LG Gram 17 (2020) review

Our Verdict

The LG Gram 17 is lighter than most 17-inch laptops, simply its middling performance gives united states of america pause.

For

• Bright, colorful 17-inch display
• Extremely portable
• Practiced port selection
• Fast SSD

Against

• Underwhelming battery life
• Subpar benchmark operation
• Lackluster webcam
• Bromidic pattern
• Lid and keyboard flex
• Relatively expensive

Tom'due south Guide Verdict

The LG Gram 17 is lighter than near 17-inch laptops, just its middling performance gives u.s.a. interruption.

Pros

• +

  Bright, colorful 17-inch display

• +

  Extremely portable

• +

  Expert port choice

• +

  Fast SSD

Cons

• -

  Underwhelming battery life

• -

  Subpar benchmark performance

• -

  Lackluster webcam

• -

  Uninspired design

• -

  Hat and keyboard flex

• -

  Relatively expensive

The LG Gram 17 is the latest example of laptop manufacturers bounding forrad with Moore's Police force, giving us exponential computing ability at surprisingly portable sizes. Such is the case with the LG Gram 17, a feathery machine that weighs less than three pounds.

LG Gram 17 Specs

Toll: $1,499
CPU: Intel Core i7-1065G7
GPU: Intel Iris Plus
RAM: 16GB
Storage: 512GB SSD
Display: 17-inch, 2560 x 1600-pixel
Battery: 7:10
Size: 15 ten 10.3 x 0.7 inches
Weight: 2.98 pounds

At that place'due south a lot to like about the LG Gram 17: it packs a gorgeous 2560 x 1600-pixel display into an incredibly lightweight package, making it a top selection for next-gen multimedia mavens. But there's a reason why it didn't land higher on our best laptops list.

The latest Gram 17 is lacking in the operation section, and information technology'southward more expensive than competing laptops. That's not to say you won't get your money'south worth, but our LG Gram 17 review volition prove that this year's model tin feel like a pace (or two) backward.

LG Gram 17 2020 review: Price and availability

The Gram 17 is available at a variety of retailers (starting at $1,499). The unit we reviewed has a 10th Gen Intel Core i7-1065G7 CPU, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 2560 x 1600-pixel display. For those with deeper pockets, there's also a pricier $1,849 model you can buy directly from LG; this config comes with a beefier 1TB Yard.2 SSD for double the storage.

Sure, the Gram 17 offers plenty of power for the price, just it's not the just role player in town. Check out the best gaming rigs of the year, which include a few other 17-inch powerhouses.

• Ready for the future with the best college laptops

LG Gram 17 2020 review: Design

When it comes to design, the Gram 17's standout feature is conspicuously the miniscule weight: simply 2.98 pounds, to be verbal. That's no easy feat for a 15 x x.3 10 0.seven-inch magnesium-alloy chassis, and a true rarity for 17-inch laptops. In fact, this featherweight design was the very commencement thing I noticed every bit I took the Gram 17 out of the box; it feels incredibly light in paw.

(Paradigm credit: Tom's Guide)

Pound for pound, the LG Gram 17 is an impressive feat of mobile tech. Information technology'due south even lighter than the fifteen-inch Microsoft Surface Laptop iii (three.iv pounds); the 16-inch Apple MacBook Pro (four.3 pounds) and Dell XPS 17 (5.5 pounds) experience downright chunky in comparing.

LG didn't reinvent the wheel with their design strategy, and once you get by that ultra-scrawny build, at that place's actually not much to look at. (Other than the simplistic "gram" logo on the chapeau, and below the keyboard deck.) The bland gunmetal gray chassis doesn't offer much in the way of aesthetics — until yous pop open the lid, that is. I temporarily forgot near those minimalist design choices (which I don't detest, by the way) when I caught sight of the gorgeous 17-inch 2560 x 1600-pixel display, which is surrounded by a pleasantly thin black bezel.

Touch-typists will capeesh the full-size backlit keyboard — complete with full numpad — and the power button doubles every bit a fingerprint reader. (In my testing, it merely took a few seconds to prepare this upward; information technology's a convenient alternative to signing into Windows with a countersign or PIN.) Y'all can adjust the brightness of the keyboard deck, which contrasts nicely with the orangish-colored shortcuts in the upper row.

The F1 key is paired with a useful shortcut to the LG Control Centre, which gives you lot quick access to system settings, ability management, and Windows security.

(Image credit: Tom'southward Guide)

Have note: there's a lot of flex on this laptop'southward lid and keyboard deck, which may speak to the long-term durability of the chassis.

(Image credit: Tom'south Guide)

Constructed from magnesium alloy, the full-metal trunk of the LG Gram has passed diverse "military machine-grade" tests for shock, low force per unit area, farthermost temperatures, grit, and more.

