LG Gram 17 (2022) Review: A small office laptop with a big display and a long battery life

The LG Gram 17 highlights are its lightweight (1,350 g), long battery life, and matte 16:10 display (2022). There are no direct competitors in our database. Existing 17-inches are bulkier or heavier, and their displays are typically 16:9. The Samsung Galaxy Book Pro 15, the Huawei MateBook D 16, the Honor MagicBook 16, as well as the Lenovo IdeaPad 5 Pro 16IHU6 are among the other devices in the competition.

Design, Connectivity and Keyboard

The port layout (including two Thunderbolt 4 ports), keyboard (backlit), and compact, lightweight magnesium case remain unchanged from the predecessor. The chassis should be stiffer. Opening the case is a chore: most of the screws that must be loosened to remove the bottom cover are hidden behind glued-on pads, and there are more screws hidden behind the two round rubber feet (also glued). The keyboard (backlit), which is suitable for daily use, wobbles slightly while typing, but its keys have a thoroughly pleasant pressure point.

Display

Unlike its predecessors, which had glossy surfaces, the 2022 Gram has a matte finish. The LG Gram 17, 17-inch display (2,560×1,600 pixels) in 16:10 format meets the brightness (352.9 cd/m2) and contrast (1,333:1) targets. On battery power, the maximum brightness decreases slightly. PWM flickering was not detected, which is a good thing.

The display has very good colour reproduction: with a value of 3.15, the deviation just misses the target (Delta E 3) – which is not visible to the viewer. Calibration results in a more balanced grayscale and a colour deviation of 1.44. The display can nearly completely reproduce the sRGB (99.9%) and DCI-P3 (98%) colour spaces, as well as 86% of the AdobeRGB colour space.

Performance

The LG Gram 17 laptop is equipped with a Core i5-1240P processor, 16 GB of RAM (LPDDR5-5200), and a 512 GB SSD for office and Internet use. Other configuration options include: Gram models with a Core i7-1260P CPU, for example, are available.

Processor

The Intel Core i5-1240P (Alder Lake) processor has four performance cores (Hyper-Threading, 1.7 to 4.4 GHz) as well as eight efficiency cores (no Hyper-Threading, 1.2 to 3.3 GHz). As a result, there are a total of 16 logical CPU cores.

The multi-thread test in Cinebench R15 is run briefly at medium clock speeds (P cores: 2.5 GHz, E cores: 2.2 GHz), and then the clock rate drops slightly (P cores: 2 GHz, E cores: 1.8 to 1.9 GHz). The single-thread test is run at 3.3 to 4.4 GHz (P cores) and 2.1 to 3.3 GHz (C cores) (E cores). On battery power, the clock rates are significantly lower. The clock rates drop during the first runs of the CB15 loop, and the base clock speeds are occasionally undercut. In other words, Turbo is rarely or never used. When the “Normal” mode is enabled, clock rates fluctuate indefinitely. The “High” profile promotes more consistent performance growth at a slightly higher level.

System Performance

The quick and smooth system provides sufficient performance for office and Internet applications. The PCMark results range from adequate to excellent. RAM transfer rates are typical for LPDDR5-5200 memory (dual-channel mode, soldered, no memory banks).

DPC Latencies

The results of our standardised latency monitor test (web browsing, 4K video playback, and high-load Prime95) revealed problems. Although the laptop has short latencies, there appears to be a driver issue that would prevent real-time video and audio editing. Future software updates may result in improved or worse performance.

Storage

LG has fitted the LG Gram 17 with a Samsung PCIe 4 SSD (M.2 2280) with a storage capacity of 512 GB. It has excellent transfer rates. Nonetheless, the Diskspd loop results indicate that speeds are throttled later on due to temperature. A second SSD can still be installed in the laptop.

Graphics Card

The integrated Intel Iris Xe Graphics G7 80EU GPU can only maintain its maximum clock rate (1,300 MHz) for a short period of time. Long-term load causes clock speed fluctuations, regardless of cooling mode or settings – as demonstrated in our The Witcher 3 test. The “High” profile temporarily increases performance. In the best-case scenario, the benchmark results are slightly higher than the average for this GPU so far.

Gaming Performance

In general, the laptop can smoothly display a variety of games on the screen. However, frame rates vary significantly due to the GPU’s clock rate fluctuation – even when using low settings.

Noise Emissions

In normal use (office, Internet), the fan is often silent; under load, it increases slightly: During the stress test, the maximum sound pressure level reached is 37.2 dB(A), which is perfectly acceptable. Nonetheless, the laptop makes audibly more noise than its predecessor. “Silent” mode allows for completely silent operation. All of this comes at a high cost in terms of processing power.

Temperature

In everyday use, the case temperatures remain in the green zone (office, Internet). The laptop heats up noticeably in certain areas under load (stress test), but only moderately overall. The CPU temperatures are not an issue.

Battery

In our Wi-Fi test (accessing websites via a script) as well as video test (running the short film Big Buck Bunny (H.264 encoding, Full HD) in loop), the 17-inch laptop achieves runtimes of 11:09 hours and 14:04 hours, respectively. During both tests, the laptop’s power-saving features are turned off, and the display brightness is set to around 150 cd/m2. Furthermore, the wireless modules are turned off for the video test. The LG Gram 17 laptop has excellent battery life, but it lags behind its .Tiger Lake predecessor (ideal battery) in this case

Verdict

The LG Gram 17 most recent incarnation can be considered a model update. LG retains the predecessor’s compact, light magnesium case, as well as the same port configuration (including two Thunderbolt 4 ports) and keyboard. Hardware has undergone changes.

With the Core i5-1240P, Alder Lake provides more (multithread) CPU performance, while GPU performance remains comparable to the predecessor. Purchasing a Gram model with the ostensibly more powerful Core-i7-1260P processor is thus unlikely to be worthwhile: With the same core count as well as distribution as the Core i5-1240P, the marginally higher clock rates will have little effect, if they are used at all. The same is likely to be true for the slightly faster iGPU.