Today we're looking at the LG Gram, which falls into our favorite category of laptops: loftier-end slim and light machines. This latest version of the LG Gram has been around for a few months at present, and y'all might accept already seen some reviews of the flagship 15-inch model. However when LG asked if we were interested in reviewing the Gram, we specifically requested the smaller thirteen-inch entry-level model. After all, a lot of buyers are interested in the more affordable configurations that they can easily carry around.

Most of the hardware here won't come up as a surprise: we're looking at an Intel Core i5-8250U processor, though yous tin configure the system up to the i7-8550U. There's also 8GB of RAM, a 256GB SSD, a 13-inch 1080p display, and an enormous 72 Wh bombardment. All of this will ready you back a touch under $1,000 or thereabouts on Amazon.

But the key characteristic of the LG Gram isn't the internal hardware, which is similar to a lot of other laptops at this price bespeak. Instead, the major selling point is its portability, particularly its weight. The LG Gram 13 weighs just 965 grams (2.12 pounds), well below the typical ane.2 to one.4 kilograms for a laptop of this size and class, and it'southward immediately noticeable. This is past far the lightest laptop I've held with this level of hardware within, so if yous're smashing on portability, the Gram is a standout selection.

Weight is where the Gram's portability comes from. The overall dimensions and footprint are similar to other laptops, with LG opting for slim merely not invisible bezels effectually the display. Luckily, this approach to bezels has meant the webcam can remain above the display, then no nostril-vision like you get with the Dell XPS 13. At 15mm thick information technology'southward not amazingly thin either simply around the same mark as other laptops, and the thickness does allow the laptop to include a full-sized HDMI port and two total-sized USB ports.

Speaking of connectivity, you likewise go a USB 3.0 Type-C port and a microSD card slot, forth with a proprietary charging port. It'due south disappointing the Gram doesn't include Thunderbolt 3 on the 13" models – that characteristic is restricted to the larger xv-inch variant – and it also would have been nice if it charged through USB-C. We're not sure why LG opted for a microSD card slot over a full SD card slot either, as microSD isn't nearly as useful as full SD on a laptop like this.

With such a light laptop, you lot're probably wondering about build quality. The entire chassis is constructed from a magnesium alloy, similar to Microsoft Surface devices, nonetheless information technology doesn't feel quite as texturally magnificent as other premium metal builds and in that location'south not a lot of visual interest to the design, for meliorate or worse. For the most part information technology's a simple, functional design and for many buyers that will be perfectly fine.

As for durability, LG does land the laptop passes the MIL-STD-810G test suite, with shocks up to 20Gs and drops from over ane.ii meters. There'south a scrap of flex to the keyboard area simply no more than a typical ultraportable; the real expanse of weakness we establish was a pregnant amount of flex to the display assembly. It just feels weak and flimsy in that area, which is a by-product of weight reduction, though we don't retrieve information technology's a big upshot unless you relish bending the display in your spare fourth dimension.

The keyboard and trackpad are both a standard affair for a laptop: nothing overly amazing but no glaring issue either. Each central has a solid if slightly rubbery response with an ultrabook-level travel distance; not quite equally clicky as our favorite HP laptops, but nosotros typed a lengthy document on this laptop and had no issues with the response or layout. The trackpad is large enough, very responsive and the sensitivity level is perfect for a power user.

If y'all dearest to use your laptop's built in speakers, I'd steer clear of the Gram. The speakers are not skilful, and the bottom-firing design tends to get blocked hands when using the laptop on your lap. Probably another area that was compromised when weight was cutting. However in that location is a fingerprint reader integrated into the ability button, and information technology works really well; we wish more laptops included fingerprint readers.

The brandish is a fairly typical ultraportable panel: it's a 13.3-inch IPS LCD with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 and a basic threescore Hz refresh.

Our review unit came with a touchscreen, nevertheless the base model on Amazon does not; the touch on model is slightly more than expensive and will feature slightly reduced battery life due to the digitizer.

Display performance is decent, with a height brightness of 311 nits, dissimilarity ratio of 1030:one and acceptable viewing angles. LG seems to have calibrated the panel to a reasonable though not perfect standard, achieving a CCT average of 6613K, a greyscale boilerplate deltaE of three.22, and average deltaEs betwixt 2.5 and three.0 across the saturation and ColorChecker tests. DeltaEs beneath 1.0 are dead accurate and anything below 2.0 is very good; the Gram is merely outside these metrics and certainly meliorate than other laptops I've looked at.

If you desire to calibrate the LG Gram xiii's brandish using software like SpectraCAL'due south CALMAN 5, you can achieve very solid results. With no touch to effulgence or contrast ratio we pushed deltaEs beneath 1.0 across the lath, improved the gamma, and tightened up the temperature response. That'due south about as good every bit you could hope for with this sort of display, and through maintaining 98% sRGB coverage, images still look fantastic.

The only real downside we found to the display is uniformity, and even then we're only talking nigh a deltaE deviance of nearly three.0 along the bottom edge. There is no clear backlight bleed issue, it's merely a small amount of unevenness in backlighting. Not a big deal and in general We're reasonably impressed with this brandish.