LG's TVPC series of all-in-ones: expensive, short-term convenience

by Thomas Ricker, posted Dec 18th 2006 at 8:39AM

We've seen plenty of TV/PC combos from Japan, China and places beyond. Now, in a first from your daddy of consumer electronics -- South Korea -- we have LG's TVPC Series of all-in-ones. Details are light as are the specs for their first model out, the DA70-GPFANX. On the PC side of the house, you get a Celeron M 430 processor, 160GB disk and 1GB DDR2 memory, Intel GMA950 graphics, and unspecified WiFi all baked-in. But damn son, without the ability to upgrade unlike some slot loading PC/TV combos we've seen, any of that in-the-box convenience might burn you down the road since the LCD panel and tuner will likely be useful far longer than those anemic PC components. Still, it's enough power (until January) for checking email, working with Office apps, decoding DivX, and using LG's "invoke web" feature to automatically dig up information on the program you're watching. The LCD panel sports an 8-ms response, 500cd/m2 brightness, 800:1 contrast, and slot loading DVD drive all packed into a shiny black slab measuring in at 720 x 470 x 99-mm (28 x 18.5 x 3.9-inches). Switching between TV and PC modes can be done easily enough with a single button press on the remote control and/or wireless keyboard with integrated mouse -- no mention of PIP but it must be there, right? On sale in Korea for 1,850,000KRW (about ~~$8,500~~ $2,002) -- ~~crazy beaucoup-bucks~~ for what looks to be a 22-inch display. The madness continues next month with the introduction of beefier models touting time-shift recorder functions.

Update: Our currency translator has been fired, the kit sells closer to $2k rather than the $8k we originally quoted.

[Via AVING]

Read -- DA70-GPFANX (Korean)