LG Gram 17 Review: The Perfect Non-Gaming Laptop?

I'll be honest and say that I had quite selfish reasons for reaching out to LG and requesting a review sample of the LG Gram 17. The fact this 17in monster weighs just 1.34kg (2.95 pounds)makes it entirely unique and has completely changed my view about large laptops. I'd spotted it at a local store (it's actually brand new to the UK, but has been in the US for a while, albeit with slightly older spec) and was amazed firstly at just how large and vibrant the screen was and the thin chassis also caught my eye as well as a claimed 19.5 hour battery life.

However, when I walked over to pick it up, I was astounded. It weighed less than my Dell 12in 2-in-1 ultra-portable at just 1.34kg (2.95 pounds) and was more than 800g (1.76 pounds) lighter than my Dell Latitude 15in laptop. Most laptops this size are gaming machines that weigh two or three times as much as the Gram 17. You invariably have to pay fair amount to find a 15in laptop that weighs less than 2kg too. At $1,493, it's not exactly cheap and you can certainly pick up gaming models for the same price with discrete graphics from Nvidia or AMD that will offer enough grunt to push out respectable frame rates. However, even the flagship versions of Dell's business-focused 15in Latitude costs about the same and they weigh close to 2kg as well.

But the Gram 17 is most definitely not a gaming laptop. There's no option for game-class graphics. So who is it aimed at then? It's a good question, but for me, the perfect test for it came when I was in Las Vegas recently for the CES event held there. This would involve carrying the laptop a lot, using it as my makeshift workstation to write copy, edit videos and take to events putting it under pressure as far as weight and battery life were concerned. Like most other journalists, I usually take small and light ultrabooks to these events. The lighter the better. But what does the fact that the Gram 17 weighs the same as most small laptops mean for its potential audience? Let's see how I got on.

Specifications

CPU: Intel Core i7-8565U (quad-core, peak boost 4.6GHz)

Dimensions: height 17.4mm, width 381mm, depth 266mm

Memory: 8/16GB DDR4

Storage: 512GB SATA M.2 SSD

Screen: 17in IPS 2,560 x 1,600, glossy

Weight: 1340g

This is more of a hands on preview of the Gram 17 for the simple reason it has a very typical specification, minus the lack of an AMD or Nvidia graphics processor of course. You get an Intel Core i7-8565U, with four cores and eight threads - certainly no slouch when it comes to dealing with photo and video editing - 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD

Inside the unit, you can see how LG's claims about that 20hr battery life might be backed up with a massive 72Wh battery. In fact, it could easily expand this, but at the expense of weight of course. There's a vacant M.2 slot, but I was a little disappointed to see the included Samsung PM871b M.2 SSD is not NVMe/PCI-E but is actually a slower SATA device. Thankfully, dropping in a spare NVMe SSD I had laying around proved that these slots also support faster PCI-E M.2 SSDs and with a vacant slot, there's plenty of scope for an easy upgrade.

Memory sat at 16GB with my sample, with one embedded 8GB section and also a removable SODIMM module which you can see in green above the battery, so dual-channel memory mode is in operation. Cooling is fairly restrained due to the fact the laptop lacks a toasty dedicated GPU, but this in turn meant the Gram 17 was exceptionally quiet, plus this is one reason it's so light. You can also see the speakers at either side - unfortunately, while laptop speakers are invariably terrible, these were some of the worst I've seen. Manageable, but rather poor.

Part of the reason I've been hunting for a larger laptop is I find spending days in hotel rooms while on business, staring at a 15in screen, rather draining and very inefficient. At home I have a 34in ultra-wide monitor so dropping down to 15in is a challenge. Above you can see just what a difference that 17in display makes versus a typical 15in Dell Latitude. You get a higher resolution than an HD laptop at 2,560, x 1,600 pixels and note that it's 1,600 pixels high and not 1,400. That's right - this is a 16:10 display and not the usual 16:9 widescreen, which is the aspect ratio above on the Dell unit

I'll be honest here and say that I was somewhat indifferent to the added vertical real-estate. I usually edit photos in 16:9, but one thing made me think twice here and that was when the Gram 17 fitted into my rucksack, which is designed for 15in laptops. This meant there was no real downside to that extra screen space. The IPS screen itself is fantastic - vibrant and exceptionally bright and while it doesn't have an anti-glare finish, it was still pleasant to use and its size meant viewing spreadsheets and working with multiple windows was far easier than on my 15in machine.

The keyboard is backlit, but ultimately there are too many compromises here for a top score. Despite the huge space available, LG has opted for numerous half-size keys, which make it more fiddly to use. The keys themselves aren't as positive as your typical Lenovo or Dell business laptop keyboard either, but after a few hours I'd gotten used to them. The touchpad was superb, though, which a super-smooth finish that allows for effortless gliding and positive buttons.

There are a couple of glaring omissions from the ports, namely an Ethernet port and full-size SD card slot. The latter is substituted for a micro SD card slot, so if you have a stack of SD cards you'll need to use a memory card reader or do what I did and use a micro SD card with full size adaptor. But really, I don't know why LG didn't just include a full size port here - an over obsession with weight saving maybe. It might have served the Gram well elsewhere but I'd image most of us would have preferred the full fat version. Thankfully, while there's no Ethernet port, an included USB Type-C to Ethernet adaptor is included. The port, which supports Thunderbolt 3, could also be used with one of the many Type-C hubs out there that offer Ethernet as well as SD card readers.

Battery life

In short, this was glorious. My benchmark involved running a constant video stream from YouTube over WiFi as well as having Word and 10 browser tabs open as well as Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. I set the battery saver mode on, which also dimmed the brightness. Here, the laptop lasted over 13 hours before dying - a brilliant result that meant I was never worried about it failing me during a day away from power.

Conclusions

The Bad:

I'll start with the negatives and there are a few. For starters, LG hasn't made best use of the keyboard area and needlessly miniaturized some of the keys - not what you want if you're looking for ways to improve productivity when away from home. The speakers are poor too and limit the laptops appeal as an entertainment device, although they're passable rather than unbearable. The specification is good, but an NVMe SSD would have been better than the SATA-based model in my review unit.

The Good:

There are four exceptional qualities I love about the Gram 17. First is the weight. Usually I've opted for small laptops for trips where I'm walking with the laptop a lot, but the down side to this is that they're not great for staring at for long periods, especially if you're looking at multiple Windows. The Gram 17 has completely changed my mind about this. You get the great size and a superb screen, but without any extra weight. Why wouldn't you want something bigger and more capable if it was the same weight?

Second is the size. The screen massively improved productivity, yet I could fit the laptop easily into my rucksack's 15in laptop pouch. It looked a bit funny on the desk at press events compared to everyone else's sub 13in devices, but the thought of having a far larger screen to deal with back in my hotel room was a very comforting thought.

Finally, there was the battery life. I'll be very interested to see where LG goes with future versions as adhering to Intel's project Athena standard or dropping in an AMD 3rd Gen Ryzen mobile CPU could be very interesting. Even as it stands, though, it must have the best battery life of any 17in laptop out there, allowing it to compete with most ultrabooks.

While the specifications might paint a confusing picture to some about its target audience, the fact it slots into a 15in laptop rucksack pouch, weighs no more than your average 13in ultrabook, but gives you a huge amount more screen real-estate with huge battery life means the Gram 17 is almost entirely unique, but ultimately could be the perfect laptop for those on the move that want something a little more convenient to work from. It's no gaming machine, but it's not designed to be and for me it's the most exciting, practical and unique laptop I've seen in a while.