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00:00Hey, how's it going? Dave2D here. So in late 2015, I did a review of the 14-inch LG Gram.
00:12It was a thin and light ultrabook, but it had a few too many compromises for me to just openly recommend it to everyone.
00:18This is the 15-inch version. It's been updated for 2017.
00:21It uses their magnesium carbon nanotube material again, a super lightweight metal alloy,
00:26but they've done a respectable job with the build on the 15-inch.
00:29The top deck doesn't have much flex for how light the device is.
00:33The bottom panel also is much better than I expected.
00:36The hinge is well made, and it's actually one-hand openable despite being so thin. It's pretty cool.
00:41The screen and top panel still have more flex than I'd like, but unless you're really rough on this device, you'll be fine.
00:47If you're worried, I'd just get a sleeve.
00:49Now the reason why they go with this magnesium alloy is so that they can make this laptop extremely light.
00:55It's 2.4 pounds, so that's just barely over a kilogram, and it starts at $1,200 depending on specs.
01:01So by comparison, when you take an equally specced XPS 13, that's 2.7 pounds for a 13.3-inch screen.
01:08The LG Gram is 2.4 pounds with a 15.6-inch screen.
01:13It has a lighter weight with a significantly bigger screen, and when you hold it, it's awesome.
01:18It's incredibly light and easy to carry around.
01:20It doesn't feel like an indestructible tank, but if you're trying to get to this weight, there's not much more you can do.
01:26The port selection is pretty good for a device like this.
01:28There's a microSD slot, audio jack, a bunch of USB-A ports, HDMI, and one USB-C port.
01:35It doesn't support Thunderbolt 3, but they've included an Ethernet dongle.
01:39If you want to get inside, it's actually quite difficult to open up.
01:42You have to remove some rubber feet, some hinge covers, and then pry the bottom panel off.
01:46It can be done, though.
01:47Inside, you'll see a single slot of DDR4 RAM.
01:50My unit has 16 gigs.
01:52The storage uses a SATA interface.
01:54The speeds are actually very fast for a SATA 3, but it's still limited.
01:58It's no NVMe.
01:59The battery down here has been upgraded to 60 watt-hours, a massive improvement over the 35 watt-hours of the older model.
02:05And this battery was one of the biggest complaints about the previous generation.
02:09And LG listened, and they made it significantly better.
02:11So right now, on this model, I'm able to comfortably get 8 hours of regular use with a screen at 250 nits.
02:17And this is just, like, regular work.
02:19If you want to watch movies or if you want to lower the screen brightness, you'll be able to get longer battery life,
02:23especially with the Kaby Lake chip.
02:25But the important thing is that you can go through a full day of use without bringing your charger around.
02:30Opening the screen, you can see that the bezels are really thin.
02:32It rivals the thin bezels of the XPS line from Dell.
02:35Not as thin, but close.
02:37The display is a 1080p IPS panel.
02:40Glossy finish, and it's a touchscreen.
02:42It gets reasonably bright, bright enough for any kind of indoor work.
02:45The viewing angles and the color gamut are also not bad.
02:48The webcam is located on the bottom hinge because of the bezels, so you have that upward camera angle again.
02:54The keyboard is backlit this year.
02:56That's another big thing that LG addressed.
02:58The main keyboard area is pretty comfortable to use.
03:00The keys only have 1.1 millimeters of travel.
03:03Not a lot, but they feel responsive enough, and it's roomy.
03:07There's a number pad on the right, but the keys there feel cramped to me.
03:10I don't ever use those keys, so I'm not the best judge of them.
03:13But if you need a number pad for work, this has one of them.
03:16The trackpad's okay.
03:17For the most part, tracking is accurate, and the click mechanism feels good.
03:21It uses Elan drivers.
03:23I wish it was using Windows Precision drivers, but these ones aren't bad.
03:26In terms of performance, this unit is running a Kaby Lake i7 with the HD 620.
03:32It's a very snappy system when doing work, browsing the web, or watching videos.
03:36Gaming performance isn't amazing.
03:38This isn't a device for pro gamers, but the HD 620 can get playable frame rates in lighter games on low settings.
03:44If you want to edit videos, I'd stick with 1080p footage.
03:474K is going to be choppy, and definitely put your footage on an external drive.
03:51The thermals are respectable this time.
03:53It obviously gets warm when you push it hard, but nothing uncomfortable.
03:56The fans don't come on often, and even when they do, they're still pretty quiet.
04:00And when I run heavier benchmarks on this thing, there is CPU throttling, but it's not bad considering the form factor.
04:06And when I run the stress test from 3DMark, it passes, which is really weird to see on an ultralight laptop.
04:12The speakers are good.
04:13They don't sound amazing in terms of audio quality.
04:15I mean, they're a small Ultrabook speaker, but they're clear enough,
04:18and they position them in a way that they actually fire outwards toward the sides
04:22so that the stereo effect is really pronounced on the system.
04:25So that's the 15-inch gram, and I kind of find it weird that more companies don't make devices like this.
04:29I mean, you can find 13-inch thin and light Ultrabooks everywhere.
04:33There's like an army of them to choose from.
04:34But if you're looking for something with a bigger screen, this is one of very few.
04:38With the gram, you're getting a magnesium alloy casing with decent build quality for its weight.
04:43The 15-inch touchscreen is above average.
04:45The brightness, color accuracy, and the viewing angles are all pretty good, but it's not perfect.
04:50The keyboard's comfortable to use, and the backlighting's a very welcome addition this year.
04:54The trackpad is nice to use. There's nothing I dislike about it.
04:57The Kaby Lake CPU and the HT620 are great performers for light-to-moderate tasks and are well-cooled.
05:03The RAM and the storage are replaceable if need be, but it's not easy to get in there.
05:07And then powering this device is a 60-watt-hour battery that'll comfortably get you 8 hours of real usage.
05:13So the 2017 LG gram, much improved, significantly better battery life.
05:17That's the big one for me.
05:18The Kaby Lake upgrade is nice. The backlit keyboard is nice.
05:21I mean, some people are just going to love those things.
05:23But for me, the extended battery life is just...
05:26That brings this laptop from a cool kind of niche product to something that I would openly recommend
05:31for anyone who's looking for something that's thin and light with a big screen.
05:34That's the end of this video.
05:35Hope you guys enjoyed it.
05:36Thumbs if you liked it.
05:37Subs if you loved it.
05:38See you guys next time.