy to type on, battery life is really good for me and the watch instantly NETFLIX films play without a hitch! I did add another gig of ram so the 2gb definitely makes a difference. I did this before I even booted it for the first time. VERY EASY to do with access on the bottom panel. The HP and Dell models...well if you want ram upgrade the Dell is a definite no-no and the HP is a real pain. I had the new HP 210 home for 1 day and returned it for the Gateway exchange. Best thing I could have done. I wrote a review on the HP210 if you care to read it. I am very pleased with this netbook. At least I can tilt the screen WAY back in order get a clear view at whatever angle I'm using the netbook at. This is something folks really NEED to look at. Some of these screens simply do not tilt back far enough and you are either lifting up the base to tilt back in order to see a bright screen or it's all washed out. So keep that in mind. I don't have to worry about the Gateway support not being so good as I spent the $59.99 for the Geek Squad warranty. I firmly believe in buying these warranties for computers. I have used mine a few times in the past on my other computers and what a blessing they are - paid for themselves. No packing up and shipping away, dealing with people you can't understand on the phone, etc. Well worth that extra small investment! I would definitely recommend this netbook to anyone looking for a high quality and well working product. I haven't even had one lockup on this machine. The HP I had home for one day was locking up from the minute I turned it on. The close second for me was the little white Samsung with matte screen but upon comparing in the store the Gateway's features, my model outdid it. Buy this! You won't be disappointed! I gave it all 5 stars because it deserves it!

I was looking for a netbook for my daughter, for her to use when she wants to casually browse online or watch some streaming videos. When I was looking around, there were lots of netbook brands with typical specs. Ofcourse Dell and Toshiba was at the top of my list as among the no-brainers, but considering the budget, the specs of Gateway was a better choice. An N450 Atom processor, 250 GB hard drive, b/g/n wifi, and 8 hours of battery juice sums up a great netbook for me. The other features like a 10.1 inch widescreen, comfortable keyboard and multi-touch keypad were great additions. Screen was really bright and SHARP! The webcam/mic was a nice touch too to complete the package. All in all, my daughter is very satisfied!!

I picked this one out of the crowd ultimately because it had the best keyboard and an excellent battery life rating. I'm a sucker for anything neat and little and cool, and this machine does not disappoint. It came with Windows 7 starter which was annoying since you can't even change the wallpaper, but I forked over the 80 smucks to upgrade to Home Premium and it runs just fine. The machine is tiny, light, and the battery even makes a little handle shape that keeps me from dropping it as I road-warrior from the lazy-boy to the bedroom. It even does well with Word and Excel as long as the docs are not hugely complex. I can't say it will replace my barnstormer laptop but for home use its perfectly cool. Highly recommended.

I got this as a gift, use it for about 3 week now and it been a good netbook. Screen is bright and keyboard aren't cramp like other netbook. Like that the video card is dedicated to 64MB. I upgraded the memory from 1GB to 2GB and was very easy. The hard drive is also easy to upgrade. The mouse is very sensitive when typing, but you can turn off. Great batter life, about 8 Hrs. before it died.

