it feels like most computer manufacturers approach their design in
one of a handful of ways sacrificing weight and size to the performance gods
or delivering the best possible spec for a killer student-friendly price features
and build quality be damned for example but I don't think I have ever seen a
computer with this kind of laser-like
focus meet the LG gram a 15-in notebook
designed to be as light as possible so light in fact that I can hold it up by
the corner with two
fingers cooler Master's master case maker 5 features their free form modular
system allowing you to customize adjust and upgrade make it yours at the link in
the video description so let's begin then I suppose with a tour of the device
the outer shell is made out of of blasted magnesium a metal in the same
family as lithium and one of the lightest on the periodic table with a
subtle champagne finish that both looks good and does an amazing job of
repelling fingerprints they absolutely nailed this the material choice is a big
part of what gives the Graham its astonishingly low curb weight and it
comes with some other advantages as well it still feels like metal when you touch
it giving it a more premium feel than a plastic notebook can achieve but it
warms up almost as fast as plastic with the heat of your hands no more cold
wrist rest first thing in the morning and its excellent heat conductivity
means that the gram runs fanless until it's seen about a minute and a half of
sustained load at which time those two tiny vents near the screen hinge are
called into action to keep that dual core hyperthreaded core i7 6500 U cool
and all of this is at very reasonable temperatures and barely audible noise
levels so then you're probably asking yourself at this
point why doesn't magnesium get used more often if it's so awesome well it's
not the first time I've seen it done to be clear I remember Aug a Panasonic
tough book in my local London Drugs in the mid 2000s but magnesium comes with
some baggage it's really really
malleable so it takes some clever alloying with other metals and
structural reinforcement in order to achieve even the strength that you see
here with the mushy wrist rests and screen that can be bent to a subtle
curve then straightened again without much force at all but LG apparently
thought that this R&D work and ruggedness compromise was worth it
because they looked at competitors like apple who seemed to be going as far as
to treat their thin and light models like track cars and thought there must
be another way because the gram has
ports on the left you'll find a power plug that I wish was a little more more
robust or even magnetic USB 3 HDMI and a
type-c USB 3 Port though it's unfortunately not equipped with
Thunderbolt then on the right you'll find USB 2 USB 3 again a headphone
microphone combo Jack and a bit of an odd one a Micro SD slot I mean don't get
me wrong it's better than nothing but the number of times I found myself
thinking gosh I sure wish I had a Micro SD reader on my laptop can easily be
counted on one hand while an SD slot
which can be easily adapted to micro would have probably been worth the extra
couple of grams to me but would there have even been room so my signature
edition model Sports 8 gigs of ddr3l memory a 512 gig Samsung pm871 SATA
based m.2 SSD an Intel AC Wireless 7265
Wireless module and a 44.95 mamp battery
that LG advertises as being capable of 7 hours of use but in practice pretty much
all laptops it only hits that kind of a number when it's used in airplane mode
with the screen dimmed all the way something I normally don't test but I
was actually stuck on dark buses for hours with this thing so yeah the
standardized PC Mark battery test I usually run gave the gram a respectable
but less impressive score and the thing to remember here is that is in spite of
the non-benchmark shattering dual core
processor a more normal 15-in laptop you
might look at and go well it lasts for a similar amount of time but that one will
do much more in that battery time if
you're looking to tackle heavier tasks like working in Photoshop or light video
editing while you're on the go but that normal laptop probably won't have such
an interesting form factor let's take a look at the screen the bezels are
impressively thin meaning that the gram is going to be smaller in almost every
Dimension than other devices rocking a 15inch matad finish IPS display now the
1920x 1080 resolution with no upgrade
options might raise some eyebrows in the age of 3K and 4K notebook screens but
honestly it doesn't bother me at 15 in I
agree with LG's choice to salvage some battery life or allow me to run the
backlight a little bit brighter as a tradeoff for that extra resolution which
isn't to say though that I agree with every trade-off there made presumably to
save on weight the webcam has been put in that horrible unflattering position
below the screen on the bottom bezel which is a shame because otherwise the
image quality and sound is pretty good
and the keyboard oh the keyboard okay positive things first the tactile
feedback considering the Z depth that is the thickness of the laptop is not bad
and the keystrokes are very quiet for working on your novel in the local
Starbucks without disturbing the other patrons but I think it would take me a
very long time using only this machine to get used to some of its
eccentricities like the layout of the three column number pad and the
proximity of the arrow keys to the space bar and in this day and age I understand
that weight savings was the name of the game here a non-backlit keyboard is a
total drag the good news is that having
a number pad is something that a lot of people will find very valuable and the
click pad is pretty good with two-handed
operation only sometimes glitching out and tracking feeling responsive and
accurate leading us then nicely to I guess the final summary there are things
that laptop Shoppers will like and there are things that they will dislike about
the gram no device is perfect unexceptional battery life tablet-like
performance no touchscreen and
lackluster ruggedness are low points I mean I seriously I wouldn't even put
this thing in an overstuffed backpack back for fear that it would bend but the
good if not high resolution IPS screen complete lack of junk wear Steam and Ida
were installed by me loud enough speakers standout Aesthetics one finger
hinge which blew me away given how light this thing is and of course the overall
weight of the device are enough for me to even if I can't give it an
unconditional buy now recommendation
feel the need to congratulate LG on their achievement here in a sea of
devices that seek to strike a balance between battery performance price Etc
and all end up being pretty much the same damn thing for it LG's gram team
had a unique vision and saw it through that is what makes people pretty much
universally including myself say wow
this thing is cool when they hold it for the first time so I've got to give them
mad props for that the device they built is unlike anything else and if you want
a big screen on a notebook that you'll hardly even realize you're carrying then
look no further because nothing else Nails this quite like the
gram and on the subject of extremely unique products this is a funny one that
mass drop's featuring this is the Red Scarf 2 plus version B custom mechanical
keyboard kit so this is a build it
yourself mechanical keyboard kit featuring a unque 78 key layout it
consists of a PCB clear acrylic bottom
and a CNC aluminum case plate and feet
this allows for customization of lighting layout including ISO and ANC
and color the RS 78 is fully programmable allowing users to utilize
the unique layout as they see fit and there's a variety of choices of anodized
aluminum color it comes in black gray red or silver you can also add a set of
standard layout blank or laser etched front printed pbd key caps in Cherry
profile and the lighting can be controlled via a remote check out it and
any of the other awesome products on mass drop where they just find
manufacturers who are willing to give a volume discount and a lot of consumers
who are committed to buy and they put them together and they get awesome
prices on some very unique products all the way from camping gear to build it
yourself keyboards that link draw up SL whatever
one we got down there in the video description so thanks for watching guys
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