Review: Gateway Netbook LT2802u Vs. The Kindle Fire

After trying for the umpteenth time (and failing miserably) to sync my antiquated PC and its plethora of wires with my roommates wireless network I finally threw in the towel...and buried it for good! It just wasn't worth my time and effort anymore. What I needed was a wireless computer that was easy to set up, lightweight and most of all affordable,

A friend suggested a laptop, but I wanted something smaller. Laptops are too bulky, clumsy and way too expensive for what you get and some even cost more than PC's! Personally I was leaning more towards a tablet, like the Kindle Fire, listed at $199, that I had been hearing so much about. It was half the price of the Apple I Pad,$499, and half the size too.

So I immediately rushed to my neighborhood store to check it out for myself. Although the screen was only 7 inches long, I found it to be completely manageable, it could easily fit inside of my purse with room to spare. Plus, it was affordable and came with all the bells and whistles you could possibly ask for. Unfortunately though it had a couple of features I couldn't live with.

One was the touchscreen keyboard, the Kindle Fire has one similar to those on cell phones. A touchscreen is more for replying to emails, writing short notes or inputting information. Not so good for word processing. Another thing, when you have a touchscreen keyboard it has a tendency to move up and down and even disappear on you when you're least expecting it! And for my purposes I needed an actual stand alone keyboard because I do more writing than downloading music or streaming videos, which the Fire is primarily for. Plus I needed something to stand still!

Suffice to say, I ended up not buying it.

Discouraged but not defeated, I went to another store. On my way to look at some laptops I accidentally stumbled upon a mini computer, the Gateway LT2802u. Best of all it had an actual keyboard, was in the $200 range and came with a starter version of Microsoft Office. What really caught my eye though was the size. The LED screen was a whopping 10.1 inches tall compared to the Fire's 7", it comes equipped with 1 GB, an Intel Atom processor, a built-in webcam and a side port for plugging in a mouse. In my opinion having a mouse is still preferable to operating a touch pad, which I never did figure out how to right click on!

I bought it on the spot.

I've had it now for about 4 weeks and my only quibble with it are learning the intricacies of Windows Movie Maker and adding some sound effects. Supposedly it accepts the MP3 file format, but when I tried to download it all I received was an error message. I called Gateway's customer service but had difficulty understanding my reps broken English so decided to go it alone. But that's another story in itself!

Other than those two minor issues (which I'll eventually figure out) I personally love it. It covers all the bases, from portability, to versatility, to usability and best of all to affordability!

The Gateway LT2802u is the better choice when it comes to word processing over streaming videos and downloading music.