Digital Trends

Gateway 30-inch LCD

March 7th, 2005 | by Ian Bell

Walking the Catwalk

The Gateway 30-inch LCD TV will most likely either be a hit or a miss when it comes to the way it looks. We love that the LCD panel and electronics appear to “float” over the base or stand of the television. There is a thick clear Plexiglas piece that connects the main unit to its base. We first saw this design concept in Sony's LCD TVs which used a Plexiglas panel in a similar method; it gives televisions a very futuristic look. The rest of Gateway's 30-inch TV is adorned in a black chassis with Gateway's signature gold trim. If you have black home theater components or simply prefer a black TV as opposed to a silver chassis, than you will most likely like the way the Gateway 30-inch LCD looks. Somewhere at Gateway a very important person is telling the OEM manufacturers to put gold somewhere on their products. This is a very poor decision and Gateway needs to leave the gold out of the picture. They may be able to get away with this on the PC side, but when it comes to the rest of the CE products, specifically televisions, there should be two choices at this point in time: silver and black. Some people will simply not purchase a television if there is noticeable gold on the chassis, and we can't blame them. But with our color frustrations out of the way, the Gateway 30-inch LCD does have some positive aspects.

While the screen size of this Gateway unit measures 30 inches diagonally it looks smaller than other 30-inch LCDs we have seen. This is because Gateway chose to position the speakers underneath the display instead of placing them on the sides. This is both good and bad. It can be considered good because it means the unit will be able to fit into most television cabinets that support 32-inch televisions, but at the same time with the speakers so closely together you lose a lot of the stereo sound you would get otherwise. If you have a video cabinet or a nice armoire, the Gateway 30-inch LCD is a great match. You can choose to mount the Gateway 30-inch TV on the wall if you want but expect to pay around $100 dollars for the wall mount kit. The set measures 23.43 inches high by 29.13 inches wide and has a depth of only 7.8 inches. It weighs a tad over 20 pounds and is relatively easy to move due to its dimensions and light weight.

Gateway 30-inch LCD TV

Now because of the low price associated with the Gateway 30-inch LCD, and other televisions in this market segment, you need to expect some corners to be cut; it's almost always a given. For example while we loved the picture on the Kreisen 30-inch LCD, it lacked independent memory input, an advanced universal remote control and HDCP compatibility on its DVI input. Gateway's 30-inch LCD on the other hand has several features that other LCD televisions in this price range do not. First of all, it not only comes with a HDCP compatible DVI input, it also comes with two component video inputs, one for a HDTV signal capable of 1080i and the other which is meant for a DVD player. The Gateway 30-inch TV has a 750:1 contrast ratio with a 16ms response rate and is capable of a 1280x768 resolution at 60Hz. It also comes with an integrated NTSC tuner, one DVI input, two component video inputs, analog VGA input, S-video inputs, and composite and coaxial inputs making sure that this unit is compatible with every component you have.

The remote control is larger than we would have liked and looks pretty out-dated resembling the old RCA remote controls that used to come with the DirecTV satellite boxes if you can remember those. The remote control is capable of controlling eight devices including two televisions, one DVD player, one cable box, one VCR, one amplifier or receiver, one CD player and another single item which you can assign to the auxiliary buttons. Button layout is very simple and intuitive with the navigation buttons located in the center of the remote and the PIP (Picture In Picture) controls located on the bottom. When a button is pressed, the blue backlighting automatically comes on to help you navigate the television when in a low lit room. If you decide to ditch the remote, there are controls located on the bottom of the television itself.