WEBVTT

00:00:00.240 --> 00:00:03.484
- Bet you were expecting Alex for this one, huh?

00:00:03.484 --> 00:00:07.930
(quiet bright music) Well, not today, Alex is elsewhere.

00:00:07.930 --> 00:00:11.900
For now, you've got me and this here LG gram.

00:00:11.900 --> 00:00:15.460
I actually haven't used LGs grams yet.

00:00:15.460 --> 00:00:19.690
I used an LG laptop a while ago, it was like, really old,

00:00:19.690 --> 00:00:24.130
I'm talking like Pentium 4 era. It might've actually been a Pentium 4 or Pentium Mobile.

00:00:24.130 --> 00:00:30.420
So what have we got here. This is a Core i7-1165G7, okay.

00:00:31.180 --> 00:00:35.680
A 16-inch LCD, so this is comparable in size

00:00:35.680 --> 00:00:40.640
to the new MacBooks. 16 gigs of LPDDR4x,

00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:47.443
that sounds like if it's LPDDR4x, then chances are it's soldered, so.

00:00:48.510 --> 00:00:52.320
We'll see about that, I've got a iFixit kit down here, we'll open it up and take a look.

00:00:52.320 --> 00:00:56.950
Got a terabyte SSD, NVMe. No wired LAN, I don't know why they even bother to list it.

00:00:56.950 --> 00:01:02.010
Wireless LAN, Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201, seems pretty standard these days.

00:01:02.010 --> 00:01:06.470
Bluetooth 5.1, it's built in. fingerprint reader, yep, and Thunderbolt, cool.

00:01:06.470 --> 00:01:10.960
And hang on, (Linus shouting) is this the right laptop?

00:01:10.960 --> 00:01:17.050
'Cause the laptop that I was told that I was going to be looking at runs Windows 11,

00:01:17.050 --> 00:01:18.263
but this is Windows 10.

00:01:21.770 --> 00:01:25.570
Okay, I guess we'll find out together. Ah, we've got a mystery on our hands.

00:01:25.570 --> 00:01:26.470
Let's get into it.

00:01:29.072 --> 00:01:29.905
Okay.

00:01:32.270 --> 00:01:35.920
That's nice. Yeah, that is pretty light,

00:01:35.920 --> 00:01:40.493
I'm not sure if I would call it a gram. In fact, I think it's more than a kilogram.

00:01:41.760 --> 00:01:45.623
All right. These dollops of glue or whatever that is.

00:01:47.063 --> 00:01:51.350
(imitating glue unsticking)

00:01:51.350 --> 00:01:57.510
The few grams I've seen so far, they've looked really plasticky and not premium, really,

00:01:57.510 --> 00:02:02.500
but this, this feels a lot nicer. I'm not sure that it's not still plastic,

00:02:02.500 --> 00:02:06.200
but it could be magnesium or something like that. I wish I had more information about it,

00:02:06.200 --> 00:02:09.380
but they gave me this like pre-brief guide.

00:02:09.380 --> 00:02:16.600
That was just like, "hey, it runs Windows 11 and it's got a 16-inch screen and it weighs this much.

00:02:17.040 --> 00:02:20.670
Hey, here's some influencer talk." And I'm just like, okay, cool.

00:02:20.670 --> 00:02:26.300
I would've liked to have more information, but okay, here we are. I really like the 15.6-inch class of laptops,

00:02:26.300 --> 00:02:29.910
and the 16 inch is, well, it's that, but with less bezel,

00:02:29.910 --> 00:02:33.350
I'm not a huge fan of how cramped this numpad is,

00:02:33.350 --> 00:02:37.710
but I'm glad to have it, I guess. Where are the speakers? They're downward firing.

00:02:37.710 --> 00:02:41.650
We have a headphone jack, two USB Type-C ports.

00:02:41.650 --> 00:02:45.290
I'm not sure if, yeah, they're both Thunderbolt ports, they're both labeled Thunderbolt.

00:02:45.290 --> 00:02:48.840
That looks like, I'm not sure if that's a power LED or a charging LED,

00:02:48.840 --> 00:02:51.880
probably charging if I had to guess. On the right-hand side,

00:02:51.880 --> 00:02:56.250
we've got a Micro SD card slot, that looks like the power button,

00:02:56.250 --> 00:03:01.250
and a full-size Type-A port with a little trapdoor latch.

