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Gateway rolls out new notebooks; Sony doesn't

Gateway announced three lines of notebook PCs while Circuit City leaked images of upcoming Sony notebooks.

Brooke Crothers Former CNET contributor
Brooke Crothers writes about mobile computer systems, including laptops, tablets, smartphones: how they define the computing experience and the hardware that makes them tick. He has served as an editor at large at CNET News and a contributing reporter to The New York Times' Bits and Technology sections. His interest in things small began when living in Tokyo in a very small apartment for a very long time.
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Brooke Crothers

The Gateway notebook roll-out is official. Sony's is not. Gateway Computer announced three lines of notebook PCs on Monday with 64-bit Windows, while Circuit City prematurely posted images of upcoming Sony notebooks.

Gateway 14-inch T6836
Gateway 14-inch T6836 Gateway

Gateway rolled out three notebooks targeted at students. The P series desktop replacement comes with a 17-inch widescreen, the M series with a 15.4-inch screen, and the T series uses a 14.1-inch screen.

All systems come with 64-bit Windows Vista Home Premium and pack 4GB of memory--the minimum for acceptable performance in 64-bit Windows.

(See Gateway goes all 64-bit in back-to-school desktops.)

The 15-inch "Garnet Red" Gateway M-6848 is spec'd with an Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 processor, 4GB of memory, a 250GB hard disk drive, 802.11a/b/g,a wireless, DVD-R/RW drive, and Vista Home Premium 64-bit with SP1. It retails for $799.99.

The 14-inch "Pacific Blue" Gateway T-6836 notebook has virtually the same specifications. It also retails for $799.99.

Other features include a multimedia panel integrated into the keyboard, DVD burner with LabelFlash technology, and an integrated Webcam.

Upcoming Sony retail noteook
Upcoming Sony retail notebook

Meanwhile, details about upcoming Sony notebooks continue to seep out.

Circuit City prematurely posted photos of the upcoming Sony portables. (Though Circuit City has pulled the links, cached images are still accessible.)

Last week, less colorful user-manual images appeared at Notebookreview.com as well as tidbits about various models. Apparently, models will use Intel's next-generation Centrino 2 "Montevina" processor, graphics chips from Advance Micro Devices' ATI unit, and sport 13- and 16-inch screens.