Laptops Arena

Even though the price of basic computing continues to fall, and a nice notebook can be purchased for historically low prices this year, there is still an active and competitive high end.

Notebooks like the Acer TravelMate 8204, Ferrari 4000 and 5000 series, MacBook Pro, ThinkPad T60 are some fine examples from companies looking to add some sex appeal to their lineups. I think the LG is an example of the latter.

LG's notebooks, available in North America for about a couple of years now, are generally sharp looking machines with competitive specifications. Until recently they have not had a flagship model though. Enter the S1.

This is a premium notebook, no question about it. I think it easily justifies its cost especially when stacked up against two of its closest competitors: Acer's TravelMate 8205 WLMi and the MacBook Pro.
In this league the S1 looks pretty good. The choice comes down to the LG S1 or the 8205 WLMi because of the large premium you have to pay for the MacBook Pro. I would take the LG. In my limited experience with the Acer TravelMate 8204 (one notch below the model listed above) I found its chassis to be subject to flexing and creaking. LG's S1 is built out of materials that are much nicer than the Acer (other than the carbon lid on the Acer).

Ferrari notebooks are left off the list because quite frankly the 4000 series models are considerably slower than the Core Duo notebooks listed above. I have not been able to get my hands on the new 5000 series, but I would bet on it being 15-20% slower in most tests. AMD is going to have to do something quick if they intend to compete with Intel in the high-end notebook market.

There are a lot of really good notebooks in this price range, and the two models above that I decided to pit the S1 against are just a couple of the better known models. The point of the exercise is to illustrate that if you are shopping in this range, you should put the S1 on your list.

LG has made an almost perfect notebook in the S1. It is well constructed, offers terrific performance and looks extremely stylish. Yes, you will pay a premium for this notebook but compared to its rivals it is priced aggressively.