LG Gram 14 (2020)
This 999g 14in laptop lacks speed but compensates with an attractive screen and plenty of ports
PRICE Core i7/16GB/512GB, £1,125 (£1,350 inc VAT) from pcpro.link/312lg
Over the past two years, LG has sent us numerous laptops from its lightweight Gram range – including the PC Pro Recommended LG Gram 17 last month ( see issue 311, p56). While they’ve all been excellent in their own ways, none has lived up to the Gram name as much as this latest entry. Weighing in a dab of paint under 1kg, it’s one of the most portable Windows 10 laptops you can buy.
Model selection
It’s also the smallest laptop in the LG Gram lineup. Whereas the standard Gram employs a 15.6in display and the Gram 17 uses a 17in panel, the Gram 14’s display measures – as you might have guessed – 14in from one corner to the other.
The Gram 14 comes in two variants in the UK. You can buy it with a tenth-generation Intel Core i7-1065G7 CPU, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD (model: 14Z90N-V.AA75A1), or with a tenth-generation Core i5-1035G7,
8GB of RAM and a 256GB SSD (model: 14Z90N-V.AR52A1). Both versions have a maximum memory capacity of 24GB of RAM.
The model we reviewed is the more expensive version, which costs £1,350 from Amazon or Argos. The Core i5 model sells for around £1,200 inc VAT.
Slim by design
Unsurprisingly, the Gram 14 looks a lot like the Gram 17, only smaller. While its big brother is 380mm wide, 263mm deep and 17.4mm tall, the
Gram 14’s vital stats of 323 x 210 x 17.8mm are much more backpack-friendly. And when LG says it weighs less than 1kg, it’s talking by the narrowest of margins: it’s 999g, to be exact. Its magnesium alloy chassis is coated in a dark-silver finish, which has a rough, almost scratchy feel. That’s not a bad thing, though: it’s a classy looking machine, and the coating does a fine job of warding off unwanted fingerprints. I also like that you can lift the lid with a finger.
That said, there are weak points. The areas to the right and left of the touchpad can be depressed without much effort at all. And, as I found with the last Gram I tested, the lid feels fl imsy – it wobbles like a piece of cardboard. Then again, you can’t expect the Gram 14 to be rock solid when it weighs less than a kilogram, and there are advantages to flexibility when it comes to absorbing shocks.
Although the LG looks sleek from almost every angle, the bezels surrounding its 14in display are chunky when compared with rival machines such as the Dell XPS 13 ( see issue 311, p58) and Samsung Galaxy Book Ion ( see issue 311, p62). The only advantage of the large forehead bezel is that it houses the 720p webcam, although it’s surprising that this doesn’t include an infrared setup for Windows Hello logins. Instead, you must rely on the fingerprint reader built into the power button. It’s reliable, though, unlocking the laptop instantly every time.
Despite its slender profile, LG fits a decent selection of ports onto the Gram 14. On the left edge, there’s a Thunderbolt 3 port, HDMI output, USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 slot and a power port.
Over on the right, there’s another USB-A port, a Kensington lock slot, a 3.5mm audio jack and a microSD slot.
On the underside, five rubberised feet prevent the laptop from sliding around, and they also give it desk clearance to help the Gram stay cool. The stereo speakers are located on the bottom too, although they aren’t anything special. Lastly, if you want to upgrade the memory of your Gram, you can pop off the bottom plate and add an additional 8GB of RAM. A nice upgrade option, especially if you choose the 8GB model.
“If you want to upgrade the memory of the Gram 14, you can pop off the bottom plate and add an additional 8GB of RAM”
Type cast
The backlit, chiclet-style keyboard is a treat to type on, with a quiet action making up for a lack of travel. Each key has a subtle matte finish that gives your fingers a little extra grip – a small thing but one with tangible benefit. My only complaint is that, due to space limitations, the Backspace and Enter keys are shorter than you might expect.
A whole host of shortcuts are built into the keys on the top row, from the LG Control Center launcher to Reader mode (which turns the screen dark and warm) and Flight mode.
The “diving board” touchpad is recessed slightly into the chassis and, like the keyboard, it’s faultless. The surface is smooth, but not too slick, and it’s responsive to the slightest touch. Palm-rejection works
well most of the time and the left and right clickers both depress evenly without feeling spongy.
