Gateway Announces New TC Series Laptops

Gateway today announced the latest addition to their popular value-priced notebooks: the TC Series. This new series borrows design and features from Gateway's MC Series and MD Series and packs it all into a lightweight laptop with a 14-inch display starting at $649.99.

The Gateway TC Series notebook line is intended to be a mainstream consumer notebook with plenty of entertainment features. The 14-inch "Ultrabright HD" widescreen display (1366 x 768 resolution) boasts an entertainment-ready 16:9 aspect ratio. The unique edges and silver accents give the TC notebooks a cool look ... and consumers get their choice of two colors: burgundy or black.

The new TC Series notebooks have a starting weight of 5.3 pounds which should make it easy to trasnport in a backpack. The integrated 1.3 megapixel webcam, 802.11b/g Draft-N wireless, and Gigabit Ethernet make it easy to stay connected.

The TC Series notebooks also feature a 5-in-1 media card reader (SD, MMC, MS, MS Pro and xD) as well as three USB 2.0 ports. Customers have one-touch access to their digital media and frequently-used entertainment programs with the notebook's Illuminated Multimedia Touch Controls.

We'll have an in-depth review of the new Gateway TC Series soon, so stay tuned to NotebookReview.com for more details.

Price and Availability
The Gateway TC Series is available now at select U.S. retailers, starting at a Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) of $649.99.

 

Looks cool. Can't wait for the review.

 

I'm liking the new lid designs on the Gateway's, it somehow reminds me of an actual physical book for some reason.

 

Looks pretty sleek - I also like where Gateway's going with the lid design. Reminds me a little bit of the Dell Latitudes.

 

It makes me sad that so many notebooks these days don't offer 800 pixels of vertical resolution, for those of us that don't use a laptop to watch widescreen movies it just means more and more scrolling to read.

 

I agree. More horizontal space is not whats needed here. Most web sites and documents don't even utilize the 1280 width as it is. But the trend to reduce vertical space has reduced what we can fit on the screen.. First they moved away from the 4:3 and now its just getting worse. From what I hear they can save a bit more money on the production runs on the 1366 x 768. I expect this is more of a driving factor then anything else.

 

Nooooo! 16:9?! Bad Gateway/Acer! Bad! :cry:

*sigh* I really wanted to like this, but 16:9 = FAIL

 

Unfortunately, Gateway and every other laptop manufacturer is at the mercy of the LCD panel manufacturers. They realized a while ago that they can cut more panels out of a single sheet of glass if they move to 16:9 instead of 16:10.

More panels from a single sheet = more profit, so that's why everyone is going to be using 16:9 screens in notebooks ... even if they don't want to.

In fact, several panel manufacturers are pushing for even more widescreen ratios ... so pretty soon we'll be seeing more notebooks with crazy ratios like what we see on the Sony VAIO P.

It stinks ... but I'm not sure anyone can force the LCD panel makers to stop this mess. It's not like people are going to stop buying notebooks and desktop LCDs.

 

Tis true, and most people buying today are probably like: "16:9? That's great. Just like my HDTV huh?!"


*sigh*

 

Looks like a solid alternative to the over-glossed HP's, can't wait for the review

 

Except for maybe Apple, who seem to control their suppliers more and are willing to pay more if they think it makes for a better product. As long as Apple can still pass that cost on and people pay for it I don't think they'll cave to some of these more ridiculous screen resolutions. Premium business notebooks should avoid this fate as well, at least I hope so.

 

its very interesting the new LG P510 that was announced looks so much like these new gateways....I guess LG borrowed there designs? lol

and no one is gonna say its a coincidence.

 

1366x768 is too low for a 15.6"/16" screen, but I don't think that would look bad on a 14" notebook. I certainly hope buyers give Gateway's mainstream line-ups a chance (Especially the MD series), they're very good for the price. It seems like their 17" gaming notebooks are everywhere, and the smaller notebooks are sadly overlooked.

 

i hate this widescreen stuff. I use my laptop to surf the net, and read/write word documents more than i do for watching movies.

even screenshots of websites means i need to make two shots as opposed to one if i had a screen with more vertical resolution. this is getting really stupid.

 

I agree with everyone about the screen resolution. 16:9 is OK for movies, but it sucks for doing anything else. 16:10 is an acceptable compromise, but going wider (and shorter) is ridiculous.

 

Great price, but they really need to consider putting in a dedicated GPU.

 

16:10 is cool - one thing that people commonly overlook in the switch from 4:3 to 16:10 is that laptops got significantly more portable, though whether that was due to the different form factor or the newer technology is debatable. I do know though, that the 14" widescreen T61 was lighter than the 14" 4:3 T61, so there is that.

That said, 720p displays on mainstream notebooks make no sense. Doesn't help anything, doesn't offer a more portable form factor (less portable, if anything), etc.