A bit of fun
So, as the hour hand ticks past six and your other half brings you a finely chilled glass of Pouilly-Fumé as a reward for finishing another rich and fulfilling day of work, how good is the LG Gram 17 at meeting all of your entertainment needs?
Enthusiastic gamers should spend their money elsewhere because LG relies on the graphics integrated into Intel’s tenth-generation Core processors. Intel markets this as Iris Plus graphics, and it’s a clear step above what came before: the Gram averaged 44.7fps in Metro: Last Light at 720p, with a similarly playable 53.3fps in Dirt: Showdown. Both of those are old games, however, and once you get up to this screen’s native resolution it dropped down to 13.9fps and 25.3fps.
The screen is also tuned for sRGB rather than DCI-P3, and that’s reflected in a much poorer 68.7% coverage of this colour space. It can still cope with dark scenes in films (a high contrast ratio of 1,545:1 helps), but it wouldn’t be my numberone choice for watching Blade Runner.
This laptop’s speakers are also a comparative weakness, with a tinny output that accentuates the mids at the expense of bass. In Taylor Swift’s Shake It Off (please don’t judge), for instance, the cymbals dominate at the expense of the rest of the drumset. It’s better suited to listening to podcasts and Radio 4.
There’s bad news for when you wake up the morning after having one too many glasses of that white wine because the 720p webcam is one of the best I’ve used on a laptop. You won’t be able to hide behind a blurred lens
Let’s get physical
Fans of Windows Hello should note that the webcam isn’t infrared, so for password-less login you’re relying on the fingerprint reader embedded into the power button. This works well – it helps that LG has carved out a circle within the button so you know exactly where to place your fingertip – and definitely speeds up logins.
If security is of topmost importance to you – and especially if you’re thinking of rolling out LG Gram 17 to remote-working staff – you’ll want to upgrade Windows 10 Home to Windows 10 Pro. LG doesn’t offer a way to do this, but turn to p34 to see how to buy an upgrade for only £40 from the PC Pro store.
There’s no Ethernet port present here, but with Wi-Fi 6 in place this isn’t the big issue it used to be, even if most people are yet to upgrade their home routers to this latest standard. Otherwise, the LG Gram is well stocked with ports. There’s a full-size HDMI out, USB 3 and USB-C on the left as you look at it, with the latter being usable for charging, data transfer and video
output. You’ll also find the
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