Gateway's Windows 7-boasting EC18T tablet images, specs leak onto the screen
By Laura June 
posted Oct 5th 2009 1:17PM
posted Oct 5th 2009 1:17PM
Hey, what's this attractive looking dude? Well, from the looks of it, it's Gateway's not-yet-announced or previously spied tablet PC. A tipster with access to a seemingly infinite number of photos of this bad boy also shot over a spec sheet of the purported EC18T, and here's what we're looking at. This 11.6-incher is going to boast an Intel Core 2 Duo processor, up to 4GB of DDR3 SDRAM, a Mobile Intel GS45 Express graphics chipset, and it'll run either Windows 7 Home Premium or Basic. Of course, none of this is official information, and we have no info on pricing or availability yet. Hit the gallery for a plethora (seriously) of photos.
[Thanks, Anonymous]
[Thanks, Anonymous]
I need this.
i think im going to cheat on my Timeline
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and i wont feel bad about it!
4GB of ddr3 ram and intel graphics? no thx. I'd rather have nice video card and 1GB of ram
Fuck gateway. their shitty products and service can go die in a hole.
I am waiting for the rest of the 98398432 laptops/notebooks that will come out in the next few weeks.
Anyone waiting for something particular that I should know about?
Anything with discrete graphics. :-/
Where did you here "98398432 laptops/notebooks" are gonna come out in a few weeks? In LaLa land?
@audiqpimp I "hered" it from the same place that you learned English - maybe it was LaLa land douche bag!
It's called key mashing, to exaggerate the number of laptops that will come out this month because of Windows 7 + Intel's new Core i7 etc.
What a nice size for a tablet. I don't care about the processor and all that other nonsense, just as long as I can draw on it! Sorry iTablet, ya just took too long =T...
I'd be waiting to find out if it has a Wacom digitiser if I were you, wanting to use it to draw and all...
@anonymous: (below)
Those specs sound pretty sweet, especially with concern to the battery life, considering it's a tablet.
Pity it's only got integrated graphics though :(
*goes to draw on his tx2500*
Since business use it a majority of the "convertible" tablet market (or least it has been up until now), what would be the point of having this without the ability to run Windows 7 *Pro* ?
"Of course, none of this is official information, and we have no info on pricing or availability yet."
While I see what you're saying, I also think it's safe to say that W7 (and whatever Apple is cooking up) is going to revolutionize the tablet/convertible market this year and next.
Right now, convertibles and tablets are fat, ugly, expensive, and terribly responsive to touch. There ARE no "killer apps" for these machines. They don't have a universal/seemless e-book market, they don't support multitouch gestures, they don't support wireless HD streaming, etc. Right now, they're not a device the average consumer has ANY use for. Better UI, better touchscreen hardware, more features, and better design and pricepoint, can change all of this.
Give me a tablet that I can convert (as seen in that first pic, though I'm not sold on the design) and set up as an interactive, connected, widget-friendly picture frame/remote/clock/etc, and I'll have to have it.
I thought art student use tablet mostly. I haven't seen business use tablets other than the medical field.
"There ARE no "killer apps" for these machines."
The APPS are there (photos, video, ebooks and even CBR/CBZ) Given the price and single use nature of e-book readers, a convertible about this size is a compelling option (especially since the Kindle is US only right now).
It's not so much the apps as it is the display. That sunlight friendly 3Qi technology needs to be paired up with a convertible (preferably with a nice 6 cell+ battery) with a 10.1 - 11.6 touch screen. Once you have that inside a $500ish machine, you have a very portable machine, that you would WANT to carry around to access everything... at least for me anyways. It becomes a Swiss Army knife of tech.
I agree it should be Windows7 Pro. I was given one of the first Tablets by Bill Gates at the launch in NYC, NY. It was the tablet version and it only came in the Pro version. I could go to work and connect to the domain or other places to workgroups. It should be done the same if the want the corporate world which is the big market for the tablet.
I hope it has a "picture frame" mode, where it's actually designed to STURDILY rest converted and half-open, like it is, on the right side of that main picture.
Lots of useful apps besides the obvious picture frame, could surface. In that "picture frame" position, it'd work very well as as a full touchscreen remote, or home automation panel that rests on an end table, or alarm clock, or e-book reader, or all sorts of other things.
And best of all... IT'S NOT AN ATOM!!!!!!!
I'll be buying something just like this, although probably sometime in 2010, after we also have some kind of idea what MS and Apple are introducing.
I think the 11.6inch screen is the sweet spot! I'm guessing this will probably be at least $1,500.
