The LG Gram 17 is just like the refreshingly gifted singer that lastly seems throughout a expertise search after coping with auditionees who can’t carry a be aware. To date, laptops have been hit and miss this yr, nevertheless it seems just like the Gram 17 has restored my hope after struggling by way of a gaggle of flops.
With its huge 17-inch, 2560 x 1600-pixel show, I used to be anticipating the Gram 17 to be unwieldy and onerous to hold, however my jaw dropped once I picked it up so simply with one hand. That is featherweight greatness! It shares the identical weight because the M2 13-inch MacBook Professional and the 14-inch Lenovo Yoga 9i — they usually’ve bought a lot smaller screens.
LG wasn’t kidding once they stated that the Gram 17 is “ultra-lightweight,” however after all, there’s extra to a laptop computer than its heft. There are some powerful opponents in the marketplace proper now, however the Gram 17 additionally held its personal fairly effectively in efficiency, battery life, and different essential facets.
Nonetheless, there are some issues I dislike in regards to the Gram 17, too, together with some parts in regards to the keyboard, the chassis, and extra. Learn on to seek out out why the Gram 17 landed on our finest laptops web page.
LG Gram 17 2023 worth and configurations
My LG Gram 17 assessment unit usually prices $2,000, however it’s presently on sale at LG for $1,849 (opens in new tab). It comes with a thirteenth Gen Intel Core i7-1360P CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 GPU with 4GB of VRAM, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, 1TB of M.2 NMVe SSD storage, a 17-inch, 2560 x 1600-pixel show, and Home windows 11 Dwelling.
This appears to be the one configuration out there. If the Gram 17 is out of your funds, think about trying out the finest laptops underneath $1,000 or the finest laptops underneath $500.
LG Gram 17 2023 design
As talked about on the outset, one factor that stunned the heck out of me with the LG Gram 17 is its heft — or lack thereof. Regardless of being a 17-inch laptop computer, it’s shockingly as mild as a feather. I’m holding a 17-inch laptop computer for chrissakes — why does it really feel like I’m holding a paper menu as an alternative?
So far as its design, there’s nothing a lot to say. It’s a black laptop computer. Whoop-dee-doo. Smack dab on the middle of the lid, you’ll discover the phrase “gram” in lustrous silver lettering. Though the design is kind of plain, I dig its minimalist, conservative vibes. The one factor I don’t like is that the magnesium-alloy chassis attracts fingerprints too simply.
Open the lid and also you’ll discover extra of that plain black theme throughout the deck. The LG brand is stamped on the underside bezel of the show. The bezels on the dimensions are fairly skinny, however the prime bezel is thicker to accommodate a 1080p webcam.
On the underside, you’ll discover twin audio system and three rubber toes: two are spherical on each corners whereas the opposite is elongated and sits parallel to the hinge. You’ll discover a huge vent, too, to maintain the Gram 17 cool.
The Gram 17 weighs simply 3 kilos and has dimensions of 14.9 x 10.1 x 0.7 inches. Its competitor, the Lenovo Yoga 9i, weighs round 3 kilos, too, nevertheless it has a smaller 14-inch show and measures 12.5 x 9.05 x 0.6 inches. The 13-inch M2 MacBook Professional additionally weighs 3 kilos and is the smallest of the three at 12 x 8.4 x 0.6 inches.
LG Gram 17 2023 ports
The LG Gram 17 has a wonderful mixture of legacy and trendy ports.
On the left aspect, you’ll discover an HDMI port, a headset jack, and two Thunderbolt 4 ports. On the suitable aspect, you’ll uncover two USB Kind-A ports and a microSD card slot.
The Gram 17’s port choice is sufficiently diverse, however for those who want extra, take a look at our finest USB Kind-C hubs and finest laptop computer docking stations pages.
