By Patrick Avenell

LG Electronics will soon launch two convertible Windows 8 ‘Tab-Books’ and an Ultrabook PC through exclusive retail partner Harvey Norman. Current.com.au first revealed plans for these releases earlier this year.

There are only three SKUs in LG’s launch range of PC products, reflecting a narrow launch intended to establish mindshare in the category and to assess the consumer response.

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By entering this category, LG joins its great rival Samsung in offering the complete home technology solution. Home entertainment category manager Russ Prendergast said Ultrabooks, rather than desktops or full-service notebooks are being released because the “traditional desktop [market] is shrinking and consumers are looking for portability in their access to the world”.

The distinctively all-white LG Ultrabook (Z360, RRP $1,399) runs an Intel 3rd Generation i5 processor, has 4GB of memory and a 128GB SSD. Its 13.3-inch screen has a Full HD display with In-Plane Switching (IPS), greatly increasing the width of viewing angles.

Connection ports include USB 3.0, MicroSD and HDMI, while in-built Wi-Di connectivity means the screen can be seamlessly mirrored on compatible Smart TVs.

There are two options in LG’s Tab-Book range of convertibles. Both these units feature LG’s slide-to-reveal keyboard, an automated process unlocked by pushing a button on the side of the device. The screen then sits at around a 45-degree angle, allowing both touch and keyboard typing.

There are several major differences between the Z160 at RRP $1,499 and the H160 at RRP $999.

The Z160 has almost twice as much on-board storage (120GB vs 64GB), a much better processor (Core i5 vs Atom), twice as much system memory (4GB vs 2GB), and more connection ports, including USB 3.0. There is one advantage to the cheaper H160: its advertised battery life is twice that of the Z160 (up to 12 hours vs 6 hours).

Both Tab-Books have a full-touch 11.6-inch HD (1,366 x 768) IPS LCD screen.

LG Tab-Book from the side, with the slide release button visible.

“Overall, in terms of the specifications, we are going after the mid-tier market,” Prendergast explained. “The price point is bang on the money in terms of that mid-tier. In terms of the specifications, we are punching above our weight; we’re competing against some of the top-end models in terms of the simplicity of the connectivity, but also the hardware.”

Talking specifically about how these products will be showcased in-store, Prendergast focused on how much LG will be doing to market directly to the consumer, rather than relying heavily on sales staff.

“It is really important, in terms of our in-store communication, having some presence there. We are going to focus on toppers, information towers and laptop mats — good communication at the shelf-face.

“We are also going to utilise our display walls to ‘hero’ [the products] in store.”

This is important in modern retailing as there are so many products in any given store that it is fanciful to expect a sales person to know the details and specifications of every single SKU. LG’s highly visible ‘silent salesmen’ are reminiscent of the successful Japanese style emulated locally by JB Hi-Fi.

All three new LG IT products will be exclusive to Harvey Norman nationally from early July. We asked how long this exclusivity would last for.

“We haven’t really picked a date,” said LG general manager of marketing Lambro Skropidis. “Like anything, we enter into a deal and we put a product exclusively and then we assess that. The point to reassess that will be when the next products on the roadmap come out. We haven’t put a date on either ourselves or Harvey Norman.”