I doubt that. Acer own Gateway, and their product have always been affordable.
Ever since the Lenovo U110 hit the market with magnesium alloy casing and edge to edge 11.1 inch LED screen. Every other 11-11.9 inch unit has looked frumpy and fat by comparison.
At least it does not have an atom? And DDR3 is a nice step in the right direction.
If this had an ION graphics chipset it would be a day 1 purchase for me,
the intel GS45 hamster wheel powered chipset just doesn't cut it..
Well if it had ION it would be stuck with an atom. A 9400m would be solid on this though, especially since a tablet is a real boon to creative types.
It's only a boon to creative types with the right input though...
http://www.rgbfilter.com/?p=1909
...the dual pressure sensitive pen/multi-touch option would be the real boon for doing creative stuff, especially if running something like Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. Of course, then you want something better than the Intel graphics...
There's no multi-touch support in Windows 7 Home Basic. So it seems a little odd that they'd be shipping a touch screen convertible tablet with that version. I suppose they could just have their own touch support in the thing, but that seems kind of stupid. Shipping with Home Basic should really be restricted to netbooks that sell for $300 or so and where the price difference in the versions (the OEM price difference, not the $80 I would pay) would make a real difference in the end user price.
Plus I thought Home Basic wasn't going to be supported on anything more than a 10" screen anyway...
That stylus suggests you won't be doing any multi-touching anyway
You're thinking of Windows 7 Starter Edition.
However Windows 7 Home Basic will only be sold in emerging markets. So this would have to run Windows 7 Home Premium,
Is the screen resistive or capacitive?
The type of Stylus would seem to indicate a resistive screen... no apparent Watcom or capacitive multitouch... although it could be a multimode device similar in limited respects to the HP TX2z family or one of the new multitouch enabled resistive screens. Hopefully if it is purely resistive they have gone the Fujitsu P16xx route and build in some awsome palm rejection technology... have to wait and see
This looks quite nice. Now, let's just hope the price is under $500. :D
hope is active digitizer...drawing with one of those would be sweet!
Nice form factor...so long as it supports multi-touch in addition to the stylus. Curious what the battery run-time looks like. I'm sure there well be a number of offerings this season with Windows 7 availability.
Can this be hacked into a Mac? Or is that just regular netbooks?
Wow, that actually looks really nice. What's the weight on that sucker?
GS95 Graphics is the only reason (apart from price, probably) that I'd hold back on this.
Hello all, I just want to point out a few things since the specs I gave were not all posted. It's not a for sure thing that it will ship with windows 7 home basic. It comes with a 6 cell battery with a life span of 7 to 8 hours per full charge. As for the Display, these are the exact specs so far: 11.6" HD 1366 x 768 (WXGA) pixel resolution, high-brightness (200-nit) LED-backlit TFT LCD with integrated multi-touch screen, supporting finger touch and pen input. Convertible design with screen image auto rotation.16:9 aspect ratio. Also here is some Dimensions and weight: 285 (W) 208.9 (D) 28.5/34.5 (H) mm (11.22 x 8.22 x 1.12/1.36 inches) 1.72 kg (3.79 lbs.)
-Hope this helps
-Anonymous-
Fairly heavy for a 11.6" device :(
Sounds good otherwise, though.
thx 4 the info. Core 2 Duo with DDR3 is nice. Hope it is not ULV, as creative types actually need high-performance processor.
Can you confirm the ports/interfaces?
- several USB ports and an eSATA/USB combo port?
- headphone jack
- ExpressBus slot? 34mm?
- a legacy VGA video port
- multi-card slots, at least SD family reader
Does it have FireWire/IEEE 1094? - needed for some audio apps; creative types more likely to need tablets like this...
Does it have Ethernet and A/G/N wireless networking?
The weight is on the fat/heavy side, but may be acceptable with a good set of ports/interfaces.
As for Networking and I/O the only specs so far are these: Multi-in-1 card reader, Three USB 2.0 ports, HDMI™ port with HDCP support, External display (VGA) port, Headphone/speaker/line-out jack with S/PDIF support, Microphone-in jack, Ethernet (RJ-45) port, DC-in jack for AC adapter
Networking: WLAN: Intel® WiFi Link 5100 802.11a/b/g/Draft-N Wi-Fi CERTIFIED™ Featuring MIMO technology, WPAN: Bluetooth® 2.1+EDR (Enhanced Data Rate), WWAN: UMTS/HSPA at 850/900/1900/2100 MHz and quad-band GSM/GPRS/EDGE(850/900/1800/1900 MHz), upgradeable to 7.2 Mb/s HSDPA and 5.7 Mb/s HSUPA, supporting receiver diversity and equalizing at 2100 MHz, LAN: Gigabit Ethernet, Wake-on-LAN ready.
