I bought this machine as a replacement to my 2018 Dell XPS 13, which I regrettably bought with only 8 GB of RAM. When it became clear that this is not enough for me earlier this year, I decided to look into ultrabooks that had upgradeable memory, just in case. Not wanting to give Lenovo any money, I settled on the LG Gram 14.
Summary
This is an excellent machine. In both Linux and Windows, response under light loads is snappy, and for an ultrabook, it does reasonably well with heavier loads. It appears to be reasonably well put together, and as always with LG Gram notebooks, is extremely light
Performance
The machine I got came with an Intel Core i7-1065G7. This is one of the latest installments in Intel's ultra low voltage line, intended for machines with slim profiles and equally slim cooling capabilities. As noted by a review site who produced a comprehensive performance profile, the machine does not get hot under light loads, and only moderately hot under heavy ones - nor does the fan produce much noise. The trade-off here is, of course, lesser performance than heavier machines with the same CPU and beefier cooling solutions. For my uses (photo editing and software development, it's perfectly adequate. Using multiple displays via the integrated graphics is very smooth.
The SSD is an SK Hynix PC401 NVMe, a fast drive but not on the order of a Samsung 970 EVO.
Reads appear to top out at about 1600 MB/s. Average access time is roughly 0.04 ms.
Build
This is one of the lightest ultrabooks you can buy today, ad this comes with some sacrifices. Chiefly, the magesium chassis has significantly more flex than that of an XPS or MacBook. No creaks are apparent, however. I would just recommend transporting it in a case.
I/O
This has a fair amount of connector options for an ultrabook. There is an HDMI port, two USB type A ports, a headphone jack, and MicroSD card slot, and a Thunderbolt port that can also be used to charge the machine. Oddly enough, it ships with a barrel-connector charger. A USB charger would have been nice, but I suppose having the option of freeing up the only USB-C/Thunderbolt port for some non-charging peripheral is a good thing.
Keyboard
The keyboard feel is decent, with enough travel for typing to feel good, and a relatively thoughtful layout. I would have preferred media hotkeys on the function keys, and an Fn-lock, however. Other than that, it feels pretty standard issue.
Trackpad
This is a typical precision trackpad. Compared to ones from ten years ago, it's absolutely fantastic. Today, it's just average. I have no complaints, but it's nothing to write home about either.
Display
The glossy LG-made display in this machine is a pleasure to look at. It's sharp, has good contrast, and does not appear to have immediately noticeable backlight bleed. I have not tested color accuracy yet as I am using an external monitor for photo editing. Overall I find it to be one of the nicest user-facing features of the machine.
Speakers
To be blunt, they're garbage. But how much are you going to care?
Battery Life
I have gotten about 10 hours running Linux under light loads and about 12 hours from Windows doing the same. While I find this to be adequate, this is a far cry from LG's 18 hour claim.
Expansion
There is a second NVMe slot for another M.2 SSD, and there is a single SODIMM slot is available on the motherboard. In the machine I got, this slot is occupied by an 8 GB sodimm slot. Since the machine registers 16 GB of RAM, 8 GB must be soldered onto the board. I do not know the maximum size the SODIMM slot can take, but I would be surprised if it was less than 32GB
Shipped Windows Install
Windows on this machine comes remarkably free of bloatware and boots very quickly. I am impressed
Linux installation
Installing Ubuntu 20.04 was among the simplest and most straightforward Linux installs I've ever performed on any laptop. Props to LG for making this so simple.
Conclusion
If you want a fast, capable, and upgradeable ultrabook, this is the machine to get. It's no gaming machine or superstar performer, but it is more than enough for most tasks and light enough that you likely won't notice it's in your pack.
| Standing screen display size | 14 Inches |
|---|---|
| Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 pixels |
| Max Screen Resolution | 1920 x 1080 Pixels |
| Processor | 1.3 GHz core_i7_1065g7 |
| RAM | 16 GB DDR4 |
| Hard Drive | 512 GB SSD |
| Graphics Coprocessor | Intel Iris |
| Chipset Brand | Intel |
| Card Description | Integrated |
| Number of USB 3.0 Ports | 2 |
| Average Battery Life (in hours) | 5 Hours |
