15. ...but The Built-in Loudspeakers Are Flat And Tinny

The quality of the LW60's built-in stereo loudspeakers stands in stark contrast to that of the sound its audio chip can deliver. They are positioned so close together in the case that they produce only a barely noticeable stereo effect. In addition, their sound quality is more akin to an old-fashioned radio than a hi-def audio device. In our opinion, the LW60 would have been better served had LG chosen to use higher quality loudspeakers and a dedicated subwoofer.

On The LW60, Sound Comes From Other Sources, Too

Our experience with this notebook convinces us that its fan speed controls could also benefit from fine tuning - even in idle mode, the LW60's cooling fan is exceptionally active. This can only be a function of badly designed fan speed control software, because the air that issues from inside the LW60 is only lukewarm when the unit idles. Though the fan is barely noticeable in this case, one can't help but wonder why it runs at all.

Although the C4 power management mode is active for the CPU and fan control is turned in the BIOS, the fan is excessively active when in idle mode or when running ordinary office applications.

We turned automatic fan controls on during our testing.

When the CPU is heavily loaded, output noise levels climb to 36 dB(A); background noise levels in our testing environment were 34 dB(A). After three minutes, the noise level from the notebook case climbed to 37 dB(A). When we increased system activity with intense 3-D gaming software to load up the graphics subsystem, however, we observed no measurable increase in noise output. As soon as system activity declined to idle mode, the fan quieted momentarily to about 36 dB(A). After about three minutes, the fan slowed to its minimal operating level of 34 dB(A).

The ventilation slits beneath the hard disk on the underside of the case may help keep temperatures down, but also create another source for noise - they enable the constant sound of drive platter rotation to make its way to the outside of the case.

We also couldn't help but notice that the rotational speed of the optical drive never declines from a full-speed spin up that occurs at start-up, but that isn't necessary when using the Instant-on Player for audio CD playback. This situation is easy to fix in Windows, and would thus also be easy to correct in the player software as well, with a small investment of programming effort.