Great little thing. Here's what I did; just in case anyone wants to try them: Memory - upgraded to a single 2GB PC6400 (800MHz); it's about the same price as a 2GB PC5300 (667 MHz) and sometimes even cheaper. Definite improvement performance wise. Wallpaper - there's an app out there. Just search "starter wallpaper changer". This should set you up. I also installed Objectdock for a very clean desktop. Yep! Nice and tidy with just your favorite wallpaper and the dock and the taskbar popping up when I need them to. Tip: autohide your dock in synch with your taskbar. HD Video - who said you can't play HD (H.264/AVC) video with this thing? Close all other apps you currently don't need (antivirus, antispyware, etc.) and turn off your wireless adapter. In VLC, go to Tools/Preferences/Input & Codecs and set "Skip H.264 in-loop deblocking filter" to "All". This should do the trick but try to explore all VLC options and see if you can turn off more to free up system resources further. I've been playing H.264 (mkv/mp4/avi) videos ever since with no problems. This thing has just enough resources to play them. In fact, if you just even move your mouse during playback, you'll see right away that it starts to lag and skip frames. So, don't do anything during playback - just kick back and enjoy your HD video. Games - I've only installed COD-UOEP and have no problems so far. And no, it doesn't play Crysis. You can install it and start it but it'll kick you out right off the bat and tells you that the video card does not support it. I tried installing COD4 and COD5 too with similar results. My next game install will probably be Halo; I read they work on netbooks. I guess the rule is DX10 games=nope; DX9 games=maybe some; but you can always experiment on what you have in your library of games and see what happens just like what I've been doing. Do a search on "games for netbooks" - there's a lot of discussions/lists of games that work on netbooks out there. The key is to free up as much system resources (just like in playing HD videos) and configure the game to the lowest setting and work your way up if you desire and see how much it can handle. My next tweak (and probably the final one) - I'm just waiting on a shipment for a 500GB 7200RPM 16MB hard drive to replace the stock 250GB 5400 8MB drive. I should get some more performance improvement with it. Well, I've done what I could possibly do to tweak this little thing and so far, it has done what I expected it to do for me. Don't forget that it's only a netbook; but I'm extremely happy with it. And this is coming from a dude who has a full size laptop and several self-built desktops including a bleeding-edge gaming rig (all components watercooled, multi SLI video cards, maxed out overclocks, etc.). I hope the above experiment helps. Please post back if you've done any of the above and whether it worked for you or not so. This little thing is the best value in its class. It's so much fun to have. The cuteness factor is also way up there.

Pros: Long Battery Life (7+ hours!), Clear, vivid display, peppy response for my use (browser, email, OpenOffice, offload travel photos) even with 1GB supplied RAM (not planning to upgrade to 2GB). Should make a good travel computer. Cons: Internal wireless antenna has MUCH SHORTER range than other computers/devices in my home. Range is less than 30ft for Wireless G, I do not have wireless N at this time. Made sure I was using latest Win7 driver for the Atheros Wireless. This greatly limits the mobile use of the computer in my home. Will have to purchase external USB Wireless Adapter to rectify. I purchased this as a TRAVEL computer (small size, light weight, excellent battery lifetime, SD card reader, wireless access). Overall, very satisfied with the NetBook, EXCEPT for the poor wireless reception. I got used to the very sensitive TouchPad. I even got used to the limited vertical screen resolution that is common with NetBooks. For the web sites I visit, this has not been a major inconvenience. I was pleasantly surprised by the peppy response of the computer given the limited memory (1GB) and ATOM processor.

I purchased this netbook about a month ago. So far, it's been a great netbook, especially for the price. I had a $25 Best Buy gift card and it was listed as an Outlet item. Including tax, I ended up paying $265. I know computers fairly well, so I ended up tweaking mine a little bit. I uninstalled all programs that I didn't need. Instead of the trial version of MS Office '07, I opted for Open Office. I've always used Internet Explorer, but decided to try Firefox. With these and a few other tweaks, I managed to improve the performance of this little guy quite a bit. The battery life is great as it last me for days @ a few hours / day of use. I do have flash drive plugged in that I have dedicated to Readyboost. It's hard to tell if it does improve performance. If I'm not mistaken, it appears that you can upgrade the RAM to 2 gigs. After looking at other brands, I decided to try Gateway. A while back, a friend bought a Gateway laptop. I was a little puzzled, because in my opinion, Gateway and their spotted cow boxes were a thing of the ‘90s. I thought they had fallen off the face of the earth and became a cheap brand. It seems to me like they are trying to reinvent themselves and become a serious competitor again. Like most electronics and appliances that are manufactured by a few companies and sold under different labels, I believe this is actually an Acer computer. If you look at certain Acer models, it looks really similar. If you look in the device manager, the motherboard is an Acer and the hard drive is made by Samsung. (Not that I expected Gateway to make all of these components themselves.) When all is said and done, for $265 it performs as expected. If you read any reviews about netbooks that trash their performance, I wouldn’t agree with them. These are meant to be lighter-use machines. The bottom line is that I’m very happy with my Gateway.

