2018 has just started and LG has already popped out a new and improved version of their ultra
lightweight laptop from last year – the LG Gram.
I tossed last year's model down a flight of concrete steps and it survived just fine.
Let's see what secrets this new LG Gram is hiding inside.
[Intro]
Big thanks to LG for sending out this laptop and sponsoring the video.
I love showing off useful products with plenty of features, and LG has packed this laptop
full of the essentials.
LG doesn't charge extra for dongles because they put all the ports you need right inside
the laptop itself.
Imagine that.
The best way to review tech is from the inside.
The 2018 LG Gram is easy enough to open up with 8 normal Philips head screws hidden underneath
these rubber boots.
I should probably mention at some point that LG does not endorse this kind of behavior...but,
that's never stopped us before.
With the clasps on the back panel unsnapped, we can set it off to the side revealing and
extremely modular and powerful setup inside of the LG Gram.
The quickest and easiest way to upgrade an old laptop is to add more storage or more
memory, and LG has their customers in mind when they allow that to happen.
It gets a thumbs up from me.
It's got dual downward firing stereo speakers, but the intriguing part to me is the dual
SSD slots.
Last year's model only had one.
As we all know, storage normally gets way cheaper with time.
I remember my dad bringing home a computer when I was about 10 years old, and telling
me that we would never need to upgrade again since it had a 4 gigabyte hard drive.
Things are a bit different nowadays.
This one terabyte laptop has over 250 times more storage than that computer my dad brought
home all those years ago.
Plus, the laptop's upgradable, because at some point in the far future, one terabyte
will seem small.
The RAM is also removable and upgradeable.
This 8 gigabyte stick doubles, giving us 16 gigabytes of DDR4 RAM, making it a solid laptop
for 2018.
Thermal-wise, over top of the i7 processor, we have a massive copper heatpipe and a fan
cooling off the tail end.
Having only 1 fan is part of what makes this laptop so thin.
The whole laptop clocks in at 27 decibels under load, making it pretty quiet.
For reference, a whisper or rustling leaves is right next door at 20 decibels.
Apple users might want to look away for a second so they don't get too jealous, but
we have 2 USB 3.0 slots, along with a headphone jack, and micro SD card slot, all connected
into their own circuit board apart from the motherboard, making repair-ability a real
possibility if something gets damaged or broken down the road.
On the other side of the LG Gram, we have a charging port, another USB 3.0, and a full
size HDMI.
The coolest port last year's LG Gram didn't have was a thunder bolt 3 connector, allowing
this laptop to connect with 4K monitors, of even better, an external graphics card for
gaming or video editing...which as a YouTuber is something we do a lot of.
Even with intense peripherals hooked up, like an external GPU, LG says this fan and heat
pipe combination keep the frames per second on par with other high end laptops during
a stress test.
The current display on this 2018 LG Gram is a 1080p IPS display, attached with this hinge.
Along with these silver screws.
And interestingly enough, it has the same circular connector and cable we saw inside
the dual screen Axon M smartphone that I took apart a couple weeks ago.
The smartphone and laptop worlds are getting closer together.
Last year LG bragged about having an all-day battery.
And this year's laptop's battery is even bigger.
They are still calling it an all-day battery, but this one has enough guts left over at
the end of the day to still charge a cellphone.
Pretty impressive.
I'll unplug the battery from the motherboard so we can get a closer look.
It's a 7.7 volt lithium ion battery made up of 4 pouch cells connected together.
The track pad is replaceable and has it's own connection to the bottom of the motherboard.
I'll get the massive battery put back into place so we can turn this thing on for the
first time and see if it still works.
The battery has 6 screws, and the back panel of the laptop has 8 Philips head screws.
It really is refreshing to see a company not try to keep their customers out.
LG says the surface of their laptop is a nano-carbon magnesium alloy, giving the LG Gram
a metallic finish.
[Scratching sounds] But under that metallic layer it has more of a plastic feel, which
makes sense.
This is one of the world's lightest laptops, and their alloy is lighter and more durable
than pure metal when it's this thin.
I can't decide if that was a shark fin or a tidal wave, but you get the idea.
Fun fact, the power button doubles as a fingerprint scanner for an added layer of security.
And another tidbit a lot of laptops don't have is the keyboard is back-lit, making things
super functional at night.
Overall I'm impressed.
A super lightweight, modular, repairable and upgradeable laptop.
LG has done a good job.
As with all technology, the price does fluctuate, so I'll link the current pricing in the video
description right below this video.
Let me know if there are any other laptops you want to see torn apart or durability tested.
And thanks a ton for watching.
I'll see you around.