LG E200 User Review

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The LG E200 is a 12.1” widescreen notebook recently released by LG.  The E200 is marketed as an entry level ultraportable notebook using the less powerful Pentium Dual-Core processor and ATI RS600ME chipset.  As an entry level notebook it retails at most computer stores in Canada for about $1,000 CAD.

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Following are the specs of the LG E200 being reviewed:

• Processor: Intel T2330 Pentium Dual-Core(1MB L2 Cache, 1.66GHz, 553MHz FSB)
• Operating System: Windows Vista Home Premium
• Chipset: ATI RS600ME
• Memory: 1GB DDR2-667 (Up to 4GB and one open slot)
• Display: 12.1” WXGA(1280X800)
• Graphics: Radeon Xpress 1250
• Hard Drive: 120GB SATA 5400rpm
• Optical Drive: DVD Super Multi Dual Layer
• Wireless: 802.11b/g (Dual Hexa-band Antenna), Bluetooth 2.0 +EDR
• Ports:  10/100MB Ethernet, 3 USB, VGA, HDMI, Mic-in, and Headphone
• Battery: 6 Cell Li-Ion
• Dimensions: 306 x 226 x 34.9~36.7 mm
• Weight: 1.98Kg(1.78Kg with weight saver)

Build and Design:

The E200 has a simple uniform design, there is a checkering pattern through its black cover (it is also available with a pink cover) and is silver on the inside.  The top has a nice iPod Nano glossy look to it, and unfortunately like the iPod Nano it is prone to scratches.  It has a latchless lid which carefully shuts without too much force.

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The build is nice and sturdy, but not as solid as a laptop from the ThinkPad series.  The laptop itself is a bit thick for a 12.1” laptop, but this allows for it to take more punishment than a thinner one would.  You can choose whether you want to make it lighter by inserting a plastic travel weight instead of having the DVD drive in -- making it 0.2Kg lighter.

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Screen:

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The screen has minimal light bleeding on the bottom and top edges of the screen.  While the quality of the screen is acceptable, the brightness is something that could be improved, overall the screen just leaves you wishing you could crank up the brightness a bit more. Though a dim screen saves on battery life, I'd like to have a nice bright screen when plugged in at least.

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The lid protection is adequate, there's just a small amount of rippling when firm force is applied to the back of the screen.

Keyboard and Touchpad

The keyboard is quite large for a 12-inch laptop and the keys are pretty comfortable to use, even for my large hands.  The keyboard layout is meant for bilingual use, so it may be a layout many people are not used to.  The keyboard has no flex and the key travel distance is good.

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Although the keyboard is a good size, the touchpad is not.  It is far too small to comfortably use for someone with big fingers.  I would recommend using a bluetooth mouse as it is much easier to use than the touchpad.

Processor and Performance

The Pentium Dual-Core provides more than enough power for everyday use of a computer.  The processor includes support for MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, Enhanced Intel SpeedStep Technology, and 64 bit support. Each of the two cores shares 1 MB of L2 cache and has a 533 Mhz FSB.   This is not the processor to get if you want to game or do heavy editing as it is a lower end chip.

The system scored a 3.3 on the Windows Experience Index and proved to be smooth during office productivity usage.  The 120 GB hard drive spins at 5400RPM, which is standard on most laptops, but it performs pretty well for a 5400RPM hard drive.  The E200 includes 1GB of built-in ram clocked at 667Mhz.

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The notebook provides a memory upgrade slot on the underside which is free to add in another module.  This is nice as you do not want to be stuck with another 512MB DDR2 SODIMM lying around.  The other slot is hidden under the keyboard and must be disassembled to get to it, which is a hassle if you plan to upgrade to 4GB of RAM.

Benchmaks

Super Pi

SuperPi is a tool to measure relative CPU performance

Notebook	Time
LG E200 (1.66GHz Intel T2330 Pentium Dual-Core)	1m 31s
ThinkPad X61s (1.6GHz Core 2 Duo L7500)	1m 08s
ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7300)	1m 01s
Macbook Pro (2.4GHz Core 2 Duo T7700)	53s
HP 6515b (1.6GHz Turion64 X2 TL-52)	2m 05s
ThinkPad T42 (1.8GHz Pentium M 745)	1m 58s
Sony TX850p (1.2GHz Core Solo U1400)	1m 22s
Dell D420 (1.2GHz Core Duo U2500)	1m 57s
PortableOne UX (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7200)	1m 04s
HP dv5000z (2.0GHz Sempron 3300+)	2m 02s
ThinkPad R60 (1.66GHz Core Duo T2300e)	1m 26s
Lenovo C100 (1.5GHz Celeron M)	2m 19s
VAIO S380 (1.86 GHz Pentium M 740)	1m 45s

 

PCMark05:

PCMark05 is a benchmarking software which compares overall system performance. 

