LG P300 Review

You said it... where's the trackpoint stick?? Why must the stick be relegated to business notebook models only.

P.S. I'm also looking forward to reviews of Dell's Latitude E...

 

I'm buying it and be jealous of me my southern neighbors , we have had enough sufferings from many many computer companies already. I am amazed and happy that LG chose Canada over the US.

 

I'm not sure if the P300 is on sale in China yet. Those listings on Taobao are definitely speculative sellers/scams...their feedback ranges from little to zero, which is a big no-no.

Did you also notice the version of the P300 they are "selling" has a T7500 (versus the new Penryn processors)?

 

*sigh...

I am starting to get jealous of Koreans who will be able to have this close-to-perfection notebook and will be laughing at us having stuck with some crap like Sony Vaio TZ Or XPS M1330

 

For a 13.3" notebook it sure packs a punch...some serious power! Puts all 13.3" notebooks to shame...

 

Luckily I dun live in the big US and A... unluckily, I dun have the money for it.. nearly €1500 euros.. still reasonable.

 

apart from lid design it a UBER-great offer.

Puts x300 to shame - lenovo design team bragged so much about "design challenges" they faced, etc. - and only things they could do was to put SSD, LED, FP reader, crippled CPU and price >$3K.
IMHO - thats not something very difficult to do - those technologies are already tested and there is a bunch of manufacturers who use one or another...

now to put both power hungry and insane fast CPU and GPU in 13" chasis, and still get not only reasonable temps, superb battery life but also LOW price - thats what I call real "desing challenge" !!!

I too want one

EDIT --

P.S. and what... they also give you free external CDRW/DVDRW drive?!? 8-O tsk tsk - hear that lenovo?

 

@Kevin: Very nice Review, thanks for it! I have one question: The temperatures of the Notebook you show on the pics under "Heat and Noise" are after a gaming session, or it gets so hot during office use (i won't hope so)?

 

Mildly warm during normal office use, pretty darn hot while gaming.

 

I'm impressed that LG didn't put a 8600m GS with a 64-bit bus. That was what I was afraid they would do, and then it wouldn't be much better than a 8400M GS.

Damn, it almost makes me wish that I was buying a new notebook today. Oh, there's a brown version available as well, with a T8300.

http://www.prisjakt.nu/bilder/bild.php?st=2&p=271669

 

link is not working. any words on the reflections of the screen? is it irritating or totally ok? please let me know. thanks.

 

I contacted Notebook.de and they say that the UK keyboard layout is available, although delivery time could be delayed by up to 3 weeks.

 

Saw it last night at futureshop, yes, a beauty and very fast. Vista exp base index was 5.1. Screen didn't seem to me any brighter than others, but really nice. But that price. 1800 CDN would buy both a new 9" EEE and a second bigger laptop with almost the same specs as the P300. A 15.4 HP 6700 outfitted with the P300's intel T8300, and a slower 256mb GeForce 8400M GS, is about $1050 CDN ($1350 with a blu-ray reader), although with smaller ram (2gb) and HD (120gb). One pays a lot for that portable power.

 

compared to all offers in this class it seems to be the best value for the money. sony sz-series, xps m1330, macbook air and lenovo x300 are all the same money or a lot more...

 

Looks like a very interesting notebook, but I don't think it's going to compete directly with something like the X300 (epsecially expensive in part because of the SSD). It does compete directly with the Dell M1330 though.

My concern about something like this (apart from build quality, which sounds like it's pretty good) as the first model to pack all these high powered components into a small space is how hot, loud and stable it will end up running.

 

Ooh thanks for that. However, my initial excitement has died down and now I'm back to reality, weighing the value I'd get out of this notebook (£1100 is pretty steep!). I'd also have to consider that german plugs are different to UK plugs, thus the need for an adapter (not even sure which to buy!).

 

3:40 hours:min is excellent. Just wondering if that was done with Wifi on?

 

Looks great, however the wrist rests warming up that much makes it seem like it still needs a little work to get rid of that heat.

 

That's a seriously sick laptop - makes me jealous, sitting here with my M1330.

The keyboard layout may look a little funky to some people - I think that may be due to the French layout - must've picked up this laptop in Quebec or something.

Three hours and 40 minutes of battery life is quite impressive, although it doesn't mention whether this was with Wifi or not, or whether it was completely idle or actually being used.

I'll have to drop by a Future Shop to see it in person - I'm not sure if I could deal with the lid design. Please make something more plain for folks like me, LG.

 

If they make a plain lid I will buy it, but right now it looks like a girl's laptop, which is great for girls - but I'm a guy at university.

Sorry LG, can't deal with violet sparkly zebra stripes. If they make it piano gloss black, THAT would be hot when combined with the brushed metal of the interior.

 

An 8600 in a 13.3"? That's seriously an impressive feat of engineering. I wonder if the heat will have any long term consequences on that thing, though.
Also, I'm curious as to whether the battery test was taken with WiFi on or off, and whether the notebook was actually in use or just sitting idle.

 

very nice review!

What fan speed did you use when you gamed or tested for gaming?

 

I read somewhere that its sposed to also be availible with a 8400m gs. If that model gets to 4-5hrs with all low, just for notetaking, its as good as mine

 

Anyone have any news on a different colored model? If those zebra stripes are gone or at least changed to silver or blue or something I will buy it.

 

It's also available with brown stripes instead of black ones.

