Digital Trends

The Gateway NX100X and E-100M are a 12" 3.15 lb ultraportable notebooks that are 1" thin with an external optical drive. This form factor is perfect for the road-warrior who needs a notebook for PowerPoint presentations or writing documents and isn't interested in duplicating the features of a high-performance desktop or a DVD player. The nearest competitors in this 3 lb class are the Lenovo ThinkPad X60/X60s and Fujitsu Lifebook Q2010. Although the Dell Latitude X1 and Toshiba Portege R200 are both very good ultraportable notebooks, these use the older Intel Pentium M processor. The Lenovo ThinkPad X60/X60s, Fujitsu Lifebook Q2010, and Gateway NX100X all use the new Intel Core Solo "Ultra Low Voltage" edition, with the ThinkPad X60s supporting the Low Voltage Core Duo.

 

The NX100X and E-100M are virtually identical; the E-100M is targeted for business users and features a hardware TPM encryption module whereas the NX100X does not. Depending on the current promotion, the NX100X usually offers better value for "upgraded systems" while the E-100M offers the chance to get a basic setup at a lower absolute cost. For example, on the E-100M, Gateway will give you a $50 discount for downgrading from Windows XP Professional to Windows XP Home, but on the NX100X, it's a "free upgrade" to Windows XP Professional. The NX100X comes with a full version Microsoft Office Basic 2003 (Word, Excel, and Outlook); the E-100M does not. The E-100M can be configured for 512MB of RAM and a 40GB hard drive; the NX100X has a minimum spec of 1GB and a 80GB hard drive. Both notebooks include an external USB DVD burner. For the rest of the review, we'll refer to the E-100M.

 

At 3.15 lbs the E-100M is very light, but it's still noticeably heavier than the 2.2 lb Lifebook Q2010 and the same weight as the ThinkPad X60. The big difference is that the NX100X starts at $1399 for a Core Solo U1400 (1.2GHz) with 1GB of RAM, an 80GB HDD, a six-cell battery, and an external burner. The Lifebook Q2010 is about $2400 for a similar configuration, and the ThinkPad X60 is $1680 for a configuration where you lose the external DVD burner, have a lower resolution LCD screen, but gain a more powerful Core Duo L2400 (1.66 GHz).

 

The E-100M shell is made of magnesium alloy meaning that it's sturdy and durable. The LED accents are all dark blue and tastefully done.  The rigidity of the E-100M shell is reassuring and busy travelers won't hesitate to bring this notebook along their trip. In what seems to be a popular trend, the E-100M features a latch-less lid.

 

 
The Gateway E-100M Open

The Gateway E-100M Closed

 

 

 

Although the E-100M does not have a built-in DVD burner (a defining characteristic of this laptop class), Gateway is one of the only companies to include a USB external DVD burner in the sale price. Other notebook companies charge anywhere from $100 to 200 for this. The NX100X is even more powerful as Gateway includes the larger 6-cell battery for improved battery life and 1GB of RAM standard as opposed to the 3-cell or 4-cell batteries that are common in its competitors.

 

In terms of connectivity, everything is there that you would expect: Firewire 400, USB 2.0 ports, Wi-Fi, integrated modem, Bluetooth. The notebook even has a 6-in-1 media reader (SD, MS, MS Pro, mini-SD, RS-MMC, MMC) and a 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ethernet adapter (still rare with today's notebooks). The Gateway E-100M/NX100X features a 32-bit Cardbus slot instead of the faster ExpressCard54 format. The rationale behind this is that there are more CardBus peripherals on the market than ExpressCard54 peripherals. Things may change in the future.

 

The 12.1" 1280x800 screen is fairly good, up from the 1024x768 of the ThinkPad X60. Gateway allows customers to choose between a traditional anti-glare (matte) LCD panel or one of the high-contrast, glossy anti-reflective LCD panels.

 

 
The RightSide of the E-100M

The LeftSide of the E-100M