LG P300 Review

by Kevin O'Brien

The LG P300 Express Dual Series notebook is a super light, high performance 13.3" notebook. This notebook packs a massive punch with its T8300 Penryn processor, NVIDIA 8600m GS graphics card, and high-gloss 13.3" LCD in a package that weighs roughly 3.6 pounds.

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This notebook has the following specifications:

• Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 (2.40GHz/ 800MHz Front Side Bus/ 3MB L2 cache)
• Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit
• 2GB DDR2-667 dual-channel RAM (2 x 1GB)
• 13.3" WXGA (1280x800) Glossy
• Nvidia GeForce 8600M-GS graphics card with 256MB dedicated memory
• 250GB Fujitsu 5400rpm Hard Drive
• No Internal Optical Drive, External USB DVD-RW Drive included
• Intel Wireless WiFi 4965 AGN (802.11a/g/n)
• Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
• Built-in 1.3 megapixel webcam and microphone
• Ports: 3 USB, Kensington Lock Slot, LAN, Headphone/Mic, S-Link, HDMI, VGA, SD Card Reader, ExpressCard/34
• Size: 12.4 x 9.4 x 0.87/1.38"
• Weight:
  
  • Notebook 3lbs 8.6oz
  • AC Adapter 1lb 1.1oz
  • USB DVD/RW 12.5oz
• 90w AC Adapter
• Warranty: 1 Year standard
• Price: $1,799 CDN available at Future Shop (approximately $1,800 US)

Build and Design

The LG P300 is a slim and compact design that could fit very well with the Macbook Air and Thinkpad X300. The notebook is very thin, and has no bloated plastic to round out edges or even out parts of the chassis. The screen bezel is very thin, with the overall LCD section being no more than a few millimeters thick. In terms of design it looks and feels a lot like a Fujitsu business grade notebook, not counting the colorful "red wine" lid design which looks a bit like a violet zebra.

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Build quality is nothing short of top notch. The chassis feels extremely rugged, with no flex or sagging anywhere but the thin LCD lid. The main body and keyboard surround is metal alloy, and the LCD frame is sturdy black plastic. One thing some advanced users will notice from the pictures is this notebook lacks any panels on the bottom for RAM, CPU, or HD access, which is instead located under the keyboard. In some ways the solid bottom section does reduce flex and creaking which might come from separate panels rubbing against each other when carrying the notebook around.

Below are side-by-side comparison images of the LG P300 next to the Lenovo ThinkPad X300.

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Display

The display is very bright, with clear whites and vibrant colors. Black levels are solid, with only mild backlight bleed at the highest backlight setting. Viewing angles are about average with colors inverting and washing when you start to change your vertical viewing angle. Horizontal angles are much better, without much color distortion until extreme angles.

My personal backlight preference on this notebook was setting it to 50-60 percent brightness for average use, and 100 percent when gaming in bright rooms. Below are images showing how the screen looks at maximum brightness from straight on as well as all viewing angles.

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Keyboard and Touchpad

This notebook had a slight culture clash during the review, as it had a different keyboard layout that I was used to. This specific model had a target market of Canada, and a few keys are located in other positions, or shaped in different ways. The keyboard itself though was excellent, having solid support and did not feel cramped at all when typing. The overall width of the keyboard is similar my ThinkPad, and key size was perfect.

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The touchpad is above average, with a decent touch surface and enough space for easy movement. Sensitivity was perfect, leaving nothing to be adjusted from factory defaults during the review. Still, you do have access to the Synaptics control panel if adjustments are needed. The touchpad button has soft and shallow feedback, and is a single rocker bar design. The touchpad has a right and left clicker, but both share the same bar.

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Speakers

The speakers on this notebook were more than adequate for listening to music, watching a movie, or playing video games. Treble and midrange was clear, and like the majority of notebooks bass was completely lacking.

The headphone jack provided clear and hiss free audio, making it a perfect alternative for private listening.

Performance and Gaming

The power of this 3.6 pound notebook was nothing short of phenomenal. With a 2.4GHz Penryn processor and NVIDIA 8600M GS this thing screamed compared to anything else in this weight range. I could play Portal at native resolution and at medium settings and have enjoyable framerates. One performance enhancing item I did not see on this notebook was a 7200rpm drive, but the system performed well enough where that downside was glossed over.

