LG gram 17 (2021)  Laptop Review

The LG gram 17 has a simple and sleek design that fits well in a professional work environment. It has a magnesium alloy chassis that feels premium, and its display's bezels are thin on all sides. You can find the speakers on the bottom near the front and the exhaust vents near the back. It's available in three color schemes: White, Silver, and Black.

The build quality is excellent. The magnesium alloy chassis feels sturdy, exhibiting only some flex in the display and almost none in the keyboard deck. The rubber feet are thick and stick firmly to the bottom. The Black model picks up fingerprints fairly easily, but it's likely less of an issue on the White and Silver models.

The hinge is outstanding. It feels very smooth when opening and closing the lid, and it's stable, with almost no play at all. The screen doesn't wobble even when typing aggressively.

The serviceability is disappointing. It's hard to access the internals as you need to remove lots of plastic caps and rubber feet before you get to the nine Philips screws holding the back panel. The plastic caps are hard to remove and break easily, making them unusable afterward, and the rubber feet require additional adhesive to put back on. After removing the screws, it's fairly easy to undo the clips holding the back panel with a pick or prying tool, but you have to be careful as some of the clips towards the back of the laptop might break.

Get the owner's manual here.

• LG gram 17 laptop
• 65W USB-C power adapter and cord
• Documentation

The LG gram 17 has a large and sharp display that provides plenty of room for split-screen multitasking. Its 16:10 aspect ratio gives you slightly more vertical space than a standard 16:9 display so that you don't have to scroll as much when reading a document or website, but it also means that you'll almost always have black bars at the top and bottom when viewing videos.

The LG gram is only available with a 60Hz display, which is typical for thin and light productivity-focused laptops. The display has a slow response time causing noticeable ghosting, so it isn't ideal for gaming or viewing fast content or gaming.

The contrast ratio is decent; however, it's still relatively low compared to other display technologies like VA and OLED. This level of contrast makes blacks look gray in dim settings.

The display gets bright enough for use in most indoor settings but not in well-lit environments or outdoors in broad daylight, mainly due to the display's mediocre reflection handling. If you like viewing content in the dark, it gets dim enough to help reduce eye strain.

The LG gram 17's display has mediocre reflection handling. Its glossy finish struggles with bright lights shining directly at the screen, as it doesn't reduce the reflection's intensity or diffuse it in any way. The reflections make dark content near impossible to see, and they're visible in bright content even with the screen at maximum brightness.

The display has a good horizontal viewing angle. The image remains accurate until you reach a moderately steep angle from the side; then, the image starts to dim and wash out. This means you can share color-critical work with someone else as long as the other person isn't too far off to the side.

The display's vertical viewing angle is okay. The image quality doesn't degrade much if you view the screen from slightly above or below, which can be handy in tight spaces that force you to view the screen at an angle, like on a bus or airplane. However, it's best to look at the screen directly if you need perfect image accuracy.

The LG gram's out-of-the-box display accuracy is poor. Many colors are inaccurate because it targets a wider color space to produce more saturated colors. The white balance is noticeably off, and the whole image has a slightly bluish tint due to its cool color temperature. The gamma doesn't follow the sRGB curve, making most scenes appear brighter than they should while over-darkening dark scenes. If you want a similar laptop with better display accuracy out of the box, check out the Microsoft Surface Laptop 5 (2022).

The display's color gamut is outstanding. It has full sRGB and DCI-P3 coverage, making it suitable for viewing and producing SDR and HDR content. Its Adobe RGB coverage is excellent but not enough for professional print photography as it can't produce the saturated greens that define Adobe RGB.

The LG gram has a great keyboard. It feels spacious, and the layout is easy to get used to. The keys are stable and have a lot of travel, and while they require a fair amount of force to actuate, they don't cause fatigue over an extended period. They don't feel outright mushy, but they aren't the most tactile, either. You can adjust between two backlight brightness levels or turn it off completely.

The touchpad is excellent. It's large and smooth and has a premium feel to it. It tracks all movements and gestures well, and there aren't any issues with palm rejection or actions like dragging and dropping. The positioning isn't as far to the left as other laptops with a Numpad, but it isn't in the way when typing.

The LG gram laptop has decent speakers. They sound relatively well-balanced. However, they can't produce deep, thumping bass, and vocals lack clarity. They don't get very loud, but on the upside, the sound quality doesn't degrade at max volume.

The webcam's video quality is great. The image is a bit soft and noisy; however, it's still very good, considering its resolution. The microphone sounds clear but loud, so you may have to turn down the mic gain slightly.

The port selection is outstanding. The two USB-A ports support USB 3.2 Gen 2 data transfer speed (up to 10Gbps). The two USB-C ports support Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40Gbps data transfer speed and video output to 4k displays at 60Hz), USB4 Gen 3, and Power Delivery. Power Delivery allows for fast charging of the laptop and other PD-supported devices connected to the port.

The wireless adapter is an Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201.

