LG Gram 17 Laptop

Lean Machine We find out where LG’s super-thin, super-lightweight laptop excels, and what compromises have been made along the way

The LG gram 17 achieves a technical feat that’s so far eluded most laptop manufacturers. The device is ultra-lightweight and has a slim design, yet is adept at running demanding creative software. It’s available in four screen sizes, ranging from 13.3-inch to the largest 17-inch version we’re reviewing here, which only weighs 1.34kg. Indeed, it’s touted by LG as being the world’s lightest 17-inch laptop.

Shaped in the familiar wedge that was popularised by the MacBook Air, the LG gram 17 measures just 1.7cm thick. This combination of thin design and minimal weight makes it fantastic for working when on the move. Despite its large physical size, it can be lifted with one hand and passed around like a tablet. Previously, 17-inch laptops have been the very opposite of portable! It won’t add much weight to hand luggage and comes with a compact charger, too.

COMPACT COMPONENTS

The gram 17 achieves this feat of extreme weight reduction through the use of a carbon and magnesium alloy for the chassis, and ultra-compact components. Inside the 17-inch LG gram is a low-power (15 watt) quadcore Intel Core i7-8565U CPU that runs at 1.8GHz under normal operating conditions, but leaps to 4.6GHz when running complex processing tasks, such as exporting video.

Elsewhere, there’s a 512GB solid-state drive and 16GB of memory – a specification that will be more than enough for the majority of creative professionals. It’s up to the job of processing RAW images, carrying out multi-layered Photoshop work, editing HD video and crunching through the most demanding filter effects.