Looks good but does not seem robust. Stay away if you can (LG R310- G.APRAG)

Member Name: Adrian

Product:	LG R310- G.APRAG
Date:	04/05/09 (160 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: small laptop, big screen, good display, good touchpad

Disadvantages: bad keyboard design, space key very flimsy.

laptop is ok but I have some issues I bought this as a replacement laptop after my Acer C110 showed signs of dying. The Acer has been the best laptop I have ever had and the new LG one, although nice, makes me wish I had again taken an Acer again.

First the pros:

1) I was able to get XP running on it quite smoothly;

2) Screen is perfect size

3) LG has all drivers to get XP running nicely after a bit of tweaking.

4) Light enough to be portable, and powerful as a desktop.

Cons:

1) Could have been lighter.

2) Space key is rather flimsy. Other keys seem ok but space is too delicate

3) It does not have any INSERT key!!! That is such a big disadvantage. The insert is FN-Delete.. Who is this genius who thought of it??

Next to the delete is the SCROLL-LOCK key. Hmm I wonder when was the last time I used this key. I dont think I've ever used it. Yet they wanted to leave a DEDICATED key with scroll lock?? LG needs some better interface testers. Anyway I managed to remap this key to insert in both Vista and XP using this nice application: keytweak

4) if you want to dual boot with XP, be prepared to go to bios every time you switch OSes. The problem is that XP must be run in IDE compatible mode. The XP SATA drivers from LG site give me an error during installation. At least its better than not being able to run XP at all.

5) LAN connection dies every now and then and definitely after sleep. The icon shows connected but it is unable to ping or open any sites. The only solution is to unplug and plug the wire or to disable/enable interface. This is quite an annoying problem but I am not yet sure if its due to improper drivers. I found this on both XP and vista.

6) Plastic seems rather cheap especially when I put it next to my friend's dell XPS of similar config.

The INSERT key thing is not surprising consider that LG has screwed me up before. I remember buying an LG phone and they forgot to connect the SMS application to the address book.. so every time I had to send an sms, I had to first write down the number. I had vowed never to buy LG again but this time I decided to give them a second chance.. but you fail again LG in usability!!!

I would give this laptop 4/10. The flimsy SPACE key is bad enough for me to not recommend it to a friend. The other features are ok. So if you manage to get another 5-6 spare keyboards (or space-keys) then it should last you 3 years.

Summary: avoid it unless you have a replacement keyboard lying around

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