I bought this to replace my aging Asus eeePC 900HDB(Well actually I originally bought the Asus 1005HAB, but returned it in favor of this one) and am more than satisfied. Even straight out of the box (minus cleaning up the startup crapware, of course), this netbook was peppy and more than capable. I quickly installed Firefox with 6'ish plugins, Office 2007, Adobe Photoshop CS4 and a few more programs and am happy to say all work wonderfully. It started to slow down a bit if I had a bunch of processor/memory intensive apps running simultaneously, but that's to be expected and I really had to push it's limits to get it to slow down.
I then swapped the 1gb memory chip out for a 2gb 677 module and after cloning with Acronis, swapped the 250gb 5400RPM Western Digital Blue out for a 320gb 7200 RPM Western Digital Black drive and now this thing absolutely flies! I highly suggest both upgrades for anyone that might be a bit more of a "power user" and at least the memory upgrade for the rest.
I really have no cons to list. Some might be put off by the smaller keys or the smaller trackpad vs the eeePCs, but I have no problems with the keyboard (I'm a pretty big-boned guy) and I actually like the sunken in(but smaller) trackpad better than the flush one on the eeePCs. Also it has a shiny finish and is of course, a fingerprint magnet, but this doesn't bother me in the least. I love the looks of this unit and a matte finish wouldn't look as good in my opinion.
Others might also be hesitant by the inclusion of Windows 7 Starter. You shouldn't be. The only "real" thing it doesn't allow you to do that the other versions do is allow you to change your background. Big deal. There are programs one can get from Stardock that re-enables this feature if you must have it. There are other features left out, but none really matter for the target buyer of this type of device. You CAN, however, run unlimited programs up to the limit of your RAM. Microsoft, at first, limited Win 7 Starter to running 3 simultaneous programs, but have since lifted that restriction.
You'd be hard pressed to find a better netbook in this price range. Highly recommended!
Get more detail about Gateway LT2032u 10.1-Inch Black Netbook - Over 7 Hours of Battery Life (Windows 7 Starter).
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