Listed below are benchmarks that give you a better idea of how well this system compares against others in its category:

wPrime comparison results (lower score means better performance):

Notebook / CPU	wPrime 32M time
LG P300 (Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 @ 2.4GHz)	32 seconds
Lenovo ThinkPad X300 (Intel Core 2 Duo L7100 @ 1.20GHz)	98 seconds
Apple MacBook Air (Intel Core 2 Duo P7500 @ 1.6GHz)	68 seconds
Asus Eee PC 701 4G (Intel Celeron M ULV @ 900MHz)	200 seconds
Sony VAIO TZ (Intel Core 2 Duo U7600 @ 1.20GHz)	76 seconds
Dell XPS M1330 (Intel Core 2 Duo T7250 @ 2.20GHz)	38 seconds

You can see from the results in WPrime the Intel Core 2 Duo T8300 processor is much faster than processors typically found in ultraportable notebooks.

PCMark05 is a benchmark that measures the overall system performance, so it considers the processor, hard drive, memory and OS as part of the mix.

PCMark05 benchmark results (higher scores are better)

Notebook	PCMark05 Score
LG P300 (2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8300, Nvidia 8600M GS 256MB)	5,767 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad X300 (1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo L7100, Intel X3100)	3,467 PCMarks
Apple MacBook Air (1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7500, Intel X3100)	2,478 PCMarks
Sony VAIO NR (1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, Intel X3100)	3,283 PCMarks
Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Core 2 Duo U7600, Intel GMA 950)	2,446 PCMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad X61 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	4,153 PCMarks
Lenovo 3000 V200 (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, Intel X3100)	3,987 PCMarks
Lenovo T60 Widescreen (2.0GHz Intel T7200, ATI X1400 128MB)	4,189 PCMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	4,234 PCMarks
Fujitsu N6410 (1.66GHz Core Duo, ATI X1400)	3,487 PCMarks
Alienware M7700 (AMD Athlon FX-60, Nvidia Go 7800GTX)	5,597 PCMarks
Sony VAIO SZ-110B in Speed Mode (Using Nvidia GeForce Go 7400)	3,637 PCMarks
Asus V6J (1.86GHz Core Duo T2400, Nvidia Go 7400)	3,646 PCMarks

3DMark06 graphics comparison results (higher score meens better performance):

Notebook	3DMark06 Score
LG P300 (2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T8300, Nvidia 8600M GS 256MB)	3,027 3DMarks
Lenovo ThinkPad X300 (1.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo L7100, Intel X3100)	475 3DMarks
Apple MacBook Air (1.6GHz Intel Core 2 Duo P7500, Intel X3100)	502 3DMarks
Sony VAIO NR (1.5GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T5250, Intel X3100)	504 3DMarks
Toshiba Tecra M9 (2.20GHz Core 2 Duo T7500, NVIDIA Quadro NVS 130M 128MB)	1,115 3DMarks
Sony VAIO TZ (1.20GHz Core 2 Duo U7600, Intel GMA 950)	122 3DMarks
HP dv2500t (2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T7300, NVIDIA GeForce Go 8400M GS 128MB)	1,055 3DMarks
HP dv6000t (2.16 GHz Intel T7400, NVIDA GeForce Go 7400)	827 3DMarks

HDTune measures the storage performance of a PC, the numbers for the P300 are typical for your average 5400 RPM hard drive:

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Ports and Features

The P300 has an excellent selection of ports for such a compact notebook. The only obvious omission in terms of ports is the lack of a FireWire port. Rather than provide FireWire, LG decided to include the "S-Link" port. S-Link is a USB file transfer protocol using a standard Mini-USB connection. This is great for people who need to sync files between a laptop and a desktop or workstation, but average consumers probably would find a FireWire port more useful for uploading digital video from a camcorder.

Now that the S-Link rant is out of the way, here is an overview of the ports:

Front: SD Card Reader

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Left: Kensington Lock Slot, 2 USB, ExpressCard/34

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Right: Volume Switch, Headphone/Mic, S-Link, 1 USB, HDMI, VGA, LAN, AC Power

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Rear: No ports.