 

Yep, I got the brown one with the 8400, never thought I'd long for the black zeebra stripes

 

Just got back from Future Shop and playing with the P300 they have on display there. I must say this unit is very impressive up close. Light as a feather (well 3.5 lbs light), very nice & bright, sharp, clear screen. It feels as good as my M1530 to type on with similar aluminum finish around the keyboard. Build quality seems very good up close to. My wife really liked it and she really liked the cover design, but the cover leaves something to be desired IMO. So I agree with the "looks like a girl's laptop" comments.

A 13" gamer notebook is a real sweet spot and I think LG did a bang up job, except for the cover. If they come out with a 15" version with a better cover... bye bye M1530 hello LG!

 

Would buy one but since it seems to lack a built in 3G/HSDPA/UMTS card its a no go for me.

 

U could always use a Express Card right?

Would any1 be so kind to c what the max batt. life is with this thing? With undervolt/clocking etc. , coz so far this is too good to be true, just like the m1330 was coz of its quality issues. Seeing how every1s talking about great build quality, that burden is outta the way. Now it just needs to give me 5 hrs of battery time *hopes*

 

An 8600M in a 13.3"?! You have got to be kidding me!

Granted, it is the GS version and not the GT version, but that's still pretty impressive for a 13.3"! I'd be all over this if they had a US-spec version without that 'zebra' pattern on the lid. Plus, I don't use an optical drive all that much (except for certain games), so I don't mind the external drive, either.

 

Kevin did you import this from Canada?

 

To everyone that has doubts about the design/colour of the laptop (zebra style or whatever):

It's really not as bad as you think or imagine. I'm already used to it and it's very unique and exclusive. I've always had the typical black/silver/metalic laptops and a change isnt that bad.

Feedback from people who's seen my laptop - the girls thought it was super trendy, the guys loved it for it's power and performance =)

 

Wow! All this for $1799 CDN!

MacBook Air-wha? X300-who?

 

Kinda, but more like sent directly to us from LG for a review. Not through the retail section of the company, just marketing/PR

 

Am I to understand correctly that the system comes with 2 x 1gb of ram but you can't add any more? To upgrade (to four gig for example) you would have to replace the two 1gig sticks with 2 x 2 gig?

 

LOL its impressive until the battery explodes in your lap LOL.... LGs batteries are known to explode.

 

Pretty much. All laptops(with a few exceptions here and there) have 2 RAM slots, and in this case, both are occupied by two 1gb sticks.

Mythbusters anyone? LG doesn't make batteries, they use batteries made by OEM companies, which also sells to other markets like Dell, HP, etc. I smell fanboy alert(or jealously)

 

I believe LG actually does make batteries. One of my M1330 batteries is labeled as an LG product.

http://www.lg.net/about/business/chemicals/chemicals_view.jsp

 

I might take you up on that soon. I'm just trying to find a good real life (non promo) picture of a black rose finish. Red wine looks horrible in my opinion.

 

It is on sale starting tomorrow for $1699 at FS - for the week ending next Thursday! It will be on the website tomorrow!

 

The P300 in Canada has the one GB of Robson memory (called turbocache) but is there any way to get it with the T9300 in Canada?

 

^nope.. its always possible to swipe it urself

 

I heard P300 in Canada can only go up to 2GB of ram and 2.4GHz but the one they are selling on the global LG website goes up to 4GB and 2.6GHz, does mean the P300 they sell in Canada can be upgrade to 4GB ram and 2.6GHz ?

 

Hey, how come Future Shop doesn't have the P300 listed anymore?

 

this computer is very very nice.

recommended!!

 

I bought the P300 last week - Got it for $1699. Awsome performance for such a small unit. Documentation is limited to external functions of the unit. I can't find any documentation on how to install RAM (upgrade to 3gig). Vista's Windows Experience Indez is rated at 5.1. Very litlle issues on setting it up (warning - Had to recover the OS after updating the latest Intel wireless drivers. I used the LG Intelligent update and the system became unstable. After rebuilding it I used the regular Windows update and it worked just fine).
The best I've seen the battery perform was 2 hours and 50 minutes (browsing 70%, some youtube 10% and spreadsheed 20%).
If anyone can guide me to the right place on opening up the unit I would really appreciate it.

 

I recall reading up on opening it in another thread but I can't find it no more.

person wrote just unscrew the keyboard on the bottom and lift the keyboard up thats it.

I'm a bit worried about warranty issues though. Take a look at the manual or warranty card and you'll see what I mean

 

is the cpu soldered or socketed? question to OP (if he knows)

 

Socketed...

 

Hi everyone!

I just bought this laptop today and so far have been enjoying it. This is my very first laptop and I'll need it for my year of study away.

I intend to use this laptop for normal easy day to day Words, surfing, TV watching, and I do plan on using it to play Oblivion but nothing beyond that -- I'm usually an adventure gamer person but Oblivion caught my eye-- and I'll be taking the laptop around me a lot i assume. External optical drive is not really a problem for me I imagine (just to give you some idea of my needs)

NOW. I've been asking around to see what "laptop savvy" people think about this laptop. So far from this forum I've only seen great ravings. But a friend of my friend was basically trashing it. This is what he said:

Windows Vista suck, WinXP is better
2GB of RAM is like regular requirement, not worth it
Harddrive is only 5400 rpm, very slow, plus Fujitsu harddrive dies a lot
external USB DVD-RW drive means the laptop itself is equipped with nothing. A regular DVD RW just costs $50
1280x800 resolution is VERY BAD. 1280x1024 is the regular resolution.

​

What do you guys think about these comments? I don't know too much about laptops so I'd rather keep my mouth shut. Should I concern myself regarding those points?

And then my other friend was saying that I should have gotten something like this cuz it's much cheaper:
Sony NR280ES 15.4" Intel Core 2 Duo 1.66GHz Laptop

what're your thoughts on this??