The LG gram is available with the following CPUs:

• Intel Core i3-1115G4 (2 cores/4 threads, up to 4.1GHz, 6MB)
• Intel Core i5-1135G7 (4 cores/8 threads, up to 4.2GHz, 8MB)
• Intel Core i5-1155G7 (4 cores/8 threads, up to 4.5GHz, 8MB)
• Intel Core i7-1165G7 (4 cores/8 threads, up to 4.7GHz, 12MB)
• Intel Core i7-1195G7 (4 cores/8 threads, up to 5.0GHz, 12MB)

All five are power-efficient processors designed to handle light to moderately heavy workloads, like text formatting, web browsing, video playback, and spreadsheets. The Core i3 is powerful enough if you mainly work in a web browser or don't have too many things running simultaneously. However, if you're a heavy multitasker or need to run more demanding multi-threaded applications, it's best to go with an i5 or i7, as they have double the number of cores and threads to provide a smoother experience. There isn't much performance difference between the two Core i5s and the two Core i7s, as the i5-1155G7 and the i7-1195G7 are essentially better-quality parts that can run at slightly higher clock speeds than the i5-1135G7 and i7-1165G7. The i7s are faster than the i5s, but only in short bursts as they likely throttle more in heavy, sustained workloads.

This laptop is only available with integrated graphics. The Core i3-1115G4 has Intel UHD Graphics for 11th Gen processors with 48 execution units, the Core i5s have Intel Iris Xe Graphics with 80 execution units, and the Core i7s have Intel Iris Xe Graphics with 96 execution units. These GPUs can only handle general productivity tasks, not demanding workloads like video editing or AAA gaming. You can run some lighter or older games on the Core i5s and i7s' Iris Xe Graphics, but you'll almost always have to play with low settings to get playable frame rates. If you need a laptop with a more powerful GPU for video editing or gaming, check out the ASUS ProArt Studiobook Pro 16 OLED (2021).

You can configure this laptop with 8GB or 16GB of memory. The memory isn't user-replaceable.

You can configure the LG gram laptop with 512GB, 1TB, or 2TB of storage space. The storage is user-replaceable. there are two storage slots; both support M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4 SSDs.

The LG gram's overall score in Geekbench 5 is great. The Core i5's performance is great for an Intel 11th Gen processor and good enough for general productivity tasks. That said, there are significantly faster CPUs on the market, like Intel's own Meteor Lake CPUs, AMD's Ryzen 7040U CPUs, and Apple's M2 SoC. The Core i3 will perform worse, especially in multi-threaded workloads, as it has fewer cores and threads. The Core i7s will only perform slightly better, not enough to make much difference in general productivity tasks.

As for the GPU compute score, Intel's Iris Xe performs poorly and isn't suitable for demanding workloads.

The LG gram's Intel Core i5 performs well for a low-power CPU from its generation, but it's rather slow compared to more recent CPUs on the market. This level of performance is only suitable for light productivity workloads. If you're a heavy multitasker or need to run heavily multi-threaded applications, it's best to get a laptop with an H-series CPU, like the Dell XPS 15 (2023), or a MacBook Pro with Apple silicon, like the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023).

The LG gram performs poorly in Blender. If you need to render 3D images in Blender, you're better off getting a laptop with a discrete GPU, as even an entry-level graphics processor, like an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650, can render images much faster.

The LG gram 17 performs poorly in the Basemark GPU benchmark. None of the integrated GPUs are ideal for graphically demanding games. The Core i5s and i7s' Intel Iris Xe Graphics can handle some lighter or older titles, but you'll have to play at the lowest settings to get smooth gameplay.

Borderlands 3 isn't playable on the LG gram. It's extremely choppy, even at the lowest graphical settings, and it freezes at times. Also, the game keeps crashing in DirectX 12, so you can only run it in DirectX 11. None of the configurations can run this game smoothly.

Civilization VI runs poorly on the LG gram. It's playable if you turn down some graphics settings, but even then, the turn time is very long. The Core i7s will only get a few more frames per second and slightly shorter turn times, not enough to make much difference. The Core i3 will perform significantly worse or not run the game at all.

The performance in CS:GO is passable. The average frame rate at high settings is good, but frequent stutters happen due to frame drops. It's smoother at low settings; however, you'll still experience some choppiness here and there, which isn't ideal for an FPS game. The Core i7s will only perform slightly better, while the Core i3 will perform significantly worse, with the average frame rate reaching 60 fps only at the lowest graphical settings.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider isn't playable. The game is extremely choppy, even at the lowest graphical settings. None of the configurations can run this game smoothly.

The LG gram laptop's thermal and noise handling is okay. The keyboard deck is cool when idle, and the fans are completely silent. The keyboard gets very hot under load, but the hottest spot is towards the top, away from where most people rest their hands. While the fans are noticeable under load, they aren't annoying as it's mostly the sound of heavy airflow rather than a high-pitch whine.

The LG gram has many pre-installed software applications, including:

• Amazon Alexa: Amazon's digital assistant.
• AudioDirector for LGE: Audio editing software.
• ColorDirector for LGE: Video editing software.
• Disney+: App for Disney+ video streaming service.
• DTS:X Ultra: Lets you customize the built-in speakers' sound through presets and EQ.
• LG Control Center: Lets you change power saving, system, and fan settings.
• LG Easy Guide: User manual.
• LG PowerManager: Battery manager, similar to the Control Center app.
• LG UpdateCenter: Helps keep the firmware and drivers up to date.
• McAfee Live Service: Antivirus software.
• PhotoDirector for LGE: Photo editing software.
• Power Media Player for LGE: Video player.
• Thunderbolt Control Center: Lets you verify whether a connected device is Thunderbolt compatible.
• Virtoo by LG: Lets you access various functions on compatible LG smartphones through a Bluetooth connection, similar to Microsoft's My Phone app.

The LG gram laptop has a fingerprint sensor built into the power button. You can use it to log into Windows quickly, authorize purchases on the Windows Store, or auto-fill passwords on supported websites.