I bought this netbook for portability reasons, and because I didn’t want to spend much money. I missed out on the outlet price drop, it was $330 when I purchased it; now at $270 it’s almost a no brainer among netbook choices. Intel’s Atom N450 processor paired with Intel’s Graphics Media Accelerator (GMA) 3150 is excellent for battery life. It does give an increase in graphics and speed, but maybe only slightly noticeable during multitasking compared to the older Atom N270. For me, it runs good, so I will save my money and stick with the 1GB of RAM. I mainly use Microsoft Office Word 2007 and Google Chrome. Being that the screen is so small, I “minimized the ribbon” in Word 2007 to give more screen space to the text. Google Chrome web-browser looks nice, and I have watched a video on Hulu with no-chopping or slowdowns. Typing on the keyboard is not much of a problem, because the keys are 95% “full-size”. The only keys that may pose a problem are the ‘spacebar’ and ‘enter’ keys because they are significantly smaller. I never like trackpads on laptops and netbooks, so I purchased a wireless mouse. Look for Microsoft’s “Wireless Mobile Mouse 4000”; it has quite buttons and a very small wireless USB transceiver. I kind of miss my 15" Sony Vaio Laptop, but the battery would only last 5 minutes (had to keep it plugged in). 10" display size is unusually small, but a lightweight and thin 15" Laptop (Toshiba Satellite T135D-S1324) cost more than what I want to spend.

I did alot of research on Netbooks leading up to this purchase. Read a million reviews and looked at pros and cons to everything including upgrading, processor, batt life, size, weight, screen, keyboard... yada yada. I was almost sold on the Eee 1005PEB. I read the reviews on this Gateway, and did some research on it. Alot of netbooks won't give easy access to RAM/HD/WiFi. This one does. I read in a few reviews that the screen was really bright and crisp. Very true. The battery lasted 6-7 hours loading all of my software after a fresh Win 7 PRO install (I had it plugged in and charging for the Win install tho). I popped in 2 GB of RAM, and it really performs well. I was skeptical about the on-board WiFi, but it gets better reception than the on-board WiFi on my laptop (and has 802.11 n, which alot of netbooks won't have for the price). I'm very picky and frugal (my girlfriend says cheap), and I don't normally leave reviews, but I figured this little item was worth it. Aside from the fingerprints on the lid (which really is not a big deal to me), you really can't go wrong. The price is just the icing on the cake.

My husband got me this machine for work - own my own business. It does everything I need it do with ease. I removed all of the canware that come on it including trialware stuff. I then downloaded OpenOffice for it. Works like a charm. The battery last all day for me. I love the ease of Windows 7 Starter that is loaded on it. It is perfect for this type of machine. I have also found the 1gb of RAM that comes on it is plenty for everything I need to do. We did purchase an external DVD drive for it so I can watch movies and listen to my training CDs. I love how much lighter this netbook is over some and definetly over a regular size laptop. Lots of power for a little machine. It is also a great value. My one gripe is the shiny cover. It does show finger prints and smuges. I have a small soft towel I carry in my case with mine to wipe it off. I have over 15 years in the IT world and find this machine to be wonderful. I was never one for a netbook bfore, now I wouldn't have any other machine.

