R500 review (finally), What do we think?

Yay! Finally an R500 review in english! The spec of this machine has had my eye since it was released - sporting the new Santa Rosa chips, whose introduction made me subsequently lose interest in the S1.

Now, the review seems good - the R500 is smaller and lighter than say the Acer Aspire 5920G (which has extremely similar spec), and I am extremely glad to see someone saying good things about the screen.

Being a photographer, the screen is of vital importance, and all the LG notebook screens I have seen in the past (Lg T1 and Lg P1) have been ok-ish, but always looked dark and just generally not that great, despite their so-called 'fine bright' technology. It's a pity that they changed the factory spec to only 1280 x 800, and not the inital 1680 x 1050. So now that the R500 has been released, it seems that there might be some hope. Bear in mind that the reason I am considering LG notebooks is becuase there is a serious pricing incentive in my country.

Now i have heard people suggesting that LG might still release an S500 i.e. the santa rosa successor to the S1 - maybe this will have the 1680 x 1050 screen? Any thoughts on this? But more importantly, I would really like anyone who can get their hands on the R500, and has seen an S1, to give me any form of comparisons, as i have never actually seen an S1 physically. I really need to know about the screens, and so far every review that I have read generally confirms what i have seen from LG notebook Screens so far (ie not any better than the P1 or T1 screens ? ).

My current, albeit premature conclusion, is that given that there has been an actual improvement in the LCD quality, the R500 looks to be the winner out of the LG notebooks, and given that the local price is competitive - a great alternative.

 

Which country are you from? Could your "serious pricing incentive" be helpful to others?
I think this r500 could be the nearest to my perfect notebook, but its price it's a little high compared to others with the same parts inside. However, as confirmed by this review, its build quality and its design is far superior than the average consumer notebook (like the gemstone for example)
As for the screen resolution, there are two versions avaiable: one with 1280x800 and one with 1680x1050.
The higher res is present only in the more expensive version, which from my research has only that difference and is about 300€ more expensive...
EDIT: there are different versions, some has 1280x800 and some 1680x1050, and some doesn't have Intel Turbo Memory
As for the "s500", I personally think lg won't make another notebook with the same target as the r500 in so little time, but I'm not lg so... we hope.

 

The S1 was suppose to be the top of the line of LG, but the R500 seems to be only aiming for normal audience. I would presume of coz lg would launch the S500 with the 45nm intel and maybe hd 2600xt.

 

rammin772: I am not too sure about R500 specs, maybe they might release several different sub-models, as usual. R500 and R200 both came in Korea about the same time. That is, about 4-6month ago.
BTW: I've seen your avatar many times, but I can not remember the name of the drawing, whats called?

 

i have r500 2 months already.. im very satisfied because im a gamers ang dvd watcher... no problem at all..

 

The Scream. I have the raving rabbidz version... hehehe

 

I was reading the review along with the comments on this computer. I knowticed that people were hoping for an upgraded verison in 2 weeks time. Is there any confirmation on this news? i'm hoping its not just a rumor.

 

Rammin772,

To answer your question regarding my 'price incentive' - i doubt that this could be any help to others. To clarify, I have a dealership account with a wholesaler who only stock LG notebooks. So I can either buy a non-LG notebook at retail prices, OR buy an LG notebook at wholesale prices - hence my incentive to go with LG.

I am hearing seem to be hearing consistent good remarks regarding the screen quality, and hopefully the hi-res model will come to South Africa.

 

Does the R500's 8600GT have DDR2 or GDDR3 memory? I'm considering it but its price is a bit high,,,then again I really like the design.

 

Doesn't the R500 have an 8600GS with GDDR3 like all other 8600GS cards? AFAIK, the R500 doesn't have an 8600GT.

 

Well on the LG website it says this variant has a 8600GT here

 

Oh, ok, my bad. I only remember reading this review http://www.notebookreview.com/default.asp?newsID=3941, which said it had a 256MB 8600GS. Didn't know about an 8600GT variant though.

 

I have the same question. I went to future shop today and asked if the LG R500-V.CPF1A9 which is on sale has the 8600M GT with GDDR3 or DDR2 but they didn't know and they didn't have a floor model so I couldn't find out myself.

I guess if nobody knows then I'll call up LG

 

I just bought the LG R500-V.CPF1A9 and I can definitely confirm that it IS GDDR3 memory. I ran the GPU-Z application and it reports GDDR3 as the memory type. Yes, I know there is a version out there that reports DDR2 ad GDDR3, but there was a newer version 0.1.3 which properly detects the memory type....
Its speed is 600MHz (which is 1200MHz)...

The only thing I hate about this laptop is they only have the bilingual english/french keyboards here in Canada now... which totally sucks.... I'm going to look for either an American English keyboard or the Korean keyboard.. I CANT STAND the eng/french layout! ... so if anyone knows where to get replacement parts for the R500... pm me... lol

...now to DL and run 3DMark06...

 

Sounds good keep me posted on the 3Dmark06 scores xD

 

I finally got around to running 3DMark06 this morning... I used the 169.25 nvidia drivers and I got a score of 3792.

I wonder if I can OC the video card.. heheheh I've seen other people with 8600M GTs pull over 4000... hrmm

 

I am pretty sure it has a 8600GT