BILLED as an entertainment notebook, the LG R410 has what it takes to deliver a high-definition multimedia experience on the move.

Under its hood lies an Nvidia GeForce 9300M GS graphics chip, a 14.1-inch screen, 24-bit audio and Intel's Core 2 Duo 2.4GHz processor - all of which work together to enhance movie playback and 3D gaming on a laptop.

The R410's 1.5 watt per channel stereo speakers are one of the best I have heard on a notebook PC. They produce sufficient bass and detail and, most importantly, no distortion when you play a DVD movie at maximum volume.

The built-in audio circuitry also helps to jazz things up with a range of ambience and equaliser options, plus SRS audio technology for virtual surround sound.

Visually, the R410's screen provides strong contrast for movie viewing, although there is a slight flickering when you tweak the brightness to lower levels. In any case, an HDMI port is available for those who want to hook the notebook to a HDTV for even greater clarity.

Given its Centrino 2 platform with a 1066MHz front-side bus, 2GB of Intel Turbo flash memory and 2GB of DDR2 memory, the R410 handles everyday computing tasks with ease.

By moving frequently accessed data to faster flash memory, you should expect shorter boot and wake times, plus longer battery life.

In reality, the boot and wake times are comparable to my year-old Macbook with an older processor running Windows Vista without Intel Turbo Memory.

The R410's battery life averages about three hours with word processing, software installation and Net surfing. Expect that to be slashed when you play games, videos and music, which will also hog plenty of room on the 320GB hard drive.

While the R410 has plenty of mobile computing muscle, LG could have done better in design and usability.

The hinge is too tight, for one. In fact, opening up the notebook requires you to hold on to the base to prevent the whole machine from toppling over.

The keyboard is a tad noisier than some of the Lenovo ThinkPads and HP notebooks I have used. As the Home key is placed to the right of the Backspace key, there were several instances when I hit the Home key by mistake.

The trackpad has the same glossy finish as the palm rest but a glossy surface also means greater friction when running your fingers across the trackpad, especially if you have sweaty palms. A matte surface for the track pad would have ensured smoother control of the mouse pointer.

Final say

The R410 is a powerful machine for work and play. A Blu-ray drive would have been nice to round up the high-def experience.

By Aaron Tan, a graduate student techie.

This story was first published in The Straits Times Digital Life on 31 December 2008.

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