Gateway C-120X and E-155C

The C-120X is solidly built, looks well-made and gives the impression of a quality piece of hardware with modern good looks. At just under 5 pounds, it doesn't encroach on the ultralight camp, but it's light and thin enough to earn thin and light status. Most ports and drive bays/slots are on the sides of the tablet, with only the Ethernet and power jacks at the rear (since those are best kept out of the way). The C-120X has the usual tablet controls surrounding the bezel so you can use it in tablet mode more easily. These include screen rotation, WiFi on/off, OK, lock (log off, power off and etc) and Windows Mobility Center buttons, the power button and the biometric fingerprint scanner.

Performance and Horsepower

The C-120X ships with Windows Vista Home Premium, with upgrade options for Vista Ultimate and Business. You can still order it with Windows XP Tablet Edition, and the business channel version, the Gateway E-155C currently ships only with XP Tablet Edition. The E-155C's hardware is identical though, other than starting with a 60 rather than 80 gig base hard drive and the C-120X has Bluetooth while the E-155C does not. The Gateway's 1.06GHz Intel Core 2 Duo U7500 doesn't sound like much, but were were pleasantly surprised at its performance. In fact, it benchmarked similarly to a nominally much faster Durabook we recently reviewed. Web browsing with multiple windows, working with Office documents and playing streaming video as well as DVD were no problem and the machine never felt sluggish. Of course, the C-120X uses Intel integrated graphics, so it, like most tablets, it isn't a good choice for intensive 3D gaming (stay away from F.E.A.R. unless you don't mind running it at low resolutions). And no, this isn't the machine for serious CAD work, but it's fine for light Photoshop work, home movie editing, sketching with Painter and playing Rise of Nations 2.

PCMark05 score:

2321 PCMarks overall score
CPU: 2660
Memory: 2497
Graphics: 768
HDD: 4065

The Gateway gets a Windows Experience Index of 3.1, which is in the range of good student and business PCs. 3.0 or better is recommended to run Vista's Aero graphical user interface well. Aero runs well on the C-120X, and Intel's GMA950 with up to 228 megs of shared video memory keeps up. The U7500 is an ultra low voltage CPU with 2 megs of level 2 cache and a 533MHz front side bus, and the C-120X uses the Intel 945GM chipset. The tablet doesn't get terribly hot under average use, which is important for comfort when using it in tablet mode.

The C120X ships with 1 gig of memory standard, with upgrade options for 2 and 4 gig configurations. As of this writing, upgrading to 4 gigs is $1,500 on Gateway's web site-- more than the tablet's base cost. The Gateway uses DDR2 667MHz standard SODIMMs and there are two slots for memory. It ships with an 80 gig SATA 5400 RPM drive standard, and an 80 gig 7200 RPM as well as a 100 gig 7200 RPM drive are available as upgrade options. Given that this isn't a performance oriented notebook, we'd recommend sticking with the quieter, cooler and less power hungry 5400 RPM drive. A 24x/24x/24x CDRW and 8x DVD-ROM combo drive is standard, and a dual layer DVD burner is available for $49 extra.

Display and Multimedia

The wide screen aspect ratio, stereo speakers and integrated DVD player make for a promising multimedia experience. However, the display is murky and dim compared to standard (non-digitizer) notebooks and even most current tablets. The highest brightness setting seems about half as bright as other notebooks and the screen certainly lacks the crisp, contrasty and saturated look of standard notebooks and touch screen PDAs. Though tablet displays aren't generally as sexy as standard notebook displays due to the digitizer, the Gateway still falls a bit short. Yes, it's usable and text is quite readable, but it certainly won't wow you and the lesser brightness isn't ideal if you work in bright environments. The 262,000 color display has a resolution of 1280 x 800, and has an anti-reflection polarizer that effectively cuts down on glare and improves outdoor readability. The viewing angle is wide at 180 degrees. The VGA port supports external monitor resolutions up to 2048 x 1536.

The integrated stereo speakers have good sound quality but are relatively quiet. They're fine for movie playback in a peaceful room, but you'll definitely want to plug in a good set of headphones to listen to music. The C-120X uses the SigmaTel 9205 High Definition Audio chipset and has both 3.5mm stereo out and a 3.5mm mic port. The machine handles DVD playback well using Windows Media Player, and there's only minor ghosting in action scenes.

Networking, Ports and Security

Like most Centrino/Core Duo architecture notebooks, the Gateway uses the Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG WiFi 802.11a/b/g module. This is a reliable wireless module that plays well with Windows own networking management software, but we found range to be lower than average on the Gateway. Since we've gotten good range from the Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG in other notebooks, the C-120X's antenna is likely the culprit. Standing 10 feet from the access point, our other test notebooks and even PDAs get a full signal, but the Gateway gets only 3 out of 5 bars as measured by Vista's connection manager. Download speeds were a bit slower as a result, adding only a few seconds to the download time of a 1 meg file and 5 seconds to the pre-streaming time for video.

For wired connections, the C-120X has Intel Gigabit Ethernet and a 56k modem. Should you need a wide area wireless connection, the tablet has a type II cardbus PC Card slot, which is supported by all major US wireless carriers. There is no ExpressCard slot. The 6-in-1 card reader slot handles SD, Mini SD, MMC, RS-MMC, Memory Stick and Memory Stick Pro cards. The machine has VGA, two USB 2.0 and one 4 pin unpowered FireWire IEEE 1394 port.

Though relatively inexpensive, the C-120X and E-155C come with a biometric fingerprint scanner and a TPM 1.2 security chip: nice! Our Vista machine came with Protector Suite QL, a very popular and easy to use piece of security software that works with the scanner. Once you enroll your fingerprints, you can use Protector Suite to log onto Windows and enter passwords in applications and web pages with the swipe of a finger.

Battery Life

The tablet's ultra low voltage processor and 12" display should translate into good battery life, though the C-120X's 4 cell battery is a bit smaller than average. We found battery life to be average by ULV and small notebook standards, and it lasted us an average of 3.75 hours with WiFi on and screen brightness set to normal while surfing the web, working with Office documents and streaming a few short movies. Gateway offers an optional 6 cell battery for those who need more stamina. The included world charger is small and light, and adds little weight and bulk to a notebook bag.