Disclaimer: LG loaned me an LG gram 17″ Ultra-Light Laptop with Intel® Core™ i7 Intel® Iris® Plus Graphics for my review, but all views remain my own and it made for a stellar addition to the tech on my desk. Read on!
It wasn’t until I got to try the LG gram 17″ Ultra-Light Laptop with Intel® Core™ i7 Intel® Iris® Plus Graphics in all this physical distancing that I realised just how badly I need to get a new computer.
I’ve been a pretty heavy Mac user for the past decade, looking for a computer that’d last a lot longer than the PCs that came before them. But while I’ve had a good run with some MacBook Pros, iPads, and just about every Mac accessory you can imagine, PCs didn’t stop innovating, and the LG gram is an example of where technology can go in 2020! It’s not a touchscreen laptop, but there’s a lot more under the hood that makes it a solid consideration if you want a convenient laptop to use in an increasingly mobile world!
The LG gram Ultra-Lightweight Laptop | Let’s Talk About Light!
Weighing 2.98 pounds, the 17″ LG gram is light. Surprisingly light. I’ve had 17″ laptops before, and they never felt like this. It might just be the lightest 17-inch laptop on the market!
It’s a shame I had to test it while physical distancing—it’d be a welcome addition to my daily routine, all the features of a full-fledged laptop adding little more than a tablet’s weight to my bag.
But though its lightweight build is one of its selling features, there’s more I had to put to the test.
As a content creator, I push my devices to the limit, using every iota of their processing power to do everything from edit videos to running code to create elaborate maps and charts.
When I got my hands on the LG gram, I assumed it’d run slightly slower than my MacBook Pro—16 GB of DDR4 RAM on a quad-core 1.3 GHz processor compared to the 16 GB of DDR3 RAM on a quad-core 2.8 GHz processor (top-of-the-line when I bought the MacBook Pro in late 2014). But, being away from PCs for so long, I wanted to see just how much it could handle if I kept throwing things at it.
And so I installed Chrome. Steam. QGIS, Slack and the Candy Crush Saga. Any freeware I thought I even had a chance of using made its way onto the gram, and I pushed to see how it’d perform if I tested it.
And you know what? It wasn’t too shabby! I used the gram to run virtual game nights with Discord and Steam; make maps of Toronto, Ontario and Canada with QGIS; and countless chats over Google Meet and Zoom… though admittedly, the 720p camera’s a little grainier than I’d like.
The LG Gram Ultra-Lightweight Laptop | Is it GOOD?
In any case, if you’re looking for a lightweight laptop that’ll keep up with your day-to-day life, consider the LG gram 17″ Ultra-Light Laptop with Intel® Core™ i7 Intel® Iris® Plus Graphics, starting at $2,200 CAD!
Stay safe out there, everyone, and try to live your best #QuarantineLife possible while the world sorts itself out.
Some TL;DR FAQ if you didn’t want to read the article:
– It’s 2.98 pounds light
– It has 16 GB of DDR4 RAM on a quad-core 1.3 GHz processor
– It goes up to a 17″ display
It starts at $2,200 CAD.
Be well, everyone, and until the next, I remain,
remember that time you said you were going to start carrying LESS? my arm still has flashbacks of your 90lb backpack…
LOL. This was just on loan, but I’m totally carrying less! I mean, when I actually go anywhere, that is.