LG has announced the impending arrival of the first Blade series notebooks. Having a much slimmer profile than the company's first generation of slim notebooks, the two new models both feature new display technology and both are available with second generation Intel Core i processors, NVIDIA GeForce graphics, an optical drive and Wireless-N connectivity.
The LG P430 has a 14-inch, 1366 x 768 resolution LED LCD display that's just 4.5 mm (0.17 inch) thick and sports a bezel which is said to be thin enough to allow the notebook's screen to squeeze into the dimensions of a 13.3-inch laptop. The new Blade notebook comes in a choice of second generation Intel Core i3, i5 or i7 processors, up to 8GB of system memory and NVIDIA GeForce GT 520M graphics with 1GB of dedicated DDR3 video memory or Intel HD Graphics 3000.
There's up to 750GB of 2.5-inch HDD storage available, HD Audio, SRS Sound, Gigabit LAN, three USB 2.0 ports (one with charging functionality), an HDMI-out port, a 5-in-1 media card reader and a DVD Super-Multi optical drive. Bluetooth 3.0 and 802.11n wireless connectivity feature, and the inclusion of DNLA technology enables the wire-free sharing of digital content with compatible devices.
Video conferencing or web chat is made possible courtesy of a built-in 1.3 megapixel webcam. The 23.8 mm (0.93 inch) thick notebook weighs just 1.94 kg (4.27 pounds), including the 6-cell battery, and comes in a brushed aluminum finish in either blue or black.
The slightly thicker (24.1 mm/0.94 inch) P530 shares most of the same feature set, but benefits from a 15.6-inch screen at the same resolution as its smaller sibling.
Both notebooks run on Windows 7. The P430 should be available from the end of this month, with the P530 following next month. No pricing information has been made available by LG at the time of writing.