Review: LG gram 16” Laptop & LG 16″+ View Portable Monitor
I am doing something that I normally don’t do. Which is to test a product, or in this case two products in a Starbucks. But given the target audience of the two products in question, I decided to do something a bit different. So let’s start with the first of the two products in question which is the LG gram 16″ Laptop:
The specific variant that I have here comes with the following out of the box:
- 13th Gen Intel® Core™ Processor i7-1360P (12 Cores: 4P + 8E, P: 2.2 up to 5.0 GHz / E: 1.6 up to 3.7 GHz), Intel Smart Cache 18 MB
- 16GB of RAM
- 512 GB SSD
- 16″ screen with WQXGA resolution (2560 x 1600) at 60 Hz
- 802.11ax WiFi
- Bluetooth 5.1
- FHD Webcam that supports Windows Hello facial recognition for login purposes
- Intel Iris Xe Graphics
- Windows 11
Now this laptop is light. As in 2.5 pounds. And it’s super thin as well. And despite having a plastic feel to it, LG says that this laptop has passed MIL-STD-810H military durability testing. Though I did note some flex in the keyboard area. Speaking of the keyboard, one thing that I really liked was the fact that the keyboard had a number pad on it which makes it great for data entry nerds. Screen real estate is great given that the display is WQXGA high resolution 16:10 aspect ratio display that supports wide colour gamut, DCI-P3 99%. That’s perfect for not only data entry nerds, or those who want to do some photo editing. And reflections on the screen were not a thing in the Starbucks that I was in. One other thing that I will note that much like every black laptop, it is a fingerprint magnet. So having a cloth on your person would be advisable.
In terms of ports, you have a lot of flexibility:
From right to left, there’s a Kensington lock slot, a pair of USB 3.2 Gen2x1 ports, and a MicroSD slot.
On the other side, you get a headphone/microphone jack, a pair of USB-C ports that support Thunderbolt 4, and a HDMI port. In short, there’s more than enough connectivity to fit whatever use case that you have. Sound from the laptop was pretty good as the audio has support for Dolby Atmos.
Now just because this laptop is thin, that doesn’t mean it’s not powerful. Running a Geekbench 6 test on the LG gram, I got these results:
- Single-Core Score: 2309
- Multi-Core Score: 10349
- OpenCL Score: 16197
By Intel laptop standards, this is pretty good. While you will not be playing Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare III on it, it’s got plenty of power most other things that might be on your task list. Be it office type stuff or even photo editing.
Battery life is rated at 14.5 hours. I managed to get 10 hours out of it which is more or less a full business day. Not bad for such a thin and light laptop.
Now at this point, you might be thinking that the review is done. But it’s not. LG has one more trick up it’s sleeve:
This is the 16-inch +view Portable Monitor from LG. It comes in this iPad folio like case that as you can see is a bit of a fingerprint magnet. It stays shut using magnets and it’s also rigid to protect the screen. It has two USB-C ports, one on each side.
Much like the iPad folio case, you can fold it to place it at the exact angle that you need with no fuss.
And the cool part is that a single USB cable connects and powers everything. When you plug it in, you get an on screen display to select the position of the monitor. That way whether you extend the monitor or mirror the two displays, it’s simple to set up. Here’s the cool thing, the monitor has the same specs as the LG gram’s display. So if you’re doing anything colour critical where both monitors need to match each other, you’re covered. At just under a pound, this really won’t be a weight on your back when you carry it with the LG gram as the whole package is sub 4 pounds. And if you ask me, that’s what makes this whole setup compelling as there are notebooks that weigh 4 or more pounds and do not offer this level of productivity.
So, how much does this setup cost? It’s less than I expected it to cost to be honest. the LG gram is $2149 CAD in this configuration. But LG offers other configurations that encompass smaller or bigger screens, or more RAM for example. So it would be worth your while to have a look at the options that are available. The LG gram + View is $450 CAD on top of that. So basically for under $2600 CAD you have a portable multiple monitor setup that allows anyone from students to remote working types to be productive wherever they are. If you need to be really productive wherever you are, this a setup that you should invest some time to look into.
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