LG Gram 2021 announced: 14, 16 and 17

Just watched the LG Korea launch event for Gram 2021, the entire event was in Korean and a Korean pop star was interacting with LG officials. Here are the many changes/improvements which i could decipher from the event:

1. The LG Gram series now contains 14, 16 and 17 inches. Sorry no 15 inch, i was not able to understand korean where they said Gram 16 replaces Gram 15.

2. The 14, 16 and 17 inch version have 16:10 displays.

3. There will be three colours: The usual Grey, Matte Black and Glossy White.

4. They mostly spent all the time discussing the new Gram 16, 16: 10 display, 2560x1600 resolution, DCI-P3 99 per cent.

5. The touchpad is 55% larger for Gram 16 vs Gram 15 2020.

6. The keyboard has been improved and the key travel is now 1.65 mm compared to 1.5 mm of 2020 Gram.

7. 80 Wh battery, 72Wh for Gram 14

8. Improved speakers by 50-60 per cent, loud volume.

9. New and improved cooling.

10. USB C charger is bundled.

11. Ports layout is changed: Left side has HDMI, Two USB type C and 3.5 mm jack. Right side has two type A, Micro SD and Kensington Lock.

12. No more bundled Ethernet adaptor.

13: RAM is soldered, no empty RAM slot

14. Intel Tiger Lake with Intel Evo branding/program.

 

LG Gram 16 page is up: https://www.lge.co.kr/lgekor/product/pc/notebook/productDetail.do?prdId=EPRD.361681

It shows all three colour options for Gram 16 but the worrying thing is it only shows empty slot for SSD and On-Board LPDDR4x 4266 MHz RAM. Soldered RAM and no empty RAM slot

 

LG gram 17 page : https://www.lge.co.kr/lgekor/product/pc/notebook/productDetail.do?cateId=2170&prdId=EPRD.361628

Same thing here too, three colours, On-Board RAM soldered RAM, no empty RAM slot, extra slot for SSD expansion. The Touchpad is larger by 17 per cent compared to 2020 Gram 17.

Improved keyboard 1.65 mm vs 1.5 mm and 2560X1600 DCI-P3 display. 11th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-1165G7 processor

 

Here is the new Gram 14: https://www.lge.co.kr/lgekor/product/pc/notebook/productDetail.do?cateId=2170&prdId=EPRD.361697

16:10 display, 1920x1080, DCI-P3 99 per cent, 72Wh battery. On-Board soldered RAM, no empty ram slot. SSD extra slot available.

 

The only part of this that I am interested in is

Hopefully they got it right this time, even though they improved it last year over the one I have it was still sub par.

 

A guy in Korea has dismantled the engineering sample of the 2021 Gram 16, enable auto translate-english subtitles to get some idea:



The copper cooling pipes are thicker, fan is bigger and more vents are used in 2021 Gram. Also the paint used for white colour is thicker. Looks like the new colours are better options.

 

The heat pipe, heat sink and fan look effectively identical, there is no appreciable improvement there it doesn't seem. Slimmest of margins at best. The huge change is the vents on the bottom, hopefully those drastically improve airflow.

 

I'm curious whether the second M.2 slot is still only 2-lane (as in the 2020 models), or whether it's now a full 4-lane (like the first M.2 slot).

I'm disappointed by the move to soldered-RAM only. 16GB max RAM is a low ceiling for some users, especially those who plan to run virtual machines. But the rest sounds promising.

By the way, according to an LG press release for virtual CES 2021, there will be a Gram 16 variant with a touchscreen, a stylus, and a 360° hinge. It will weigh around 2/3 lb. more than the non-touchscreen variant and I didn't see any mention of DCI-P3 99% ... but it will be available in green! ;-) I'm guessing it could be very appealing to some classes of users. Here's a link to the press release, which has a table of specs for the new models:

https://www.lgnewsroom.com/2021/01/...10-aspect-ratio-screens-and-sleek-new-design/

 

As far as I know it was the early 2019 model that had the secondary NVMe slot at PCIe 2x (I have one, it is true it's 2x..) but the 2020 and forward models have two 4xPCIe NVMe slots

 

Are you sure about that? I have a 2020 Gram 17 (that I mostly love), and I remember grumbling about the second M.2 slot having only 2 lanes when I researched it. Unfortunately, I can't for the life of me find my source for that info. It's possible that it was misinformation due to Amazon's unfortunate penchant for inaccurate product titles and for mixing Q&As and reviews for different products and different model years. (Only a week ago I saw an Amazon listing for a "2021 LG Gram 17," all of whose specs were for the 2020 model.) Also, I haven't cracked open the chassis yet, so I can't check the slot 2 label (NVMe×4 vs. NVMe×2), and I obviously haven't populated the slot yet, so I can't run diagnostics on it. (I do plan on populating it soon, however, with a dedicated Linux drive.)

