LG Gram 16 review: The lightest and most durable in the class
"The Gram 16 offers a wide range of battery life in an incredibly light package."
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Incredibly easy
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Thin bezels, slim chassis
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Spectacular battery life
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4:10 pm viewing is a boon to productivity
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Well rounded ports
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The display has a lower contrast
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Lid and keyboard deck are too flexible
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There are no performance improvements
The Guinness Book of Records officially recognizes the LG Gram 16 as the lightest 16-inch notebook. At £ 2.62, I'm not surprised it deserves the award.
LG's Gram laptops have always been designed to be as light as possible (hence the name). This applies to the 17-inch model as well as to the 13-inch model. Across the board, they're some of the lightest laptops you can buy. This year, LG added a new size, the Gram 16, to take over the MacBook Pro 16 and serve as a middle ground between 15- and 17-inch machines.
In the past, LG's larger laptops have suffered from lack of performance enhancement, which conflicts with laptops like the Dell XPS 17 and MacBook Pro 16. The LG Gram 16 still doesn't have discrete graphics, but it does have a $ 1,700 trial configuration.I still tested a lot of extras, including a Core i7-1165G7 processor, 16GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and one 16:10 IPS screen. Does LG have a winner in hand?
design
Mark Coppock / Digital Trends
The Gram 16 feels incredibly light. Pick it up and you immediately think that it is empty inside. But that's not the case – even at just 2.62 pounds and fully equipped with state-of-the-art components, it still manages to pack a whopping 80-watt-hour battery.
We'll dive deeper into battery life later, but suffice it to say that the LG Gram 16 is a champion when it comes to battery life. The XPS 15, with a battery capacity of 86 watt hours, weighs 4.5 pounds – man, you can feel the difference. A bigger display and almost half the weight? I take it.
Note that the MacBook Pro 16 weighs 4.3 pounds with 100 watt hours of battery life (the best you can fit in a commercial airplane). Even the much smaller Dell XPS 13 weighs 2.8 pounds.
How did LG make the Gram 16 so easy? Mainly, it's the magnesium alloy chassis that cuts the pounds off. And it's not a thick magnesium alloy either, which you can tell if you bend the lid with minimal force and press down on the keyboard deck until you hit the components underneath.
Viscerally, the Gram 16 acts like bendable plastic.
The bottom of the case resists bending, but the rest of the case has a lot of yield. That's the price you have to pay for a machine this light – even though LG put the laptop through a MIL-STD-810G test, which meets military standards for durability and reliability.
Intellectually, I know this is a rugged laptop – maybe not as much as the XPS 15 or the MacBook Pro 16, but it won't break apart in a stiff breeze. Viscerally, however, it acts like flexible plastic. Kudos to LG for somehow succeeding in designing the hinge so that it stays in place and still opens with one hand. There isn't a lot of weight holding the bottom of the case in place.
Thanks to some very small bezels, the Gram 16 is 14.01 inches, only slightly wider than the XPS 15 compared to 13.57 inches, while the MacBook Pro 16 is 14.09 inches. At 9.58 inches, it's slightly lower than the 9.06-inch XPS 15 and 9.68-inch MacBook. With a thickness of 0.66 inches, the Gram 16 sits between 0.71 inches of the XPS 15 and 0.65 inches of the MacBook Pro 16. The Dell XPS 17 is also in the same stadium thanks to its tiny bezels and very slim design – 14.74 inches wide, 9.76 inches deep, 0.77 inches thick, and 5.53 pounds on a 97 watt hour battery.
Mark Coppock / Digital Trends
Mark Coppock / Digital Trends
In simpler terms, they are very similarly sized laptops that all look quite modern. However, with its simple silver chassis and complete lack of ornamentation, the Gram 16 is the simplest of the group. It's on purpose – LG describes it as a "minimalist, no-nonsense design" designed to "reduce distractions."
Both the XPS 15 and 17, with their slimmer lines, and the MacBook Pro 16, with its restrained elegance, are better looking machines. Note that the Gram 16 is also available in white and black.
Ports and Connectivity
Connectivity is a strength: two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 support, two USB-A 3.2 ports, a full-size HDMI port, a microSD card reader, and a 3.5mm audio jack. That's better than the XPS 15 with two USB-C Thunderbolt 3 ports, a single USB-C 3.1 port, and no HDMI port.
The MacBook Pro 16 has all-in ports for Thunderbolt 3, of which there are four.
The Gram 16 also has Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1 for an up-to-date wireless connection.
performance
The Gram 16 I tested used the Core i7-1165G7, a popular Tiger Lake processor that offers solid productivity performance and can dive into low-end content creation. Like most manufacturers lately, LG has a utility that can be used to toggle between quiet, optimal, and performance modes. Switching between them will adjust the performance against fan noise. With the Gram 16, you should use the utility.
Using a U-series CPU is important here – most larger laptops, like the Dell XPS 15 and 17 and the MacBook Pro 16, use 45-watt H-series CPUs, which are designed for creative professionals who normally go for Laptops decide, sizes are much faster. This is especially true for the GPU, where the Gram 16 is limited to Intel's Iris Xe graphics, which are nowhere near as fast as the discrete graphics available in the competition.
