Colored Laptops

The appeal of the small laptop is usually based on size and portability and as the popularity of netbooks grows so do the feature sets which they have to offer. We recently reviewed the Gateway LT2030u 10.1 inch red netbook computer which offers its fair share of portable benefits.

Notably this is a sharp Candy Apple/Cherry red colored laptop for starters as the design appears to intentionally differentiate itself from the competition. Giving the look and feel of a well built and sturdy netbook computer this model held its own during the typical testing and benchmarking processes. The feature set of the review model was upgraded to a full version of Windows 7 and the amount of system memory was maxed out at 1GB. Other than upgrading to Windows 7 full version this was a stock setup.

Screen size is very typical for a netbook at 10.1 inches and we found that the backlit LED design offered basically the same respectable quality as most of the other netbooks available in this category.

The native resolution is 1024x600 and the video is powered by the Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 which we are quite familiar with. This integrated accelerator is basically standard fare for many of the mini laptops and netbooks and they offer a clean, bright visual performance experience.

Advanced power management features play a role in the battery life as it offers the capability to surpass seven hours which is impressive although not exactly unique. We find that several makes and models of the smaller laptops and netbooks are able to achieve similar results these days. This is not only the result of advancements in the hardware technology but in the way the Windows 7 works in conjunction with the technology in order to provide superior power management capabilities resulting in extended charge life time spans.

Another impressive feature of the Gateway netbook is the fact that the LT2030u offers you a 250GB hard drive. Originally the netbook computers where designed with very small drives which were often SSD versions but most manufactures are equipping their netbooks with much larger drives now.

As broad as the usage of the mini laptop is becoming this makes sense and is a welcome feature. In comparison 100GB or 160GB drives offer a lot of space but if you’re into big files then this can cause the ever present task of housekeeping. Of course external USB drives are practically a must have either way but still the Gateway LT2030u 10.1 inch netbook will take lots of movie files before it needs any housekeeping as far as storage space goes.

The Gateway netbook comes with a free 60-day trial of the Microsoft Office 2007 suite so keep in mind if you don’t decide to purchase it then it will quit functioning after 60 days. Also keep in mind that Windows 7 starter is going to be limited in features and functionality as well. For some users this is not an issue as the features may not be anything which they would use anyway. Most of the new netbooks from the various laptop manufacturers out there are using Windows 7 starter edition these days.