The Laptop to Buy Right Now - LG Gram 2018 Review
Linus Tech Tips
·Linus Tech Tips
·2018-05-06
·
1,187 words · ~5 min read
0:00
so the problem with laptops is that there's always this
0:03
up to bullcrap next to the advertised battery life on the product page
0:09
what does up two even mean
0:12
well from our experience it means a lot less than this fantasy number right here
0:18
and while there are laptops out there with great battery life the problem is
0:23
most of them are macbooks so if you want
0:26
one you're gonna need to grab your wallet and
0:30
go to the bank to apply for a small loan
0:34
at least that used to be the case meet the lg gram 2018 the reasonably
0:40
affordable ultra portable laptop with the best battery life we've ever seen
0:55
fortnite battle royale is the free 100
0:58
player pvp mode in fortnite it features a giant map destructible environments
1:03
and more check it out at the link below and stay tuned for more information
1:07
later in the video if we're being honest the gram
1:11
isn't the most beautiful device on the market
1:14
in no particular order here are three sexier laptops
1:18
but it's not but ugly either the magnesium
1:22
chassis makes the gram rigid while helping it maintain its surprising
1:26
lightness and its simple clean design is complemented by its thin bezels
1:31
i o wise the ground beats out basically every other super portable with a full
1:37
sized HDMI a couple usb type a's and
1:40
finally Thunderbolt at least on certain
1:44
configurations of the 15-inch model so
1:47
that last one is only a half victory but it's still a step in the right direction
1:52
and the internals don't disappoint either with four cores on both the core
1:56
i5 and core i7 models it'll chew through
2:00
productivity tasks like chrome office
2:03
and even light video and photo editing
2:06
like you wouldn't believe like frankly these 8th gen Intel chips have been such
2:10
a game changer in thin and lights that it has become very hard to recommend any
2:16
products that haven't been updated yet like the surface laptop as of right now
2:21
and the gram manages more than just short bursty performance too
2:26
avoiding thermal throttling even during our extended stress tests
2:30
i mean we're not saying you should complete your engineering degree on it but
2:35
if you've got a configuration with Thunderbolt 3 it'll actually turbo up
2:39
nicely in games for a pretty solid experience
2:42
provided you're willing to invest in an external GPU
2:46
with that said if you're looking to game the lg gram won't be your first option a
2:51
lot more power can be had by adding a little bit of back strain the gram is at
2:55
its best when it's used for on-the-go productivity the track pad is
3:00
fine so that's good and the keyboard has
3:03
a quick tactile travel that is kind of clicky and actually pretty satisfying
3:08
it's not the best we've seen on a laptop the surface laptop is currently the
3:13
leader in this category but the 13-inch model especially is in the same ballpark
3:18
thanks to its stiffer chassis so at the end of the day it really comes down to
3:23
how much an alcantara wrist rest is really worth to
3:27
you ah and i guess the screen is another
3:30
factor on paper a 1920x1080 touchscreen
3:35
feels pretty 2015 falling well behind
3:38
the pixel density of competing models but hold on a minute
3:43
at 13 inches 1080p
3:46
is the same pixel density that would get sold to you as
3:50
super high resolution 4k 9000 on a 27
3:54
inch desktop monitor is it not
3:58
so do we really sit that much closer to our laptops
4:01
i'm actually with lg on this one i can't complain about the gram 2018 screen it's
4:07
ips panel looks great with deep blacks and just enough brightness to make
4:11
outside use possible and the new webcam placement means that my only criticism
4:16
of it is the kind of soft picture rather than the kind of soft picture and the
4:21
view of my nose hairs like like right up there on the old one the
4:25
last unfortunate disadvantage of the gram is its lack of Windows hello facial
4:30
recognition however the new fingerprint reader location inside the power button
4:35
makes unlocking much quicker than typing in a password it's actually really
4:39
natural to use now then we're done with the underwhelming stuff so let's talk really
4:44
good stuff starting with the battery life thanks to its 72 watt hour battery
4:49
which is more than most gaming laptops the 13-inch grand was able to beat every
4:55
other laptop we have ever tested in our
4:58
work battery life benchmark like it's still not 21 hours but you
5:04
could actually put in a full day of like real work on it and still have battery
5:09
life left over to watch a movie on the bus on the way home
5:13
and this freedom to be completely untethered from wall outlets is going to
5:17
be huge for many people from the student that can now get a good seat in the
5:22
library to the journalists that can be on location all day without worrying now
5:28
the 15 inch model still has above average battery life just over seven and
5:32
a half hours it's just not as impressive as the 13.
5:35
also somehow lg managed to do all of this while maintaining easy
5:40
upgradability of the RAM and the storage
5:43
leading us to the most compelling aspect of the ground it's price
5:47
when compared with the you know 4.99 special at the local best buy
5:51
yeah starting at eleven to twelve hundred dollars
5:54
depending whether you want a touchscreen is a lot but compared to other premium thinning
6:00
lights it's great bang for the buck
6:03
so in summary it might not be the prettiest the most powerful
6:07
or the highest resolution laptop out there but it's lightweight the keyboard
6:12
rocks and it's got killer battery life if i was shelling out my hard-earned
6:16
cash for an ultrabook today the gram would be getting those dollars
6:21
fortnite battle royale is now free to play on pc mac playstation 4 and xbox
6:27
one it's a 100 player pvp game mode where you drop in loot fight and
6:32
hopefully end up being the last one standing to win it features fully
6:35
destructible environments and buildable structures and you can currently play by
6:40
yourself or with your friends in duos or squads best of all did i mention that it
6:45
is free because it's free check it out now at the link in the video description
6:50
so thanks for watching guys if this video sucked you know what to do but if it was awesome get subscribed hit that
6:54
like button or check out the link to where to buy the stuff we featured in the video description also link down
6:58
there is our merge storage has cool shirts like this one and our community forum which you should totally join