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LG 13Z940-G 13.3" i5 Ultra PC, 8GB + Targus Backpack + Office 365 1yr $795 @ Computer Alliance

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First post let me know how I go, I think this link was only available from email newsletter I'm guessing it is not specific though. Been looking for a lightweight laptop, this isn't quite there for me but thought might be useful for some. Positives: very light for a 13" notebook, 8GB RAM. Negatives: weight means some sacrifice in battery life, 128GB SSD ain't huge and the cpu is only 4th gen but should still go alright.

From webpage:
Intel Core i5 4200U 1.6Ghz (Turbo up to 2.6Ghz) CPU, 13.3" IPS (1920 x 1080) Display, 8GB DDR3 RAM, 128GB SSD, Intel HD Graphics 4400, HDMI, No Optical Drive, Speakers, Intel WIDI Dual Band Wireless-N, RJ45 Mini to Standard Adapter, Bluetooth v4.0, 3 Cell 4000mAh Battery, 1.3MP WebCam, 2 x USB 3.0, 1 x Micro-USB 2.0, Micro-SD Card Reader, 0.98Kg, Windows 8.1 64bit, BONUS Microsoft Office 365 Personal 1 Year Subscription PN QQ2-00035, 16" Targus Terra Notebook Backpack Bag PN TSB226AU, ONLY WHILE STOCKS LAST!

Review here: http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/review/lg/ultrapc_model_13z940…

Edit: For those interested, the 13z940 manual from the LG site says: Storage M.2 SATA SSD (SATA3)

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closed Comments

  • +21

    1920x1080 display in a 13" ultrabook under $800 is enough for a +1 from me! Good find.

    • Not only is it 1080p but the product page states it is an IPS display, mmmm… nice buy!

  • +10

    Technically this is not an ultrabook, because 4th gen Intel CPU's must have touch screen to be allowed to be called Ultrabook. Personally I don't care about touch. I helped someone buy one of these not long ago, so I know this price is amazing. This thing weighs nothing, and the power supply is also very light. The screen is very nice, with deep blacks.

    People may be interested to know that the hard drive is upgradable, because the one I bought had been upgraded by the seller to 250GB (Crucial MX200, in case people wonder which drives might be compatible). I don't know for sure whether SATA or MSATA though.

    • -4

      Personally I don't care about touch

      That doesn't make sense

      • +2

        but it smells good JV. Unbless you're from WA, you probably get in less trouble for smelling rather then touching

      • +3

        That doesn't make sense

        • -1

          Most of the time HE doesnt make any sense anyway…

        • +1

          @AJAJAJ:
          JV is a SHE

        • +5

          @mmd: that makes sense.

    • Interesting about the upgradable HD. But how do I open it up? There are no screws so I imagine I pry it open?

    • That's not the same model. The model linked to in this deal is only an i5 with 128GB SSD vs the i7 and 256GB SSD in the reviewed laptop.

  • The bezel on the sides look pretty thin in the photos

    • +1

      yep, only 4mm.

  • +9

    I've had this about a year and it's great.

    Main downside is bad battery life - maybe 1.5-2 hours of continuous use.
    I've bought an external battery pack for long trips though.

    Storage issue can be alleviated by purchasing a 128GB/200GB MicroSD card and leaving it inside the laptop.

    Buying this laptop means there's a free update to Windows 10 as well.

    The LG support is pretty average as well. LG support is pretty bad in general though.

    • 1.5 - 2 hours cant be right unless the battery has died in the butt over that time.

      But reviews say 3-3.5hrs when brand new so thats kind of behind the times.

      • The review is for model with i7 which should be more power hungry than this one (i5).

    • How's the WIFI on yours?

      • +1

        When I first bought it, the wireless was absolutely terrible.
        But not long after they released a fix which makes it stable.

        The range isn't great though. i.e. it won't connect on a weak signal that my phone has no issues in getting.

        For my house and office it's fine. I have repeaters and a strong signal. But sometimes when I go travelling not being able to get a signal where other devices can, can sometimes be annoying.

        • +1

          Thanks for the reply :-)

    • +1

      I have the earlier cousin to this, the Z360, and have been more than happy with it's performance.
      But it does sound like your battery life is a bit short.
      One thing I noticed about my laptop is that it only charges to 80% unless you specifically tell it otherwise (in the BIOS or Windows).
      Could this be what happens in your case? Even so I would get more than 2 hours from 80% charge.
      Just checking by battery level now and I have used about 30% in one hour, and that's running an unoptimised linux distro at that.
      Windows 8.1 with the correct drivers was better when I tested it in the past.
      As I understand it, the 80% charge is better for the long term life of the battery when it is constantly left on charge.
      I only charge mine to 100% if I expect I'll need the extra life.