Off Topic: By far the biggest usability improvement I made to my Gram 17 was to remap the numeric keypad. I've never used numeric keypads for their intended purpose, so I "cannibalized" the keys on the Gram to create dedicated Volume Up, Volume Down, Mute/Unmute, Pause/Resume, and Next Track (+Shift = Previous Track) keys, as well as a classic full-height inverted-T arrow-key cluster, a classic Home/End stack, and a classic PageUp/PageDn stack. I find the remapped keys much easier to use than the Gram's default keys and Fn-key combos. (I used AutoHotkey, which as a non-coder I didn't have a lot of fun learning, but there are simpler remapping utilities out there.)

 

They removed the silk screening from the empty (in some models, some came with 512GBx2 installed from the factory) 2nd slot in 2020, which leads me to believe it supports both SATA and NVMe up to 4x, I think if it was still specific they would have left it on there. I can without question say the 2019 model tops out at 2x on the secondary slot. I can't find any proof that the 2nd slot is 4x on the 2020 model in any reviews I just scanned both written and youtube, but I bet the super long Gram thread here someone that has it probably commented on it.

 

If the super-long thread you're referring to is for the Gram 17, I'm pretty sure it was for the 2019 model (and 62 pages long!). However, I did find a much shorter thread for the 2020 model where someone had installed a Samsung 970 EVO in the second slot. I asked whether he'd be kind enough to run a quick HWInfo64 diagnostic and report back on the results for the second slot. If I hear back from him, I'll report back here!

 

I guess at any rate if you need the storage even if it's only 2x it's good enough. I just use it to install my games and I can move it to a new laptop and it'll work at 4x at that point

 

@hfm LG Gram 16 in stock now, Black colour: https://www.lg.com/us/laptops/lg-16z90p-k.aab6u1-ultra-slim-laptop

 

That definitely is the best Gram design so far. I'm really looking to move up to a 6/8 core unit for my next. If I end up holding out till 2022 I'll see what LG does next and if they manage to get a better CPU into it while retaining TB. If not I'll be moving to something with a 35/45W CPU with 6 or 8 cores. The pickings are really slim the only thing that kind of fits is the XPS 17, and I'd be wasting money on a 1650Ti that I would be disabling.

 

So you are skipping the 2021 Gram? The problem with XPS series is so many QC issues with every generation and the battery Dell uses is also cheap which goes bad and swells within 2 years when compared to Gram which uses LG Chem batteries.

 

I don't really see it enough of an upgrade from my 2 year old Gram. Still 4 cores. Still 15W. The display is already great in mine when calibrated. I'm not a content creator so I don't need the incremental color accuracy.

Granted the CPU is more Intel's fault than LG. If they went AMD I wouldn't be interested due to lack of thunderbolt.

I'm in a catch 22 really. 11th gen has more efficient thunderbolt due to being on-die but the cpu is still 15W 4-core and not that much faster especially for thread starved games. I wish LG would stop reusing the thermal solution up and down the product line and do what razer does in the blade stealth/book and use all that extra room in the 17 for a 28W config. I'd maybe consider it.

 

Yeah, does not make sense wasting money when your laptop can last another couple of years easily. Another thing i noticed is that the 2021 Gram silver colour is more light silver rather than grey silver of earlier models. Just compare the photos:

https://www.lg.com/us/laptops/lg-16z90p-k.aas8u1-ultra-slim-laptop

https://www.lg.com/us/laptops/lg-15z90n-u.ars5u1-ultra-slim-laptop

 

The black one looks nice, though I don't really care much what color they are as long as it looks ok.

 

2021 Gram 16 review, enable auto translate-english subtitles.

1. Says cooling is better and compares temperatures at different areas of the laptop between 2020 and 2021 LG Gram.

2. Screen quality is excellent: 99.9% sRGB, 99.38% DCI-P3, 93% Adobe RGB.

3. Speakers are much better

4. Keyboard is better with more key travel and larger size keys, 55 % larger touchpad.

 

2021 LG Gram 16 vs Galaxy Book Ion 2 15.6 inch, enable auto translate-English subtitles.

1. Both have i5 11th Gen but performance is much better on LG Gram, even after upgrading the RAM to 16GB in the Samsung to make it dual channel vs 8GB LG. Looks like throttling is not that bad in the 2021 Gram.

