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LG LW60 Express Review
Reviewer:
Kewin Pedersen
Date:
2005-10-26
Notebook:
LG LW60 Express LW60-JD7V3
Price:
USD 1999
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Introduction of LG LW60 Express |
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With the LW60 Express LG is offering a serious notebook packed with daring specifications and a great feature set. It’s the baby brother to the LW70 model which has a bigger display. LG is targeting both the performance inclined user as well as the movie enthusiast. Many cool features are the characteristic of this product line giving it a distinctive touch. If you want both features and performance this might be the thing for you.
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The LW60 Express is a fine looking notebook with the specifications to back up the good firsthand impression. The chassis is made of plastic with silver coating giving the notebook both a stylish and thorough design with an LG logo on the back of the display. The battery is located at the far side of the notebook right below the display’s attachment.
The notebook weights 3 kilo with an included 300 gram battery but excluding its 500 gram power supply. It measures 35.5 cm wide, 26.5 cm deep and 30.5 mm tall.
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| Processor |
2000 MHz Mobile Intel Pentium M 760 (Sonoma) |
| RAM |
512 MB DDR2 RAM |
| Harddrive |
80 GB SATA HD - 5400 RPM |
| Optical Drive |
DVD +/- RW Dual Layer |
| Graphics Chip |
ATi Mobility Radeon X600 w/ 128 MB dedicated RAM |
| Display |
15.4” Fine Bright WXGA TFT LCD |
| Communication |
V.90 modem, 10/100 Mbit Ethernet, IEEE 1394 FireWire, 802.11 b/g WLAN |
| Battery |
Li-Ion |
| Operating System |
Microsoft Windows XP Pro |
| Pointing Device |
Touchpad with scroll hjul |
| Weight |
3.0 kilo |
| Other |
4-in-1 Card Reader |
| Price |
USD $1999 |
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LG has chosen to configure the LW60 Express with a standard keyboard. It contains all of the regular hotkeys one would expect from a notebook these days in addition to some quite enticing features. The keystroke of the LG computer is quite good which makes it pleasant to type on even for a longer period of time. At the right side of the keyboard there’s a built-in numeric keypad. Though not as common with the lesser-sized notebook keyboards there’s room for it in a widescreen model which can come in quite handy. There are no separate Page Up or Page Down buttons. Instead you have to activate them by pressing the Function key at the same time you’re using the Up and Down buttons. This setup can be quite inconvenient but luckily there’s a built-in scroll-wheel in the touchpad which eliminates most of the hassles. Anyway it’s still too weak not to include a separate Page Up and Page Down button when they’ve fitted a numeric keypad into the design.
At the top left of the keyboard there’re two buttons for the InstantON player. This nifty feature allows the user to conveniently use his notebook for DVD playback or audio listening without having to boot it up. To the right thereof are three LEDs showing whether or not you’ve turned on CAPS LOCK, num lock and wireless LAN. To end the series of hotkeys at the top we find the Power button, volume up and down buttons and lastly a mute button. In the lower right side there’s yet another set of LEDs displaying information about whether the power cord is plugged in or not in addition to hard disk activity and power on status.
One of the really cool features of this model is the accompanying Remote Control. The controller is ultra slim and lightweight since it easily slides into the PCMCIA port for easy storage and safekeeping. It allows you to remotely boot the computer in addition to starting the InstantON Player for DVD playback and music listening. The latter options are enabled without the need to boot the computer. There’re also buttons for the most basic of DVD playback functions like Play, Pause, Stop, Fast Forward and Fast Backward. The volume can be raised or lowered or muted at the convenience of a single click. Simply put if you want to play movies or listen to music on the LW60 Express the Remote Control has what you need! All of the functions on the Remote Control are also integrated into the keyboard as separate shortcuts. This way you can still operate the DVD playback even without the Remote Control at hand.
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LG has equipped their LW60 Express with a 15.4” Fine Bright WXGA display running with a native resolution of 1280x800. Though not as tall as a regular display the LG has been tailored to the movie enthusiast with its included widescreen. Instead of a standard TFT screen it’s been configured with a Fine Bright screen. It’s a coating that gives the display a glasslike look and makes the bright colours brighter and the dark colours darker. In addition to this it also comes with ART (Anti-Reflection Treatment) technology. This makes the screen more resistant to reflections like the sun which adds to its value in outdoor environments and sunny places.
Overall the Fine Bright display has a crystal sharp display of text and images on-screen that’s quite pleasant for the viewer to read and watch. In addition to this the DVD playback quality of the screen is even better than that of a regular TFT screen providing the end user with a fine home cinema experience. The Fine Bright enhanced widescreen of this model is further strengthened by the inclusion of an InstantON Player allowing you to play DVD movies without booting the computer. If you’re looking for a nice and sharp display for your next notebook with a keen focus on good movie playback features it’s truly worth your time!
