- Hey, guys, this is Austin.
The LG Gram was one of my favorite laptops in 2017
but now it's back for 2018 with a brand new edition.
Huge shout out to LG for not only sponsoring this video
but also for hooking us up with the very first
2018 Gram outside of LG.
Yes, this is a sponsored video.
However, if you guys have been watching the channel for
a while, you'll know that I really, really like the Gram.
This is my 2017 LG Gram.
If you caught my video I did last year,
there is a lot that I like about this laptop.
However, there were a few things
that I wasn't such a huge fan of
and that's pretty much what the 2018 Gram is all about.
The Gram is still available in 13, 14,
as well as 15 inch varieties.
This is the maxed out 15 inch version,
which LG sent mostly so I could take a look
at some of the higher end features that you
actually can get with the Gram now.
Pop open the box and the first thing
we see is the Gram itself.
(laughing) Wow.
After using the 13 for about a year now,
the 15 looks enormous but it's still pretty light weight,
especially considering how big the laptop is.
We're also going to get a USBC to ethernet adapter.
Like the previous Gram this is helpful,
although it is only 10/100 ethernet.
It's not going to be crazy fast but nice to have in the box.
Then we get the power adapter.
One of the nice things is that,
even though this is the standard barrel plug,
you actually can use USBC on the Gram to charge it.
Especially if you have one of the LG USBC monitors
or pretty much any other USBC charger,
you can plug it in that way.
For such a big laptop,
it always surprises me at how light this is.
I think that's actually where the Gram name comes from.
It weighs just over a kilogram.
Even though it kind of looks like plastic,
it's actually a magnesium alloy.
According to LG, it's actually survived
a lot of different durability testing,
although I'm not exactly going to drop test
my shiny new, one of a kind laptop to test.
I'll just take their word for it.
I'm not drop testing the laptop, Ken.
Take a closer look inside the laptop
and you'll see that two of the biggest features
have their own wonderful stickers on board.
In case you're curious about your new laptop,
this guy not only has the new 8th Gen Core processors
but it also has an upgrade to a full Thunderbolt 3 port.
In addition to doubling as a USBC port,
the Thunderbolt 3 port also does support
power, data, as well as something like
a 5K monitor or even an external GPU.
You should keep in mind that not all
of the new Grams will have Thunderbolt 3.
Some will just have standard USBC,
but this is a really nice thing to see.
You're also getting the power plug, a USB 3.0 port,
as well as a full size HDMI.
On the other side, at least on the 15 inch version,
you're going to be getting two more USB 3.0 ports,
a headphone jack, as well as microSD.
One of the biggest upgrades for the Gram
is the brand new Quad Core processors.
Inside this guy, we're getting a Core i7-8550U,
16 gigabits of RAM, as well as one terabit of SSD storage.
Don't get me wrong, the old Gram wasn't exactly slow,
but moving up to a Quad Core processor
makes a big difference, even in normal day to day use,
especially when you get into heavier tasks
such as light video editing or gaming.
This guy also now has dual channel memory,
which is going to free up a lot of additional memory
bandwidth, especially when it comes to gaming.
You probably shouldn't pick up the LG Gram
as a gaming computer, but the UHD 620 graphics are okay
for some light gaming, such as Rocket League.
Here we're playing at 720 p
and that was terrible on performance settings.
You know what, we'll just call that intentional.
Remove a few screws from the bottom
and you get access to everything inside the laptop.
You might very well void your warranty like this
but there's actually some interesting stuff in here,
including not only access to our memory,
we also have dual SSD slots.
Most Grams will ship with one of these SSD slots empty.
However, because we have the one terabit version,
this is going to be populated with a pair of 500 gig drives.
It's really nice to be able to see that
not only can you upgrade your memory but you can also
add an additional SSD down the road.
You know what, I've got to give LG a shout out here.
This is a really easy to work on laptop.
Even though they might not necessarily want you
to get inside of here, everything is logically laid out.
You can get at your memory, you can get at your SSDs,
the battery is pretty much right front and center.
They did a really good job of making this very friendly
if you do need to get in here to, say, repair something.
Battery life has been one of the big strong suits
of the Gram and that continues this year.
We're going from a 60 watt hour to a 72 watt hour battery,
which brings battery life from 18 hours up to
supposedly 22 and a half according to LG.
Keep in mind that that is with the 13 inch model.
The 15 does lose a little bit off the top
and you also have to consider that
even though that does have that bigger battery it's going
to be slightly offset by the more powerful processor.
That being said, this guy is going to last you
a very, very long time off the battery.
Regardless of whether you pick up
the 13, 14, or 15 inch version of the Gram,
you're going to be getting a 1080 p IPS panel.
That resolution might not be anything crazy,
but it's plenty sharp even on the 15 inch model.
Color is nice and vibrant,
you're getting good viewing angles, decent brightness,
and importantly some of the best contrast
I've ever tried on a laptop.
One of the more annoying things with the original Gram
was the placement of the webcam.
It's below the screen and gives a great view
of the inside of your nose.
Thankfully, LG has addressed this with the new Gram
when they moved the webcam up top above the screen.
You know, like every other laptop ever.
Another small but welcome improvement
is with the fingerprint sensor.
Before, it was on the touch pad.
While it really wasn't that big of a deal,
it could get in the way sometimes.
However, thankfully for the 2018 model they've moved it back
to a much more sensible location of the power button.
I've gotta give LG props.
It really does feel like they were
listening to the feedback from the 2017 model
and rolled a lot of that into tweaking the new 2018 edition.
If I may make one suggestion for the 2019 LG Gram,
how about a dedicated GPU option?
If you guys wanna know more, feel free to check this guy out
at the link in the description.
I'm curious, what do you think about the 2018 LG Gram?
Let me know in the comments below
and I will catch you in the next one.