The Solo was a line of

laptop computer A laptop computer or notebook computer, also known as a laptop or notebook, is a small, portable personal computer (PC). Laptops typically have a Clamshell design, clamshell form factor (design), form factor with a flat-panel computer scree ...

s sold by

Gateway, Inc. Gateway, Inc., previously Gateway 2000, Inc., was an American computer company originally based in Iowa and South Dakota. Founded by Ted Waitt and Mike Hammond in 1985, the company developed, manufactured, supported, and marketed a wide range of ...

(originally Gateway 2000), from 1995 to 2003. All models in the range were equipped with

Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...

x86 x86 (also known as 80x86 or the 8086 family) is a family of complex instruction set computer (CISC) instruction set architectures initially developed by Intel, based on the 8086 microprocessor and its 8-bit-external-bus variant, the 8088. Th ...

processors and came preinstalled with the

Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

operating system.

History

Gateway unveiled the Solo line of laptops on August 15, 1995, shortly before

Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...

Windows 95 Windows 95 is a consumer-oriented operating system developed by Microsoft and the first of its Windows 9x family of operating systems, released to manufacturing on July 14, 1995, and generally to retail on August 24, 1995. Windows 95 merged ...

operating system became generally available for sale on August 24, 1995. Initial entries in the Solo lineup were manufactured on an OEM basis by the Japanese company

Sanyo is a former Japanese electronics manufacturer founded in 1947 by Toshio Iue, the brother-in-law of Kōnosuke Matsushita, the founder of Matsushita Electric Industrial, now known as Panasonic. Iue left Matsushita Electric to start his own bu ...

. The Solo was the first laptop to have a

Windows key The Windows key (also known as win, start, logo, flag or super key) is a keyboard key originally introduced on Microsoft's Natural Keyboard in 1994. Windows 95 used it to bring up the start menu and it then became a standard key on PC ke ...

and a

Menu key In computing, the menu key (), or application key, is a key with the primary function to launch a context menu with the keyboard rather than with the usual right-mouse button. It was previously found on Microsoft Windows-oriented computer keyb ...

, which respectively activate the Start menu and

context menu A context menu (also called contextual, shortcut, and pop up or pop-up menu) is a menu in a graphical user interface (GUI) that appears upon user interaction, such as a right-click mouse operation. A context menu offers a limited set of choic ...

s in Windows (the Start menu first appeared in Windows 95). Gateway worked closely with Microsoft on development of the Solo to make it fully optimized with Windows 95, which was a nearly top-down redesign of Microsoft's previous

Windows 3.1x Windows 3.1 is a major release of Microsoft Windows. It was released to manufacturing on April 6, 1992, as a successor to Windows 3.0. Like its predecessors, the Windows 3.1 series run as a shell on top of MS-DOS; it was the last Windows 16 ...

operating systems. The Solo replaced Gateway's earlier ColorBook and

Liberty Liberty is the state of being free within society from oppressive restrictions imposed by authority on one's way of life, behavior, or political views. The concept of liberty can vary depending on perspective and context. In the Constitutional ...

line of laptops and were the first of the company's laptops to feature

-based

Pentium Pentium is a series of x86 architecture-compatible microprocessors produced by Intel from 1993 to 2023. The Pentium (original), original Pentium was Intel's fifth generation processor, succeeding the i486; Pentium was Intel's flagship proce ...

processor, for which Windows 95 was optimized during its development. The Solo was released to retailers and corporate resellers in September 1995. The first two models—the V75 and the S90—came with Pentium processors clocked at 75 MHz and 90 MHz respectively. Both Solos were multimedia-oriented and came with a

Sound Blaster Sound Blaster is a family of sound cards and audio peripherals designed by Creative Technology, Creative Technology/Creative Labs of Singapore. The first Sound Blaster card was introduced in 1989. Sound Blaster sound cards were the de facto stan ...

–compatible

sound chip A sound chip is an integrated circuit (chip) designed to produce audio signals through digital, analog or mixed-mode electronics. Sound chips are typically fabricated on metal–oxide–semiconductor (MOS) mixed-signal chips that process a ...

and removable CD-ROM drives bays as standard; Gateway later made the CD-ROM drives an optional add-on to reduce cost at the entry level. The company marketed the Solo at the cost-conscious businessperson and positioned it as a budget version of the more upscale

IBM ThinkPad ThinkPad is a line of business-oriented laptop and tablet computers produced since 1992. It was originally designed, created and manufactured by the American International Business Machines (IBM) Corporation. IBM sold its PC business to the C ...

and

Toshiba Satellite The Satellite Pro (also formerly the Satellite) is a line of laptop computers designed and manufactured by Dynabook Inc. of Japan, which was formerly Toshiba's computer subsidiary. The Satellite Pro is currently positioned between their consume ...

lines of laptops. Later entries in the Solo line featured the

Pentium II The Pentium II is a brand of sixth-generation Intel x86 microprocessors based on the P6 (microarchitecture), P6 microarchitecture, introduced on May 7, 1997. It combined the ''P6'' microarchitecture seen on the Pentium Pro with the MMX (instruc ...

Pentium III The Pentium III (marketed as Intel Pentium III Processor, informally PIII or P3) brand refers to Intel's 32-bit x86 desktop and mobile CPUs based on the sixth-generation P6 (microarchitecture), P6 microarchitecture introduced on February 28, 1999 ...

s, and various P6-based Celerons. The Solo line was retired in December 2002. Gateway sold refurbished units of the Solo line on their website until 2003. Compare with next available archived snapshot.

Models

References

{{Gateway, Inc. Computer-related introductions in 1995

Solo Solo or SOLO may refer to: Arts and entertainment Characters * Han Solo, a ''Star Wars'' character * Jacen Solo, a Jedi in the non-canonical ''Star Wars Legends'' continuity * Kylo Ren (Ben Solo), a ''Star Wars'' character * Napoleon Solo, fr ...

Products and services discontinued in 2002