- This is the LG gram Style,
and it is an update
to one of my favorite laptops of all time.
When I first saw this at CES, it was love at first sight.
So when LG asked
if they could a sponsor video on the gram Style,
it was the easiest yes I have ever given.
Thankfully, this is actually going on sale in the US.
When I was talking with them at CES,
it sounded like this was not actually going to make it.
And to me, it would have been so sad
because this is not only one of the best-looking laptops
I've seen in many, many years,
but one of the things that's really surprised me
after spending some time with it
is just how good it feels to actually use.
Getting carried away.
Why don't I tell you a little bit about the laptop
before you hear my confession
of undying love for it. (laughs)
Welcome to my office.
So I've been using the LG gram Style for a little while now,
and there are a few things that have really stood out to me.
Let's face it,
there are a lot of high-quality laptops to choose from.
Good screens, great specs, solid battery life.
I mean, you can kind of expect that
on almost any device in the premium category,
which is, in my opinion, I think why LG are pretty smart
to have expanded the 2023 lineup.
So in addition to the Style which I have here,
there's also the gram Basic,
which is very much similar to the earlier models,
especially if you want a little bit more performance.
I'll talk about that in a second.
To me, it's like for the most part,
if you're going out to buy a laptop,
odds are, since they're all so good now,
you're probably just gonna buy the brand
that you had last time, right?
You've had a good experience, you want one more,
it's gonna be a little bit faster, yada, yada, yada.
But in my opinion, and especially where I am in tech now,
I want more than just a little bit better.
I don't want just a little bit more performance,
a little bit more battery life.
Like I want a device that actually makes me feel something.
It's one thing to be competent, it's one thing to be good,
but it's another thing
when I'm actively like using the thing,
and I'm just smiling like,
"Oh, man this wrist rest feels so good.
Oh, look how cool the touch pad is!
Oh, do you see how it's purple, it's orange,
it's yellow, it's purple, it's orange, like that's cool!"
And that might just be me
being a little excited by shiny things,
but there's something fundamentally great about this device.
What I really appreciate is the fact that I have laptops
that generally speaking are my single device.
It's not what I'm gonna go home to my desktop,
and this and that.
Like I take one laptop home with me, take it to work.
I plug it into my setup.
I use one device all the time,
and it's been interesting to see
how the gram Style has fit into that.
So performance-wise, while this is not a gaming device,
not meant for hardcore content creation,
it still does have a 13th gen Intel Core i7-1360P,
four performance cores that could boost up to 5 gigahertz,
eight efficiency cores, 32 gigs of RAM, 1 terabyte SSD.
I'll be honest,
I've had a very good relationship with LG for years.
I mean, you look at the monitor on my desk,
this is the original 2016 LG UltraFine 5K,
and it's nice that I can plug my gram in
and push the full 5K resolution over Thunderbolt,
and it integrates well into my setup.
But I've had such good experience
with LG across so many years,
but also, I legitimately love the company, right?
Like I have LG OLEDs in my house.
Those aren't sponsored. I bought those.
Ken, how many LG OLEDs do you own?
- [Ken] Three.
- Did you buy any of them?
- Yeah. - All of them, right?
- Yeah, 100%. - Exactly.
This is just a huge step forward,
and I'm so, so happy
that LG have actually decided to sell it in the US.
Because honestly, if they didn't,
they would be doing themselves a massive disservice.
One of the party tricks really is the touch pad.
So at first glance, there is no touch pad,
but when you actually go to touch it,
you'll see that there are a couple of LEDs on the sides
which denote what actually is touchable.
And when you actually go to click on it,
instead of having a physical press,
instead you feel some haptic feedback,
and I'll say it actually is quite nice.
Now mind you, if this is not your style,
if you want something that's a little bit more obvious,
the other grams are available that have a regular touch pad,
but for me, the look of this
and the actual experience is really quite nice.
And the same thing goes for the keyboard.
Now, this is a 16-inch version.
Personally, I usually like 14-inch devices,
but you do have a small number pad on the right side.
There's like a lot of attention to detail here
that is easy to miss at first glance.
Like if you use this at night, for example,
the backlighting is incredibly consistent,
like one of the best-looking backlights on a keyboard.