00:03:01.510 --> 00:03:04.850
This is something that I kind of felt

00:03:04.850 --> 00:03:08.950
like Apple dropped the ball on with their previous generation MacBooks.

00:03:08.950 --> 00:03:12.470
There's totally enough space here for a Type-A port,

00:03:12.470 --> 00:03:15.710
like full size, without this little trapdoor thing, little hinge,

00:03:15.710 --> 00:03:20.422
if they had just come flush with the side of the laptop, instead of beveling it up like that.

00:03:20.422 --> 00:03:26.650
(quiet upbeat music) I'm not sure how I feel about the blocky font they got going here. It's clear, it might be too clear.

00:03:26.650 --> 00:03:30.390
I'm not sure how to feel about it. Like shift and enter and backspace all looks good,

00:03:30.390 --> 00:03:35.250
but like this, I don't know. I'm not looking at my keyboard very often anyway I guess,

00:03:35.250 --> 00:03:39.310
so it doesn't matter that much. Feels like there's a lot of travel actually.

00:03:39.310 --> 00:03:42.390
Wait, there's a power button right here. What was that other button?

00:03:42.390 --> 00:03:49.330
It's got a dedicated sleep button, right! Because you can use it as a giant tablet.

00:03:49.330 --> 00:03:52.470
I can see using it like this

00:03:52.470 --> 00:03:59.470
with the stylus or something like that, or like this, with it kinda like that.

00:03:59.470 --> 00:04:03.920
I don't feel especially confident in this arrangement.

00:04:03.920 --> 00:04:06.980
There's no bumpers or rubber or anything there,

00:04:06.980 --> 00:04:08.930
so like if I didn't have this desk mat,

00:04:12.150 --> 00:04:16.070
okay, well it's a little more stable than I thought it would be, but it still kind of moves.

00:04:16.070 --> 00:04:21.590
Then again, I don't know, the hinge feels pretty solid, so maybe I'm just being a hater.

00:04:21.590 --> 00:04:25.260
Oh man, it's got a battery? It's an active stylus?

00:04:25.260 --> 00:04:29.640
Why couldn't they have just licensed the tech from Wacom? (Linus shouting)

00:04:29.640 --> 00:04:33.460
Hello? Two buttons, these can be mapped

00:04:33.460 --> 00:04:37.510
to pretty much whatever you might want, I'm sure.

00:04:37.510 --> 00:04:42.030
A lot of visitors, there's a lot of background shouting, there's me and I'm just rambling,

00:04:42.030 --> 00:04:45.090
'cause like, I don't know, what am I doing here?

00:04:45.090 --> 00:04:48.660
And Linus is panicking over there, I don't know what's going on.

00:04:48.660 --> 00:04:52.150
I just work here. Anyway, shall we turn it on?

00:04:52.150 --> 00:04:56.570
First, I'm gonna turn you on to Grammarly. Thanks to Grammarly for sponsoring today's video.

00:04:56.570 --> 00:05:01.150
It's a busy time of year, so Grammarly is here to help you get your work done more efficiently.

00:05:01.150 --> 00:05:05.240
Grammarly is a digital writing assistant that helps you with grammar and spelling suggestions

00:05:05.240 --> 00:05:08.920
across a wide range of programs like Office, your web browser, and more.

00:05:08.920 --> 00:05:12.640
Simply install the new Grammarly desktop app, log in, and start typing.

00:05:12.640 --> 00:05:15.660
There's also Grammarly Premium, which provides more in-depth feedback

00:05:15.660 --> 00:05:19.470
like the vocabulary and clarity suggestion tools. They help you save time

00:05:19.470 --> 00:05:22.870
and make your writing more compelling by finding synonyms for overused words

00:05:22.870 --> 00:05:28.030
and completely removing unnecessary words. Work smarter, not harder this holiday season.

