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LG LT20-188R - notebook + Tablet PCAuthor: Vitaliy KrylovDate: 10/11/2004
Today, you can't thrill anyone with a notebook PC - the prices are gradually going down, and some computers become affordable even to those who did not ever dream of that before. Especially nice is that notebook PCs of absolutely different, a bit nontraditional designs, are appearing. Take, for instance, the emergence of Tablet PC computers in the High-Tech world aroused a storm of positive emotions among potential buyers. However, the user can't do with merely one "tablet", and to be fully comfortable when working at the monitor, you have to buy extra at least a notebook PC, or even a desktop PC, a PDA and lots of other modern devices. Of course, that adds to the budget and the mass of your carrying bag. The way out is in merging these devices. In my view, such approach is in fashion today. Many manufacturers have already released "notebook + tablet PC" computers, but it's not so easy to create the "right" hybrid. Just see for yourselves - at functionality, that should be a full-featured notebook PC of "tablet" sizes, weight and thickness. Today we'll see how LG coped with that task having implemented the idea in its LT20-188R hybrid. Specifications
Package bundleThe box of LT20 is light, compact and stylish - neither faceless nor flashy like a parrot. Along with the thoroughly packaged notebook PC, inside the box there is one more box containing all whatever needed for work: a battery, a power adapter with network cable, a modem cable, additional full-sized digital pen (the smaller one is inserted in the notebook itself), a tissue paper for cleaning the monitor, a super-brief installation manual, a manual on Windows XP Tablet PC Edition and a guarantee coupon. No additional CDs or instruction leaflets were in the bundle. Design and exteriorExterior The stylish silvery notebook PC by LG proved to be quite small. In any case, it won't be a burden in your carrying bag.  The main colors are silvery and black, nothing redundant. All the connectors are positioned on the left and rear sides. On the left side, there is a connector for plugging in a power supply adapter, a card reader for SD cards, a USB port, an IEEE 1394 port, a slot for PCMCIA cards, and a couple of sockets for mini-jacks - audio input and output.   On the back, there are two more USB ports,  a VGA output to plug in an external monitor, and two connectors for plugging in an integrated modem to the telephone line (RJ-11) and to connect the notebook to LAN (RJ-45).  Besides, on the back there is a jack with a small digital pen to operate the computer.  That's it... as you can guess, no CD-ROM drives are provided. Clearly, the compact dimensions of the hybrid proved possible owing to that, which made it not only a notebook, but a tablet PC. On the whole, that's not bad at all - the only shortcoming is that you would need an external power source for the external optical drive. There is also another shortcoming - the computer is not shipped with an external CD-ROM drive, so you would have to buy it elsewhere. Perhaps, the manufacturer thought that such thing like a CD-ROM drive may be of use far not to all users. A strange approach, isn't it? What is really cool is that the number of USB ports is as many as three, with more on two different sides, as well as the IEEE 1394 won't be an excess, especially for plugging in a digital camera. But.. let's move on. Over the right side of the computer, along with the vent holes to cool the hot heart of the machine, there is a jack for the security lock. The silvery bottom of the computer apart from the rubber legs has special soft light inserts on the vital components.   What really appealed is that despite its hybrid character, the device provides easy access to all the interiors necessary for upgrades - to the memory modules,  and to the HDD.  I really liked the battery - it offers three indicators that light up on pressing the Push button depending on the charge level. 
