Introduction and design
Think of a thin and light laptop. You're thinking of something like a MacBook Air, aren't you? Well, let this beauty of a notebook fill your mind now, because LG's redefining what thin and light computing devices look like with its gram line.
The LG gram 15 is a 15.6-inch laptop packing an FHD (1,920 x 1,080) IPS display and 6th generation Intel Core i5 processor inside a cool, sharp magnesium frame. It offers 256GB of solid-state storage, a numpad on the keyboard and some of the thinnest bezels I've seen on a 15-inch laptop.
It weighs 2.16 pounds and measures 16.8mm thin. That's both lighter and thinner than the MacBook Air.
You can see, then, the LG gram 15's massive (yet feathery) appeal. For $1,099 (about £752, AU$1,444), you're getting a 15-inch laptop rivaling the weight and thinness of Apple's latest major MacBook revision that's both larger and more powerful.
Design and display
Oh, and did I mention it looks damn good doing it, too? The gram 15 comes in what it calls a "New Gold," a carbon and lithium magnesium frame throughout with a minimalist style that's captivating in a way that's rare for Windows machines.
A sole, chrome LG logo in the laptop lid's upper left corner and one just beneath its screen tie the pared back design together. I have but one complaint regarding the laptop's gorgeous, featherweight frame.
It tends to take on scratches rather easily – more so than that of an anodized aluminum laptop. If you're careful with your gram 15, then no problem, but accidents are bound to happen.
That said, LG made incredibly smart use of the space it had in crafting the gram 15, including two USB 3.1 ports alongside a USB-C port and an HDMI-out port. You'll get none of that kind of connectivity from a MacBook – Air or not.
As for the display, interplane switching (or IPS) technology makes for some seriously wide viewing angles, and FHD continues to prove more than enough for work and play. LG went a step further with the screen, leveraging its expertise as a TV maker to introduce two unique modes.
Reading Mode removes all blue light from the screen for an experience that's easier on the eyes namely before bedtime, just as iOS 9.3's Night Shift attempts to do. Movie Mode only seems to do the opposite, which doesn't appear nearly as helpful.
Regardless, text appears sharp and images appear vibrant on the display. When using this notebook, I'm not left pondering what could've been had LG done X or Y with the design or screen – I'm just left to enjoy it.
The super narrow bezels making for what's actually a 14-inch device diagonally help with that.
Using the laptop
LG made every effort to maximize the space afforded by the gram 15's size, which makes its light weight all the more enjoyable. For instance, the inclusion of a numpad on the keyboard will make professionals happy, while the narrow bezels forced the firm to place the webcam in the laptop's hinge.
Some crucial spacing decisions came out better than others, eh? But, in all serious, it's tough to blame LG too harshly for those, as they resulted in an incredibly focused product. I've enjoyed using this laptop more than anything over the past few weeks, and it has everything to do with its industrial design.
Despite the incredibly short Z-height, LG managed to achieve a keyboard with punchy travel if a bit shallow depth – the same goes for the smooth, glass trackpad. Both are some of the most comfortable, responsive inputs I've used on a Windows laptop. Though, the lack of keyboard backlighting, at this price, is a major bummer.
It's clear that LG took every pain to create the thinnest and lightest 15-inch laptop it could while maintaining a premium standard of quality. The gram 15 accomplishes all of that, but not without taking a few bets on what you'll consider non-negotiable in a laptop purchase.
Specs, value, performance and features
Either luckily or unfortunately, depending on your outlook, LG makes it simple with a single configuration for its gram 15 laptop. For what you'll soon see listed in detail below, the premium is $1,099 (about £752, AU$1,444).
Whether that's a good deal depends on what the competition is serving up, and just recently HP teased its imminent HP Envy 15 update for a cool $779 to start (with a 1080p screen). While not as impossibly thin as the gram 15, it's wrapped in a luxurious, anodized aluminum shell and sports an oversized glass trackpad.
Outed earlier in 2016, the updated Dell XPS 15 is a little more apples to apples, starting at $999 with a weaker Intel Core i3 processor and more resilient, luxe aluminum frame (also FHD). However, the XPS 15 starts with a 500GB hard drive and 32GB solid-state drive (SSD) and lacks a numpad.
Both of these machines should put some of your buying priorities in question when stacked against the MacBook-defying LG gram 15. For instance, how much does weight or storage (or a numpad) matter to you in buying a laptop?
Here is the LG gram 15 configuration sent to techradar for review:
Spec sheet
- CPU: 2.3GHz Intel Core i5-6200U (dual-core, 3MB cache, up to 2.8 GHz)
- Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 520
- RAM: 8GB x 1 DDR3L (1,600MHz)
- Screen:15.6-inch Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) IPS LCD
- Storage: 256GB SSD (SATA3)
- Optical drive: None
- Ports: 1x HDMI-out, 1x USB-C, 2 x USB 3.1, 1x USB 2, 1x microSD reader, headphone jack, included USB-C to RJ45 Ethernet adapter
- Connectivity: 802.11ac (2x2) Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0
- Camera: 720p HD webcam with dual microphones
- Weight: 2.16 pounds (980g)
- Size: 14.08 x 8.99 x 0.66 inches (357.6 x 228.4 x 16.8mm; W x H x D)
To match or come close to this spec, the Dell XPS 15 would end up costing $1,199 – which, for another 100 bucks, would net you way more storage, a slightly stronger chip inside paired with dedicated Nvidia graphics. (All UK configurations come starting with a similar setup at £1,199.)