00:05:28.030 --> 00:05:32.260
If you're writing online, use Grammarly. Go to grammarly.com/shortcircuit

00:05:32.260 --> 00:05:35.960
to sign up for a free account and get 20% off Grammarly Premium today,

00:05:35.960 --> 00:05:40.290
to help you save time and work better. (quiet bright music) All right, let's power it up.

00:05:40.290 --> 00:05:43.730
The sleep and wake button doesn't seem to work for that task,

00:05:43.730 --> 00:05:47.770
so, boop! Think that power button doubles as the fingerprint reader,

00:05:47.770 --> 00:05:51.580
'cause they don't see another place where it could be. Gram.

00:05:51.580 --> 00:05:56.890
Is this an, this is an LCD, yes. It is a very nice, high contrast LCD though.

00:05:56.890 --> 00:06:02.860
It looks like it's only 60 hertz. It is running Windows, wait, yeah, this is Windows 10.

00:06:02.860 --> 00:06:06.630
Am I looking at the right laptop? (laptop pinging) Shut up, you!

00:06:06.630 --> 00:06:12.430
Your PC comes with Alexa built in. (laughs) Oh no, I do not want A-L-E-X-A!

00:06:12.430 --> 00:06:15.600
Stay off my computer, Jeff. The heck is Virtoo?

00:06:15.600 --> 00:06:19.375
Link your smartphone to your PC. This is built into Windows!

00:06:19.375 --> 00:06:21.573
Why are we doing this?

00:06:22.830 --> 00:06:26.010
See, Alex doesn't talk about crapware and bloatware,

00:06:26.010 --> 00:06:30.730
I absolutely care about that stuff. You know, pre-installed crap,

00:06:30.730 --> 00:06:35.460
if it's actually crap that you're not gonna use, is how they're subsidizing the laptop,

00:06:35.460 --> 00:06:41.043
and this thing I don't think is a cheap laptop. Disney+ is installed for some reason, McAfee LiveSafe.

00:06:41.900 --> 00:06:45.730
Okay, cool, lower the charging capacity of the battery to 80% to expand battery life.

00:06:45.730 --> 00:06:49.640
Actually, probably something we should do. Instant booting, setup so the system

00:06:49.640 --> 00:06:52.850
will automatically boot up when you open up the notebook computer. Okay, so this is the thing

00:06:52.850 --> 00:06:57.540
that kind of caught me off guard with the Macs. Apple makes it so that you open the lid

00:06:57.540 --> 00:07:01.870
and the computer turns on even from complete off. This has that functionality as well,

00:07:01.870 --> 00:07:05.370
but you can turn it off if you don't like it. I feel like I'm being very negative about it,

00:07:05.370 --> 00:07:09.950
but like, I don't, generally speaking, like pre-installed software.

00:07:09.950 --> 00:07:13.120
I like a more vanilla experience,

00:07:13.120 --> 00:07:18.610
and it kind of does grate me a little bit that it's not something that Alex usually looks at.

00:07:18.610 --> 00:07:22.310
What Alex does look at are the speakers.

00:07:22.310 --> 00:07:25.711
And give you sticky keys. Anyway, "Crab Rave," let's try it.

00:07:25.711 --> 00:07:29.461
(energetic electronic music)

00:07:42.559 --> 00:07:45.820
(music stops) Perfectly serviceable. (quiet bright music) Not the best I've heard,

00:07:45.820 --> 00:07:49.320
I don't think it's quite as good as the MacBook, I could go up and get one.

00:07:49.320 --> 00:07:55.680
Very good speakers, a good showing. I would say that maybe could use more bass, et cetera.

00:07:55.680 --> 00:08:00.670
Like, it's got enough chassis probably to include bigger resonance chambers,

00:08:00.670 --> 00:08:04.730
but at the same time, they are constrained by their self-imposed limit

00:08:04.730 --> 00:08:08.340
of however many grams this thing weighs, I think it's like 1350.

00:08:08.340 --> 00:08:10.423
What do we got here? This is pounds.

00:08:12.830 --> 00:08:17.057
3.173, and with the pencil it's 3.211.

00:08:18.210 --> 00:08:22.210
And for everybody else, 1.439 kilograms,

00:08:22.210 --> 00:08:25.540
and with the pencil, 1.456. Is that what they claimed?