LG Gram 17 2020 review: Ports

When it comes to ports, the Gram 17 equips you with all the nuts, and a little more. On the left side, y'all'll find a Thunderbolt iii port, USB 3.1 port, HDMI input, and a standard AC jack for power. (The Thunderbolt port tin can be used to charge the device, also.)

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

On the correct side, there are two more USB iii.1 ports, a microSD bill of fare slot, a headphone/mic jack, and Kensington lock slot.

LG Gram 17 2020 review: Display

The second-most outstanding feature of the LG Gram 17 is without question the beautiful WQXGA IPS 2560 x 1600-pixel brandish (pitiful, no touchscreen console here). Colors are abrupt and bright across the board, making it a pleasance to spotter YouTube videos, Netflix shows, and Disney Plus cartoons. The sixteen:10 aspect ratio is welcome for web browsing, since it cuts down on your scrolling time with a bigger workspace.

To put the display through its paces, I queued upwards Fantastic Fungi, a nature documentary with lots of detailed fourth dimension-lapses and intricate close-ups; the outdoor landscapes were vivid, rich, and truthful. Be warned, though, the screen is a flake reflective.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

The LG Gram 17's display didn't deliver any criterion surprises. It clocked 104% of the sRGB color gamut, according to our colorimeter test. Not besides shabby, only the Gram 17 is outclassed by the XPS 17 (132%), MacBook Pro (114%), and the premium laptop boilerplate of 119%.

The panel gets relatively brilliant at 332 nits, but it's notwithstanding dimmer than the XPS 17 (505 nits), MacBook Pro (429 nits), and the average laptop (379 nits).

LG Gram 17 2020 review: Keyboard and touchpad

One unsung benefit of gigantic laptop screens is the additional room for a total-size keyboard in the chassis (which includes a dedicated numpad on the right).

(Image credit: Tom'south Guide)

If yous programme on using your notebook for lots of word processing, you won't exist disappointed in this regard; the keys are all properly sized, and there was a satisfying clickiness to them as I used the Gram 17 to write this review. (Meta, I know.)

The isle-style keys are more than shallow than other 17-inch laptops we've tested, simply I acclimated in a twenty-four hour period or so. In that location'southward a pleasant bounciness to the keys, and low travel. I reached 65 words per infinitesimal with a 94% accuracy charge per unit on the 10FastFingers.com typing exam, which is somewhat slower than my usual 75-wpm average. Overall, I had a comfy typing experience, with no major keyboard quibbles.

The surface of the 4.8 x 2.8-inch touchpad is silky polish, and highly responsive to my swipes, gestures, and two-finger scrolls. Its fully-centered positioning is conducive to adventitious swipes from your palm, but less and then if you have a proper wrist balance.

The aforementioned fingerprint reader (subconscious past the ability button in the upper-correct hand side of the keyboard) is a useful and simple addition.

LG Gram 17 2020 review: Sound

While much of this machine was custom-tailored for media consumption, the dual bottom-firing speakers come up short. Listening to music on the Gram 17 is hardly a nail-scratching experience, but you won't get the aforementioned sonic depth every bit other laptops in this category, such as the 16-inch MacBook Pro or XPS 17.

To be fair, subpar speakers are an expected compromise for this kind of portability; there'due south not much room under the hood for those audio components. And LG does include some audiophile goodies with their built-in DTS-Ten Ultra software, but you can really only have advantage of this characteristic with external speakers or headphones.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

While bass-heavy tracks streamed over Spotify were lackluster at best (even at total volume), I will say this about the Gram 17's speakers: they're pretty perfect for audio-visual songs. Bob Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'" had a nice reverberating twang every bit the tune switched between guitar and harmonica melodies. All the same, you might want to plug in some quality cans for a better sound experience (particularly if you want to savor a bassline of any kind).

(Image credit: Tom'south Guide)

• Check out the best headphones to accompany your new laptop
• Plow up the bass with these external calculator speakers

LG Gram 17 2020 review: Performance and graphics

Thanks to the Intel Cadre i7-1065G7 CPU and 16GB of RAM, the Gram 17 had no problem loading upwardly 30 separate Google Chrome tabs (including 10 YouTube tabs, playing music videos simultaneously). And then I opened more YouTube tabs, a few Facebook videos, and then Spotify. 15 YouTube tabs (playing 1080p videos at once), five Facebook tabs (playing CNN news clips simultaneously), and ane Spotify playlist later: yet no lag. Impressive.