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The LG LW60 Express boasts a wide range of features and advanced options for various connectivity pleasures including the now mandatory built-in wireless LAN capabilities for starters. They’ve also found room for a keyboard-inserted microphone in addition to the stylish Remote Control. There are 4 USB 2.0 ports where two are located at the back and the other two at the right side of the notebook. This is a nice placement since you don’t have to go around the back all the time when you can easily insert them into the side. For those wanting more than just USB ports there’s also a single FireWire port on the right side as well. By continuing the trend of smart features LG is also offering a 4-in-1 card reader. For those with older peripheral hardware there’s a hidden parallel port though USB devices are the main trend these days.
4 x USB 2.0 ports
4-in-1 Card Reader
1 x RJ-11 jack
1 x RJ-45 jack
1 x Infrared
1 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire)
1 x Line-In jack
1 x Line-Out jack
1 x DC-in jack
1 x 32 bit Type II PC Card slot
1 x Express Card slot
1 x Parallel Port
1 x Extern monitor port
1 x S-Video Out
1 x S/PDIF
1 x Kensington Lock
1 x Built-In Microphone
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The fan seems to be constantly running whether you’re running a resource intensive 3D application or simply browsing a 2D webpage. When playing a game or watching a movie you don’t really notice the fan as you have your attention elsewhere. Despite the increased workload the fan doesn’t get particularly louder which is only a good thing giving the circumstances. Given the fact that the noise from the fan is only marginally louder when under heavy load you’d guess it’d be even quieter in simpler applications. Sadly this isn’t so as the fan continues its slight humming in the background. It seems a little strange they haven’t managed to get it more quite during silent operations like web surfing and Word typing. Guess it won’t be a problem for most people since it’s just a slight hum but it won’t do for those looking for a completely silent computer! If you want an ultra-quiet no-noise computer for everyday computing you might find a better deal.
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The software bundle is quite standard when is comes to DVD playback and CD-Burner programs. Included in the package is Nero 6 along with CyberLink’s PowerDVD 5. In addition there’s also an installation CD for LG’s InstantON Player plus an LG Intelligent Update CD with all the needed drivers for Windows XP. There’s no Recovery CD since it’s integrated into LG’s D2D (Direct-2-Drive) System Recovery Solution. When you boot the computer you can press F11 for an overview of your options which include a full system recovery with or without formatting the hard drive.
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LG offers a standard twelve month period of service for their notebooks with the exception of the battery which is only six months. It’s nothing impressive when comparing it to Asus’ two-year guarantee that’s setting the bar. Though LG is offering a worldwide International Traveller’s Warranty they could certainly use a higher guarantee if they want to become more dominant in the market. Support is also given over the phone in your country’s regular opening hours in addition to online services and FAQs. The product page on LG’s website also contains PDF documents with model specifications and feature descriptions. Any needed drivers can be found online too if not already on the bundled driver CD.
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When looking at the specifications you’ll notice many fine components have been assembled into this notebook. There’s a highly clocked Sonoma CPU with a top end ATi graphics chip as well as the DDR2 memory. All of these things should be able to yield quite good benchmark numbers on their own. Unfortunately they don’t seem to deliver the kind of performance you’d expect with such an impressive line-up of components. Perhaps it has something to do with the preinstalled programs that are running in the background draining the system for resources? Whatever it is the performance is still quite fair in terms of both office applications and games.
When comparing the model to other notebooks that are running on their batteries we see a new trend. The LW60 Express doesn’t have the best battery capabilities. It’s only able to withhold about 2-2.5 hours on the battery which isn’t much for a Centrino. It sure does have some powerful and battery consuming components but still other notebooks have managed to keep it going even longer. There’s also just enough time to watch a regular two hour movie but that’s about it. In theory you should get a nice performance from this configuration yet it doesn’t seem to peak. Other than that it’s doing a decent job with regards to office applications and battery life.
Onfortunately we couldn't get Sysmark 2004 to run through the whole test on the LG.
Instead we have started using PCMark 2005 as suppliment - the score is 2618.
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Pictures of LG LW60 Express |
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It’s clearly targeted for the higher end of the user spectrum with its widescreen capabilities and a second generation Centrino CPU. With this model LG has come up with a notebook that’s capable of a mediocre level of unplugged mobility in addition to its raw specifications. Everything from the Sonoma to the X600 ATi graphics chip with dedicated memory running on an Intel 915P express chipset with DDR2 memory says it all. This baby is packed!
Though it doesn’t seem to utilize its specifications to the best effect the potential is there and so is the Remote Control. It’s a really smart inclusion that many will find handy for DVD playback. Overall it’s a nice laptop for gamers and movie enthusiasts with its Fine Bright monitor despite its lacking in battery life.
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Remote Control, all-round DVD burner, fair gaming performance, Fine Bright monitor
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Mediocre battery life, a bit noisy, medium office performance
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