Sleek, elegant Tablet PC notebook convertible
(by Conrad H. Blickenstorfer)

LG Electronics weighed in with a sleek and very elegant notebook convertible that clearly sought to provide the best of both the notebook and the tablet world.

The LT20, that was also co-branded as an IBM tablet, was as compact as the Toshiba and HP convertibles arounf 2005 or so, but weighed a bit less. It came with up-to-date Intel technology, good connectivity (3 USB ports plus FireWire), and a 12.1" wide angle display. The case was an attractive silvery outside and black inside, and very elegant.

Almost unique among Tablet PCs, the LT20 came with two pens, one standard size and one small like a PDA stylus. The sleekness and low weight of the LT20 also made it a good tablet slate, and one that actually had the Microsoft-mandated eight hardware buttons on the display side, as a tablet slate should.

At US$2,199 it was relatively pricey and $400 more than its non-pen counterpart, the Xnote LU20. US availability was always uncertain, and more so after the IBM/Lenovo deal took place.

Update 05/2013: A search on LG's website for "Xnote" yields nothing. We wish companies would not totally purge older products from sites; simply list them as discontinued.