The Gram 17's U-serial processor might non be ideal for gaming, only you could definitely utilise this laptop to play less resource-hungry titles. Its score of 15,626 on the Geekbench 4.3 test 1-upped its predecessor by a slim margin (14,039, eighth Gen Cadre i7). But with a score of 3,439 on the Geekbench 5 exam, the Gram 17 couldn't touch the XPS 17 (7,740, Cadre i7-10875H), MacBook Pro (vii,201, Core i9-9980HK), or fifty-fifty the average laptop (iv,041).

(Image credit: Tom'southward Guide)

The Gram 17 was no champion in our Handbrake video transcoding test, either, just that's typical of 10th-Gen Ice Lake CPUs. Information technology took 23 minutes and 59 seconds to convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution, while the previous model took nineteen:eighteen. The XPS 17 (eight:41) and MacBook Pro (eight:00) performed this job even faster; the average premium laptop takes eighteen:39.

Non every criterion test was a bummer. The Gram 17's speedy 512GB M.2 PCIe SSD took merely 5 seconds to duplicate 5GB of multimedia files — a transfer charge per unit of 1,128.4 megabytes per 2d. This actually outpaces the MacBook Pro (1,017.ix MBps), XPS 17 (620.6 MBps), and Surface Laptop 3 (282.vii MBps); the category average is 683.viii MBps.

The Intel Iris Plus graphics in the Gram 17 are improve than the integrated graphics of yesteryear, simply you'll withal desire a discrete carte du jour to run more enervating games. Example-in-point: during testing, Sid Meier'due south Civilization 6: Gathering Tempest played at just 12 frames per second, which isn't fifty-fifty close to our 30-fps playability threshold. Less enervating games, similar Clay three, should work at 1080p on High settings.

LG Gram 17 2020 review: Bombardment life

Every bit a rule, 17-inch laptops have a nasty habit of being energy hogs, thanks to those huge high-res panels. The Gram 17 simply lasted seven hours and ten minutes on the Tom'south Guide battery test, a noticeable decrease from the nearly 12 hours of runtime its predecessor offered.

In dissimilarity, the XPS 17 (which has a 4K brandish) endured for nine:05, while the MacBook Pro clocked in at 10:55. Fifty-fifty the Surface Laptop 3 (8:00) lasted longer, though it failed to hit the category boilerplate of ix:33.

LG Gram 17 2020 review: Webcam

Present, at that place's no excuse for a grainy depression-res webcam (especially if y'all're shelling out more than than $1,000 for the machine it'south fastened to). Unfortunately, this looks like one department where LG cut some corners. 720p videos were noisy, hazy, and barely acceptable for Zoom calls. If you'll be using this laptop for video conferencing from habitation, you might want to invest in an external 1080p webcam for the purpose.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

(Epitome credit: Tom's Guide)

LG Gram 17 2020 review: Heat

During our heat test, which involves playing a 15-minute, 1080p video, the Gram 17 had no issues dispersing actress warmth. The hottest part of the laptop (in a higher place the F9 key) reached our 95-degree Fahrenheit comfort threshold; the underside remained cool, at 90 degrees. The touchpad was fifty-fifty cooler, at 77 degrees.

LG Gram 17 2020 review: Software and warranty

LG throws in a few useful utilities, including the aforementioned LG Control Center, where you tin arrange power direction settings, screen color temperature, and security settings. The LG Update Center is a divide app for downloading drivers, patches, and other system updates.

The Gram 17 comes with a handy guide for how to use the laptop, and a dedicated troubleshooting app for...well, troubleshooting. You'll likewise detect a preloaded suite of Cyberlink apps for editing videos (PowerDirector 14, ColorDirector 5) and photos (PhotoDirector).

(Image credit: Tom'south Guide)

The Gram 17 ships with an obligatory one-year standard warranty.

LG Gram 17 2020 review: Verdict

The LG Gram 17 from last year was a stride in the correct management, merely the 2020 model feels like a stride backwards (though non to an extreme caste). All criticisms bated, the two principal selling points of this machine are extreme portability (at only ii.98 pounds) and a big, vivid screen. And the LG Gram 17 excels in both of these departments.

It's hard to make a perfect laptop these days, and when it comes to the 17-inch category, there are leap to be a few shortcomings for power users. But if you're looking for a featherlight laptop that tin can handle word processing, cyberspace enquiry, watching movies, and more, y'all'll take no problem bringing this thing along on your next road trip.

Every bit a mild-mannered mobile tech announcer and molecular mixologist, TJ has over a decade of detail-driven storytelling under his belt. Conversely, as a seasoned outdoor athlete, he's forever fascinated by every shade of green on this beautiful planet. When TJ's not coddiwompling through New York Urban center or the metaverse, he can be found field-testing futuristic fitness tech from his living room while crafting Dr. Seussian verse inside a tattered moleskin.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/lg-gram-17-2020

Posted by: hemphillboying.blogspot.com

Share this post