• yesterday
Transcript
00:00How many years have we been making videos on LG Grams and to be honest
00:04they've never done particularly well. The views just aren't really there for it
00:07which is a shame because I've always been a fan of them but they've just been
00:10very expensive and arguably a little bit boring. Yes they've been super duper
00:15lightweight but beyond that nothing particularly interesting just an ultra
00:18book. Well things have changed. Say hello to the new LG Gram style. Still very
00:23expensive but a whole lot more exciting. I mean firstly just look at this thing
00:27we've got this kind of iridescent finish to the lid and also the palm rest
00:31actually this has an invisible touchpad as well you can see as I swipe over it
00:35these little lights pop up. Very similar to the Dell XPS 13 Plus although I do
00:39appreciate it shows us the boundaries for it and it is a bit tasty. I mean as
00:44the light hits it changes color. Probably one of the best-looking laptops I've
00:48seen in a long time. But it's not just a pretty face because we also have 13th
00:52gen P series processors on the inside up to an i7 and also an absolutely
00:57stunning display. This is a real highlight for me. 120 Hertz WQHD plus
01:02OLED over 500 nits of brightness and HDR support. It's a bit good. Downside no
01:08touchscreen also this screen wobble not my favorite. Come on LG we can tighten
01:13that hinge. It's still one of my biggest criticisms as it just wobbles all day
01:16long but overall if you want a super compact incredibly lightweight I mean
01:22this weighs just 1.23 kilograms. Gorgeous display and really unique
01:26design. If you can afford it the new LG Gram Style is definitely one to look out
01:30for. That's not like a conclusion we're just starting this video. If you do find
01:35this video useful then a cheeky like and subscribe would be lovely. Okay so the
01:39new LG Gram Style comes in two sizes this 16-inch model and a 14-inch one
01:43that squeaks in at just under one kilogram. Now this high-spec 16-inch
01:48review sample I have is around $2,000 in the US although right now it's
01:52actually $200 off but here in the UK it's a pretty hefty £2,400 but of
01:57course that does include sales tax. But it is a fair bit more than its rivals
02:01like the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Pro or the Lenovo Yoga 9i Gen 8 or Asus
02:05Swift X and at least in the UK the pricing is much closer to the much more
02:10powerful Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra with its RTX 4050 graphics card. Now the
02:15Style doesn't replace the regular Gram range. Those non-OLED and less stylish
02:20models are now the more affordable option except for maybe the new LG Gram
02:2417 Pro which does get a discrete GPU in the form of the RTX 3050 and it's around
02:28the same price as this Style 16. Plus there's a 2-in-1 option and a new
02:32ultralight Gram which also gets a nice OLED panel and a slimmer chassis and of
02:36course we have this USB-C portable monitor the Gram Plus View as it's
02:40called which is a lightweight and fantastic way to get extra portable
02:43screen space. Rounding out the specs we have an Intel P-Series i7 1360p that's a
02:4928 watt CPU. There's also mention of an i5 although it doesn't seem to be
02:53currently available perhaps with a future SKU or in just certain markets.
02:57Then we get 8, 16 or 32 gigs of very speedy 6,000 megahertz LPDDR5 RAM. We have
03:04integrated Iris Xe graphics. No discrete option here unfortunately. Then this
03:08120 Hertz OLED display. We get dual PCIe 4 SSD slots. We've got an extra one for
03:13expansion there. A good-sized 80 watt-hour battery. A Full HD webcam with
03:17Windows Hello for face logins. Two 3 watt stereo speakers with Dolby Atmos and we
03:22get this gorgeous Aura White finish which is the only color option. Down the
03:26sides we have a pretty good range of ports including two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C's,
03:30a micro SD slot, of course a full-size would have been nice, audio jack and a
03:35single USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A which can talk apparently.
03:41This is serious. And this is kind of cool. If you plug in an external screen an
03:46overlay pops up which lets you choose the relative position of the display and
03:50whether it's duplicated or extended which saves a bit of time working out
03:53where the screen is and repositioning it in the settings menu. The 14-inch is
03:57basically identical to the 16 although we do get a slightly lower resolution
04:00but then the smaller size means we actually come out with a similar PPI
04:03and it's also OLED although it does top out at 90 Hertz rather than 120 which is
04:07a bit disappointing and of course we also get a smaller 72 watt-hour battery.
04:11So really the only compromise of going for the 14 is that lower refresh rate.