LG Gram 17 2023 show
The LG Gram 17 has a big 17-inch non-touch show with a 2560 x 1600-pixel decision, so it’s higher than 1080p, however not fairly 4K. It additionally has a side ratio of 16:10. A 17-inch show is huge in and of itself, however that side ratio (changing the standard 16:9 format) provides one other layer of spaciousness to the display actual property.
Curiously, the LG Gram has a variable refresh fee show; it could possibly drop all the way down to as little as 31Hz or as excessive as 144Hz, relying on what you’re engaged on. This could have a positive impact on battery life, however we’ll get into that later.
I watched the Quick X trailer and I used to be blown away by the crispness and shade richness of the show. Sorry to Vin Diesel, however I might spot each pore and wrinkle on his face — even the tiny white hairs budding from his bald head. The image is so sharp, I can inform which automobiles featured in an explosion are CGI and that are actual. Fiery blasts, emitting hanging hues of amber, darkish grey, and pink, appeared visually beautiful on the Gram 17.
| Header Cell – Column 0 | Gram 17 | MacBook Professional | Yoga 9i |
|---|---|---|---|
| DCI-P3 shade gamut | 115% | 77.5% | 142% |
| Brightness | 438 | 475 | 353 |
| Delta-E shade accuracy | 0.26 | 0.31 | 0.39 |
Based on our show testing, the LG Gram 17’s reveals off a whopping 115% of the DCI-P3 shade house, beating the 13-inch MacBook Professional (77.5%) and the common premium laptop computer (90%). Nonetheless, the Yoga 9i grabbed the throne with a DCI-P3 protection of 142%. As for luminance, the Gram 17 emits 438 nits of brightness, which beats the common premium laptop computer (384 nits) and the Lenovo Yoga 9i (353 nits), nevertheless it couldn’t outshine the dazzling 475-nit show on the 13-inch M2 MacBook Professional.
The LG Gram 17’s show, in accordance with its 0.26 Delta-E shade accuracy rating (nearer to 0 is best), beats the MacBook Professional (0.31) and the Lenovo Yoga 9i (0.39), nevertheless it fell barely behind the common premium laptop computer (0.23).
LG Gram 17 2023 keyboard and touchpad
The LG Gram 17 has an island-style keyboard with white letters and symbols superimposed on black keys. And sure, it’s bought a numpad, too. In any case, it’s a 17-inch laptop computer and it’s positively bought the house. Will I be utilizing it? No. However maybe it might profit knowledge entry clerks or avid gamers who incorporate it into their gameplay.
The perform row options quick-launch keys to fireside up helpful apps like LG Sensible Assistant and Home windows Safety. You’ll be able to even activate Reader Mode with the F9 key, which reduces blue-light emissions, however provides the show a sepia-esque look.
At nighttime, you may activate a backlight for the keyboard that has two brightness settings through the F8 key.
On the 10FastFingers.com typing take a look at, I reached 83 phrases per minute, which is barely lower than my common (87 to 89 wpm). To the common Joe, the Gram 17 keyboard will really feel simply wonderful, however as a result of I’ve examined numerous keyboards, I am acutely conscious that this one is barely on the mushier aspect. On the plus aspect, I jumped into utilizing this keyboard like I’ve been typing on it for years, so you should not have any points transitioning out of your outdated laptop computer to this one.
The 5.2 x 3.3-inch touchpad on this deck is so humongous, it ought to have a zipper code of its personal. The touchpad is easy sufficient to facilitate a gliding cursor, however options sufficient friction to seize your inputs with correct precision. I carried out Home windows 11 gestures corresponding to pinch-to-zoom, three-finger swiping, and two-finger scrolling with none points.
LG Gram 17 2023 audio
The LG Gram 17 boasts that its twin audio system are tuned with Dolby Atmos to offer a 360-degree, theater-like expertise. Keen to find out if LG is bluffing in regards to the Gram 17’s surround-sound expertise, I fired up the Spotify app.