In the optimal mode, the Gram 16 is a less than convincing performer. As with most of these utilities, this didn't show up in Geekbench 5, where there wasn't much of a difference between modes. The Gram 16 is a solid performer in this benchmark, outperforming laptops like the Dell XPS 13 and the Razer Book 13 (which uses the faster Core i7-1185G7) by a few points. The XPS 15 and MacBook Pro 16 use 45-watt H-series 10th generation CPUs, so, as mentioned, are much faster.
In our handbrake test, which encodes a 420 MB video as H.265, the Gram 16 lasted over 3.5 minutes in optimal mode and just under three minutes in performance mode. Both results are within about 10 seconds of the Dell XPS 13 and are faster than most other laptops with the same CPU. The XPS 15 was ready in just over two minutes. We have not tested the MacBook Pro 16 with the same version of Handbrake and therefore cannot provide this comparison.
Mark Coppock / Digital Trends
In Cinebench R23, the Gram 16 was slow with 4,137 in multi-core mode and 1,394 in single-core mode in the optimal setting. That is far behind laptops like the XPS 13 and the Razer Book 13. In performance mode, however, the values rose to 4,718 and 1,415. These aren't the fastest we've seen – the HP Specter x360 14, for example, scored 4,847 and 1,404 in performance mode – but it is on par with the rest of the field. We didn't test the XPS 15 or the MacBook Pro 16 in Cinebench R23, but we guarantee that both will be faster thanks to their more powerful CPUs.
Don't buy this laptop if you expect powerhouse performance.
Finally, I ran the full PCMark 10 benchmark and didn't see much of a difference between optimal and performance modes. The gram 16 achieved 4,887 points in the total number of points and 9,687, 6,886 and 4,749 points in the tests Essentials, Productivity and Content Creation. These values are good for the CPU, with the Specter x360 14 scoring 4,796, 9760, 6340 and 4,837 points, respectively.
Mark Coppock / Digital Trends
Overall, the Gram 16 performed quickly during my tests. It's exactly what I expected from a laptop with its specs, and I've never seen anything that made me think about the laptop's performance even in optimal mode – with one exception.
This exception concerns the Intel Iris Xe, which should offer gaming performance close to an entry-level discrete GPU like the NVIDIA GeForce MX350. The optimal mode of the Gram 16 lagged far behind and only achieved 1,390 points in the Time Spy test by 3DMark. This is comparable to the 1,589 of the XPS 13 in the appropriate mode and is way behind most other Intel Iris Xe laptops. However, switch to performance mode and the score rose to 1,801, well ahead of most other Tiger Lake laptops that aren't running the Intel Iris Xe Max GPU.
In Fortnite, the Gram 16 only managed 13 frames per second (fps) in 1080p and high graphics – most Intel Iris Xe laptops reached 30 fps with the same settings. The Gram 16 achieved 33 fps in performance mode, which is only average for the class, but much better than in optimal mode.
I didn't test the Gram 16 against our creative content benchmarks due to the lack of discrete graphics and a lower-performing CPU. It just can't rival the XPS 15 and 17 and the MacBook Pro 16 for creative professionals, which is one of the main demographics of larger screen laptops. Don't buy this laptop if you expect powerhouse performance.
display
Laptops with larger displays – 16:10 or 3: 2 – are becoming more common, and it won't be long before the old school 16: 9 widescreen display is in the minority. The Gram 16 has a 16-inch, 16:10 display with WQXGA resolution (2,560 x 1,600). Thanks to small bezels, you are immediately in front of a large, luxurious area to do real work.
Unfortunately, the panel itself is a mixed bag compared to other premium laptops. On the one hand, it has a wide gamut of 88% AdobeRGB (75% is closer to average for all but the best displays) and 100% sRGB. However, these colors are not particularly accurate with a DeltaE of just 2.67 (1.0 or less is considered excellent). The XPS 15's 4K display reached 0.65 and the MacBook Pro 16 1.41.
Mark Coppock / Digital Trends
The brightness of the display was 313 nits and just hit our preferred threshold of 300 nits. The XPS 15 4K has 442 nits and the MacBook Pro 16 was a bit brighter than the Dell at 443 nits. Where the Gram 16's display really suffers is its contrast, which was only 830: 1. These days, good premium displays exceed a contrast ratio of 1,000: 1 – the XPS 15 4K is 1,480: 1 and the MacBook Pro 16 is 1,250: 1.
I enjoyed the display on the Gram 16 for its size and aspect ratio, and was fine with its colors and brightness – but then again, I'm not a creative professional, so wide and accurate colors aren't that important to me. I noticed the low contrast, however, as black text didn't look the way I like it against a white background. Even so, most people will find the display pleasant enough for their productivity work and their media consumption.
The audio quality was decent, with sufficient volume for YouTube and the occasional Netflix binge, and with no significant distortion. The mids and highs were clear, but the bass was missing. The XPS 15 and MacBook Pro 16 have better sound quality, especially the MacBook which has some of the best audio quality you can find on a laptop.