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Heat and Noise

For browising the web or other simple activities the LG P300 warmed up to mild levels, and was fairly tame. When gaming on the other hand, the notebook got very hot. Being such a small notebook with a very powerful processor and graphics card, the heat had nowhere to go but out the vents and into the thin metal case. Most of this heat would go away after your session of gaming was complete, but it would be very toasty during gameplay.

Below are images with the temperature readings listed in degrees Fahrenheit:

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Battery and Power

The stock configuration has a six-cell battery, without an option for any extended life battery. With screen brightness at 70 percent, and the notebook set to the "balanced" power profile, the system managed a bit more than 3 hours and 40 minutes. I found this to be more than acceptable given the notebooks crunching capabilities.

External Drive

To cut down on weight, the LG P300 opted to remove the optical drive from the notebook, and include a free external drive instead. The drive they give you is very nice. In fact, this drive is better than anything we can find on the US market. It is a slim drive, black glossy colored, and has a retractable USB cable built into the case. This means no wires to worry about when traveling, and the total package is easy to store. For consumers worried about this notebook having no internal drive, unless you frequently watch DVD movies on a plane, I would personaly rather game or use digital movie files than worry about DVDs.

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Conclusion

This notebook is on the top of my list of notebooks I wish I could buy. Unfortunately LG is not offering this notebook for sale inside the USA at the time of this writing. For a small almost-ultraportable sized notebook, you get more than enough performance to replace a desktop, and enough gaming capabilities to play most games on lowered detail settings. In my opinion this notebook scores much higher than the X300 or MacBook Air ever could, and could smear them across the floor in terms of raw power. Combine this with great build quality, and you have a notebook that has no problem flying off the shelves.

Pros

• High build quality
• Excellent system and gaming performance
• Bright and Vibrant LCD

Cons

• Not currently for sale in the USA
• Runs hot while gaming

 

wow, thats wow

 

I honestly have to say (in terms of an all-around great consumer notebook) this is the nicest 13" form factor notebook we have ever had in our office.

If I was just an average Joe shopping for a lightweight 13-inch notebook and had to choose between the LG P300, ThinkPad X300, and MacBook Air ... I'd pick the LG P300.

If I was a business person I'd still pick the ThinkPad X300 with SSD over this, but the X300 isn't a consumer notebook.

 

A 8600 in a 13.3?

That's awesome.

 

wow,a great notebook,but the price is to high i think,because it doesn't have ssd,but again a great notebook!

 

Thanks for a great review and i must say i'm really impressed of this baby!
If they make a 14" version with same specs, and maybe a 9500m gs im buying.

Finally starting to find some great notebooks.

 

My sentiments exactly.

Even most 14" notebooks only get the 8400M GS. For a 13" with 8600 GS, that's quite something. And for something this powerful to have a battery that lasts as long as the X300's, with its slow Low Voltage processor, integrated graphics, and LED display? WOW. Just wow.

It's quite expensive, though. But the value is there, really there.

 

Nice review. The specifications are pretty astonishing for it's size. Wish they offered it here in the states and wish I had the cash to buy it

 

Here is an inside shot of the P300, to give you an idea of how much space is used inside the notebook, and why an internal optical drive wouldnt really work.

 

frikin awesome.

I think AW should pick up this badboy and throw it into their line-up... this thing has some SERIOUS marketing issues: it NEEDS to be marketed as "the most powerful and only full fledged 13" gaming laptop"

other than us geeks on NBR (and other hardcore computer communities), no one is going to know about this thing (at least in the US). That's a shame.

 

Thanks for this review. Impressive performance from such a small package.

But does it really have a 120W PSU? - they are more commonly associated with 17" DTRs. Lugging such a big PSU would put me off.

Can you check the travel weight: Computer + ODD + PSU & power cables?

John

 

YEAAAAAAH. my prayers were heard. thanks!!!

 

noise level would be also very interesting.

 

$2800 USD?

You can pick up this baby for $1799 Canadian at local stores. I've seen it in person at local Future Shops and its an amazing little thing.

In addition, the Canadian keyboard's left shift button is a size of a regular key button

 

Shhh, I multiplied the wrong numbers, its 90.06w

5lbs 6.2oz is the total travel weight (weights were outlined in the spec area)

 

LG just contacted us about a price update for Canada and we did a new currency conversion for the US ... nice.

