Two new budget-oriented Gateway laptops powered by Qualcomm Snapdragon SoCs to soon be available exclusively through Walmart

The Gateway - Walmart partnership appears to be quite fruitful as the two companies are constantly releasing budget-oriented laptops with good specs and no major compromises. Among the latest models prepared for this summer, Gateway has announced two Windows-on-ARM devices that are powered by Qualcomm’s Snapdragon SoCs. The more affordable model of the two seems to be the 11.6-inch GWTC116-3 convertible with touchscreen, while the larger 13.3-inch GWTN133-1 is a regular thin and light notebook that comes with slightly powerful specs.

The 11.6-inch convertible appears to be powered by a Snapdragon 7c SoC with eight Kryo 468 cores and features a 1366 x 768 IPS touchscreen, stylus included. The chassis is a bit thicker (0.9 inches) and geared towards a semi-rugged look with bigger bezels, so it probably is designed for younger students. This is reflected in the other modest specs, which include 4 GB of LPDDR4 RAM, 64 GB of eMMC storage, a microSD card reader, plus a 1 MP webcam that can be flipped to act as the main shooter. Port selection packs USB-C 3.0 and USB-A 2.0 ports, HDMI output, plus Ethernet and audio jacks. Apart from the internal NIC, the model appears to support 4G LTE connection through an included SIM card slot.

For the 13.3-inch GWTN133-1 model, Gateway is supplying a slightly faster Snapdragon 850 SoC with eight Kryo 385 cores coupled with 4 GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 128 GB of eMMC. No touchscreen here, but the resolution is 1080p, and the chassis is actually smaller and slimmer than the 11.6-inch model thanks to its considerably thinner bezels. The port selection also seems to be missing the HDMI output and Ethernet jack. Presumably the included USB-C connector supports DP mode and there might be a wireless adapter apart from the 4G LTE support from the optional SIM card slot.

Both models come pre-installed with Windows 10 Home in S Mode, so an upgrade to Windows 11 should be possible whenever that becomes available. No pricing info for now, but sub-$500 costs are to be expected.

Update: GWTN133-1 uses a Snapdragon 850 and not 845

Buy the Gateway Creator Series 15.6" laptop with RTX 2060 on Walmart