This side by side shot between the Solo 3350 and the Acer 341TV gives you a good idea of what Gateway did to make their notebook smaller and lighter than the Acer. You would think there is not much difference between 3.65 pounds and 4.1 pounds but when you hold one notebook in each hand there is no mistaking which one is lighter. The silver metallic finish of the Gateway looks way better than the two tone finish of the Acer.
At the rear of the Solo, you'll find your standard ports as well as inputs for the modem and network card. There is also a connector to hook up the outboard DVD and floppy drive. At just 3.65 pounds, there is no way Gateway could have added a DVD/floppy into the unit.
The Gateway Solo 3350 uses half height 6X DVD and floppy drives that are separated from the notebook. You can not use both the DVD and floppy drive at the same time however. You slide the drive you want to use into the supplied docking station. The drives are hot swappable so you won't have to turn off your notebook when switching drives. This solution is definitely not as good as the Acer 341TV's DVD/Floppy which is housed as a single unit.
On the right side of the Solo, you'll find your USB, head phone and mic plug. The left side of the Solo house a single lonely PC card.
The Solo 3350 uses a touch pad for cursor movement. Unlike the Acer 341TV, there are no scroll keys. The keyboard is full size. A great feature for such a small notebook.