Analysis of the LG Gram 17 (2021): a class of its own

I’ve read a lot about what it’s like to use, hold and type on an LG Gram before, but that didn’t lessen the impressive first impression it made when I used the new Gram 17 for the first time – especially this larger model. The Gram 17 has a grand 17-inch screen, but it weighs just three pounds, which is light enough for me to carry with one hand. Its keyboard is a joy to type with a surprising amount of tact and shift on the keys, and the battery life lasts more than an entire day of work, even a second day as well. It’s a quiet laptop, and even under pressure, its fans weren’t loud enough for me to hear once.

The Gram communicates its biggest selling points – lightness and longevity – then effectively overshadowing some persistent minor problems. This includes a keyboard layout that can be difficult to adjust. For example, num lock is very easy to accidentally press, standing next to the backspace, and the only function key is located very far from the buttons of the most essential function line, making it difficult to adjust the volume with one hand. Finally, the large trackpad is not always good for rejecting the palm of the hand. These are important things for any laptop to get right, let alone one that has a lot of extra space that should be used to avoid failures like these.

This new model for 2021 is mainly a specification update, not a design review compared to the 2020 version. But it is a good update. Within LG’s unique $ 1,799 Gram 17 configuration (available for $ 1,699 since late March), there is now an 11th generation quad-core Intel Core i7 processor that promises – and really delivers – better performance and longer battery life. battery than the 2020 model, my colleague Monica Chin reviewed. In addition, the faster LPDDR4X 4,266 MHz RAM of this model, of which it has 16 GB, probably plays a role in this increase in speed. It is not a drastically different computer to use than before, but it can be maintained more reliably this time.

When running my usual collection of about 10 tabs on Microsoft Edge for work, with Slack and Spotify running together, performance didn’t slow down at all. This is the minimum of competency tests for laptops, so for something more demanding, I exported a five-minute, 33-second test file from our Border video team through Adobe Premiere Pro. Last year’s model took 30 minutes to do this, but this one does it in about 11 minutes. This does not compare to laptops that place more emphasis on power generally at the expense of weight, but it is an improvement enough to make the price of the Gram 17 a little easier to justify. The Razer Book 13 with the same processor did just a minute faster with this test, but the Gram is on par with the latest Dell XPS 13 and Asus ZenBook 14.

The battery is also strangely good – and better than before. With the same batch of applications that I mentioned earlier, the Gram 17 lasted an entire workday and until the next, about 12 hours later. If you are looking for a laptop that can work all day without the charger, whether or not you have video calls, this is one for your list. It has the same 80Wh battery as last year’s model, which is still impressive considering the lightweight profile of the Gram 17.

Also similar to the 2020 version is its USB-C charging. LG now includes a 65 W USB-C power adapter instead of the 48 W charger that came with the previous model. It can recharge more quickly with the included brick (which is no bigger than a compact power bank), but it still takes a few hours to fully recharge it.

That sums up the biggest changes to Gram 17. There are a few minor tweaks I liked, too. The arrangement of the doors has been changed to a more logical layout. On the left side, there is a Thunderbolt 4 port (which can be used to charge, data or connect to a monitor), a USB-C 4.0 Gen 3 port, a headphone connector and an HDMI port. On the right, you’ll find two USB Type-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports next to a microSD card slot and a Kensington lock.

If you are looking for 17 inch laptops, you will have a hard time finding something lighter than the Gram. It weighs 2.98 pounds, slightly heavier than the 13-inch MacBook Air. The Dell XPS 17 is one of LG’s main competitors in this space, but its base model weighs more than a pound and a half more. If you buy an XPS 17 model like the one we reviewed in July 2020, it will weigh almost as much as two Gram 17s with 5.53 pounds. That added weight brings more power and a GPU dedicated to Dell, but if you just want a big, portable screen for productivity, the Gram is more than capable.

As my colleague Monica Chin mentioned in her review of the 2020 LG Gram 17, this laptop is not attractive. It still doesn’t compare to the top-of-the-line design of the XPS 17, which has an aluminum chassis. The Gram has a tough magnesium-alloy body, but it looks and feels like plastic. That said, there’s nothing technically wrong with its design, and it looks better than most black aluminum laptops that I’ve tried to resist fingerprints. Some people may prefer that their design doesn’t stand out too much, even when the backlit keyboard is on.

Something smaller that I would like LG to offer with this model is the option of a matte screen. It is rare that ultrabooks have them, but I find it difficult to stay focused on what is happening on the screen when I can see a reflection of all the events in my apartment looking at me. Wherever you use this laptop, brightness can be a big problem, as it can be with a TV. This does not prevent the Gram 17 display from being clear and vivid. It’s a WQXGA (2560 x 1600) IPS touch panel from the company’s own monitor division and makes everything look great with 99 percent DCI-P3 color gamut coverage. If a touchscreen is important to you, LG’s Gram 2 in 1 laptops present it. LG was one of the first Windows laptop manufacturers to switch to a 16:10 aspect ratio, and the Gram 17 also has one. Offers a little more vertical space to work on the screen, compared to 16: 9 monitors. It is more beneficial for productivity (you see more information at once, so less scrolling is required), but you will have the text box black for most full-screen videos you watch.

Gram has little bloatware, which I love to see. It comes with Amazon’s built-in Alexa, although it requires activation before you can use the service. Some other pre-installed applications include McAfee LiveScan and a package of authoring tools from CyberLink. Compared to some other laptops I’ve used recently, like the Acer Predator Triton 300 SE, the Gram doesn’t play pop-up notifications on your face, apparently every time you use it.

There are few 17-inch laptops to choose from and even fewer models as light as this one. This year’s LG Gram 17 is unique in the sense that it is more powerful than ever, but it does not give up its portability. Interestingly, the only competition she faces at the moment comes from within LG. The 16-inch Gram is lighter and less expensive, but features the same design, screen size, port selection, battery capacity and specifications (in addition to having much less storage) for $ 1,399. You can find one that has the same 1TB storage as the Gram 17 for $ 1,599. If the price of $ 1,799 for the Gram 17 is too expensive, at least you have an alternative that is likely to deliver the same great results.

But if price is not an issue and you want a surprisingly portable and powerful laptop with a large screen, the Gram 17 is in a class of its own.

Cameron Faulkner / The Verge photography