14 DAY TRIAL // The end of the year is always a productive time. Not only for the IT manufacturers, but also for the designers. Ok, when I say "designer" I'm not thinking about clothes, but the trends that push the thinking of IT engineers forward are also a product of designers. For example I'd like to congratulate the one who came up with the idea of combining TVs and PCs in one single product.
LG seems to be the first to launch a product based on this emerging trend. To detail things a bit, I have to say that LG actually came up with a brilliant idea. The TVPC has all the components inside the LCDs case (something similar to the Macs) and comes with a large screen panel that supports PAP modes (you can even see the contents of the webpage you're browsing on the left half of the screen and watch TV on the right half).
With the touch of a single button it can jump from TV-mode to PC-mode or vice versa. And when I say button I'm referring to the one placed on the remote controller that comes as default and integrates al the TV controls but also some PC related stuff (such as browsing the internet). The TVPC can also be equipped with wireless keyboard and mouse in case you want to turn it into a fully capable media center.
Unfortunately, the PC-side is not that capable. The product features an INTEL Celeron M 430 CPU, comes with a storage space of 160GB HDD and uses an i945PM chipset. The graphics side is also pretty weak with an INTEL GMA950 onboard GPU taking care of the display. 1GB DDR2 553 of memory also comes as default. WiFi access and wireless keyboard with mouse-function are provided in the same package.
LG is planning to improve its TVPC line, especially some in areas that concern the PC part. They are said to offer more powerful integrated PCs but also larger LCD screens. The suggested price is 1,850,000(KRW).