Unfortunately, HP hasn't yet issued its full configuration details for the new Envy as of this writing. But, since it's starting so low already in comparison, it shouldn't take much to get it up to speed with LG's gram.
Of course, none of these comparisons account for how the gram 15 feels and performs as well as what else it brings to the table beyond incredible portability and style.
Performance
The Skylake-generation Intel chip inside this machine shows just how far the firm has come in developing systems on a chip. The LG gram 15 can handle everything I threw at it short of intense 3D games.
With this laptop, I'm able to hold a five-person group video chat within a graphics-and-audio-heavy gaming web app with more than a few PDFs open – not to mention a few more browser tabs with Google Docs – on battery power without issue. (Love you, Roll20.)
Benchmarks
Here's how the LG gram 15 performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
- 3DMark: Cloud Gate: 4,758; Sky Diver: 2,888; Fire Strike: 630
- Cinebench CPU: 250 points; Graphics: 30 fps
- GeekBench: GeekBench: 2,651 (single-core); 5,774 (multi-core)
- PCMark 8 (Home Test): 2,460 points
- PCMark 8 Battery Life: 3 hours, 6 minutes
- Battery Life (techradar movie test): 4 hours and 19 minutes
These numbers generally fall in line with the Intel Core i5 Ultrabooks that we've seen come through the techradar offices, save for the most important one: battery life. LG promises up to 7 hours of juice out of the device's 4,495mAh battery, but the longest I encountered outside of either of our standard tests was about 5 hours tops.
LG's laptop isn't rivaling any MacBooks with numbers like these, much less competing Windows 10 notebooks. (That said, the Dell XPS 15 battery life is likely to be even worse, judging from our measure of the 4K version.)
We've seen laptops encounter this problem before: they reach new heights in material design only to take a hit in a crucial area. More often than not, that's battery life. Naturally, this puts the gram 15 squarely in the middle of that conundrum I've seen too many laptops before it face: why bother being so light and travel-friendly if you can't last all that long?
While a valid question, it's not as severe a case here as I've seen before. Five hours of battery life will get you by on most US flights, after all. Regardless, a gram 15 weighing just as much as the MacBook Air would have been impressive in its own right and could've led to longer battery life.
Instant Boot is how all laptops should work
It's one thing to slap an SSD inside a laptop for faster boot times, but LG took it one step further with an Instant Boot feature. This allows the device to awake to a ready state instantly, regardless of whether the laptop is asleep or powered off before opening it.
You don't look at any loading screens, no BIOS logos – just an LG logo for a moment and Windows 10 is asking for your password before you can strike a key.
This isn't a dealmaker or breaker of a feature, but LG is certainly blazing a trail that its rivals don't seem to be hot on yet. The faster you can get me into my work or weekly game night with the guys online, the better.
Web chat much? Better like your chin…
Speaking of gaming online, there's one major drawback with the gorgeously thin bezels surrounding the laptop's 15.6-inch screen: there's no room for a webcam. That left LG to place it within the device's hinge.
While it produces a sharp 720p HD image that friends tell me every week during gaming sessions on Roll20 looks shockingly good over a stream, nothing can make up for that angle. If you plan on web chatting a lot and aren't the biggest fan of your chin, then this alone could rule this laptop out for you.
Since it's not all that important to me, I'm willing to look past it, especially as the webcam's quality is actually rather impressive compared to most laptop shooters.
Verdict
It's tough to argue that LG came out with one of the year's most interesting phones in the LG G5. It should be equally tough to argue that the firm came out with one of the most interesting laptops of the year in the LG gram 15.
We liked
It's one thing to be thinner and lighter than the MacBook Air – that's already been done. But bigger, too? Now you're talking.
Sweeten the pot with a vibrant screen with narrow bezels, tons of connectivity options and more power than one of those machines could ever muster? Shut up and take my money.
We disliked
LG cut a few corners to get to some of those highly competitive figures, like a goofy webcam placement and slightly more scratch-prone metal. The biggest offender of all here is the battery life.
It's simply too short for such a first-class product, though not so egregious as to be unusable or unreliable while on the road.
Final verdict
This is, hands down, the most impressive 15-inch laptop I've used in a long time. I've long been a believer in 13 inches being the ultimate form factor for laptops, but both the Surface Pro 4 and now the LG gram 15 have broadened my horizons.
The gram 15 is beautiful proof that 15-inch laptops can easily be thin, light and powerful machines without making huge cuts and costing a fortune. That said, there could potentially be better deals (on paper) out there. It depends on what matters to you most in a laptop.
Regardless, look at this $1,099 laptop next to the $1,299 that gets you into a MacBook. Which looks like a better deal to you? I say go for the gold.
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