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The EC series of notebooks is a new line of Windows 7 Native, ultraportable laptops from Gateway. The EC is available as a 5.2lb notebook with a 15.6” screen or a 3lb 11.6″ unit. Gateway sent us the 3lb EC1430u for our review.

The EC1430u is small… Netbook small. It measures 11.2” wide, 8” deep and only 1.1” thick. The form factor of EC14 line of notebooks seems to be built on the well-crafted Gateway LT netbook. It uses a nearly identical keyboard layout and track pad placement, a big plus since the Gateway netbook is one of the few that is comfortable for touch-typists with medium-to-large hands, and sports an improved version of the LT’s screen while tacking on less than a third of a pound in weight over the netbook.

While the size might be similar, where the EC14 series of notebooks differ from netbooks is power, both in the speed of its processor and the length of battery life. In our PCMark Vantage tests, the EC1430u scored an average of 3000. Compare that to the 2600 of the AMD powered NV series, or the 2900 of the UC – both of which are larger laptops – and you’ll see that the geeks at Gateway have managed to pack laptop power into a netbook body at a price-point that doesn’t break the bank.

This power is provided by a power-efficient, dual-core Intel Pentium SU4100 CPU running at 1.3Ghz with 2MB of L2 cache and a 800Mhz bus. The CPU sits on top of 3GB of user-replaceable DDR2, 667Mhz memory in two SODIMM slots.

The left side of the EC1430u has a standard VGA port, the power plug, ventilation, a HDMI port and a single USB port. The right side of the notebook has an Ethernet jack, a Kensington lock port, two additional USB ports, output and microphone jacks as well as the media card reader. The front of the EC1430u sports power, battery, and wireless indicators, as well as a hardware switch that toggles the WiFi. The EC14 series CAN be equipped with a Bluetooth module, but it isn’t standard on the 1430u.

The notebook sports an 11.6” widescreen, ultrabright display with a native resolution of 1366 x 768. The screen utilizes a LED backlight instead of a Cold Cathode Fluorescent unit: this gives the 1430u a noticeably improved contrast ratio, giving you darker darks and brighter whites. It also improves color saturation while simultaneously reducing power consumption. The screen is topped with an integrated webcamera and microphone. The video is driven by an Intel 4500MHD Integrated Graphics Chipset that is powerful enough for stutter-free HD video, output to a 1080p screen through the HDMI port, and even the occasional session of World of Warcraft. (Albeit at lowest possible resolution.)

The keyboard on the EC1430u is well designed and can accommodate even fat fingers (like… MINE) without risking the infamous “netbook cramping syndrome.” The keys have a long throw, are well spaced (aside from the directional arrow keys) and are quiet, yet durable. There is a little bit of bowing in the keyboard with vigorous use, but nothing that slowed down my typing. The trackpad is multi-touch capable, meaning that you can use two-finger gestures to zoom/jump/rewind and scroll. The trackpad is slightly offset with two buttons at the bottom of the pad.

Network connectivity is provided through Gigabit Ethernet and a MiniPCI 802.11a/b/g/n wireless card. There is no modem port, but we’re actually happy to see that change because the RJ11 port tends to be a waste of space.

There is no integrated optical drive in the EC1430u, so main storage is provided by a 320GB 5400RPM SATA Hard drive installed into the bottom of the laptop and the media-card reader.

Audio on the EC1430u comes from two speakers embedded on the underside of the unit, towards the front of the laptop.
A note on the OS: The EC1430u comes with Windows 7 Home basic and that operating system complements this notebook quite nicely. The system was responsive and all of the Windows 7 eye candy performed smoothly. Of special note is the power-on time of the notebook: With Windows 7 the EC1430u went from off to usable desktop in 39 seconds – Resume from hibernation in 20 seconds – Recovery from standby in 4 seconds. This quick power-on, combined with Window 7’s improved power management allowed us to squeeze impressive runtimes out of the EC1430u.

Battery life on the EC1430u is phenomenal. With the wireless on, screen at full brightness and the CPU taxed on multiple streams of HD video I was able to get 5 hours of power from the 6-cell, 5600mAh battery. With wireless on, the screen at mid brightness, and Hulu running in the background while surfing, I was able to get over 6 hours of battery life. With the notebook at max power savings I averaged over 8 hours of runtime from a single charge.

All told, the Gateway EC1430u has the size and portability of a netbook, the performance of a upper-mid-range notebook, the price of a generic laptop, and a battery life that is unsurpassed in this class.

Gateway offers the EC14 series in either Cherry Red or NightSky Black finishes with a 1-yr warranty. You can find the Gateway EC14 series notebooks at your favorite retailers from $400 to $550.