00:08:25.540 --> 00:08:29.390
Thought it was 1350 that they claimed. Maybe I actually do have the wrong laptop!

00:08:29.390 --> 00:08:33.170
Wait, yeah, supposedly less than three pounds, isn't it? Oh, I'm confused now.

00:08:33.170 --> 00:08:37.545
I'm confused now! Quickly, banana for scale.

00:08:37.545 --> 00:08:40.550
(exhales deeply) Familiarity.

00:08:40.550 --> 00:08:43.570
Pen input seems pretty responsive.

00:08:43.570 --> 00:08:48.730
Touching it like this, there's a little floating thing here and I can kinda outrun it,

00:08:48.730 --> 00:08:53.020
but that's just a function of it being 60 hertz. It's generally pretty,

00:08:53.020 --> 00:08:56.173
okay, nevermind, it's a little floaty. Okay, nevermind.

00:08:57.260 --> 00:09:02.940
Specs. So 17 inches, I don't, wait, 1350.

00:09:02.940 --> 00:09:07.940
Yeah, right, so how did this gain, like it gained 91 grams?

00:09:09.370 --> 00:09:14.000
This might not be the right laptop. I might've been reviewing the wrong laptop this whole time.

00:09:14.000 --> 00:09:18.780
Wouldn't that be hilarious? Oh yeah, that's totally a different model number.

00:09:18.780 --> 00:09:20.863
(laughs)

00:09:22.000 --> 00:09:25.660
We need to call Colton. (mysterious music)

00:09:25.660 --> 00:09:30.520
I've made an interesting discovery, a series of discoveries actually.

00:09:30.520 --> 00:09:35.840
Apparently this wasn't necessarily supposed to be the LG gram 17,

00:09:35.840 --> 00:09:38.880
it's just the LG gram 2-in-1 that we were kind of looking at,

00:09:38.880 --> 00:09:42.070
and it turns out that this is the 16-inch version.

00:09:42.070 --> 00:09:47.070
And in fact, the 16-inch version is 1,480 grams,

00:09:47.930 --> 00:09:55.690
so this is actually a little lighter. (quiet upbeat music) The reason for that actually is it's got an aluminum and magnesium alloy chassis.

00:09:56.010 --> 00:10:01.050
Cool, that's why I thought it was a little bit more premium-feeling than previous LG grams.

00:10:01.050 --> 00:10:06.730
Presumably the LG gram 17 is the plastic one. because that does only weigh 1350 grams.

00:10:06.730 --> 00:10:10.230
So, so this is the Influencer Brief and Content Guide.

00:10:10.230 --> 00:10:14.660
Okay, fair enough. So note that it says LG gram 2-in-1 16 up here,

00:10:14.660 --> 00:10:21.880
on this here image. About the product, 17-inch screen, 17 inch.

00:10:22.070 --> 00:10:26.550
Also it shows Windows 11, and there's an entire whole-ass slide here

00:10:26.550 --> 00:10:30.860
talking about the LG gram advantage, which is literally just Windows 11 talking points.

00:10:30.860 --> 00:10:34.170
I think LG got confused,

00:10:34.170 --> 00:10:39.450
in turn, we got confused. This is in fact the 16 and the 16 I shall review,

00:10:39.450 --> 00:10:43.490
or continue reviewing. Yeah. (music stops)

00:10:43.490 --> 00:10:47.080
Where do I pick up from here? (quiet bright music) The speakers were pretty good,

00:10:47.080 --> 00:10:51.360
screen looks pretty good to me. This is why I'm so negative right now, there's no specs!

00:10:51.360 --> 00:10:56.360
16 inches, 2560x1600 IPS LCD with Corning Gorilla Glass 6.

00:10:56.920 --> 00:11:01.560
Great, cool, I love it. DCI-P3 99%, okay, typical minimum, 95, great.

00:11:01.560 --> 00:11:06.020
Where's the brightness? This is HDR, is it like, just HDR capable?

00:11:06.020 --> 00:11:11.020
Is it HDR ARE, HDR 400, HDR whatever, like? (groans)

00:11:13.500 --> 00:11:19.070
Why can't I have more information? LG, put this information on your website.

