LG Gram 17 (2021)(2021
A superb upgrade ono last year’s model: if you’llyou’ take advantage of the monstermo 17in screen, buy it
SCORE
PRICE £1,250 (£1,500 inc VAT) VAT from costco.co.uk
The wonderful thing about the LG Gram 17 is that you know exactly what you’re getting. Everything is cen centred d around that glorious 17in screen, with a 2,560 x 1,600 resolution to give workers all the space they need. d Coupled with a lightness t that defies all logic and LG is offering a laptop like no other. Well, aside f from the LG Gram 16 we review opposite.
I’ll cover the screen first because it’s undoubtedly the star of the show. Not only does it hit a bright 388cd/m2 , but LG ensures that whites blaze forth with a purity that would make Mother Teresa blush. It’s tuned for the DCI-P3 colour space, covering 97% out of a 101% volume, and that means rich colours that make films in particular look spectacular. l Colour accura accuracy is top-notch too. too
The 177ppi density means that text looks sharp even fro from a foot away, but arguably where the Gram 17 stands stand out is for people w whose eyesight isn’t so strong. Even if you whack up Windows 10’s scaling to 200%, you can fit plenty onto the desktop, while pushing the zoom up to 125% in Google Chrome means you can type into Google Docs with the full page width and text writ large.
We must return to this laptop’s weight and design, because it’s unlike any other laptop out there. Picking up
“LG ensures that whites blaze forth from the Gram 17’s screen with a purity that would make Mother Teresa blush”
this machine by the corner won’t tax the h weakest k of f wrists, whereas lifting the 1.7kg Honor MagicBook Pro 16 ( see p57) in the same manner feels risky. The main body of the Gram 17 still feels sturdy, despite its slender 17.4mm depth, with the only apparent weakness being the lid: I’d protect this if taking the Gram on a day trip.
You won’t need to bring the USB-C power supply with you because this machine lasted a stellar 13hrs 24mins in our r videorundown tests. ests. That’s a particularly arly strong result lt when you consider nsider that LG doesn’t skimp on power, with a f four-core -core Intel Core i7-1165G7 5G7 inside. Add 16GB of RAM and a fast 512GB M.2 NVMe SSD (it hit 3,001Mbits/sec for sequential reads and 2,092Mbits/sec for writes) and it’s little wonder that we saw a solid 122 in our benchmarks.
All that said, I wouldn’t use the Gram 17 if I was looking for a power machine. First, a Ryzen system with more cores will tackle multicore tasks (such as video editing) more quickly, and second the cooling errs on being ear-friendly, which means you see throttling when things heat up.
Intel’s ever-impressive integrated Iris Xe graphics are in place for light gaming, with a 29fps result in Metro: Last Light at native resolution that increased to 50fps at 1080p, while F1 2020 returned scores of 30fps and 45fps at the same resolutions. Forget challenging hallenging games such uch as Metro:
Exodus, Exodus with results of f 9.5fps and 13fps. Still, there’s more than han enough power here e for this machine to operate rate as your main PC, and d LG is in generous mood d when it comes to ports. Over on the left, a f full-size ll ze HDMI out and two Thunderbolt erbolt 3/USB-C connectors; tors; on the right, two old-fashioned ioned USB-A 3.1 ports. Or just hook this up to a monitor with USB-C and let it handle the e connection. There’s no Ethernet t port, but Wi-Fi 6 is in place. l
There’s h only l one potential gotcha with this laptop, and that’s the kb keyboard. d It’s pleasant leasant to type on, with a respectable le amount of travel (more than last year’s Gram) and well-sized keys. But LG has decided to include a number mber pad, and that means everything shunts over to the left. It will take a little getting used to, and note the touchpad – a generally excellent inclusion, thanks to its size and smooth surface – sits plumb in the centre.
I’m confident that most people will get used to this, and it’s the only real area for criticism on this otherwise amazing laptop. For instance, the speakers are excellent – I would be happy listening to music on them all day, and there’s enough separation between the speakers to provide stereo effects – and while the webcam slips into the “bog standard for a laptop” category, the built-in mic is top-notch.
In conclusion, this update to the LG Gram 17 is almost perfect. The screen is stunning, both for quality and sheer scale, there’s more than enough power to meet most people’s needs and it lives in its own universe for portability. Only the price will weigh you down, but it’s well worth paying if you seek the seemingly impossible: a lightweight laptop with a screen big enough for detailed work.
SPECIFICATIONS
Four-core 2.8GHz (4.7GHz burst) Intel Core i7-1165G7 processor Intel Iris Xe graphics 16GB DDR4 RAM (3,200MHz) 17in non-touch IPS display, 2,560 x 1,600 resolution 512GB M.2 PCIe SSD 2x2 Wi-Fi 6 Bluetooth 5 Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) 3 x USB-A 3.1 HDMI
microSD slot 3.5mm combo jack 720p IR webcam 80Wh battery Windows 10 Home 381 x 263 x 17.4mm (WDH) 1.3kg
1yr C&R warranty