Scan 3XS Graphite LG10 review

With a built-in Blu-ray drive, you can make the most of the screen with Full HD movies. You’ll probably want to plug in external speakers, though. Although the integrated Onkyo speakers are loud, they’re quite tinny and lack bass. For generic Windows sounds and the occasional video clip they’ll do, but serious use requires something better.

It’s good to see a combination of SSD and hard disk in this laptop. The 128GB solid state drive provides fast Windows 8 boot and application load times, but still has enough space for you to install additional programs. The additional 500GB mechanical hard disk should provide enough space for most people’s files.

Of course, with a laptop like this there have to be some compromises. The biggest one is the laptop’s size. At 3.1kg, this is a seriously heavy laptop that you’re not going to want to carry very far. The brick-sized power supply and battery life of just 3h 39m confirms this. One advantage of such a large case is the range of ports available, with three USB3 and two USB ports providing plenty of expansion for external peripherals and storage. It’s nice to see DVI-D, HDMI and DisplayPort for connecting the laptop to a second monitor or TV, too.

There’s no getting away from the fact that the 3XS Graphite LG10’s case looks a little bit plain. Its soft-touch plastic finish feels nice, and the chassis seems well-built and sturdy, but this laptop isn’t going to win many fans for its looks.

We’re also not massive fans of the keyboard. While it’s fairly easy to get used to the slightly spongy keys and get up to a fast typing speed, it’s very annoying that the Windows key isn’t in the correct place and that the backslash has been moved next to the space bar. We’re guessing that some of these changes have been made in order to fit in the numeric keypad, but we’d have rather done without this for a main keyboard with the proper layout.

The touchpad is responsive and easy to use, but it’s quite sensitive. We found that brushing against it while typing would move the cursor, ending up with us typing in the wrong place. Fortunately, there is a keyboard shortcut to disable the touchpad for when you’re typing, but technology to automatically detect when you’re typing and ignore the touchpad would be better. Still, this is a complaint that can be levelled at all PC laptops.

It may not be particularly exciting from the outside and it’s big and heavy, but if you want a laptop with a lot of power and a high resolution screen to replace a desktop computer, the 3XS Graphite LG10 is a great choice.