I launched the Scorching Hits USA playlist and Put up Malone’s “Chemical” performed. I used to be pleasantly stunned with how honeyed the bottom-firing audio system sounded. There’s a nice stability between the rockstar’s easy vocals and the alt-pop beat. And to my shock, the audio does, certainly, ship that immersive, surround-sound expertise, because of Dolby Atmos’ proprietary audio format.
The one draw back is that the amplification vary is just too quick. Even at max quantity, it didn’t get loud sufficient. Thankfully, you may at all times snag one of many finest wi-fi headphones to mitigate this situation.
Though the sound appeared good as is, I performed round with the 5 presets provided within the Dolby Entry app: Dynamic, Film, Music, Sport and Voice. I fired up “Chemical” once more and the Dynamic preset gained my coronary heart — it does an ideal job at figuring out what’s taking part in and performing automated changes to ship the absolute best sound.
LG Gram 17 2023 efficiency
The Gram 17 I examined comes with a thirteenth Gen Intel Core i7-1360P CPU and 16GB of RAM. I made a decision to simulate considered one of my many taxing workflows on the Gram 17, which incorporates drowning Google Chrome in a number of home windows and numerous tabs (40 to be actual). Regardless of my inundation of internet sites, the Gram 17 didn’t break a sweat. It confirmed no indicators of stuttering nor slowing down.
Nonetheless, that’s simply my anecdotal expertise. Let’s dive into the nitty gritty with numbers and figures pulled from Laptop computer Magazine’s lab. On the Geekbench 5.5 total efficiency take a look at, the Gram 17 served up an unbelievable multiscore rating of 9,945. This bests the M2 chip contained in the 13-inch MacBook Professional (8,911) and the common premium laptop computer (7,048), nevertheless it didn’t sustain with the Lenovo Yoga 9i (9,954) by a hair. (The Yoga 9i is full of the identical CPU that’s contained in the Gram 17.)
On the file-transfer take a look at, the Gram 17’s 1TB SSD took 19 seconds to duplicate 25GB of multimedia recordsdata for a file switch fee of 1,393.24 megabytes per second. This surpassed the common premium laptop computer (1,330.7 MBps), however trudges behind the Yoga 9i’s 1TB SSD (1,669.29 MBps). Sadly, our file-transfer take a look at doesn’t run on Macs, however for what it’s price, we do have BlackMagic Write and Learn outcomes for the MacBook Professional’s 512GB SSD (2,954 and a pair of,793, respectively).
| Header Cell – Column 0 | Gram 17 | MacBook Professional | Yoga 9i |
|---|---|---|---|
| Geekbench rating | 9,945 | 8,911 | 9,954 |
| File-transfer fee | 1,393.24 MBps | N/A | 1,669.29 MBps |
| Video-transcoding time | 9 minutes and 9 seconds | 6 minutes and 51 seconds | 9 minutes and 45 seconds |
On the Handbrake video-editing take a look at, the Gram 17 delivered middling outcomes, taking 9 minutes and 9 seconds to transform a 4K video to 1080p. That is slower than the common premium laptop computer (8:26) and the MacBook Professional (6:51), nevertheless it’s quicker than the Yoga 9i (9:45).
LG Gram 17 2023 graphics
Each the LG Gram 17 and the Lenovo Yoga 9i are outfitted with Intel Iris Xe built-in graphics, however the former additionally comes with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 GPU, so the Yoga 9i doesn’t stand an opportunity on this spherical.
On the 3DMark FireStrike Extremely benchmark, the Gram 17, as anticipated, smashed the Yoga 9i (7,155 vs. 4,927), nevertheless it couldn’t beat the common premium laptop computer (7,658). We couldn’t file any outcomes of the 3DMark Fireplace Strike take a look at for the 10-Core GPU contained in the MacBook Professional as a result of it solely runs on Home windows. Thankfully, we will get a sneak peek at whether or not the M2 MacBook Professional outpaces the Gram 17 by taking a look at gaming efficiency.