Keyboard and touchpad
The Gram 16 has a fairly typical island keyboard with well-even backlighting. The black keycaps are a good size and conveniently spaced. The switches are precise, offer a lot of spring travel and a comfortable floor effect. My only problem with the mechanism is the amount of pressure it takes to press a button. The keyboard felt stiff to me, unlike the crisp and snappy action on the HP Specter line and the MacBook's Magic keyboard. If you like a lighter touch, you might not prefer this keyboard.
Mark Coppock / Digital Trends
The touchpad is large due to the expansive keyboard deck – although there is room for an even larger touchpad. The surface is smooth and pleasant to wipe, and thanks to Microsoft's Precision touchpad drivers, it offers excellent support for Windows 10 multi-touch gestures. I really liked the touchpad and appreciated the relatively quiet buttonless clicks. What I didn't like was the non-touch display. I prefer touch displays for thumb scrolling, which is even more helpful with a larger display.
Windows 10 Hello support is provided by a fingerprint reader integrated into the power button. It logged me in quickly and painlessly, with no single mistake in recognizing my finger. I would have loved to have facial recognition too, but LG chose not to include that.
Battery life
As already mentioned, the Gram 16 manages to achieve a battery capacity of 80 watt hours despite its incredibly low weight. At the same time, it has a fast CPU and a high-resolution 16-inch display. I wasn't sure what battery life to expect.
What I certainly didn't expect is some of the best battery life we've seen. In all of our tests, the Gram 16 lasted an exceptionally long time and was used either as the most durable laptop or in the top tier.
Starting with the PCMark 10 gaming test, which stresses the CPU and GPU, the Gram 16 lasted five hours. The closest laptop is the XPS 13 Full HD +, which lasts a full hour less. In the PCMark 10 application test, which is the best measure of productivity longevity, the Gram 16 managed almost 18 hours, which is more than three hours longer than the next best, Lenovo's Yoga 9i 14. In third place is the XPS 13 with just under 11 hours
In our web browsing test, which ran through a number of popular websites, the Gram 16 got close to 14 hours. Among the Intel laptops, only the Samsung Galaxy Flex 13 came close (in fact, it lasted just as long). Only ARM-based laptops have a longer lifespan, including Apple's M1 MacBook Air and MacBook Pro 13. The XPS 15 we tested contained discrete graphics and lasted just seven hours, while the XPS 17 with discrete graphics lasted just over six hours. You can buy both laptops with built-in graphics and they will likely do a lot better.
Finally, the Gram 16 lasted around 24.5 hours in our video test going through a Full HD Avengers trailer. The Lenovo Yoga 640 with a 10th generation Core i3 is the closest competitor with 23 hours, and the Dell Latitude 7410 2-in-1 with its energy-saving display lasted just under 22 hours. Again, you'll need to switch to an ARM processor to get better battery life in this test. As with our web browsing test, the XPS 15 lasted a little over seven hours and the XPS 17 lasted over nine hours.
Put simply, the Gram 16 showed spectacular battery life. In fact, it was a real problem to check – I had to wait over 60 hours for all of the battery tests to complete. However, for the typical productivity user, you'll likely get through two full business days before plugging in.
Our opinion
The LG Gram 16 is almost unbelievably light to have such a spacious display and an unbelievably long battery life. I wasn't in love with the keyboard and the best performance required turning on performance mode and a bit of fan noise. But I could live with these flaws to have a laptop that I wouldn't have to worry about for days and that I would barely notice in my backpack.
However, my biggest problem with the laptop is how weak it feels. I don't want to overdo things – the laptop feels sturdy unless you intentionally rotate the display or press harder than usual on the keyboard deck. But we do these things in reviews, and that's how we notice them. Whether the typical user would notice – or care since the laptop meets the military specifications for ruggedness – is an open question.
Are there alternatives?
The Dell XPS 15 offers a display with an aspect ratio of 16:10 and offers a much better quality in its 4K version. It's also almost twice as heavy, despite the fact that the display is a bit smaller, and it can't nearly match the battery life of the Gram 16. You'll also pay about $ 300 more for a similarly equipped XPS 15.
Next up is the Apple MacBook Pro 16, which has a sleeker appearance as well as a much better display and spectacular sound. It's also much more expensive, and it doesn't even come close to rivaling the Gram 16's longevity.
Finally, with the XPS 17, you can get a slightly larger display and much faster performance in a package that is only slightly larger than the Gram 16. You will be spending more money, however, and battery life will suffer here too.
The XPS 15 and 17, as well as the MacBook Pro 16, are also much faster than the Gram 16 thanks to more powerful 45-watt CPUs and discrete GPUs. Keep this in mind when choosing between these two options and the lightest, most durable laptop in its class.
How long it will take?
I've said it before – the Gram 16 doesn't seem to be as rugged as many other premium laptops if you're looking for flaws. However, if you trust the MIL-STD-810G rating, you can be sure that it will stand up to some abuse. It is covered by the one-year guarantee, which is customary in the industry and which is too short.
Should you buy it?
Yes. The LG Gram 16 is a solid productivity performer with outstanding – truly unprecedented – battery life, and it's so damn light. Just make sure you pay attention to the performance differences with other similar sized laptops.
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