 I intentionally left the front panel "for dessert".  It is all clear with the indicators - they are as many as six! This number is caused by that while in a regular notebook PC you could read information from LEDs inside the housing, here in the Tablet PC you simply won't see them.  Note the stylish geometry of the front panel - it is skew-symmetric. In making a notebook into a Table PC, the lines of the display cover will fully match the casing. A very smart design solution.  Under the cover I will tell about this transformation in what follows, but for now let's look inside the cover of the notebook.  While silvery is the main exterior cover, it is black inside. Looks very effective. Even the keyboard does not protrude - it is as black as the casing.  Under the same touchpad, there are two oblong silvery keys. The swinging key used instead of the mouse wheel is missing - not very good, but it works well for a hybrid.  The only speaker is fitted under the LCD - otherwise it would have been hidden by the screen whenever the device runs in the Tablet PC mode. Those six operation indicators which I mentioned above are made in a way facilitating the view form above, i.e. with the cover opened. It's a pity LG decided not to sign then from the top - the operation is not that difficult. All the control buttons, as they should be, are positioned around the LCD panel. In the bottom right part, there is Esc, a couple of "up" and "down" arrow keys, and "Enter".  In the top-right corner there is the EZ Menu, a button to start the Windows Journal, a button to rotate the image and the Power button.  Tablet PCSo, what has to be done to turn this stylish notebook PC into the tablet form? If some of you noticed it, the rear panel, or more precise, the upper strap of the rear panel has two hinges. Yes, it tips up thus doing two functions at the same time.  First, it is something sort of a leg to operate the notebook. It is very convenient to use the raised notebook when it is fitted on the table. Also, note that the manufacturer also marked all the connectors on the back side with care, with the leg lowered. Secondly, having lowered this leg you allow the upper cover rotate on the hinge at 180 degrees.  The last step in this wonderful transformation is fastening the cover on the housing in such upturned positioned.  To that end, engineers from LG equipped LT20 with an inverted lock which can be easily re-snapped from one position to another. 
 There is one more thing definitely worth noting is the rotating element on which the LCD is fastened to the notebook PC housing. The quality and reasoning of its make is above all praises - you should have seen that. Even with the lowered leg strap, the screen will never turn by itself - you've got to apply some effort to lower the protective plate. This aspect is very important in operating the device as a regular notebook PC while using a spoon. 
Operating the notebook PCBIOS PhoenixBIOS implemented in the computer is not abundant with tricky functionalities - hardware information, time settings, passwords, boot devices, and disabling the USB. Nothing of excesses. However, such scarce functionality in view of the hybrid make is quite forgivable. Why does the tablet need a too wired BIOS? Noise and cooling Noise? I really didn't hear it. The fan of the processor that is switched on at regular intervals (only when the computer is loaded with work) does not strain your ear at all. It runs so quietly that I would compare the sound to a whisper. Cooling of the device is neither worse not better than in others. Yes, it sometimes heats up immensely. And you've got to be very careful with the air intake holes for the processor fan - they target your knees precisely when using the computer in the tablet make. LCD screen In my view, this is a true masterpiece! Actually, there can't have been other way - while for the notebook the screen is an important part, it is the center of all for the tablet PC. The magnificent digital LCD panel offers maximum brightness (and the lowest minimum, the range is wide), high contrast, and very wide viewing angles. These parameters are a real joy for the notebook PC, and even more important they are for the tablet. All these characteristics are fine although the LT20 screen is a touchpad and is not simple. Keyboard I put an emphasis on this part, since I wanted to accentuate its superb quality. Not only the keys move without sway or gaps, they are simply good to touch. It's a real joy working with the keyboard despite the device is half a Tablet PC. The keyboard is full-featured, one used for notebook PCs, so if you tired of moving the digital pen around the screen, revert to the traditional way of data input. LT20 as a flatbed computerNow it's time to talk a bit about the digital pen and the specifics of using the device as a tablet. So, here are the pens (2 in the bundle). As we already said, one of them, the smaller, is fitted in a special jack of the computer. This is the pen which is always with you. This pen has a small key that emulates pressing the right-hand mouse button.  The other additional pen is much more convenient to use because of its dimensions standard for the regular pen. This stylus has an emulation key, but of larger dimensions. Besides, there are five replacement nozzles and a metal ring to facilitate the replacement come bundled with the stylus.  