Sorry, no firewire or esata as of yet, possible with future releases though. And FYI, we will also have an Acer branded version, simular specs and look, but like with this version the "higher authority" may make last minute changes.
-Anonymous-
Well i guess we are looking at a Acer 1410 / 1810t (tz) with a touch screen - i like it :)
thx, anonymous, 4 the info again -- pretty decent I/O. I'm hoping for the Firewire and ExpressBus, but will consider.
From your description, does it sound like there's 2 mini-PCIexpress card slots inside, so if I don't need WWAN, may be I can use the slot for something else? (if/when that becomes available)
Also, you didn't mention what kind of Core2Duo processor inside. any rough ideas? (not exact ones, as that changes according to current market, but to get an idea of roughly how much processing power I'd get)
"...images, specks leak onto the screen"
Might wanna get a wet nap for that.
I'm pretty convinced that devices with this (thin) form-factor and low weight/price will be "the tablet for the rest of us"...all the advantages of a tablet without most of their severe drawbacks (text entry etc).
The Gateway looks good, hopefully it's going to be affordable. And hopefully there's a ton of competitors for it in a couple of months...
i might give it to my 2 year old son to learn how to speak it has audio right ? ....
I don't get why so many people are hung up on integrated graphics. As long as you're not playing games, it's as functional as a discrete card.
The flipped tablet on the right made me imagine a laptop case that had an LCD screen built into the top. You stand it up like an A and you have a second 15.4" LCD. Add a thin snap-on cover for the LCD to protect it.
I guess OLED would be great for something like this due to the thinner screens.
Good work Anonymous. Let' hope the price is under $700 fully loaded. The specs look perfect. This will compete with the rumored ASUS 10" touch. I am ok with integrated graphics. Let's also hope that gateway has worked with Microsoft and enabled all of Windwows7 (multi) touch features! Keep us posted!
KJ
Unless Gateway only plans on selling this in emerging markets, by default it would have to be Home Premium.
Tablet PCs are too heavy. They seriously need a reinvention .. They oughta be no thicker than a modern phone and weigh only one pound or pund and a half at most. Maybe that means new display technology?
My ideal tablet is 6 inches diagonally. Also all four edges of the display must be as flush with the edges as possible. This prolly means all physical buttons (if any) are on the sides. Technically this means it's slightly larger than a current iPhone (if the iPhone's display were made to be flush with the edges on the two sides taht arent .. it would be 5 inches diagonally).
My pocket pc just recently packed it in, so wanting something similar(for browsing and reading) i have looked and tried a heap of tablet type devices and generally tablet PCs weigh a ton, my favorite the ASUS T91 8.9 inch is 1kg and still feels heavy after a few minutes, the price of $1000Aus also deterred me. I ended up with a Smartq7 it has a 7inch 800x480 screen, weighs less than 0.5kg and was $350Aus. It can be a little buggy at times but overall it will do. I will still get a tablet PC eventually, but it must have windows7 and be multitouch and no more than a kilo with at least a 10inch screen.
Sorry anonymous, but I think I'll pass... But it wouldn't be quickly...
I've owned the C140 from GW for about 2 years to the day... As my first laptop I can honestly say that it met my every expectation and that I was happy with the product I received. There is however much that is lacking on the customer experience end of my opinion...
Now there are defiantly a few things wrong with the C140 that could have been addressed in newer iterations of this convertible tablet (and EVERYONE PLEASE KEEP IN MIND this is a "convertible tablet pc" not a "tablet pc" please stop calling it a tablet pc); however it would seem that with the Acer takeover of GW, that no new development has been done on the convertible tablets offered by GW, which could in anyway address these problems. Infect, if I remember correctly, as soon as Acer took over GW, they pretty much decided to get rid of this form factor all together, until now... As for the customer service? ... Where is it? When I bought the C140, I bought the extended coverage program (accidental damage coverage)... I really regret doing so because there is no way in hell, if the new basic customer service offered by Acer is anything to measure by, that I will be getting what I paid for if I ever have a problem... Luckily I'm fairly self-sufficient in my needs... But the damn thing heats up enough to make the rubber feat fall off if I'm not uber careful when I touch them...