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
LG E200 (1.66GHz Intel T2330 Pentium Dual-Core)	3,200 PCMarks
ThinkPad X61s (LV 1.6GHz Core 2 Duo, Intel X3100)	3,610 PCMarks
ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo, Intel X3100)	4,153 PCMarks
ThinkPad R60 (1.66 GHz Core Duo, Intel 950)	2,975 PCMarks
Fujitsu A6010 (1.66GHz Core 2 Duo, Intel 950)	2,994 PCMarks
MacBook Pro (2.4GHz Core 2 Duo, Nvidia 8600M)	5,536 PCMarks
Vaio SZ-110B (1.83GHz Core Duo, Nvidia 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
ThinkPad T61 (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo, Intel X3100)	4,084 PCMarks
Samsung X60plus (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo, ATI x1700)	4,555 PCMarks
Asus G1J (2.0GHz Core 2 Duo T7200, Nvidia 7700)	3,427 PCMarks
HP dv2500t (1.83GHz Core 2 Duo, T7300 Intel X3100)	3,376 PCMarks

 

HDTune:

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3DMark06:

3DMark measures system 3D graphics performance, as you would expect, the LG E200 didn't perform so well with a low score of 357:

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Heat:

As a small computer, the E200 heats up quite a bit under heavy load with most of the heat underneath the laptop and some on the touchpad.  The cooling was well designed so not to disturb the position of the palms with too much heat.  It is very uncomfortable for this laptop to be on your lap.  This laptop has to be used on a table surface or placed on a cooler.

Noise:

Due to the heat this thing generates, the fan makes a lot of noise when it runs at high.  If you are not under heavy load, the fan does not need to run as much and is much quieter.  The fan is located at the top left corner of the laptop and will not interfere with right hand mouse usage.  It would have been nice if LG could had made this laptop run as cool and quiet as its E500 cousin.

Battery:

The battery life on the E200 under heavy load (wifi &amp; Bluetooth on, high brightness, and heavy processor load) came out to be about 1 hour and 40 minutes.  On a light load (Bluetooth off, lowest brightness, and low processor load) it came out to be 2 hours and 50 minutes.  This is disappointing as one of the features that LG advertises is high battery life.

Input/Outputs:

HDMI output is a key feature of this notebook, which allows you to connect this notebook to an HDTV with HDMI input.  This allows for video and audio to be transferred in one cable conveniently.  The drawback of this is that they get rid of the S-Video output, which puts people with older TVs at a disadvantage.

A nice feature on the Expresscard slot and 5-in-1 card reader is that they both have covers for their slots now, instead of dummy cards.  It just shows that LG is listening to their customers.  Webcam and a mic is included for web conferencing with the headphone and a mic jack is located at the front.

Front side view of ports

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Back view of ports

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Right side view of ports

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Left view of optical drive and vent

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Software:

The E200 comes with a barebone Windows Vista Home Premium installation with the exception of drivers and LG’s update software.  They actually provide bloatware separately for you to choose to install, which I found wonderful as I didn’t have to go through the hassle of removing it all.  The discs that come with the laptop were LG DVD suite, LG Intelligent Update (driver updates), and the LG recovery Center DVD (for reinstalling windows).

LG also provides a nice gadget for the sidebar which displays brightness, wifi connections, battery life, presentation modes, external monitor, and other modules.  I found this to be a nice touch as I could access all these different options in one gadget.

Conclusion:

The LG E200 gives you good value for your money as LG put some thought into the little things that people wanted.  My only problem with the laptop is the excessive heat and noise that this thing generates.  LG definitely could have done a better job of keeping this laptop cool and quieter.  I’d love to see a brighter screen also, but other than those issues this is a nice solid notebook that gives you your money’s worth.

Pros:

• Good Build and solid frame
• Good value for 12.1”
• HDMI output
• Option to put in a weight saving frame
• No bloatware
• Easily upgradable to 2GB of ram

Cons:

• The laptop makes so much heat that I can’t use it on my lap
• High noise when fan is on
• No S-video output
• Lower end Pentium Dual-core processor, would have been happier with Core 2 duo
• Battery life not up to par with LG claims

 

How is this compare to the D430?

 

Strangely enough, the E200 that was for sale at NCIX in Western Canada is $1000, but it also includes a Core 2 Duo Processor and a GMA X3100. It must depend on the retailer.

Anyways, I got a r405 instead, because it was cheaper and it turns out I didn't really mind the higher weight.

 

I have a question about a weight saving frame. Is it included or you have to buy it separately?

 

I have a a T5250(see sig), which is C2D hardly beats your lappy at PCMARK05, 3238.

 

Seems about right I d say. The new Pentium Dual Core are Merom based with the cache cut back.

I am actually surprised that more budget chips have such high performance these days - which is a good thing

 

Sites incorrectly state that it has a GMAX3100 and Core 2 Duo
It as Radeon Xpress 1250 and Pentium Dual-Core
Although you could consider the T2330 as a nerfed Core 2 Duo

 

Where did you purchase your laptop? Just checking to see you didn't get ripped off =)

 

Infonec
Trust me I never get ripped off

 

You're right I upgraded the drivers and got 403

 

Thanks for the review. Pretty decent performance, especially for a budget ultraportable. But I'd definitely recommend you to upgrade to 2GB RAM if you continue using Vista.

A bit too heavy for my taste and the design is not my cup of tea, but all in all it is more portable than a mainstream size notebook and I am sure it will serve you well.

The hard drive is actually the same as I have in my ThinkPad X61 and yours actually achieved a higher average transfer rate than mine.

Hope you enjoy it.

 

Actually it was running pretty decently with 1 gb of ram, but I did upgrade to 2. Honestly, for my purposes of school work I didn't need more than 1 gb.