You can position the screen, or the windowed desktop, the way you like - there is a special turning program that is invoked on pressing a special key above the screen and turns the screen in 90 degrees increments. Another convenient thing of the Tablet PC is the EZ Menu and a fast-access button. Here, various settings are gathered (e.g., volume, screen brightness etc.), switching to other operation modes and whatever often necessary. Without a mouse and keyboard (which is specific of Tablet PC), this is really important.  The availability of such standard programs for Tablet PC like Sticky Notes,  Windows Journals,  on-screen keyboard,  does not need to be talked much. The Battery Miser 3.12, a program for the power-saving features of the notebook, merits a separate mention.  Unlike the classical ways to degrade performance for prolonging the battery life, this program does not do anything special. In fact, it is a power supply manager that controls all the power settings for the monitor, processor, HDD etc. What I really liked about it is the screen fade feature while the device is idle. Besides, the program displays a real-time graph of power, current and voltage.  The other convenience that the Battery Miser offers is the manager of predefined power supply profiles. By default, the program offers 10 predefined modes for various types of working with the notebook. General softwareDespite that no bundled CDs were found in the package, there is a very interesting application, LG GILJABI pre-installed on the hard disk.  As is seen from the GUI, that is a setup manager for all the drivers and some system applications. The manager is very user-friendly, intuitive and nice to look. It's a pity that was not recorded on a separate disk - that way would have been more convenient. We also found two pre-installed useful files in Adobe Acrobat format - User's Guide and Troubleshooting Guide. Both files give a detailed account of what hasn't fitted on the small color poster that comes in the bundle. Especially nice it was to see Norton AntiVirus 2004 as a bundled item. Well, does the computer deserve the name of a Tablet PC? - of course, yes! Both its software and ergonomics make operating the device an easy and pleasant experience. There is nothing better than a flatbed PC for Internet, diary, notepad. Want a notebook PC - just a few seconds and your Tablet turns into a Note. Performance testsIt is clear that the video subsystem of the hybrid is unable to cope with modern monsters, and it doesn't have to. Measuring FPS and score points in 3DMark is definitely not a task for LT20. It is intended for business and multimedia applications that do not require huge video resources. Anyway, that does not at all mean that you won't be able to play games on the notebook - unless you are a fan of Unreal, the standard integrated video Intel 82852/82855 GM will suit you quite well. We'd better turn to the overall system performance through running SiSoftware Sandra Professional 2003 and look at the results in the below table. SiSoftware Sandra Pro 2003
I must admit, the results really appealed to me. With this performance you can do some tasks although not so demanding. Tests of power-supplyThe power supply rating.. Most people are guided primarily by this parameter in choosing a mobile PC. What sort of a mobile computer it is, if it is able operating from the mains only? Besides, power-saving modes are neither for us as well! I mean the drop of performance during operation since many manufacturers are notorious for that. When you don't use the computer intensely (HDD disabled, the screen brightness degraded), that is OK with power-saving modes. But no more than that! That's why after running the battery in the "full charge - full discharge" mode and disabling all the power-saving modes together with the warning signals about the critically low battery charge level, there was started the Battery Eater 2003 program. The result is as follows: the time of offline operation - 1 hour 15 minutes. I must say, not too much. But keep it mind that the system was loaded to the full. If we follow all the manufacturer's recommendations on tuning the power-saving modes, including the software, the offline operation time amounts to 4.5 hours. Charging the battery from scratch to the full takes up 2 hours 15 minutes. SummaryThe cost of LT20-188R device in our configuration is about $2500. Is it little or too much for such a computer? It's up to you to decide. In my view, it is a bit too much. On the other hand, with this money you get a full-featured notebook and a tablet - two computers in one. That's just two full-featured computers with a good set of small utilities and the superb assembly quality in one casing! Isn't that a dream? The only flaw is the lack of an external CD-ROM drive in the bundle. It's not quite good without it. And the lack of software CDs in the bundle can't be regarded a shortcoming - there is no CD-ROM! LG also offers a model with a bundled DVD-CDRW, but it costs $200 more. You can purchase such a hybrid in the minimum configuration at about $1800. If you want to get an office computer, then you won't ever regret buying a LT20-188R. A high-quality, stylish and well-done computer will never spoil your mood with small and large flaws which are unfortunately common in various hybrids.
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