Gateway Netbook Pairs AMD Processors with Sizable Display

Gateway introduced the LT32 series of netbooks July 7. Featuring an 11.6-inch HD LED-backlit display, the series offers a little more view than the 10.1-inch LT23 Series that the PC maker debuted just a few weeks ago.  

The LT32 is less than an inch thick and weighs 2.76 pounds. Gateway has paired its nearly 12-inch screen, which features a resolution of 1,366 by 768, with a choice of Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) Athlon II Neo processors, ATI graphics and Microsoft's 64-bit Windows 7 Home Premium. To connect, there's WiFi b/g/n and Gigabit Ethernet and VGA ports.

For easy navigation, the LT32 features a touchpad with multigesture technology, for pinching and scrolling one's way more efficiently through Websites, or for a closer look at images.

Those not content to watch movies on a netbook will appreciate the LT32's HDMI 1080p output for sending video and audio to an HDTV or LCD screen. It's a feature that caused Gateway's senior product marketing manager to dub the device a "true ultra-mobile entertainment powerhouse netbook."

The LT32's six-cell battery offers 5.5 hours of life. There's 2GB of DDR3 (double-data rate) memory, for hurrying along Web browsing and music downloads, as well as 384MB of dedicated system memory and a 250GB hard drive.

The netbook's 3 USB 2.0 ports allow users to connect to several peripherals - printers, cameras, displays - at once, and there a multi-in-one digital card reader, compatible with various media cards.

In addition, like the LT23 - which was released in June, along with two ID Series notebooks - Gateway's newest netbook includes a social-network feature built around a function key. One press launches a user's favored site, such as Facebook, Flickr or YouTube. When users are ready to take their networking one-on-one, there's also an integrated HD Webcam.

Backed by a one-year warranty, the Gateway LT32 is now available at a starting price of $449.99.

In other news, notebooks sold like hotcakes during the first quarter of this year. The market's near-record-breaking growth encouraged market research firm iSuppli to raise its forecast for the year - in some good news for Gateway, as well as competitors such as Samsung and Sony - to annual growth of 29.8 percent.