The keyboard and touchpad don't change from last year's model. On the high-end configuration I tested, the USB-C port is Thunderbolt 3. Other ports and connections include two USB 3.0 ports (Type-A), a microSD card slot, HDMI output and a USB 3.0 Type-C port that supports charging, video out, high-speed data transfer and Ethernet via an adapter. To be fair, few laptops this thin have good speakers and LG built-in DTS Headphone: X processing for improved audio quality through the headphone/mic jack.
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While watching TV and movies on it is a good experience, listening to any sort of audio through its weak speakers is not. It can be charged with an external battery pack via its USB-C port. Also, while the touchscreen is plenty responsive, the combo of the thin panel and free-moving hinge results in discernable bounce when you touch it. It's not the brightest screen and battling reflections off the glossy screen was kind of a thing.
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Lift the lid and you're greeted with a nice, big 15.6-inch full HD touch display. In fact, the lid has a fair amount of flex to it, so I wouldn't carry it around by just the display or put too much pressure or weight on it or go out of your way to abuse it. It'll stand up to a daily commute, but it's not a rugged laptop by any means. That's not to say you should go throwing the Gram around. To back up the sturdiness claims, LG ran it through seven military-grade durability tests including ones for shock and vibration. The Gram's full-metal body is made of nano carbon magnesium that LG says is tougher than the shell of conventional laptops. Everyone who's picked up the Gram in our offices remarked that it feels cheap and hollow. When laptop manufacturers use lightweight materials, the results can be mistaken for flimsy build quality. If those things aren't crucial to your needs, you might want to consider something else such as the 14-inch Lenovo Yoga 920, 15-inch HP Spectre x360, Dell XPS 15 or Microsoft Surface Book 2. The Gram 15 starts at $1,150, though, with components that should deliver good performance for everyday work and entertainment needs.īasically, if you want a large screen, a long battery life and the lightest travel weight possible, this is the answer, but be prepared to pay for it. The 2018 Gram models - available in 13.3-, 14- and 15.6-inch sizes - start at $1,000 for a non-touchscreen 13.3-inch Gram, but climb up to $2,000 for the 15.6-inch version reviewed here (approximately AU$2,600 or £1,425 in Australia and the UK, respectively) with a full-HD IPS touchscreen and an Intel Core i7-8550U processor, 16GB of memory and two, 512GB SSDs. There were some subtle additions such as a fingerprint reader and Thunderbolt 3 USB-C (in the highest-end configuration, at least), and LG moved the webcam from the laptop's hinge to above the display, making the overall package better than last year's. On top of that, the 2018 LG Gram has simply great battery life, beating the 2017 model's by roughly four hours.