The 11.6 inch Gateway VR46 netbook is a signature edition for fans of nine times Moto GP world champion Valentino Rossi.
We’ve had several laptops sporting marquee motoring brands – Acer and Ferrari, Asus and Lamborghini, even niche manufacturer Itronix released a ruggedised ready-for-anything Hummer notebook, while Intel splashed out with sponsorship of the BMW Sauber F1 team.
So it was perhaps inevitable that the marketeers would turn to the fast-paced world of Grand Prix motorcycle racing, and
Gateway is first off the grid with the Valentino Rossi netbook.
31 year-old Rossi is one of Italy’s favourite sporting sons and one of the world’s most successful motorcycle racers, having won the Moto GP world championship nine times.
The netbook which carries his name and his racing number is the VR46, although it’s more of a thin-and-light notebook than a netbook.
The main differences are that it packs standard Intel ULV silicon (a Pentium SU4100) instead of an Atom processor; the hard drive is a capacious 500GB, with 4GB of RAM (netbooks are lucky to have half of either spec); and the screen is an ample 11.6 inches while most netbooks top out at the 10 inch mark. Oh, and the VR46’s $1,200 sticker is more than a little above the netbook norm – this is (as you'd expect) in the price bracket of ULV thin-and-light subnotes.
But what’s really unique about the VR46? It’s the artwork, silly. Aldo
Drudi, the graphic designer behind Rossi’s raceday kit and the
unmistakeable Sun & Moon motif of his helmet and Yamaha ride, has
adapted the same theme to the VR46’s cover.
Gateway reckons the VR46 can run laps for eight hours before making a pitstop at the nearest AC output. The 16:9 HD display is complemented by an HDMI port for big-screen viewing.