So what's wrong with this pc? Nothing, not a thing... If you mean for it to be notebook. The problem is that this thing is supposed to be convertible tablet... I know that you mean well, but first of all it's too small. Look at the C140... 14" screen!! What are you going to do with just over eleven and a half inches? I'll tell you what... Feel cramped... Unless this thing is really just meant to get a person’s signature every once in a while, the only time the pen will really come in useful is to fill out forms... But how often do you have digital forms that are going to filled out by hand?
The only real applications for the tablet pc form factor (whether convertible or not) are the following:
- Handwritten annotation or hand written editing of documents (And even then, it’s somewhat of a stretch)
-Design (whether artistic or industrial-ish... You know like for architecture or synthetic protein design or whatever...)
-Class note taking... (This is a difficult one though because unless you're in a class that has a lot of math, diagrams or similar objects that need to be put into your notes, it’s just a lot faster to type your notes by hand)
What I'm trying to say is that this computer should be taken back to the drawing board...(or tablet... ha-ha, I made a funny... yeah ok...) No, no, really though... take this thing back... tack-on a couple of inches on the screen (no matter what your wife tells you, size does matter)... add an optional video card so that the "creative" type can spend less time waiting for their models or effects to render and more time creating, and finally, like ghu said, throw in a performance processor... after all, you don't need much if all you're gonna do is fill out forms...
As for the multi-touch... It’s about damn time!
Finally, what's the point of having a rebranded model? I know that people really get stuck on their stupid brands... I'm embarrassed to show off my apple logo on my iphone... I try to shave (my badges) as often as possible... But you know or even care what it means to me when you say rebadged...? All it means is "We're too lazy to come up with something better" AND... (This one's important...) "We think that you, the general public, are not only stupid enough not to notice, you're stupid enough to buy two of the same product if we can manage it..." You remind me of the car industry... You should feel ashamed... (I don't mean you as in YOU specifically, anonymous... I mean that in general to the company you work for... At least I think you work for)
This is becoming a rant, so... Sorry for all that... Anonymous if you're really interested in learning what this type of pc should be, go take a look at the folks over at tabletPC review... No, not the people that run the site, read the forums... read between the lines... You know?
-Spartikiss
Well Spartikiss.
I can say that I will personally see what can be done in the changes of this product as most seem to have the same ideas in what could be better about this unit. I can also say that although I am not the highest ranking person within Acer, I do have a voice within our company. I will pass on some of the suggestion however keep in mind, some of this you may see come to pass but it does require patients as some changes to products can take awhile. As for your warranty, If you have any problems getting the service you believe you should, the Level 2 support will do what they can to resolve any issues within the means of the warranty. That being said, overheating most commonly is a sign of dust in the fan and thermal vents, if you've never had them cleaned.
If you have a specific problem let me know and I will see what i can do.
I will say that the takeover of Gateway was a big cluster when it came to support however that has since changed for the most part and is getting better, if you or anyone out there chooses any of our products within the next year or 2 im sure that some will notice a difference. But again someone out there will always find a problem no matter how hard you try to satisfy.
Anyways take it easy Spartikiss,
-Anonymous-
Hello Anonymous,
is there talk of backlit keyboard for this baby?
in my opinion that is one option that Acer should implement on this model and the upcoming 1410TZ models.
i often work in bad lit places, or after dark, and i would love the option of having my keyboard lit up. would do wonders for my eyes!
thnx
I have a C140X and it is nearly indestructible.
be nice if they had the really important specs, like digitizer/touchscreen, those lil' things.
If I might ask a question…?
Actually, let me start by saying thanks to you for taking the time to answer my post as directly as I had hoped… Your response was very candid and I respect that. I have a question for you (that pertains to the new EC18T) that I would like to leave until the very end, if you don’t mind…
As to your question, I have absolutely no problems at the moment, other than my gummy feet keep falling off and I have no working mic… But it really has more to do with the type of glue that is used for the feet than how much heat is being generated by the system (we’ll get to the problems with the microphone later… If you’re still around by then…). Why the same type of glue isn’t used on the gummies as was used to attach the rubber onto the battery for traction/style is beyond me… (It’s really good strong stuff)… As I said in my last post… I’m pretty much self-sufficient . The extra heat that was being generated by this laptop (note: this never occurred to me but there were quite a number of posts on this topic by fellow forum members over at TPCR…) was believed to be caused (by many on the forum) by a faulty bios… Once people experiencing the problem upgraded to the newer version, the problem usually ceased.
