2023-11-14 16:38:00
During the CES 2023 fair, LG presented its newest bet in the premium notebook market to the world. We are talking about the LG Gram Style.
With the start of sales abroad, the TudoCelular group had access to a unit and here we have a device with a glass finish, Intel Core i7 processor, complete combo of connections and also Windows 11.
But will the LG Gram Style be a good competitor to other models from Samsung, Acer or even Dell? Is it worth getting a MacBook for its price?
That’s what we’re going to answer in this quick hands-on.
Economy and market
06 Nov
Economy and market
17 Out
Design and construction
The LG Gram Sytle is a beautiful notebook that can attract attention due to its pearly white color. This gives a feeling of elegance and premium device.
Furthermore, an important detail of this notebook is that, unlike competing options, it has a back cover and palm rest covered in glass.
It’s a material that may seem fragile to many, but here at LG Gram Style, this frosted glass gives a great tactile sensation, and the finish also prevents everything from being covered in fingerprints.
The notebook weighs around 1.2 kilograms and is just 1.6 centimeters thick at its thickest point.
In terms of connections, on the left side we have two Thunderbolt standard USB-C ports and a P2 connector for audio, while the right side houses a USB-A port and a MicroSD card reader.
Wirelessly, you will find Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.1. To compensate for the weight of the glass finish, LG had to use a plastic frame on the Gram Style and this gives a feeling of fragility. Still, the manufacturer guarantees that it has military-grade certification.
Now moving on to the keyboard, we have numeric keys here and that is certainly a positive thing. However, the keys are very soft and this takes away the feeling that you are typing on something robust.
Still, the spacing is good and the trackpad is almost hidden in the palm rest. You can only see its boundaries thanks to two LED strips on the sides. In terms of design, it is something beautiful, but in practice it will require a little adaptation so that the user does not rest their hands on the sensitive part.
Screen and hardware
The LG Gram Style highlights its 16-inch OLED screen with a resolution of 3,200 by 2,000 pixels and a refresh rate that can reach 120 Hz.
In short, we are talking about a top-of-the-line solution for displays and it is clear that LG took advantage of all its expertise to produce the screen for this notebook.
Here we have deep blacks, very good color calibration not only for media consumption but also for content production and all this with a maximum luminance of 400 nits in SDR and 550 nits in HDR.
It’s a “respectable” screen and one that we would like to see on all notebooks in this price range. Now talking about audio, here we have two speakers of 3 watts each to offer stereo sound.
In general terms, we have high volume and sound that can distinguish the mids and highs well, but still lacks in the bass. Still, it is something superior to what we have in other Windows solutions.
And for you to make video calls, the LG Gram Style offers a Full HD resolution webcam. It is capable of offering good images and works together with good quality microphones, and there is an infrared sensor for Windows Hello.
The LG Gram Style has an Intel Core i7 1360P processor with a maximum clock speed of up to 5 GHz, which works together with 16 GB of LPDDR5 RAM in dual channel and a 1 TB PCIe 4 SSD.
As much as this set of hardware may attract anyone’s attention, in our tests it was possible to notice that performance may not be the strong point of the LG Gram Style.
For daily browsing, lighter work or media consumption, the notebook will deliver great performance.
However, in heavier games or video editing, you will come across a bottleneck and the problem may be related to an undersized heat dissipation system.
This causes the notebook to start to heat up more, even during everyday tasks. In simpler tests, with 10 pages on Chrome and some programs in the background, you will notice that the CPU can exceed 60 degrees.
In games, this number can reach 85 degrees or more. For comparison, the Lenovo Yoga Pro 9i has the same hardware and is in the range of 50 to 55 degrees in normal operation.
In practice, the LG Gram can have its performance strangled by heat. Lacked a larger dissipation area or a more efficient fan
To conclude this topic, the LG Gram Style has an 80 watt hour battery, something that was certainly designed to make the notebook lighter.
In typical use, that is, browsing the internet, creating documents or watching content, the notebook can easily reach 8 hours, leaving a residual of 15% remaining.
In more extreme use with games, unfortunately overheating prevents autonomy from exceeding 3 hours. The LG Gram Style charger is a classic with USB-C and can recharge the device in around 1 and a half hours.
Software
Like other premium notebooks on the current market, the LG Gram Style comes out of the box with Windows 11 Home.
The software is one that everyone already knows and, unlike its compatriot Samsung, LG does not invest in many proprietary solutions for the system.
On a day-to-day basis, performance will be good and you won’t notice any hiccups in the experience, and Windows starts up very quickly thanks to the SSD with more than 6000 MB/s in reading and writing.
First impressions and prices
Officially launched at this year’s CES, the LG Gram Style has a high price and this makes it almost unviable even by European and North American standards. Therefore, we even think that this notebook is unlikely to arrive in Brazil.
In Europe, it costs around 2,199 euros. In other words, something around R$11,520 in direct conversion. In the United States, it is cheaper and starts at US$1,800, something around R$8,820.
Of course, in both cases it is possible to find promotions at retail. In any case, the price is too high for what the LG Gram Style has to offer.
The notebook has an eye-catching design, its glass details are beautiful and different from the norm, and the OLED screen is of excellent quality. However, the performance bottleneck due to the lack of an efficient cooling system is something that may scare many people.
In practice, he owes one of the main points. So, for that price, it’s worth trying to get a Galaxy Book 3 Pro or even a MacBook with an M2 chip.
Of course, this scenario is abroad. In Brazil, we have to wait to find out if LG will sell the notebook here. In the meantime, the best option is to analyze the prices carefully and try to see if it is possible to find something at an acceptable value during Black Friday.
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