Gateway EC1440U 11.6-Inch Black Laptop (Windows 7 Home Premium)
Saturday, July 24th, 2010Gateway EC1440U 11.6-Inch Black Laptop (Windows 7 Home Premium) Review
Gateway EC1440U 11.6-Inch Black Laptop (Windows 7 Home Premium) Feature
- 1.3GHz Intel Celeron 743 Processor
- 2048MB DDR2 667MHz Memory
- 250GB SATA Hard Drive, 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N Wifi
- 11.6″ HD Widescreen LED-backlit Display, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD
- Windows 7 Home Premium, Up to 6 Hours of Battery Life
This is my second Gateway laptop and once again I’m impressed with their ability to deliver a smart balance of perks and tradeoffs at a very low cost.
If you’re intentionally shopping in the very-small ultraportable category rather than for a higher-end netbook this laptop is probably what you’re looking for. You can get lighter and longer-battery-life netbooks but if 3 lbs and 7 hours seems more than sufficient to you, the upgrade in power and user experience are considerable.
Unlike a netbook, it’s a full-blown laptop capable of running Windows 7 (not starter) with a keyboard that is actually more comfortable than the one on my 17″ Gateway (which squeezes in a numeric keypad). It can have RAM upgraded to 4GB (this model has 2), which might be something you’ll want to be prepared to do as it does slow down a bit on the multitasking but more than sufficient to run multiple lightweight apps.
The screen is beautiful. Better than I’d hoped for. Perfectly acceptable for front end web development which is what will likely pay for the second one of these I buy (my wife has basically adopted this one).
I was very pleased with the 3 USB, standard monitor, and HDMI jacks.
There is no optical drive. I actually prefer this as I think optical drives are the chief contributors to creating a flimsier chassis in most laptops and the build quality of this one seems surprisingly sturdy and well-engineered. I just don’t use optical very often nowadays and externals are affordable. I actually wish more 15+” laptops came without them.
Cooling seems great so far. There are vents on the bottom but the bulk of the air seems to vent from the sides and the chassis is smartly shaped to keep the lower vents off the ground. It’s also rounded on the edges to make it comfortable to spread your legs a touch when the laptop is actually on your lap.
It’s a beauty. Really good-looking laptop and it feels sturdy and well-constructed. Every now and then I pick up a new gadget that really reminds me that we’re moving into a higher level of technology. That this laptop can do what it does at such a low weight and with 7 hours of battery life really impressed me for what it costs.
Only real negatives I can think of:
The sound is noticeably ‘meh.’ Not horrible, just below par compared to your average 15″ laptop but not enough to reduce my appreciation of the EC which already exceeds my expectations in many other areas. At 11.6″ it’s not exactly a big screen multimedia center for the whole family anyway, but sound snobs will definitely want to consider the fact that they’ll need headphones to be happy.
The trackpad is noticeably small but I got used to it quickly. The buttons are very nice though and and seem designed to encourage a light touch.
The bloat and nagware installed on the factory build is obnoxious. After about an hour of checking it out I finally killed about a dozen apps several of which kept nagging at me to do things I didn’t want or need to do, most of them Gateway or Norton, which is a big giant mega-virus as far as I’m concerned. Even after that I’ve still got about 653 megs of RAM going to background stuff with no standard apps running. Maybe that’s the norm for Win 7, which is new to me, but that seems excessive.
You might find yourself wanting more RAM if you plan on using multiple office and/or adobe apps at the same time. Or you could just lose the MS bloat and install Ubuntu with open source alternatives that are typically much less of a drain on resources (not to mention free). Also, at 250 Gigs (500 on higher end versions) there’s plenty of room to dual boot.
Gateway EC1440U 11.6-Inch Black Laptop (Windows 7 Home Premium) Overview
Gateway EC1440u Notebook comes with these specs: Intel Celeron Processor 743, Windows 7 Home Premium, 11.6″ HD Widescreen LED-backlit Display, Mobile Intel GS45 Express Chipset, 2048MB DDR2 667MHz Memory, Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD, 250 GB SATA Hard Drive, Integrated Webcam, Multi-in-1 Digital Media Card Reader, Dolby Sound Room Audio Enhancement, Intel WiFi Link 1000 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N, 3 - USB 2.0 Ports, 1 - HDMI Port, Multi-gesture Touchpad, 6-cell Li-ion Battery (4200 mAh), up to 6-hours of battery life, 3.08 lbs. | 1.4 kg (system unit only), AC Power Adapter, AC Power Cord, Wireless Setup Card, Registration/ Limited Warranty Card, Norton Internet Security 2009 Trial (60-day insert)
Gateway EC1440U 11.6-Inch Black Laptop (Windows 7 Home Premium) Specifications
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