In 2008, Acer bought Gateway for a reported $710 million. The brand remains, and churns out its own products just like before. It is interesting that the Acer-Gateway merger released this year two 11.6 netbooks that looks, at first glance, to be the same, but are totally different in terms of specs and performance.
The Acer netbook released under the Aspire One series carries the model number AO751h and features the Atom Z520 processor pegged at 1.33 MHz and the Intel integrated graphics media accelerator 500. Other features include a 1366 x 768 screen resolution, a 160 Gb of hard drive, 1 GB of RAM (2 GB max), a full size keyboard, Wi-Fi and 2.0 Bluetooth, 6-cell battery, and Windows Vista Basic Edition.
On the other hand, the 11.6 Gateway model LT3103u features the AMD’s Athlon 64 processor pegged at 1.2 MHz coupled with discrete graphics in the form of the ATI Radeon X1270. Other features are a 1366 x 768 screen resolution, a 250 GB of 2 GB of RAM, a full size keyboard, Wi-Fi, a six-cell battery, with the same OS as the Acer’s. In terms of portability, both models are equal with about a weight of 3 lbs. and an inch thick profile.
So how much do these two 11.6 netbooks cost? The Acer model goes for about $350, while the Gateway model retails for $400. Just by looking at the specs, of these two portables, it is obvious that Gateway offers more for the $50 difference. More hard drive space and maxed-out RAM, but the piece de resistance is Gateway’s decision to go with the AMD processor and discrete graphics card combination, rather than the usual Atom and integrated graphics combo.
Does that spell a difference?
Well, an 11.6 inch portable is at that sweet spot wherein it is still something that you can lug around all day to do basic email, internet, and Office apps, but it is also big enough to do other more demanding computing like watch a 720p video or even watch You-Tube HD, which the Atom processor with integrated graphics will have a hard time doing.
Don’t take my word on it, just checkout this excellent split-screen comparison of the two portables running the same game, courtesy of Broo02.