This netbook is very stylish out of the other netbooks that Best Buy sells. It has an excellent battery life. I'm still at 3 hrs after I bought the netbook and doing some uninstalling of the factory programs and installing my own programs for at least an hr. I'm pretty amazed at that. Very lightweight. I can just throw in my bag and take it to class or go out to an internet cafe without having to carry the ac adapter or any of my bulking laptop gears. The screen is very crisp and bright even at 3hrs left on the battery. I don't regret this purchase at all. I was looks at a Samsung, Toshiba, Dell, HP and the Asus, but quickly threw out the Asus and Dell out of the list. The Dell was bulky and the Asus seemed very cheap looking. HP was quickly taken off because some of them you cannot upgrade the ram. Samsung was overpriced. So it was heads on with the Toshiba and the Gateway. Well Gateway won in the looks department and they both have the same specs and features. But the Gateway was cheaper.

I have owned several netbooks since they came out a few years ago and have watched as they progressed. This Gateway is by far the best deal I have got. The main selling points for this netbook was the 250 gig hard drive and the up to 8 hour battery life. No longer do I need to carry my AC adaptor during the day. I use balanced settings with an always on profile and still get 6 plus hours, more than double what my HP tablet gets. If I really need to stretch my battery, I’ll use the saver with factory settings and get almost 8 hours. And this is all with my Clear USB modem. Very satisfied performance wise. Could always use max RAM. I will upgrade but it’s nice when you don’t have to. My main complaints is the page up and page down keys are in the arrow key area nad I constantly hit one when trying to arrow. Would be nice if those keys were not there. Also, the flat keyboards annoy me. I type better with tactile feedback, which I get from the spaces between the keys. With flat keys, you can tell the difference between keys very well. But that is a small issue that I can live with.

I initially purchased an Avertec netbook from Office Max as I was lured by the $199 price for a netbook with an Atom 450 processor. However, the more I read about the lousy battery life of less then 2.5 hours I decided to return it. I spent hours on the web researching netbooks. When I saw the Gateway netbook on sale for $269 I could not resist. I have been very happy with its performance since I purchased it a week ago. Netflix movies run smoothly. It recognizes my SDHC card (32mb) without any problem. I downloaded VLC and can play dvd movies from a hard drive without any problems in full screen. Battery life has been great. I purchased this netbook for its portability and long battery life. I now have the perfect machine for taking on long plane trips and watching several movies that I can download in the 250 mb hard drive that gives me tons of space. Rember, this is a netbook. You do not have core 2 duo processesing speed and video on skype is a litlle slow. But for movies, music and web browsing this is great.

This is a really nice system. It's very elegant looking. The build is very solid, save for the keyboard, which flexes a bit when typing. I love its compact size. I needed something that I could use to offload the photos from my SLR camera while traveling. This system does the job nicely. The display is absolutely beautiful. Wireless performance is at times spotty. I believe this can be resolved with a wireless driver update. It's also essential to upgrade this system from 1GB of RAM to 2GB for consistent performance. Not all laptop memory works this system, so verify compatibility before purchasing. This system is a great value. I am very pleased and it does exactly what I intended it for. I would recommend purchasing.

This is a very nice netbook. I recently purchased a Gateway laptop and was so pleased with that purchase that I decided to buy this netbook for my wife. The battery life is great. I upgraded to Windows 7 Pro and have had no issues. I have not upgraded the memory but it's running fine without 2 GB. The keyboard is comfortable. The only thing that hasn't been great is the webcam. We used Skype and the video wasn't great. Overall, this computer has performed just like I expected a netbook to perform. I think some people get thrown off because they expect netbooks to perform like full blown laptops. I definitely recommend this netbook

Very good battery life. Get around the 8 hour mark if you turn down the brightness and turn off the WIFI. Very good looking laptop. Battery protrudes 1/2 inch or so off the bottom but I like how it lifts it for airflow and I don't really notice it. Does what i need it to do. Had to upgrade the ram to 2 gigs which was a snap since it was easy to access from the bottom panel. 1G wasn't enough with all the stuff running in the background. Starts up and shuts down very quick. Very portable and Easy to type on. I think they did a great job with it. Just wish it had an HDMI but you'll have to wait until the Nvidia ION, but then you lose battery life which I think is the whole point of the netbooks. I would definitely recommend it to others.