The RTX 3050-packed Gram 17 reached 50 frames per second on the Sid Meier’s Civilization IV: Gathering Storm benchmark (1080p, Excessive). This, after all, crushed the Yoga 9i (25 fps) and the common premium laptop computer (49 fps), nevertheless it fell behind the MacBook Professional’s 51-fps rating by hair.
LG Gram 17 2023 battery life
Lastly! We’ve come to my favourite a part of the assessment. How lengthy can the LG Gram 17, with a 90 watt-hour battery, survive on a single cost?
On the Laptop computer Magazine battery take a look at, which entails steady internet browsing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits, the LG laptop computer survived for 12 hours and a pair of minutes. This beats the common premium laptop computer (10:14) and the Yoga 9i (10:24), nevertheless it had no probability in opposition to the power-efficient MacBook Professional (18:20).
| Header Cell – Column 0 | Gram 17 | MacBook Professional | Yoga 9i |
|---|---|---|---|
| Runtime | 12 hours and a pair of minutes | 18 hours and 20 minutes | 10 hours and 24 minutes |
The LG Gram 17 2023 webcam
The LG Gram 17 sports activities a 1080p IR digital camera, so you should utilize it for face-recognition logins.
There’s not a lot to gush about with the LG Gram 17. It is not the very best at capturing neon colours. The “Supernatural” brand on my hoodie is vivid inexperienced, nevertheless it seems white within the image. Nonetheless, it accurately rendered the woodsy textures of my eating room chair and film body. Sharpness is not its robust swimsuit both — the image is a bit of too grainy for my tastes.
I’d counsel a greater webcam. Take a look at our exterior webcam web page for one thing that matches your wants.
LG Gram 17 2023 warmth
Don’t fear — the Gram 17 2023 gained’t burn your denims off.
We examined the LG laptop computer’s thermals, and after taking part in a 15-minute, 1080p video, the touchpad registered a temperature of 74 levels Fahrenheit. The keyboard heart reached 90 levels whereas the underside climbed to 86 levels. Even the most popular area of the Gram 17 — the upper-left nook of the keyboard deck — didn’t surpass 95 levels, which is our consolation threshold.
LG Gram 17 2023 software program and guarantee
You’ll discover your commonplace fare of Home windows 11 Dwelling apps on the LG Gram 17, together with Paint, Cellphone Hyperlink, Solitaire & Informal Video games, Sticky Notes, and extra. You’ll additionally get Spotify and Clipchamp.
LG’s bought a bunch of its personal apps, too. One which many will admire is LG Sensible Assistant, which options 4 preset profiles — Examine, Cinema, Work and Outside — that optimize cooling, the show temperature, and extra. For instance, after clicking on the Examine profile, my eyes instantly felt relieved as a result of the show shifted its temperature from cool to heat. The cooling mode is on low, too. Nonetheless, with the Work profile on, the cooling mode shifts to excessive and the show is restored to its default setting.
You can even arrange a custom-made preset permitting you to decide on your supreme display brightness, cooling, keyboard lighting, and extra.
Backside line
Who’s the LG Gram 17 for? Photograph editors, skilled graphic designers and illustrators looking for a rival-beating show.
In comparison with related opponents in the marketplace, the LG Gram 17’s show is extra shade correct. Pitted in opposition to the MacBook Professional, the LG Gram covers extra of the DCI-P3 shade house. And in contrast to the MacBook Professional, you will not be caught in dongle hell. It has an ideal mixture of legacy and trendy ports to your productiveness wants.
It excels throughout different areas, too, together with energy effectivity, graphics efficiency, and audio high quality. Apple and Lenovo higher be careful! LG’s making a reputation for itself within the laptop computer house, and it’s gunning for the beloved MacBook Professional and the Yoga 9i.
| Header Cell – Column 0 | Gram 17 | MacBook Professional | Yoga 9i |
|---|---|---|---|
| DCI-P3 shade gamut | 115% | 77.5% | 142% |
| Brightness | 438 | 475 | 353 |
| Delta-E shade accuracy | 0.26 | 0.31 | 0.39 |