      • +1

        As a follow up, my Z360 just used about 70% battery in 2hours and 20 minutes (on less than 50% brightness).

        • What do you think it would be on 100% brightness?

        • @Pigey:
          Hard to say as I've never used full brightness because it's too bright for me.
          But for sure it will make an impact as it is the biggest drain on the battery.
          This is just a guess but in my test last night I reckon I'd still get 2 hours at least for a 70% drain.

    • If you're in situations where you need to use it more than 3hours continuously, I recommend this

      http://www.amazon.com/Coosh-20000mAH-Portable-External-Unive…

    • +1

      Buying this laptop means there's a free update to Windows 10 as well.

      That applies to any laptop bought within the last 3yrs though?

  • +2

    is this enough power to do 15 tabs or chrome or simple lightroom file managements/sorting (connected to 21" monitor)?
    deciding between this and NUC i5…
    NUC upgrade able and more powerfull but this one can be carried when travelling

    • +5

      I would expect this would handle you needs without issue. I have an Asus with the same chip and memory and use it as my work laptop plugged into a 24" monitor and it's solid. Often 10+ Word / Excel docs, browsers with 10+ tabs, spotify, Office 365 / onedrive syncing..

    • +2

      I have 28 Firefox tabs open in 3 windows as I type and no issues at all using an earlier cousin to this model.
      When I bought mine (a few weeks second hand) the retail price was about $1400 or so.

    • +1

      It benchmarks around 3200 on CPU benchmark, so it's quite a beefy CPU. Did a little test on my computer (which has a CPU that scores around 8000 on the benchmark) and I was seeing only 15-20% CPU usage, which equates to around 1200-1600 CPU benchmark score.
      RAM wise it was all using under 3GB (including OS), far less than 8. The tabs I opened were just random things like Facebook, YouTube, etc. All quite demending, though optimized (not poorly coded) sites.

      In other words, you'll have around double the processing power and RAM you need, according to my test and benchmark results.

      (Yes these are extremely rough calculations, though it's still accurate enough to show that the CPU should quite easily do all those tasks. GPU is a whole different thing, though I doubt it'll fall behind when dealing with simple 2D graphics..)

    • 8GB of RAM? How long do you intend to keep the chrome tabs open? There's also not a whole lot of room on the SSD for a paging file that matches or is larger than the physical RAM. I'd say no.

  • how much is delivery to perth?

    • It tells you on the page when you add it to the card, $28.

  • Ripping deal! Computer Alliance often have great deals like this - suggest everyone signs up to their newsletter.

    • +1

      lol

  • +3

    The bag is heavier than the laptop!

    Weight 0.99 kg 27 litres

    Good deal though 👍

    • +3

      Instructions unclear; poured 27L of water in laptop
      Send help

      • +1

        No, no, no, you are doing it all wrong. You need to put the laptop in 27L of water.

        • +1

          Oh cool the battery charges on hydro power!

  • -1

    4000mAh battery tho. Even the super slim Xiaomi Power Bank beats this by 1000mAh. Wonder why LG couldn't have included a bigger battery. Otherwise good find OP.

    • +19

      Inaccurate. That power bank is measured at 3.7V (most are), so effectively 18.5Wh. The battery in this is 4000mAh at 11.1V, which makes it 2.4 times the capacity of that power bank.

      • +1

        So its kinda like why the power banks can't charge the new Macbook?

        • you need to bump the voltage up to 14.5V, or get a USB-C capable power bank

  • -2

    2yo lappy for 2/3 RRP. Passed.

    • +9

      Link to another 1080p 13” laptop for same price or less?

  • +1

    How's the WIFI on this model? I've heard wireless connection issues mentioned somewhere online.

  • Can someone please comment on the battery life? Some reviews say about 5 hours and some say about 2 hours. I believe their versions use the i7 but with this i5 how long should I expect it to last? I need it to last at least 4/5 hours for uni.

    • +1

      An earlier comment of mine may help.
      https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/232687#comment-3429682
      If memory serves me, I think I did get close to 4 hours when new. however I don't recall if that was on full brightness or not.
      Full brightness is very bright on my laptop, I use something less than 50% these days.

  • Good price, but I can't stand keyboards that are not backlit

  • Awesome find! Great specs for the price!

    Must resist.

    Already have iPhone, iPad Mini and decent enough desktop.

    I hate Ozbargain sometimes.