My particular problem comes when one speaks to the Level 1 techs and they flat out tell you that there is no such thing as tier 2 techs ... My question was much more specific… You see the first time my rubber feet started falling off, I called in and asked for new ones… (I still have the old part numbers somewhere) Level 1 sent them to me, no questions… After about 1.5 years the same thing happened only this time, (Post-Acer Takeover) I was told that not only could I not order those parts anymore, GW doesn’t even carry them... Um… Ok… ? Not only will I have to send my pc in to get it fixed, not doing so will void my warranty…? AND in order to replace the feet they have to replace the whole body of the system because it turns out they still have the feet, they’re just attached to the chassis of the pc… Um… WTF?
In addition, (yes, you’re right typically on most Laptops, overheating will usually have more to do with the heat sink being covered in dust…) they believe that the reason that this laptop is overheating has to do with my processor overheating… (um… but I usually run at 40-60? Well within the parameters for the t7300 that this pc is packing). Finally, and here’s the clincher… Did you know that the RAM, CPU, HDD and PCI-e cards on this laptop are supposed to be completely upgradable by the user? I mean 100% user upgradable… Did you know that the heat sink (according to whatever Tier 2 manager I spoke to a few months back) is absolutely not at all to be touched by the user? But it says I am allowed to upgrade the CPU… right? But Wait, I can’t remove the heat sink? So how am I supposed to get to the CPU? Ah… YES… I know… How about I pull the motherboard away from the heat sink? That way, I’m removing the motherboard, not the heat sink… Does that mean I have to take it apart from the back? And oh… So wait… Anonymous, you just told me to clean out the dust in the fan right? How would you suggest doing so? Canned air would only push the dust deeper into the heat sink, thus compounding the problem, while most vacuums lack sufficient suction to be able to clean out a computer from the inside… What does one do? Well, typically, you would remove the heat sink and --- oh wait… I just voided the warranty... The plain fact is that this system was designed with the end user in mind to be able to remove the heat sink to perform upgrades on the cpu as necessary… (I usually clean my heat sink every 6 months, it’s not hard, even a chimp will get it right sometimes…)
My biggest gripe about all this is probably one of the pettiest things that I could moan about… WTF was Gateway thinking… When I bought my laptop it was just before Vista SP1 came out (probably about 4-5 months at most). I remember the day I picked it up from the FedEx station.. It was glorious… **sheds a small tear**… No seriously, it was awesome, I could do the whole vista voice commands and stuff… Next thing I know, SP1 roles out and it kills my built in mic… WTF?!?!?!?! Ok… Granted it’s not your fault (hell, technically Acer wasn’t even in the picture yet… but you inherited their business, so you also inherited their responsibilities) its Microsoft and IDT’s fault, because SP1 doesn’t play well with the driver for my microphone… You know what you could have done? You could have spoken to those people over IDT or (whatever the company was called before) and told them that they needed to update their software to make the mics in our brand new systems compatible with SP1… It’s not right that a brand new computer (4 months old) can’t be used to its full potential because they manufacturers of one component are unwilling to make the effort… Again, it’s not your fault, but GW could have stepped up to the plate for its customers but instead it took a pass… Now we have dead built in mics… nice (and I’m still under warranty…?)
Once again, I’m sorry for the windedness of my rant, but I feel that it’s necessary given the opportunity…
My question is as follows… What sort of market research is Acer doing into the Tablet pc and convertible market? I ask because it seems to me that you are definitely pointing in the right direction, but are still missing the mark… If I might inquire, who is getting to design these systems which touch on beauty but do away with elegance?
I would love to have the opportunity to make some suggestions that might actually influence some sort of change in the minds of the people who are envisioning these masterpieces. The dream of future computing is hitting us now and I believe that it is time for a company like Acer to actually step away from the box and leap into today… I truly believe that whoever makes the next big leap in this form factor of computers will completely dominate it until the next generation of user interfaces is developed (3D)… Consider Apple’s iPhone… much as I hate to admit it, it’s pretty damned snazzy… You gotta beat them to the next punch… An even more relevant example, look at HPs tx2500 series… (In know you’ve seen it…). For the last 2 years it and its predecessors have topped the ranks of TPCR’s charts… Why? Because it’s the fastest laptop convertible? The C140 can STILL beat it at PC AND 3d mark…
The difference is style… This thing looks beautiful AND elegant
The difference is functionality… I like having both the option to use my finger AND the precision of a WACOM screen… It’s glorious…
Look me up on tabletpcreview.com if you would like, I don’t know how to get a hold of you otherwise… I would love to finish this, but my supervisor just said the typhoon is coming and I gotta get going…
Look forward to talking to you soon,
-Spartikiss