When we received LG’s new laptop, the 17-inch LG Gram Z90Q, we thought they’d screwed up and sent us a mockup: that’s how light it weighs despite being a size that puts it at the top of the scale in this point. At a time when laptops are booming, when brands are betting on new technologies and designs, the LG Gram is aimed at a very defined audience .
Despite how light it is for its size (the 16-inch Mac Book Pro weighs almost two pounds more), it’s a sleek laptop by design. Very slim and easy to carry in almost any type of backpack or bag. Visually it is more beautiful than to the touch: its surface very easily attracts fingerprints and the materials that have been used (doubtless to lighten the weight), seem to be made of plastic, although it is a very resistant magnesium alloy. The keyboard responds easily, although it is located a bit far away, to make room for a large touchpad: 13 cm. x 8cm .
This is when we start to see some important details. Although LG has done a great job in many ways, this model seems to be unclear on the audience it wants to tempt. The lack of a touch screen, coupled with the lack of a reliable graphics card , does not make it suitable for layout work or video editing. Not for video games. At the same time, the distance from the bottom edge to the keyboard is important enough to be an exclusive model for those who are dedicated mainly to writing: using it in this way ends up being uncomfortable after several hours. Of course, on the keyboard there is a fingerprint reader located on the power button that works very quickly and its location is perfect, since it allows us to save a step.
On the other hand, it comes with one of the most advanced processors on the market, a 12th generation CPU from Intel that is up for challenges, combines 16 GB RAM and storage of up to 1 TB . Documents open quickly, the connection to the network and the loading of content is very fast and the most basic games with little need for many fps, work well. Those who work with Excel-type templates, open 20 tabs of different applications at the same time and have a desktop saturated with documents, will have a great time.
Sound… here LG could have opted for a slightly higher quality: the speakers sound good as long as we don’t go above 70 or 75% of the volume. There the bass begins to sound somewhat artificial and “packaged”. With helmets it works better and they connect quickly and intuitively via bluetooth.
That said, it is a joy to see multimedia content on this screen , not only because of its size, but also because of its quality and management of brightness (2560 x 1600 pixels). It shows that LG works very well in this part. In extreme environments, for example, with direct light, it behaves as approved: it can work well, as in the best computers in these conditions, which are complex for any laptop.
One detail that we liked is the theme of the ports . It charges via USB-C, which is very convenient (charger included, bravo). And it also includes an HDMI output, a headphone jack, and two USB-C ports (one is charging). On the right side it has two additional USB-A ports (very suitable if we have accessories that have already reached the decade) and also a microSD card reader.
The charging time is about two hours and it does fulfill the manufacturer’s promise in terms of duration: 12 hours minimum . For long trips, carrying a microSD card with movies and watching the “giant” screen without thinking about the battery is very rare. But if we are going to use it to play video games, it gets more complicated, not only because of the battery, but also because (again) the graphics card slows down the action and heats up the system.
Another interesting detail is that the LG Gram includes Amazon’s Alexa voice assistant software . Very useful for certain tasks such as opening streaming platforms, requesting alarms, making calls or playing music, without stopping work.
Cons : The biggest downside is its decent but not great graphics card. A touch screen to take advantage of the entire “stage” and a more careful sound, would have greatly elevated the category of this PC.
In favor: good number of ports, very light, fast if the GPU is not used, elegant, with good battery and charge.