2. Keyboard is also much better on the redesigned Gram 16 versus the Samsung.

3. Says Speakers quality is better on the Gram 16 but the volume loudness is the same in both.

4. LG has 2k screen 16:10 vs Samsung Full HD 16:9, colour gamut is similar in both but Samsung is much brighter at 675 nits compared to 344 nits of LG.

 

Dave2D Gram 2021 review:

 

Saw that Dave2D video the other day, he summed up all of what I've been complaining about with the 17 for 2 years. Wasted room that could be used for more TDP in the name of cost cutting to standardize the PCB design across the entire line. Still a good machine if 15W is good enough for you.

It's almost like he did his homework and read all my and everyone else's comments.

 

Look at 7:44. Can it be that missing connector P4 and the two holes be there for a comming dual fan version ?

 

Thinking about getting Gram 16 but how hard is it to open? Any instruction guides or videos yet on 2021 model and thanks.

Sent from my moto g power using Tapatalk

 

If it's anything like the 17s, the screws are under the rubber feet and little adhesive covers that you can remove carefully and re-apply. Might need a guitar pick or plastic pry tool to work the bottom cover off without scratching the finish. It's not difficult. You can probably find youtube videos if you search.

 

Interesting to see the screen brightness at 370 nits by Dave, let us see what measurements Lisa Gade and notebookcheck get.

There will be no Gram version with dual fans, maybe the LG Ultra laptop which comes with Nvidia GPU can use dual fans. LG uses a lot of component sharing to keep costs down and profitable unlike Sony who suffered massive losses and had to sell off the VAIO division.

 

I wouldn't call the prices for the Gram low. Aside from the 17 that is somewhat unique and only competes with the xps 17 they are not cost competitive for the power they provide. The i5 XPS 17 and bottom tier i7XPS 17 are an overall better value unless you place a premium on weight.

You can get good deals a bit after launch if you look for sales, but I bought my 2019 at microcenter close to North America launch availability (March 5) and it was expensive. $1850 after tax.

 

I said LG keeps costs low by component sharing for themselves not for us consumers

 

The Black colour is out of stock on LG website but there is still some availability on amazon.com, looks like there is good demand for Gram and stocks are running low.

 

The 2021 LG Gram is similar to the earlier ones when it comes to opening up, you can check out the Linus 2021 Gram video where he opens it while the laptop is still running !! He compared both 2020 and 2021 models and said the finish is much more premium and sleek on the 2021 Gram:

 

Another review, he measured 401 nits screen brightness.

 

The 2019 tops out at 500nit 360nit, I would hope they have not regressed. Even with the mostly reflective panel coating/surface I have to keep the brightness at around 70% on my 2019 Gram 17 to keep it from being too bright. I also like the the fact that the surface isn't full anti-glare but partly reflective as it seems to have much more clarity.

EDIT: Oops it's 360nit.. I think I got it confused with the Samsung 15" :grimace:

 

Well it is quite brave of you to praise glossy screen online, the internet is filled with a very loud minority who bashes glossy display and asks for matte display in every laptop. I also prefer glossy panels as the screen looks much more clear when compared to the grainy look of the matte screens.

 

Not sure how brave that is lol.. I really don't care how passionate someone is about matte, go for it if you like it. Actually I'd be OK with a good quality matte display if there were other things done well, it's not the top priority.

 

Lisa Gade's review is out now, she says the LG Gram 2021 is a culmination of last few years of development. Excellent screen with Good black levels and contrast and 100% sRGB and 100% DCI-P3 colour gamut:

 

I've got the 2019 LG Gram 17 and still happy with it. The 2021 model does not seem to have an option to add RAM? I am not an expert but why is this? I added 32GB to my 2019 model and it seems to run much better with 40GB RAM?

 

Yup. Dumb decision

 

The earlier LG Gram used DDR4 RAM but the 2021 Gram comes with LPDDR4x RAM which is available only in soldered form. why did LG opt for it? well here is a marketing article from MSI which gives an explanation: https://www.msi.com/blog/ultra-thin-business-and-productivity-laptop-with-lpddr4x-memory

I think 2021 is the year when ultraportables will lose RAM upgradeability, just like we lost GPU and CPU sockets and everything was soldered on the motherboard. Hopefully at least the fatter Pro and Gaming laptops keep using the socketed DDR4 for a few more years.

