2023-07-29 11:00:00
The iridescent reflections do not appear permanently.
Digital
LG continues its return to the PC market, which began two years ago with its line of ultralight Gram laptops. To stand out, the South Korean is releasing a Gram Style with an out-of-the-ordinary look, while retaining the strengths of the range: extreme lightness, high resolution Oled panel and, of course, latest generation components.
This is how the LG Gram Style 16 wears an iridescent white dress on its hood and palm rest that perfectly conceals the touchpad. The 16-inch OLED panel benefits from a definition of 3200 x 2000 pixels and its Intel Core i7-1360P processor, accompanied by 32 GB of RAM, should allow it to evolve smoothly. Thus equipped, the Gram Style 16 is displayed at a price of more than 2000 €, while the 14-inch version is marketed at just under 1800 €.
Construction
The reflections on the iridescent glass surface can vary from blue to pink, passing through orange.
Digital
The LG Gram Style has a white magnesium chassis covered with a light layer of glass that gives an iridescent finish to the surface. So when you handle the cover of the Gram Style 16, the white surface may reflect blue, pink, or even orange.
We almost wanted to take advantage of white screen borders.
Digital
Once the cover is lifted, we find the same iridescent finish on the entire palm rest and we almost come to regret the black edges of the screen which clash a little with the rest of the chassis. Fortunately, they are thin, even on the lower part of the screen.
The touchpad is completely hidden under the iridescent glass.
Digital
The keyboard is made up of white keys on a white piano and an equally white backlight. If the whole is very aesthetic, it will be necessary to turn off the backlighting during the day at the risk of making the keys unreadable. The typing is otherwise pleasant, but the piano suffers from a trampoline effect which testifies to a lack of rigidity of the chassis.
The touchpad is indeed present under the keyboard, although it is not physically delimited. When your finger touches its surface, two light bars appear to show you its limits. There is therefore no physical left or right click. In use, the glide is pleasant, but the haptic feedback of the click is a bit confusing.
Two light bars delineate the touchpad when in use.
Digital
The connection consists of two Thunderbolt 4 ports and a jack on the left edge. A retractable USB-A port and micro-SD slot complete the left side. And in case you don’t have enough connectivity, LG provides a USB-C mini-hub combining an HDMI port, a USB port and a USB-C port.
To integrate a full-size USB port, LG used a retractable version.
Digital
The webcam is equipped with a 1080p sensor compatible with Windows Hello. Its rendering is just correct for the proposed definition. Note that a fingerprint reader present on the start key allows you to unlock your Windows session.
The 1080p webcam offers just decent rendering.
Digital
The wireless part is provided by an Intel AX211 chip; it is therefore compatible with wifi 6E at 2.4 Gb/s and Bluetooth 5.3.
The cooling of the LG Gram 16 is dedicated to a single fan blowing in the hinge. Under our thermal camera and during our CPU-intensive encoding, the temperature reached almost 45°C between the keys placed in the center of the keyboard – the keys themselves reach a little over 40°C. It must be said that LG has chosen silence since our sound level meter does not exceed 34.5 dB. A simple breath, therefore, far from disturbing close colleagues. The South Korean manufacturer would have been well advised to add a second fan to keep noise levels low and better cool the Core i7-1360P. The latter actually suffers from its thermal release, as we will see in the Performance section.
Pushed to its limits, the LG Gram Style 16 can heat up.
Digital
Access to the components requires the removal of the eight cruciform screws hidden under the pads, as well as the screw covers glued to the double face. Inside, little room for customization, but we appreciate the presence of a second M.2 slot. The RAM and the wifi card are soldered, therefore not scalable. For its part, LG declares a repairability index of 7.7/10.
Given the space available, it would not be impossible for the 14-inch version to have the same components.
Digital
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Performances
The LG Gram Style 16 made available to us by LG is equipped with an Intel Core i7-1360P (12C/16T) processor accompanied by 32 GB of DDR5 and a 1 TB SSD. In practice, during our traditional encoding, the Core i7-1360P reaches 2.12 GHz on its P-Cores and 1.67 GHz for an average envelope of 19 W.
