SFF.Network LG Iterates the Gram Laptop

Press Release: When marked as such, the content is published verbatim, and thus does not necessarily reflect the views of SmallFormFactor Network or Minutiae Media.

LG Electronics USA today announced availability for the first of its latest premium, high-performance LG gram notebooks, which received high praise earlier this month at CES 2018. The new 15-inch model, designed for those users who want powerful performance with maximum portability, is available now for purchase."LG continues to engineer the most easy-to-carry notebooks on the market today, while setting new industry standards for battery life and durability," said Tim Alessi, head of product marketing at LG Electronics USA. "With the next generation LG gram, U.S. consumers will experience an innovative design that fits a 15.6-inch screen into a remarkably compact body."

Read more here.

 

[confusis]

Quick question for y'all - Are you interested in seeing news (and maybe even reviews in the future) of laptops and tablet devices?

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

Quick question for y'all - Are you interested in seeing news (and maybe even reviews in the future) of laptops and tablet devices?

Sure ! A friend gave me an old ultrabook and I really fell in love with that form factor. That was not granted since I don't like laptops, but full power (read: not an atom) with SFF size and 1kg weight took my heart.

I have especially interested in weight, sturdyness, keyboard quality and screen readability and battery life.

 

[zovc]

I think the ultrabook form factor in particular is relevant. I reckon laptops in general suit this site, they're just a lot less custom. For that reason they are less cool.

This launch hurts a lot. I'm looking at my plans for travel and how some carry-ons have a limit of 7kg. My GS63VR weighs almost twice as much without its 2.5lb AC adapter.

 

[rcodi]

I actually quite like the LG Gram but for the price it really needs Iris graphics or better to justify buying it over other laptops in its price class and even then I don't know if I would spend that much for an EDC laptop.

The market as a whole has a fixation on excessive thinness and weight reduction which is getting irritating. The thin and lights do have a place but it seems to be a primary focus for all brands now. I realized things had gone too far when I couldn't open my laptop lid without holding the base because consumers are clearly so weak nowadays that they can't carry anything heavier than a couple pounds.

I think it's just a one up contest for the brands at this point because it's impeding usability. Greater amounts of laptops come with all components soldered, complicated mechanisms for disassembly, inferior cooling capability, and even worse keyboards. Lenovo has been steadily destroying the Thinkpad line in every recent iteration with one or more of the latter.

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

The Lenovo X270 isn't really thin ... problem is the price if you add an IPS screen. But I agree, an ultrabook should come with at least Iris PRO to justify the price. Also, weight is not proportional to thickness but this is the new trend since the Macbook Air. This is sad, but yesterday I was reading an article about brand still making small smartphone ... all had a 5" screen ... trends and people following it ...

 

[zovc]

This is sad, but yesterday I was reading an article about brand still making small smartphone ... all had a 5" screen ... trends and people following it ...

I'm not sure I am interpreting this remark correctly. Are you saying that 5" is a bad size for a smartphone? I wish my phone was smaller than that, personally.

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

I'm not sure I am interpreting this remark correctly. Are you saying that 5" is a bad size for a smartphone? I wish my phone was smaller than that, personally.

I meant that it is sad that 5" is considered small.

 

[zovc]

I meant that it is sad that 5" is considered small.

I think there is a bit of an "arms race" issue in a bunch of different senses. Of course you want to match your competitor's new, larger screen.

But I went from a Galaxy S4 to a OnePlus One and was like... "What is this massive brick?" So I tried a few smaller Chinese phones (Xiaomi and Huawei) since they were cheap, but they were still too big compared to the old (dead) Galaxy S4. And the S4's hardware was quite dated even a few years ago. Long story short, I finally went to the Sony Xperia Z5 Compact (~4.7", I think?) and realized that it was substantially thicker than my OnePlus X... which meant that even though it was smaller in terms of width and height, it still took up a similar volume (maybe even more) and felt awful in my pocket...

So, there probably are some physical limitations for making small phones with as much RAM and processing power as modern phones have. If I had to guess. But also, panel makers probably just don't care to make screens for "non-flagship size" phones.

...and I think I've properly derailed the thread now. Sorry!

 

[AleksandarK]

LG has mastered the "thin and light" laptops. Only if they started to make gaming variants....

Quick question for y'all - Are you interested in seeing news (and maybe even reviews in the future) of laptops and tablet devices?

YES

 

[confusis]

Glad to see there's interest in laptop and notebook content - I thought I was taking a risk with this news post!

Regarding the phone discussion - I run a 6" phablet, 5" is small

 

[Phuncz]

I meant that it is sad that 5" is considered small.

My 4" phone agrees. It's not the size that counts, but what you do with it. Mainly calling and texting, I have a tablet and computer for the other stuff.

 

[GuilleAcoustic]

To be honest, the smartphone I miss the most is also the first one I got. It was a Motorola Milestone/Droid with a 3.7" screen and a full landscape physical keyboard ! I hate virtual keyboard so much

 

[zovc]

I genuinely think there's a large market for a device like that. I've gotten comfortable with soft keyboards at this point (If you have a small phone, try minuum) though. And, trying to learn languages that use different alphabets... there are much better layouts than QWERTY for them.

So, I would be happy to go back to a smaller device (smaller than the 4.7" of the Z5 Compact, even) that was actually thin, too.

 

[Reldey]

Interested in its thundebolt 3 capabilities, specifically how many lanes it actually has and how it might work with EGPUs. I am tired of Dell shitting the bed when it comes to providing actually 4 lanes of throughput in its TB3 devices. Also wonder if the LG grams 8th gen processor is a quad core.

 

[zovc]

Interested in its thundebolt 3 capabilities, specifically how many lanes it actually has and how it might work with EGPUs. I am tired of Dell shitting the bed when it comes to providing actually 4 lanes of throughput in its TB3 devices. Also wonder if the LG grams 8th gen processor is a quad core.

According to their site, at least the 15.6" i7 model uses the i7-8550U. So they should all be quad cores if I had to guess.

 

[TheOfficialCzex]

ThunderBolt 3? Now we are talking. eGPU Heaven right here, folks!