VERDICT:
Overall LG R410 gives decent performance utilising latest notebook technologies, be it in terms of processor, onboard graphics or even Wi-Fi, making this notebook future ready. A price tag of Rs 43,000 makes R410 definitely hold an edge over other notebooks like Acer Aspire 2920 or Dell Inspiron 1525 falling in the same price band.
The new LG R410 is one of the latest from the LG’s stable that is based on Intel’s Centrino 2 / Montevina platform, which promises better performance particularly in terms of computing and power efficiency. But does it really make a difference? That we’ll see as we go through reviewing this notebook.
The two tone lid and glossy white keypad and palm rest underneath it looks good and gives notebook a classy look. The speakers have been placed right under the palm rest in place of being placed near the screen which gives it a neat and clean look.
The display is a bright and vibrant 14.1 inch LCD having a native resolution of 1280 x 800 pixels and gives a comfortable viewing experience at various angles. The keyboard is good in terms of feel and comfort, plus the keys are big and shortcut keys are positioned well for easy access. The touchpad on the other hand is responsive, but some people might not like the design that much as the glossy finish tends to make fingers stick to the touchpad while working on it.
Audio performance is not the very best but it gives a good overall experience with its 1.5 watt SRS wow HD certified speakers, be it in movies or while playing songs.
LG has also included the removable Optical Disc Drive, also known as the weight saver, but very clearly a mere 200 grams of reduction in weight for a 2.4 Kg laptop is not much and that too by losing out on the optical drive.
When it comes to ports, R410 has all the standard ports like VGA, USB, LAN, and modem plus it also includes HDMI out which is becoming a standard these days replacing the good old S-video port. For Wireless connectivity this notebook features the latest Intel Wi-Fi link 5100 that supports a data transfer of about 300 Mb/Sec instead of conventional 108 Mb/Sec, but only with compatible hardware (Wi-Fi Routers).
Performance of the R 410 is good considering a PC Mark05 score of 4585, which means that this notebook good for most mobile computing jobs ranging from basic word editing to processor intensive tasks like video and photo manipulation. But considering the fact that it runs on the latest Intel Centrino2 platform with a processor having a 1033 MHz (FSB) Front Side Bus, a punchier performance was expected of it.
For graphics it utilises Intel’s new series 4 chip that has 10 Unified shaders as compared to 8 on the series 3 graphic chip by Intel. An improvement in performance was expected and R410 didn’t fail to impress by scoring 1349 Marks in 3D mark 05. Nevertheless the score is not good enough to play most game titles but yes the difference reflects in applications that require 3D acceleration be it in Photoshop or even a simple Windows Vista Screensaver.
Battery backup time of 2 hours and 7 minutes under test conditions on a 6-cell battery is not impressive at all as the Centrino 2 platform is meant to be energy efficient.
Overall LG R410 gives decent performance utilising latest notebook technologies, be it in terms of processor, onboard graphics or even Wi-Fi, making this notebook future ready. A price tag of Rs 43,000 makes R410 definitely hold an edge over other notebooks like Acer Aspire 2920 or Dell Inspiron 1525 falling in the same price band.