Processor performance index (the bigger the better).
Digital
The LG Gram Style 16 and its Core i7-1360P obtain a performance index of 103. This laptop is thus placed between a ZenBook S13 Oled and Core i7-1355U (99) and the Apple Silicon M2 of the MacBook Air 15 (112) . However, it is 29% less efficient than the same Core i7-1360P present in the Laptop 13 of Framework, which obtains an index of 133.
In use, the LG Gram Style 16 is particularly responsive and its processor only slows down during long and heavy tasks, such as video rendering, 3D processing or photo editing sessions. However, it is possible to increase the cooling of the PC for more constant performance with the Fn+A shortcut (and not Fn+Q as indicated) or through the LG Smart Assistant software.
The SSD is fast with speeds of 6.8 GB / s in reading and 4.6 GB / s in writing. It also shows no sign of weakness when transferring our video clips.
The SSD offers high speeds.
Digital
Screen
The 16-inch Oled panel chosen by LG is a Samsung model. It displays 3200 x 2000 pixels at a refresh rate of 120 Hz. With a glossy finish, it nevertheless benefits from a particularly effective anti-reflective treatment.
The borders are thin and the Oled screen, very appreciable.
Digital
Under our probe, color accuracy is a little disappointing, despite applying the DCI-P3 profile in LG Smart Assistant. The delta E is 4.7, i.e. above the threshold of 3 beyond which our eye can perceive drifts. The color temperature is 6727 K, very slightly above the video standard (6500 K).
The Oled panel displays deep blacks and benefits from a particularly low persistence, ideal for multimedia activities. The maximum brightness is 412 cd / m², an average value and well helped by the low reflectance of the panel with 27% of reflected light.
Audio
The LG Gram Style 16 houses two speakers under its chassis. A placement that has its drawbacks, the rendering becoming dependent on the support on which the PC is placed, while the hands placed on the palm rest will tend to cover the outputs.
Both speakers are large.
Digital
When listening, the Gram Style 16 offers a particularly pleasant rendering with present bass and a detailed soundstage. Pushed to high volume, the speakers give the impression of self-regulating to avoid saturation. Our Apple MacBook Pro 14 reference, on the other hand, offers a wider soundstage thanks to its six speakers placed on either side of the keyboard.
LG’s PC headphone output has excellent characteristics. Only downside, the output level is only 110 mVRMS, far too low to drive high impedance headphones.
LG Gram Style Average of PCs tested Output level 110 mVRMS 163 mVRMS Distortion + noise 0.016% 0.016% Dynamic range 98 dB 99 dB Crosstalk -66 dB -64 dB
Mobility / Autonomy
Obviously, with its 16-inch panel, the LG Gram Style 16 is impressive. Count 35.5 cm wide for 24.1 cm deep and a thickness of 1.6 cm. The Gram Style 16 will therefore fit into a suitable backpack, knowing that its featherweight of 1.2 kg encourages travel. The 65 W charger is particularly compact at only 197 g on the scale – its 2 m USB-C cable is also very practical.
The 65W charger is compact and the USB-C cable is a decent length.
Digital
The LG Style Gram 16 lasted 8 h 10 min in video playback (Netflix) under Chrome with its screen set to 200 cd/m². It is possible to take advantage of 30 min of additional autonomy by switching the screen to 60 Hz. It will thus be possible to last the day away from an electrical outlet thanks to the 80 Wh battery on board and despite the high definition of the slab.
The autonomy of the LG Gram Style is impacted by the high definition of its screen and its refresh rate of 120 Hz.
Digital
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Points forts
Lightweight.
Responsive Oled screen.
Design original.
Discreet ventilation.
Weak points
Slab that lacks accuracy.
Chassis flexibility.
Restricted processor.
Conclusion
Global mark
How does grading work?
The LG Gram Style blows a real breath of fresh air into the laptop world with a design that is out of the ordinary. The lightness of this large format is obviously its strong point, as well as its screen which enjoys the benefits of Oled, despite a small lack of accuracy in colorimetry. The cooling would have deserved to be better sized to take full advantage of the performance of the Core i7.
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