 

The new 8th wonder of the world?!? to LG!

 

Higher resolution would be nice but it's amazing that LG was able to put that processor and graphics card in there and still get 3 hours 40 minutes of battery life? Why can't more manufacturers do this or what is using all the power?

1800 is not that much for what you get.

 

it is confidential?

 

Wow impressive performance, I wonder though if its available in Singapore?

 

The review has been updated to reflect the new price.

 

I really hope the 8600 in a 13.3" becomes a trend for notebook manufacturers.

 

Reading more and more reviews, I am seriously thinking Lenovo X300 got manufacturing defect that it must be leaking current somewhere like puntured tube. 3+ hrs on a T-Series and 8600?? Unbelivable.

How is this even remotely possible to win the backup time competing against LV vs T cpu, SSD vs 7200 rpm HDisk and X3100 vs 8600? Lenovo, its already time to revise X300 and bring X310.

 

my apologize,didn't noticed that!

 

http://www.engadget.com/2008/01/07/lgs-p300-u-13-3-inch-laptop-headed-for-the-states/
Hope it comes soon...great review.

 

I saw a 1st glance at this baby a week or so ago and my interest was peaked. Excellent review and a stellar product from what we can tell so far. Kudos to LG for brilliant strategy. Someone mentioned earlier about marketing the P300 the right way. I agree 100%. LG needs to be targeting the young business or college crowd. A small, light, stylish notebook like this would answer many prayers. Price point is right on par with what little competition this unit has, it just needs a big push.

 

very nice review Great looking and feature packed!

 

This absolutely puts the XPS 1330 to shame. Looking forward to this hitting the US before Montevina. Otherwise, I hope you're taking notice Dell...

 

excuse me while I:

1) Run to Future Shop to check this thing out.
2) Sacrifice a lamb to it's godliness.
3) Spend the next little while in jail.

 

I bought the P300 about two weeks ago in Sweden, I was going to buy the Dell XPS 1330 but got a fast glimpse of the P300 so the chocie was easy. I got mine with the T9300 and 1GB of robson memory as well. It's fast! I just love it! I dont mind the external DVD at all, hardly used it. And there is absolutly no bloatware what so ever! Impressive.

 

Too bad this is not available in the U.S.

 

to the testers and owners. would you mind to give us an idea about:

1. Reflections of the display (less because of LED or "normal). Perhaps compared to MacBook/MacBook Air/Sony SZ-Series (if possible)?
2. Noise of HDD/fans (Loud, normal or silent, i know there is this "fan-control" but in the normal modus)?
3. Is there any whining with the penryn processor?

Many thanks.

 

SOOooo close to perfection.

Really?... I'm all for edgy design...but at least roll it out with 1 solid colour option.

 

As I wrote in the other P300 Thread: The fan is very, very quiet! You can set the fanspeed by pressing Fn + F11. There are three modes: Cool, normal and quiet. Even on cool mode, the P300 is more quiet than my old Sony SZ6 Notebook and it is more quiet than the XPS1330 from a friend! At normal it is very quiet and on silent you can only hear the HDD.

This Notebok is the most quiet Notebook I have in my hands within the last years!

I really love it!

 

looks sleek, professional, even with the design on the back. And I guess the way its built helped with getting an 8600 in there, if the motherboard is on the bottom of the laptop (as opposed to screwed to the top just under the keyboard), the hot air is less likely to circulate around components (as it travels up) but that may have helped attribute to the warm operating temps though since much more heat then normal would come up through the wrist rests + keyboard

 

I have to say that this is one of the more unique and nicer notebooks I've seen come through the office in a while. LG did a nice job on all fronts here. No optical drive is the only downside of course, but if that doesn't bother you it's definitely worth consideration.

 

Doesn't seem like much of a downside either, since they throw in a very nice, free one in with the laptop. Though may put off business users who travel a lot and don't want to carry an optical drive around with them, which would just lead onto the X300

 

I know. But I just wanted to hear opionons from other owners, (nicht boese gemeint). Reflections is also a big thing for me, since I never wanted a glossy display but I really considering buying this one in 1 or 2 weeks.

 

Very impressive. I think they'd do great in the US if they actually marketed it. I've been happy with LG cell phones for years.