Does that matter that much? Probably not.
Is that nice little detail that I very much appreciate
that LG put the time and care and attention to put into?
Absolutely.
At this point, I'm finding excuses to grab the gram Style.
I might be able to do something on my phone,
but, oh, you know what?
Ooh, ooh, oh.
Those are the noises I make when I'm, mm, oh.
Sorry I'm really carried away right now.
I hope you see how like genuinely excited I am for this.
Like again, this is a sponsored video by LG.
The reason it's sponsored is because I basically was like,
"I have to have this thing!
You have to let me do a video on it!"
Like this is not like,
"Oh, it was some random thing that came through the office."
Like I was so excited by this thing
that I needed to make this video.
(hands smacking)
It's one thing to say that this is a thin and light laptop,
but it's another thing to actually appreciate
just how light it really is.
Again, 16-inch device.
Whereas if I had a 16-inch laptop
from a certain fruit-themed company, which, mind you,
just a little slightly different class of performance,
that will weigh literally double what this gram is.
There's also a good selection of ports
including dual Thunderbolt 4.
We've got a headphone jack, which side note,
I hate that companies are starting
to remove the headphone jack on laptops.
So thank you to LG for not removing it on the gram Style.
And we also have a full-sized USB-A,
as well as a microSD card slot.
I also appreciate
that the gram comes with a very slim 65-watt charger,
which, of course, since it's USB-C,
you could charge other devices,
but I appreciate that LG are fully committed
to the thin and light aspect,
no matter if it's the charger or the laptop itself.
Not calling anyone out,
but there's a few laptops I've looked at recently
that have the big chunky power brick, and I'm like,
(object tumbles) (cat cries)
"Okay, I guess."
Let me tell you about this screen on this device.
Like it's one thing to have a beautiful exterior,
but this is a terrific 3.2K OLED display.
Not only does it run at 120 hertz,
it's a 16 by 10 aspect ratio,
and it also has 100% coverage of the DCI-P3 color space,
which is important for me
because I do appreciate having a very color accurate display
when I'm reviewing cuts
and doing maybe a little bit of light content creation.
The only thing I could possibly complain about
with this laptop display is the fact
that it is not available in a touchscreen.
Other grams are,
but the Style right now only comes in non-touch,
and it's fine, but I would like to be able to touch it,
mostly because I instinctively touch my screen a lot,
and I forget that's not touchscreen.
You touch your screen sometimes.
Don't act like I'm the weird one here.
You guys do that, right?
- [Ken] Nope.
- The Dolby Atmos compatible speakers are decent
on the gram, although I understand that this is a Style,
and they wanna make sure that the aesthetic is really nice,
but having them upward-firing would be nice.
The Style also has a decent webcam,
which does support facial recognition using Windows Hello.
While I personally really like the style,
there are also updates
to the standard gram lineup this year.
So I have the LG gram 17 here,
which obviously gets you a larger display, so 17 inches,
and on top of that,
it actually is a little bit more optimized for gaming.
Not only do you have a 144-hertz display,
which does support variable refresh rate
from 31 all the way up to that 144, but on top of that,
you get a little bit of extra performance.
Not only the 13th gen Intel Core i7 processor,
but importantly this is outfitted with an RTX 3050.
Now, no, that's not some hardcore gaming laptop,
but to be able to do a little bit
of content creation and some gaming on the side,
I appreciate it because if you've got a 17-inch laptop,
you better believe I want some extra power.
Did I just run into the rock when I said power?
Keep your eyes on the roads, kid.
To me, there's a couple of big takeaways here.
First and foremost, I'm happy to see LG taking the gram
and moving it solidly in the right direction.
They already had a very competent laptop,
but now with the Style line,
they've got some real, well, style with it.
But on top of that, they haven't done that at the sacrifice
of any of the ports or the performance
or the lightweight or anything like that.
Like they've really taken everything
that I loved about the gram and taken the extra step
of making it so much nicer to look at
and so much nicer to use.
Thank you to LG for sponsoring this video
and letting me actually get my hands on these devices.
If you'd like to know anything more,
definitely be sure to go check them out
at the links in the description.