LG X110 netbook
Sexiest rebadged MSI Wind yet
Review The X110 may mark LG's first foray into the netbook market, but it's really an LG-branded version of the well-established MSI Wind, this time with an HSDPA 3G modem added. And it's that add-on that really makes this netbook stand out, since it means you can slip in a SIM card and access the internet from virtually anywhere.
LG's X110: Wind again
Any laptop can do this already of course with the addition of a 3G dongle from any of the networks, plugged untidily into the USB port. But it has to be said there's an aesthetic simplicity to internal option that's very appealing.
Whether or not you feel it's worth paying for is, of course, another matter. The X110 is currently on sale online for a credit-crunchtastic £299 without the 3G option, but if you want that 3G connection you'll need to invest in a 24-month contract through the likes of Phones4U.
If you go for the contract the actual netbook is free, but you'll still be shelling out at least £720 over the cost of two years - a full year longer than the standard warranty - and more if you exceed the download limits of the monthly contracts from Vodafone, Orange, O2 or 3, which range from 3GB to 5GB. These sort of limits should be fine if you're only planning to do a bit of surfing and checking emails, but can soon clock up if you're downloading video or audio.
Vodafone is currently offering the fastest connection – full HSDPA with up to 7.2Mb/s download speed while those from the other networks are offering between 2.8Mb/s and 3.6Mb/s. Real-world speeds are, of course, well below these figures. But don't forget the transfer limits: Vodafone may be faster, but it has a 3GB monthly data cap, while 3 offers up to 5GB, but with only 2.8Mbps – horses for courses.
Certainly the cutest Wind yet
With a bit of careful network management, however, risking your 3G download limit shouldn't be necessary. The X110 comes with 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and a 10/100Mb/s Ethernet port so you can leave that 3G connection for emergencies, and do any heavy downloading you might need across a proper broadband connection.
COMMENTS
It's not a netbook.
It's a shrunken laptop. A netbook would be half the price and use Google docs to store everything in the cloud. Surely that's the definition of a netbook.
pink
I think lots of these will be bought in the run up to Feb 14th...
And the users of these machines will hardly care about the specs as long as it has a 'Start' button and is shiny & pink.
My wife already wants one. Honestly, I despair sometimes.
Where's the IT angle merely because it hardly matters to my wife, and presumably others.
My 2p
>"Why no review of the Samsung NC10 yet?" - EdWeb
-Indeed. Especially when it's widely accepted as being the bees knees by everyone. "Samsung haven't sent us one yet" is a poor excuse.
>"The X110 is currently on sale online for a credit-crunchtastic £299 without the 3G option" - El Reg
-£299 is definitely not buttons and washers but the [superior in every way?] Samsung NC10 can be had for £299 from Amazon too. Which surely reduces the relevance of (yet) a(nother) rebadged Wind.
>"It's almost pocketable at a mere 264 x 177 x 30mm in size and 1.2kg in weight." - El Reg
-Like pretty much every other aspect of this machine. This is a thouroughly average spec compared to competitors that have been available for 6 months or more. Why the overly gushing text and fairly weighty final percentage for a thouroughly average (and thus, at £300+, overpriced) machine? Quite comical in light of your recent article on UGC vs 'expert' reviews.
>"Aspire One!!!" - Mr & Mrs Johnny & Jenny Predictable, every hour, on the hour.
-Yes. If 2 hours of battery life (and upgrading the innards being a b!tch) is sufficient for peoples needs. Which for most folk, it isn't. So you need to drop £50+ on an extended life battery that'll stick out the erse of the AA1. And by then you'll have spent more than you would've on an EEE 901 or similar.
>"Linux?!" - Mr & Mrs Johnny & Jenny Predictable, every hour, on the hour.
-Linux: So good, they couldn't give it away, eh? Which is maybe a shame for the undoubtedly noble cause of (F)OSS, but them's the breaks and £20 for a copy of XP is hardly the rip-off of the century, all told. Admittedly there are a few proprietary stumbling points, but the iron MS grip is definitely loosening in many key areas, with the ever increasing uptake of cross platform apps like Firefox, OOo, Gmail, etc. If it really irks you, send off for your XP EULA refund - which, at the end of the day, will be approx. £7.39 at best). Linux is like the Lib Dem party - all worthy etc. Not gonna be a dominant force any time soon though. But very useful as a pressure group of sorts for snapping at the heels of the big boys and keeping 'em in check.
>"Bar Charts Need Work" - AC@17:03
-Agreed. Not just the colours. The arrangement of the legend is counter-intuitive (it should be arranged so that sequentially, the legend corresponding to the bars from top to bottom are read in the legend as column 2 following column 1, rather than the legend being arranged in sequential rows). And why is the EEE 901 (as a onetime benchmark in the eyes of El Reg, non?) not included in the results?
Bar Charts Need Work
In this day and age when nobody is running 8 bit displays anymore, why do we have bar charts with 2 or 3 very similar shades of the same colors? Isn't the whole point to make the colors as distinctive as possible? I'm sure there's some reason why this didn't happen, it just wasn't a good one.
Heard of a VGA out?
>> many web pages appear cramped and cut off in their prime – no one is likely to use this as >> a replacement for their desktop. (from the article)
It has a VGA out, so why wouldn't you use it as a replacement for a desktop - provided you kept your monitor and the machine was powerful enough?
