Description:
It wasn’t so very long ago that a sub-$1000 notebook was an underpowered, outmoded notebook. But with its new 400 Series, Gateway has brought speed and versatility to the entry-level mobile world. Though it shouldn’t be counted upon to drive ultra-demanding 3-D graphics or manage a flock of complex business applications, the Gateway 400 Series is certainly enough for most typical personal, light business and entertainment tasks. And at this price, that’s really saying something. Gateway has turned to Intel for the unit’s CPU, a top-of-the-line Celeron 2.2 GHz. By no means a Pentium, a Celeron with this sort of clock speed is nevertheless a solid workhorse. At 256 MB, the system’s memory allotment is fair, and its 32 MB ATI Radeon Mobility video card is superior to the video chipset in many pricier rigs. Surprisingly, the affordable 400 Series features a comparatively large 40 GB hard disk. This is more than enough room for an average mobile complement of programs and files. The unit does not offer DVD recording, but it does provide a DVD/CD-RW drive through which you can listen to and burn audio CDs, archive files and watch the latest Hollywood blockbusters. At 13.2 by 10.8 by 1.7 inches and 7.53 pounds, the 400 Series is of average size. Flip open the top and you’ll find a spacious 15-inch active-matrix display capable of 1024x768 resolution, a full size keyboard with touch pad controller, and stereo speakers with emulated 3-D sound. Connectivity options include two traditional USB 1.1 ports for linking to external devices such as scanners and optical drives, a high-speed FireWire port (commonly used for data transfer to and from digital camcorders), and a 6-in-1 card reader for interpreting memory and media cards from high-tech devices such as digital cameras and PDAs. For communication, you can use either the built-in low-speed 56K dial-up modem or the 10-/100-Mbps Ethernet Network card. The system does not feature wireless capabilities. Your Gateway 400 Series will ship with a pre-installed copy of Microsoft Works Suite 2003.
| 