 

Agreed really. Though the last socketed + MXM laptop I had was the Tornado F5 (MSI rebrand). It was a hardware mod + non-official BIOS hack to upgrade from 7700K to 8700K, so for all intents and purposes call it non-upgradable unless you are comfortable with that. Also, I had a 1080 Notebook in there on an MXM card. It wasn't possible to upgrade to any Turing MXM GPU. So basically outside of the socketed CPU TDP the buy in on the engineering on that was meaningless, especially given MXM GPUs are EXPENSIVE.

These days, get the MOST RAM you can out of the gate. I think it would be OK if LG offered a 32GB option, though I think it's a safe assumption that the number of people needing over 16GB is probably an edge case and they don't think they would sell enough of them to make spending the time and money splitting the SKUs for it on the production line worthwhile. It makes me wonder if someone industrious replaced the RAM chips with double capacity ones if they are available would actually work. Someone did it with GDDR6 on the 3070 and got a 16GB card working. I don't know what capacity RAM chips the 2021 LG uses and what is actually available for purchase that would potentially be a pinout compatible option.

For what it's worth, I haven't had any problems with 16GB yet. But I don't really do anything super memory intensive on the LG Gram. All that type of work is on my 2019 mbp 16 which has 64GB.

 

I am really tempted by the new Gram 16. I have currently the top Gram 15 2018 version with the Core i7-8550U CPU. I have replaced the SSDs with 2X1Tb Samsung Evo 970. I use it non stop for at least 10 hours each day, most of the time plugged to my eGPU with 6 external monitors. I play very little but for instance Witcher 3 plays well enough even with full details at my 4k monitor (I have the ASUS Strix RTX2080). Rarely do I have some CPU bottlenecks, especially when I start the applications I use for work or some of seconds of delay when I execute some Excel macros. Then, if I am not exaggerating with too many charts open, most of my workflow is executed smoothly. So I wonder if I would see a real performance advantage with the new Gram, or I should better wait when they eventually introduce AMD Ryzen laptops with thunderbolt. Do you think the 50% additional CPU performance will make a big difference in everyday applications? I know for instance that with my current Gram I cannot work and video stream my work at the same time without my main application getting stuck. But I don't know if the new Gram will bring much of an improvement. I love the portability, size, keyboard, quiet fans, general quality. A loud hot, heavier gaming laptop is out of consideration (have to have Windows). Any ideas?

 

50% performance increase is massive, Get the Gram 16, even without the performance increase it is all around a much better laptop than Gram 15 due to entire redesign.

Gram 16 gets 55% larger touchpad, 1.65mm vs 1.50 mm keyboard travel, larger keycaps, 100% sRGB and 100% DCI P3 Gamut screen, better vents//cooling, 16:10 2560x1600 display vs 1920x1080, much more premium finish.

 

Thanks for the advice, I will go for it

 

Do post here after buying, things like specs, colour etc and maybe even few pictures if possible. Also first impressions and what did you like and dislike over 2018 Gram 15.

 

Will do, just passed the order on Amazon.uk.
I live in Germany, it is still not available and LG Germany replied to me that they will not sell QWERTY keyboards.

 

Nice, what colour and specs did you go for? The Germans use QWERTZ keyboard, are you British or American living in Germany?

 

I am Greek living in Germany. I ordered the UK version, 16GB, i7, 1Tb, black

 

Good configuration, LG is as usual very slow with roll out. First they launch in South Korea then wait a couple of months and launch in USA, UK. Rest of Europe gets the LG Gram couple of months after USA, UK. Then LG waits another couple of months for Rest of the world launch.

So, In total LG takes six to seven months to launch its Gram line-up across the world.

 

Hello there,

I currently have a Dell XPS 15 2020. I plan to change for something who is more silent (it is always very hot and the fan make a lot of noise.) I am very sensitive to noise and I look for something that is very silent (in idle mode, no fan, and no coil whine). Does someone would have some feedback on the noise concerning the LG Gram 16 ? Also, I like to have it on my knees quite often, currently I suspect the XPS to change my DNA feeling how hot it is. Any feedback from a possessor of the LG 16 would be also welcome, thanks

 

I have the 2019 version of the Gram 17, and if there's one thing about this laptop it's super quiet. It will not match the XPS 15 in performance, but I can pretty confidently say it will be quieter. The new versions do seem to have a vent on the bottom where the older ones do not, so it might get a little airflow constrained on a lap, but I think since the older ones do not have a vent on the bottom panel it might be ok just maybe won't keep a boost as long without more airflow. Probably not a big issue.

Now that I think about it, it would be pretty cool if I could put a 2021 bottom panel on my 2019 to see if it improves airflow, I would imagine they have changed the design quite a bit though.