LG Gram 17 (2024) laptop review - Small improvements and a new Core Ultra 7

[Redaktion]

LG's new Gram has stayed true to the series. From the outside, barely anything has changed about the slim 17-inch device. On the inside, a Meteor Lake processor now powers the laptop. However, LG has quietly and secretly eliminated a few of the points of criticism which we raised about our test device's predecessors.

https://www.notebookcheck.net/LG-Gram-17-2024-laptop-review-Small-improvements-and-a-new-Core-Ultra-7.826926.0.html

[Y2K bug]

LG, please, please, please, make Gram 18 with 4K 18" 16:10 screen and 500+ nit brightness.

[NikoB]

This is kind of a shame in terms of performance at 22W for 155H
Compare with the results of the 7840U at 25W:
www.notebookcheck.net/Lenovo-ThinkPad-T14s-G4-review-Business-laptop-is-better-with-AMD-Zen4.763581.0.html
It's a monstrous 38% faster while consuming only +3W more in PL1 mode!
But that's not all, compare with this review:
www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-Swift-Edge-16-Ryzen-7-7840U-laptop-review-Zen-4-CPU-and-3-2K-120-Hz-OLED-boost.756914.0.html
Even at 18W the 7840U is 20% faster than the 155H at 22W!

One question - why manufacturers release laptops using this shameful garbage from Intel, when last year's Zen4 Phoenix is much more battery efficient and faster?

And everything is very simple - LG, like other manufacturers, simply does not have the opportunity to order large quantities of Zen4 Phoenix, and especially without dumping from Intel, which is already making losses in order to maintain market share. The Intel vs AMD SoC supply ratio is 5:1. This is the whole reason. And AMD is not eager to increase its market share through a loss-making price war with Intel, which has a much larger financial cushion...

We will continue to look with sadness at the madness that is happening in the market, when they are trying to sell us obviously crappy Intel chips in laptops, because there will be nothing else.

---
I just need something like this laptop, but with a 32-64GB lpddr5 7500/2-4TB ssd from the factory and 7840U and with RJ45 at 2.5-5Gbps in the back and power supply in the back or on the side via a round corner plug, and not via an idiotic and easily broken usb -c. And I'm not going to carry it along the street, so I don't care about the weight, but I do care about complete silence down to 35-45% of the average load on all cores constantly, i.e. the cooler should be much larger and the radiators much larger. I don't see a problem cooling the 7840U at 25-30W with almost no noise at the above load.

Who will make such a laptop? Anyone who does this will immediately receive multi-million dollar sales in units for those who need a working laptop (the keyboard should have 1.8mm key travel and elastic feedback), at an adequate price in the region of 1200(32/2TB)-1500(64/4TB)$.

It's sad, everyone is going around and around, but no one wants to make a comfortable and high-quality universal laptop for business with 17-18" 4k@120Hz with a real contrast of 1500:1+ without dgpu...

[NikoB]

and 500+ nit brightness.

Why 500 nits at home? Even 300 is more than enough. And if you plan to work with it outside in the sun, then there should be not 500 nits, but 5000.

[RobertJasiek]

And everything is very simple - LG, like other manufacturers, simply does not have the opportunity to order large quantities of Zen4 Phoenix

It is not the only reason. The other reason is that people actually buy the inefficient Intel garbage. If everybody in the world were like we two - not buying what is not or only badly offered - OEMs would be forced to use AMD whenever appropriate and AMD would be forced to produce enough chips.

It's sad, everyone is going around and around, but no one wants to make a comfortable and high-quality universal laptop for business with 17-18" 4k@120Hz with a real contrast of 1500:1+ without dgpu...

Yes, like no one wants to make an ergonomic desktop replacement or an iPad-like Windows tablet.

[Y2K bug]

and 500+ nit brightness.

Why 500 nits at home? Even 300 is more than enough. And if you plan to work with it outside in the sun, then there should be not 500 nits, but 5000.

I have poor eyesight. The bigger and brighter the screen, the better I can distinguish fine details. 400 nits is barely enough.

In either case, it seems that all existing 18" 4K notebooks have 500+ screens anyway to mark the HDR checkbox.

[LL]

Why 500 nits at home? Even 300 is more than enough. And if you plan to work with it outside in the sun, then there should be not 500 nits, but 5000.

Not all homes are equal, balcony, garden, under pergulas etc.  and there are caffes and bars without direct sun but high natural illumination.
For example i can use my M10 Plus 3Gen Lenovo tablet that almost reaches 500 nits in most this circumstances. Yeah direct sunlight requires plus +1500 nits for work, but you can usually get better places for work.

[LL]

Praise for LG for trying  to make a laptop where you can work silently. But would have liked that Notebookcheck would have investigated it further in what circumstance can that happen:

Silent Quality Level Essential:
Silence because you are listening to music or video which require absolut silence:
At what ambient temperature, can i listen to music completely silent sending via bluetooth or cable to my Hi-Fi? seeing video/film in Youtube 4K, FHD, HD? or from own SSD disk?

Silent Quality Level Work Confort:
Office related work , web search and generic web use, etc.

[Matt Corallo]

Any idea of the screen on this year's model is vertically or horizontally polarized?

[NikoB]

Any idea of the screen on this year's model is vertically or horizontally polarized?

All laptops and monitors (except for a couple of LG monitors, which owns the patent) do not have an A-TW polarizer. And the domain structure of subpixels is clearly visible in the photo from the review - it is standard for IPS panels.

[Matt Corallo]

Laptop polarization is definitely not entirely standard, whether polarized sunglasses completely black out a laptop monitor or not depends on the model - for some they do, for some they do not.

[Matus]

Few years back i had the LG Gram 15z980 with intel 8th gen cpu and integrated gpu.

I loved the weight and overall hardware, two m.2 slots, upgradable memory (had extra 32gb so my ram was 48gb) the problem was performance and as someone who makes music I needed more computer power so I upgraded to schenker vision 16 pro with i7-12700h

I would love to see from LG a 16" version with snapdragon x processor for ultimate performance & baterry efficiency or at least some new amd cpu.. support for bootable 4tb nvme and 8tb nvme in second slot and mostly upgradable ram or at least version with 64gb soldered.. c'mon lg just 32 gigs of ram? This is not enough for someone that works as video editor, music composer or in vfx industry or just a basic creative person.. 64gb ram costs 200$ in stores , if i am buying a 1500$+ notebook i am expecting a premium specs.. also I don't see any point for higher resolution than 2.5k on 16" displays , 1080p looked on 15" lg gram same nice and I didn't had to use stupid windows scaling , so more is not allways better..
I hope I will come back one day to Gram series
Good luck LG

[NikoB]

(had extra 32gb so my ram was 48gb

It's immediately obvious that you are an IT amateur - you cannot install memory modules of different sizes - the performance of RAM outside of banks of the same size automatically drops by 2 times.

[Worgarthe]

(had extra 32gb so my ram was 48gb

It's immediately obvious that you are an IT amateur - you cannot install memory modules of different sizes - the performance of RAM outside of banks of the same size automatically drops by 2 times.

"Intel® Flex Memory Access

Intel® Flex Memory Access facilitates easier upgrades by allowing different memory sizes to be populated and remain in dual-channel mode."