00:11:19.070 --> 00:11:23.380
I just saw that checkbox turned on and it's in fact not HDR capable,

00:11:23.380 --> 00:11:27.060
it just can stream HDR video for some reason.

00:11:27.060 --> 00:11:31.430
Normally that doesn't show up if there's no HDR capabilities.

00:11:31.430 --> 00:11:36.050
Oh no! Okay, let's try the stylus.

00:11:36.050 --> 00:11:39.203
Like, I mean, it's got this hover thing, which is great.

00:11:40.320 --> 00:11:43.433
Webcam, let's try the webcam. Seems reasonable.

00:11:45.617 --> 00:11:48.177
I think it's pretty obvious that it's like 720P.

00:11:49.060 --> 00:11:54.060
I see a little bit of fringing and fuzz in the darker spots.

00:11:54.550 --> 00:12:00.130
Whites are blown out. Again, it's perfectly fine, like if I tilt it down like this, oh, it gets even worse.

00:12:00.130 --> 00:12:03.540
There's so much noise. Also, it's like really cold over there,

00:12:03.540 --> 00:12:08.500
like that white is super blue and I'm just super orange.

00:12:08.500 --> 00:12:11.600
I can't really test the tablet mode and stuff.

00:12:11.600 --> 00:12:15.300
This is so impractical. Really what you'd want it for is for this,

00:12:15.300 --> 00:12:21.130
this kind of thing. Probably like closer to this for most people.

00:12:21.130 --> 00:12:25.150
Oh, look at all the fingerprints on this thing already. Like this was fresh out of the packaging

00:12:25.150 --> 00:12:29.490
and I've just been touching it. That's a problem. I think that's the magnesium, magnesium's pretty good

00:12:29.490 --> 00:12:33.100
at picking up fingerprints like that. How well does it wipe off?

00:12:33.100 --> 00:12:37.840
Oh, not easily. That's bad. Yeah, you're gonna clean this thing constantly,

00:12:37.840 --> 00:12:41.719
or wear gloves. (bright music)

00:12:49.730 --> 00:12:53.660
There we go. (exhales deeply)

00:12:53.660 --> 00:12:57.910
So that's a big battery. Oh, there's so much empty space in here!

00:12:57.910 --> 00:13:03.410
They could have put such big speakers in here. Look at all this empty, right next to the speakers even!

00:13:03.410 --> 00:13:08.077
There's just empty space. You could make big old cans here

00:13:08.077 --> 00:13:12.431
and they don't have to even weigh much, they're just need to be there to direct the sound.

00:13:12.431 --> 00:13:16.190
(sighs) At the very least., we've got a spare M.2,

00:13:16.190 --> 00:13:19.970
so it's not unexpected that people are going to get into this. What's the SSD?

00:13:19.970 --> 00:13:24.970
SK Hynix, well, it's an SK Hynix of some variety.

00:13:26.140 --> 00:13:29.620
Very OEM, one terabyte. Looks NVMe to me.

00:13:29.620 --> 00:13:33.440
Oh yeah, this is an NVMe-only slot, the other slot can take NVMe or SATA.

00:13:33.440 --> 00:13:37.940
The RAM is soldered, and that sucks.

00:13:37.940 --> 00:13:42.663
But yeah, that's rather disappointing. I would have expected A, this to come off more easily,

00:13:43.550 --> 00:13:47.150
certainly not to have screws hidden underneath plastic plugs.

00:13:47.150 --> 00:13:52.150
And B, there to be more efficient use of the space,

00:13:52.600 --> 00:13:56.560
instead, it's mostly empty. I get that the idea of the gram is to be as lightweight as possible,

00:13:56.560 --> 00:14:02.250
but like, when you're making concessions like having these major chamfers here,

00:14:02.250 --> 00:14:07.270
it doesn't make a whole lot of sense given the internal volume that's going to waste here.

00:14:07.270 --> 00:14:10.840
Like this battery could be thinner and use up more area,

00:14:10.840 --> 00:14:15.060
that way the actual laptop could be thinner if you wanted that.

00:14:15.060 --> 00:14:19.830
Like, I don't know, I'm not an engineer, but it seems a lot like

00:14:19.830 --> 00:14:23.970
there's a lot of missed opportunities here. I don't know why I went into this so aggro.

