LG Gram 15Z980

show the quad-core notebook loitering with its fellow integrated-gpu systems. Unsurprisingly, the Dell XPS 15 9560 with its discrete Geforce GTX 1050 graphics chip leaves everyone else in the dust.

BATTERY LIFE

While it’s been content to hang in the middle of the pack in our other benchmarks, the LG Gram surges ahead in our battery drain test.

We test battery life in notebooks by looping a 4K video with screen brightness at about 250 nits (which means, for the Gram, cranking up the brightness all the way) and the volume set at the halfway mark, with earbuds attached.

With its score of 710 minutes, or just short of 12 hours, the LG Gram and its roomy 72Whr battery noses ahead of such

PROS

energy-efficient dual-core systems as the Microsoft Surface Laptop and the LG Gram 14, while thoroughly outlasting the turbocharged but power-hungry Dell XPS 15, which barely lasted 5.5 hours in our battery life test.

BOTTOM LINE

The 15-inch LG Gram isn’t the fastest 8th-generation quad-core laptop we’ve tested, but it’s certainly one of the lightest, and its stellar battery life makes up for its modest performance shortfalls. The Gram’s cramped keyboard takes getting used to, however, and budget-conscious laptop shoppers may balk at the $2,000 price tag. • All-day battery life

• Slim and super-light

• Solid array of ports, including Thunderbolt 3

CONS

• Middling performance among quad-core 8th-gen

notebooks

• Numeric keypad cramps neighboring keys

BOTTOM LINE

The 15-inch LG Gram isn’t the fastest 8th-generation quad-core laptop we’ve tested, but it’s certainly one of the lightest, and its stellar battery life makes up for its modest performance shortfalls.

$1,199