 

great review!

the Macbook Air, Lenovo Thinkpad X300, Dell XPS M1330 are so lucky that LG P300 isn't sold in the U.S. ........

 

I like that resolution on the X300, wish all 13" notebooks had that option.

 

can anyone that knows either korean or chinese be kind enough to contact some of these sellers to see if they ship to North America?

Various configs in China
http://search1.taobao.com/browse/0/...-------40--commend-0-all-0.htm?at_topsearch=1

Various configs in Korea
http://search.auction.co.kr/search/...%C7%D5%B0%CB%BB%F6&txtKeyword=lg+p300&x=0&y=0

 

Just got back from my local Future Shop...

I had to take a look at this lappy....

Lets just stay, I wish I could get my money back for the Dell XPS 1330! I know its not fair, considering I've had it for 6 months now, but this machine is MUCH better...

Here are my impressions...

Looks ALMOST identical to the Black XPS 1330 when it is open with the brushed metal around the keyboard... If anything, they LOOK like they occupy the same footprint, with the LG perhaps a hair or two thicker at the front...

Overall weight of this machine is LIGHTER than the 1330...It is noticeable, and it feels almost as easy to lift as the MB Air...

Noise hard to say, didn't hear a fan (though its a loud store)...

Build-quality... materials are NOT as good as the 1330, but they are WAY BETTER INSTALLED....none of the fit n finish issues that the 1330 has.... It has a some-what plasticky feel, but I totally didn't mind...

Keyboard was easy to type on...

SPEED SPEED SPEED! This thing FLIES! Fastest machine in the 13.3" category by far...

I want one...

 

looks powerful and fast , it is amazing how powrful it is for the size.

But the design is horrible like an HP-wanna-be.

Also, I am afraid it will probably get really hot because of the GPU in the size of the 13.3.
I also think the heat generated by the GPU may fry out the MB like the 8600GT in my friend's ASUS F8SV , which died in 4 months because of the heat ..............

Still , I think this is what I've been looking for if it is available in my area.

I have never seen a LG or a Samsung lappy here so I guess it is not available.

I also think the price is decent for what it is.

I would like to know about LG's warranty policy , especailly how it compares against the HP's free accidental damage plan.

HP gives us free 1 year insurance in ASia with pick-up and return service,but the LG looks much more powerful than the HP DV2700T with the same processor because of LG 's choice ofthe more powerful GPU.

 

Oh, I thought I'd add.... one of the things I don't like about the LG is the touchpad left and right buttons... they're one bar and difficult to double-click on... (but i usually use an external mouse, so no biggy)...

 

This notebook looks better in hands than on photos. Nothing great - M1330 is better maybe - but not horrible. And it doesn't look "like HP-wanna-be". exactly. Less glossy, more sharp shapes.
I used P300 with T7700, one of the hottest Core 2 Duo - temperature was normal. But I always use cooler stand from Zalman...

P300 has some design bugs.
1. Steel-like stripe on rear side of the lid is not solid - it is thin metal panel glued on plastic. It came unstuck in my sample - small unpleasent detail.
2. Also I've observed problems with glossy surface on the lid. It became slightly buckled very fast.
Maybe these are problems of my test sample... I want to beleive in it :

Somehow or other, I liked this little guy. Possibility of playing Crysis on laptop that weighs only 1,6 kg is great in itself.

 

I want to return my 6 months old FZ too..Granted, it was cheaper even with 3 year accidental warranty, but....

Forget about MBP, forget about SZ, forget about X300. This is the best mainstream (meaning, not desktop replacement, not rugged, not ultraportable) laptop now...And that is even with left-shift shrunk and that stupid zebra thing!

 

I've just noticed the Canadian keyboard matches our UK keyboard pretty much (with a few swapped places of course). Man I wish Futureshop shipped internationally

 

Lamb? I'm offering a whole herd! Just in time for my laptop financing deadline I'm in loooooove! If only it had eSATA and Firewire it would have been perfect... ah well, there we have the use for that ExpressCard slot.

PLEASE tell me where I can buy this in online shipping to the EU!

 

The one knock on the Thinkpad X300 is the lack of processor speed. I'm not into the "consumer laptop" genre, but this little model could definitely tempt me.