00:14:23.970 --> 00:14:29.150
I don't know why I'm being so negative. I don't know.

00:14:29.150 --> 00:14:34.150
I just generally feel like at this point

00:14:34.660 --> 00:14:37.940
I was expecting more from the gram. Not everything has to be a MacBook,

00:14:37.940 --> 00:14:43.160
but this is like kind of MacBook price, I think this thing is like $2,200 or something like that.

00:14:43.160 --> 00:14:46.940
Let me get this thing back together, get it powered back on, and then we'll close it out.

00:14:46.940 --> 00:14:50.640
Yeah, it was the bloatware that really got to me, that's what really annoyed me I think,

00:14:50.640 --> 00:14:54.660
is the stuff that they had pre-installed on this thing and everything kind of went downhill from there.

00:14:54.660 --> 00:14:59.820
Like it felt good at first, except then you end up with these fingerprints all over it.

00:14:59.820 --> 00:15:03.380
It looked like it had pretty decent IO at first, except really you just get

00:15:03.380 --> 00:15:08.330
two USB Type-C/Thunderbolt ports and a Type-A, which depending on your point of view

00:15:08.330 --> 00:15:11.470
is better than what Apple does. I don't want to hate it as much as I do.

00:15:11.470 --> 00:15:14.740
I don't know why I hate it, other than that it came with a bunch of stuff.

00:15:14.740 --> 00:15:17.810
That's easily fixable, I could just reinstall Windows.

00:15:17.810 --> 00:15:22.860
But I feel like the out-of-the-box experience is something that many companies like LG,

00:15:22.860 --> 00:15:28.550
like Acer, like HP, like Dell, typically make a negative thing.

00:15:28.550 --> 00:15:36.010
I dunno, for a computer that I'm spending this much money for, I expect a certain level of respect as a user

00:15:36.010 --> 00:15:39.523
and I feel like LG kinda didn't do it.

00:15:40.750 --> 00:15:44.680
That being said, I mean, you've got a pretty decent pen, it's not bad.

00:15:44.680 --> 00:15:47.880
You've got the convertible aspect of it.

00:15:47.880 --> 00:15:53.420
You've got the quality materials that you need to make sure you keep clean at all times.

00:15:53.420 --> 00:15:57.400
The display is really nice. It's not super bright, it's not HDR like I thought it was.

00:15:57.400 --> 00:16:00.910
The speakers are pretty great. Fundamentally, it's a good laptop.

00:16:00.910 --> 00:16:06.650
Yeah, so here's this one for 1499 for the 512 gig SSD and a Core i5.

00:16:06.650 --> 00:16:09.860
So yeah, this thing is like 2200 bucks, something like that.

00:16:09.860 --> 00:16:13.200
If I were to go to apple.com, I know Apple's not everybody's cup of tea,

00:16:13.200 --> 00:16:16.490
but like Dell, even, a better laptop that's a little bit heavier,

00:16:16.490 --> 00:16:19.600
and that's just all there is to it.

00:16:19.600 --> 00:16:24.760
That's the LG gram's, that's its shtick. So you're paying for the lightness,

00:16:24.760 --> 00:16:28.390
which you're not even really getting in this 16-inch form factor anyway.

00:16:28.390 --> 00:16:33.180
So that's the LG gram. I know I'm being kind of down on it.

00:16:33.180 --> 00:16:36.850
I know Linus loves the gram series, I know a lot of people here love the gram series,

00:16:36.850 --> 00:16:40.670
and it's, again, fundamentally a good laptop, but I don't think the price is right

00:16:40.670 --> 00:16:46.140
and I don't think that it necessarily is the best user experience,

00:16:46.140 --> 00:16:50.130
especially when it comes to servicing. With that said, if you thought that this was a good user experience,

00:16:50.130 --> 00:16:53.240
maybe you can get subscribed and like this video,

00:16:53.240 --> 00:16:56.700
maybe check out some more videos similar to this one or not like this one.

00:16:56.700 --> 00:17:00.870
I do some retro stuff from time to time, and Alex does laptops and cars.

00:17:00.870 --> 00:17:02.320
Lots of stuff to choose from.