Seventeen! This laptop has a 17-inch screen. It also weighs 2.98 pounds.
Brink Score
Its really unusual to see a 17-inch laptop under four pounds– not to mention under three. Couple that with a $1,499 starting price (our model presently goes for $1,699), and youre taking a look at a pretty specific niche target demographic. For that specific niche, though, this laptop computer tracks.
LG hasnt transformed the wheel; the 2020 Gram 17 is largely an iterative update to the 2019 design. The business has made some essential improvements: the chassis and keyboard design have actually received minor tweaks, the battery is larger, and theres a new 10th Gen Core i7-1065G7 under the hood. The enormous screen stays the singular factor to purchase this laptop computer, so you ought to only spend $1,699 on this if youre sure thats what you want.
7.5 out of 10
I often thought the Grams panel was too big. If youre not often working in split-screen mode, youll likely be leaving some of the panel unused– and at that point, you can get any number of 15- and 16-inch models for a lower cost.
Excellent Stuff
You arent sacrificing portability for that screen space, though– not even close. At 2.98 pounds, the Gram 17 is remarkably light for its size. Its a plume compared to the MacBook Pro 16 (4.3 pounds), the Dell XPS 17 (4.65 pounds), and the HP Envy 17 (6.02 pounds). However its also lighter than many smaller sized computer systems, including the Dell XPS 15 (4 pounds), the 15-inch Surface Laptop 3 (3.4 pounds), and the HP Spectre x360 15 (4.64 pounds). Because you expect it to weigh more, I believe the massive chassis (14.98 x 10.34 x 0.69 inches) makes the Gram feel lighter than it is. Carrying it seems like carrying absolutely nothing.
LG has actually updated the keyboard and numpad.
Its hard to put into words simply how big a 17-inch screen is. The panel has a 2560 x 1600 resolution with a 16:10 aspect ratio– so not just is it broad, however you get an extra little bit of vertical area compared to lots of popular laptops. Utilizing the LG Gram 17 feels more comparable to utilizing a desktop than it does a 13-inch 16:9 screen. Its a ton of area. I basically always had two (and even 3) things open at when and never had to zoom out.
Its also a nice-looking panel. Theres a little glare, however I had no difficulty working in intense environments with the screen around medium brightness. Colors looked great (the Gram covers 99 percent of the sRGB gamut and 74 percent of AdobeRGB), and details were crisp. Videos are, obviously, huge. I viewed half an episode of Dark on the Gram, and the characters looked mini when I finished on a 13-inch device.
Deals with jobs beyond searching
No touchscreen
Pricey for the efficiency it provides
Bad Stuff
There was some ghosting in action scenes, and it was noticeable enough that I would most likely not desire to play games on the Gram 17. Its likewise not the brightest screen out there; it reached 369 nits at max brightness. The MacBook Pro 16 and the Dell XPS 17 both get up to 500 nits.
Nice 17-inch screen
Amazingly light
Great battery life
Enhanced keyboard
Theres absolutely nothing that the Gram 17 does extremely
These results arent unforeseen, and they do not make the Gram 17 a bad laptop computer. Its simply crucial to understand what youre paying for. The intent of the Gram line isnt to produce workhorses; its to make the lightest laptop possible. In that classification, the Gram 17 has succeeded in rising to the top of its class.
Battery life is exceptional. The 2020 Gram includes an 80Wh battery (last years was 72Wh), and I got 10 hours out of it. (I ran the machine through my workload of around a dozen Chrome tabs, Slack, some Zoom calls, and occasional YouTube or Spotify streaming, at 200 nits of brightness on the Better Battery profile.) Thats better than Ive gotten from the MacBook Pro, the XPS 15, and almost any other laptop computer of this size. (The consisted of 48W charger takes a while to juice the Gram up. In an hour, it just charged the battery 37 percent.).
The keyboard is excellent; its backlit, and you can snap between “low” and “high” brightness levels with among the function secrets (though I didnt notice a huge distinction in between them). The large chassis leaves plenty of room for a numpad, another feature we dont see on ultrabooks every day.
Theres an HD web cam, however no facial recognition.
That implies theres an extremely specific user for whom this laptop computer is a fantastic purchase: you should need a 17-inch screen, you must appreciate lightness above all else, and you must not prepare on doing anything that taxes the integrated graphics. If you examine those 3 boxes, the LG Gram 17 is the obvious option for you.
If you were planning to play video games, though, the Gram is out. I tried to run Shadow of the Tomb Raider at 1920 x 1080 resolution on its lowest possible settings, and the laptop computer managed a measly average of 12fps. (It was a stuttery and slow experience.) It likewise took 30 minutes to finish an intricate export in Adobe Premiere Pro– a significantly even worse result than weve seen from other devices with integrated graphics like the XPS 13 and the Surface Laptop 3 (not to point out the MacBook Pro or anything with a GPU). Even basic photo modifying in the Photos app was a slog.
Utilizing the LG Gram 17 feels more similar to utilizing a desktop than it does a 13-inch 16:9 screen. At 2.98 pounds, the Gram 17 is astonishingly light for its size. The Gram 17 will get the job done for most people who are just browsing. These results arent unanticipated, and they do not make the Gram 17 a bad laptop. The intent of the Gram line isnt to create workhorses; its to make the lightest laptop possible.
The 2nd is performance.
LG has actually made some tweaks to the keyboard given that in 2015: some keys (including Backspace, Enter, Shift, and the numpads 0) grew, and a 4th column has actually been added to the numpad that consists of big enter and plus keys. I believe Backspace is still a bit small– I accidentally hit the adjacent Numlock every now and then– however otherwise, the typing experience was fantastic, and I kept my typical speeds.
The silver lid is quite nice.
Despite its lightness, the Gram 17 isnt the thinnest laptop around.
A laptop computer so light typically features significant cautions. Refreshingly, however, theres nothing that the Gram 17 does extremely.
Like last years Gram, though, its put in the center of the chassis rather than directly below the spacebar. Its not a deal-breaker, but it takes some getting used to.
If thats not you, there are much better options.
There are two locations, though, where the Gram 17 doesnt measure up to its cost point. The Gram isnt necessarily ugly, however it would look like a toy next to an XPS.
The Gram 17 will get the task done for most individuals who are just browsing. The chassis remained a comfortable temperature level throughout my day-to-day usage, and I only heard the fans or felt major heat under really heavy loads.
Photography by Monica Chin/ The Verge.