  • +3

    Reasonable price for a 1kg ultrabook but this is a fourth-gen Haswell i5 from 2 years ago. It won't be as quick or efficient as the newer models, especially in the graphics department.
    Unless you're really after a 1kg laptop I reckon that the recent 14" Lenovo deals (1080p i7) are better.

    • +2

      I wish I'd bought that Lenovo! I fully intended to, just couldn't get back to civilization in time :(

  • What kind of speeds could you theoretically get off a microSD card? And is it sensible to use a microSD card as basically another drive? Don't think the 128GB (more like 100GB after OS install) SSD will last me too long.

    • +3

      Ended up taking the plunge, will pick up tomorrow. Was just too good to pass up (been hanging out for >=8GB of ram and 1080p screen). Thanks OP!

  • +2

    Still prefer my Dell XPS 13, but this is well-cheap.

  • +2

    for people worry about drive size, if you have NAS like me basically you dont store much on your laptop drive, you put all in the NAS and only use the laptop to do file managements, sending commands, download links, ….

    • Set me up wit NAS teacher..what do I need to buy?

      • +2

        synology… 3 bays minimum.. and fill up with 3tb hdd on each… thats all folks..

        • any requirements on the wifi router ?

        • @melfes: hmm im not expert in modem but i have normal adsl modem router i bought around $100, with 5 ports at the back and 3 antennas. it support nbn too but i use it with adsl+ tpg.

        • @eisniwre: Cool seems like just the normal will do. Cheers

  • +1

    This post makes me hate Ozbargain. I already have 2 and soon it'll be 3.

  • would this be any good for gaming

    • +4

      Nope. Any AAA games from the last 5 years will have to be on low-medium settings, and even then you'll struggle to get 20fps.

      That said, it should handle older games (things like BioShock 1 & 2) just fine. And 2D indie games won't be a problem either.

    • Short answer: no.

      Long answer: depends. You'd get maybe 50-60 fps with frame rate drops at more graphics demending times on lowest settings in games like League of Legends, CS:GO, etc. That could be bearable for some people. In any more demending games you've got no hope, even on lowest settings you're looking at 10-15fps max - unplayable.

      • How about like diablo and street fighter iv? … I'm not first person shooting, more to arcade fighting and strategy

        • Diablo is quite optimized so could be "playable", though it'd be fair from ideal.

    • The processor includes the Intel HD Graphics 4400 from 2013. No good for gaming. Can't really run anything graphics intensive post 2011.
      Could probably get away with CS Go or Diablo 3 on low-medium settings.

      If you can wait for a Skylake ultrabook, the newer integrated chips (e.g. HD Graphics 520) are significantly more powerful (~60% increase).

    • wait till USB-C laptops with external graphics card to play games

  • Is this going to be good enough for adobe CC suite? Graphic design/photo editing/processing?

    • +1

      The screen resolution and battery life is holding me back.

      Sticking with 2012 15" retina i7 MacBook Pro until I can find a replacement.

      • +3

        Why is the screen resolution holding you back?

        • I think she meant screen Size

        • +1

          @Jatacid: Typical Mac user runs for cover

  • +1

    Was going to pick up a Dell XPS 13 - but this will more than meet my needs and is almost half the price. Good find!

  • WIfi drop out puts me off

    • someone above said an update fixed it.

  • +1

    Took the plunge and ordered one. Thanks - nice deal! Was going to pick up Dell XPS next month but I admitted to myself this morning that this was sufficient for my needs.

  • Can this laptop support 16gb ram?

    • +1

      Pretty sure I saw in the LG manual it said 8GB max

  • bought one. thanks op

  • To overcome the average battery life, I recommend one of these

    http://www.amazon.com/Coosh-20000mAH-Portable-External-Unive…

  • +1

    Damn, I bought an ASUS Zenbook UX305FA during the eBay 15% off promotion a few weeks ago. Kinda regret it now considering this LG has 8GB of RAM instead of 4GB. The SD slot on the LG is also helpful to expand storage capacity!

  • +3

    Was able to get further discount at $750 plus $18 delivery because I didn't need the backpack or office 365. But this can only be altered by customer service.

    • god lord.. just when i thought "hmm i wish they can reduce if i dont want the bag"
      and office is only for a year, right? so i dont need them too

      tempted!

      • Yeah office 365 is only for one year. If you really need it down the track, Bing Lee on ebay sells it for $51 delivered. Backpack is way too big for the laptop so it's pretty useless for me.

    • +1

      so, u placed the order and then talked to them? or the other way? I am also interested if i can get rid of the bag and office365

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