Brief review of Gateway 3100 with DVD as standard;
Solo 3100: a Stylish and Powerful Portable
Jim Forbes
Want a big bang for your buck in a small form factor notebook? Check out
the Gateway Solo 3100XL, a stylish 300MHz Pentium II portable with a
great travel weight of about 5.3 pounds and dimensions of 1.2 by 11.4 by
8.4-inches.
The Solo 3100XL has an outstanding configuration. The beta unit I looked at
offered a 4GB hard disk, a 12.1-inch TFT screen, a NeoMagic 256 AV
video controller, a NeoMagic NM2 audio chipset and an integrated K56flex
modem. The integrated 2X DVD-ROM drive, a $200 to $400 option on
most other notebooks, is a real bonus. Although our beta unit had only 32MB
of RAM, production units will have 64MB. The one downside: There's only
one Type II PC Card slot.
The Solo's screen is bright, and its video quality is excellent. An NTSC jack
lets you connect to televisions or large-screen monitors. One minor design
quibble is that the 3.5-inch floppy disk drive connects through the parallel
port, thereby preventing simultaneous use of a printer and the drive.
The included soft leather case resembles a Day Timer, so it doesn't cry out
"notebook inside, steal me." Although the keyboard feels somewhat soft, it's
easy to use-a track stick pointing device is included for cursor control. Battery
performance was above average. The Solo's battery ran for 2 hours and 11
minutes, excellent for a 300MHz thin portable.
Running Windows 98, the Solo's performance was very good. It matched,
test for test, the 300MHz Toshiba Portege 7010CT on our WinList and
earned the same commendable WinScore 2.0 rating of 84. Its performance,
features and price all combine to earn the Gateway Solo 3100XL a place
alongside the Portege on the WinList of recommended products.
--Quick View--
Gateway Solo 3100XL
Bottom Line: Small form factor, great features and notable performance make
this an excellent small-business notebook
Price: $2,999 |