04:15Let's take a close look at this design and it is seriously sleek looking
04:19compared to the regular gram and those ever-changing iridescent holographic
04:23colors are definitely eye-catching. The lid and the palm rest are covered in
04:27Gorilla Glass 5 which should help to reduce scratches while the base and the
04:30rest of the chassis are a combination of LG's aluminium magnesium alloy and a bit
04:34of good old plastic. I am pleased to see there's much less flex on the keyboard
04:38deck compared to some of the older grams I've tested although if you are
04:41using this on your lap that screen wobble can get a bit annoying. But the
04:45real USP of this guy is well in its name the gram. This 16-inch gram style weighs
04:50about the same as the 13-inch MacBook Air despite having a much much bigger
04:55and OLED screen and paired with a newly slimmed down charger you could carry
05:00this around all day and barely notice it. I also really like this hidden touchpad
05:04and as you run your finger along get these two edge light strips light up
05:08which I think is a great solution and much better than guessing where the
05:11edges are like on the Dell XPS 13 Plus. Similar to the force trackpad on the
05:15MacBook it doesn't physically click down but we get a haptic feedback instead
05:19which is as accurate and responsive as a regular pad but the lack of a real click
05:23is definitely less satisfying and I must admit I do find the sound the click of
05:27the trackpad just to be a little bit too loud and a bit annoying. But the setup
05:31definitely looks cool. The backlit keyboard is nice and big with well
05:35spaced out keys and we also get room for a numpad. Sadly there's no
05:38fingerprint reader here although you can use Windows Hello by the webcam instead
05:42and holding down the function key actually brings up a list of shortcuts
05:45which is pretty useful. So it has decent specs and a lovely design but for me one
05:49of the highlights of this guy is this gorgeous OLED screen. I mean just look at
05:54this thing. HDR movies and TV look incredible thanks to those near-perfect
05:57black levels and contrast. It also gets the display HDR 500 true black
06:02certification although I actually measure brightness of just under 800
06:05nits in HDR and around 500 in SDR. It would have been nice to have Dolby Vision
06:10support but instead we're stuck with a more primitive HDR 10. So it's bright,
06:14it's OLED, it's 120 Hertz, it's 16 by 10 so a little bit taller which is great to
06:19see and also we get a WQHD plus resolution so we're actually getting
06:22three times as many pixels as a regular 1080p panel. It's not full 4k but it's
06:28nice and sharp and I think a good balance for battery life as well.
06:30Although sadly there's no touch input, it's not a touchscreen. However it is
06:34very color accurate. I measured 100% sRGB, 96% Adobe RGB and 99% DCI-P3 which is
06:42pretty much pro level accuracy and more than good enough for editing your photos
06:46and videos and graphics. So yes this screen is incredible but let's move on
06:50and talk about performance. Browsing with loads of tabs open and multitasking with
06:54office apps was nice and slick and the fans in LG's so-called mega cooling
06:59system only really kicked in when I started running my benchmarks and even
07:02then it was pretty quiet. And it's more than fast enough for your day-to-day
07:05workloads and even some photo and video editing but for really demanding or GPU
07:09intensive tasks like 4k video editing or some proper gaming then you'll probably
07:13want to step up to a laptop with a discrete GPU and a higher power 45 watt
07:17H series CPU. As for gaming with the integrated Xe graphics it's an option
07:23but only for more casual titles. Even Rainbow Six Siege which can run on
07:26almost anything struggled to hit 30 FPS at medium settings at 1080p with things
07:31only becoming a more playable 45 FPS at a downright ugly 720p. So I reckon
07:37streaming games whether it's through GeForce Now or Xbox Cloud is gonna be
07:40the best option here but that's assuming you have a pretty fast internet
07:43connection. As for battery life well it's nothing to get too excited about. I got
07:48around 10 hours of general use at 50% brightness and a not too impressive seven
07:52and a half hours of video playback and it's considerably shorter than what you
07:55get on the regular gram 16 which means it's probably down to the OLED screens
07:59being more power hungry but it's not bad by any means and you'll still easily get
08:03through a full workday. It's me again joined by Sylvie who apparently does not
08:08want to be on on video for this. I'm recording with the LG Gramstyles 1080p
08:13webcam we've got Sylvie there we've also got Pete behind the scenes in order of
08:18importance for the team and having a little wander around what do you think of the
08:23quality and also the mics very backlit there. Just looking at the screen I think
08:27this is definitely above average for a webcam my only issues are if you do move
08:31around that wobbly screen is gonna cause some issues and also we don't have a
08:35fingerprint reader but we do get Windows face unlocking via the IR sensor next to
08:39the webcam. And finally these dual 3 watt stereo speakers with a smart amp are
08:44nice and loud with clear vocals decent bass although since they are down firing
08:49they can easily get a bit muffled especially on your lap and at louder
08:52volumes the keyboard deck can actually start vibrating with the sound which can
08:55become a bit annoying after a while
09:01it's not perfect it's very expensive but I have to say I absolutely love this
09:06thing it's one of my favorite laptops of the year so far yes I'd love a discrete
09:10GPU and slightly more premium bezels and a more robust hinge that screen wobble
09:15just drives me nuts but I really love this thing the performance uptake with
09:1813th gen the gorgeous 120 Hertz OLED screen I love the design although not
09:23everyone does it's very subjective I think the LG gram style is a proper
09:27upgrade and the most exciting laptop LG have made for quite some time if you can
09:31afford it and you are looking for a big screen super portable and ultra
09:35lightweight laptop then you can do a lot worse than this guy but it is hard to
09:39get away from the feeling that the price is just a little bit too high for
09:42something with a low wattage CPU no discrete GPU and a fairly average
09:46battery life and if you don't mind having a laptop that weighs a couple of
09:49hundred grams more then there's a lot of more affordable alternatives out there
09:52however if you do really like the idea of an ultra lightweight gram then maybe
09:56save a few hundred and go with the regular gram 16 which is currently
09:59around 15 to 1600 pounds for a similar spec with a longer battery life just
10:04without the OLED screen and the extra well style but what do you reckon would
10:08you be tempted to pick one of these up or not a fan let me know what you make
10:11of it in the comments below and if you enjoyed this video and want to see more
10:13laptop reviews make sure you hit that like and subscribe button below I'll
10:16see you next time right here on the tech chat

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