Star display
The 14in IPS display doesn’t disappoint, either. A Full HD 1,920 x 1,080 resolution gives it a sharp (at normal viewing distances) pixel density of 158ppi, while it delivers a peak brightness of 339cd/m2 . That’s by no means blinding, but more than enough for typical indoor use. For the majority of the time I spent with the Gram 14, I had the brightness turned down a notch or two from the maximum for the sake of my vision.
It’s a well-tuned display that reproduced 96.7% of the sRGB gamut with a gamut volume of 99.4%. That’s a great result, on par with all of the Gram 14’s key competitors, and colours on the spectrum appear vibrant and natural (it’s helped by a 1,330:1 contrast ratio). An average Delta E of 2.69 tells us that the Gram 14’s colour accuracy isn’t perfect, but unless you need to edit photo and video to a professional standard, this display will do you proud.
Limited performance
And now for the bad news. Remember that LG sent us the top-spec Gram 14, with a tenthgeneration Core i7-1065G7 processor backed by 16GB of DDR4 RAM. That’s a powerful setup for such a slender laptop, yet the LG Gram’s diminutive nature prevents it from making the most of it.
In our benchmark tests, the Gram 14 lagged notably behind several machines packing the same internal components, including the Dell XPS 13, Lenovo Yoga C940 ( see issue 306, p59) and 13.5in Microsoft Surface Laptop 3 ( see issue 304, p54).
Even the Samsung Galaxy Book Ion, which weighs just 970g and runs on a Core i5-10210U, managed to edge ahead of the LG. Why? It all boils down to a lack of active cooling; when the CPU is taxed too heavily, it’s forced to throttle down to a lower clock speed so it doesn’t overheat.
On the plus side, the minimal cooling means that the Gram 14 is one of the quietest laptops I’ve ever tested. Moreover, it’s fast in short bursts, and that’s all the speed that many people will need. Its score of 122 in the photo-editing component of our benchmarks is a very solid result.
Without a dedicated graphics chip, the Gram 14 isn’t exactly a gaming machine. Its Core i7-1065G7 CPU does have integrated Intel Iris Plus Graphics, however, and it can handle less demanding titles. It ran Dirt: Showdown in 1080p at just under 30fps, which makes it playable if not exactly slick, but you can forget about firing up any of the latest AAA games.
What the Gram 14 lacks in raw power, it makes up for with SSD speed. In our AS SSD disk speed test, its 512GB drive achieved read speeds of 2,916MB/sec and write speeds of 2,063MB/sec. These results make it among the speediest SSDs we’ve tested in a lightweight laptop.
Finally, there’s the battery life of the Gram 14. In our standardised video playback test, the Gram 14’s 72Wh hour battery kept it ticking along for 10hrs 17mins. That’s not as good as the Lenovo Yoga C940 or Dell XPS 13 but it is over two hours longer than the Microsoft Surface Laptop 3. Then again, the Samsung Galaxy Book Ion lasted more than 13 hours. The Gram 14’s battery life is respectable, then, but not as good as you can get for this sort of cash.
Weighing up
Apart from its lack of active cooling, and subsequently disappointing performance in our benchmarks, there’s every reason to applaud the LG Gram 14. It’s a sleek and extraordinarily lightweight machine with a premium build and gorgeous IPS display. It’s a decent performer in short bursts too.
The big problem for the Gram 14 – and the reason it doesn’t win our Recommended award – is that it sits in the middle ground between power and portability.
Looking for an ultraportable machine? The Samsung Galaxy Book Ion weighs even less than the Gram 14 yet outperformed it in our testing, has better battery life and features one of the most stunningly bright displays on any laptop we’ve tested. Meanwhile, should you require a laptop that can take full advantage of that expensive Core i7 CPU, you’re best off with a machine such as the Lenovo Yoga C940 or Dell XPS 13.
SPECIFICATIONS
Quad-core 1.3GHz Intel Core i7-1065G7 Intel Iris Plus graphics 1,920 x 1,080 non-touch 14in IPS display 512GB NVMe SSD 16GB DDR4-2400 RAM 720p webcam 2x2 MIMO 802.11ax Wi-Fi Bluetooth 5 Thunderbolt 3 2 x USB-A 3.1 HDMI microSD card slot 72Whr battery Windows 10 Home 323 x 210 x 17.8mm (WDH) 999g 1yr RTB warranty