John Ratsey

I asked LG to confirm that the Intel graphics version of the Pro does have two fans and two SSD slots and have received confirmation (despite it being Sunday). I've done a little more research and the inside of the Nvidia graphics version of the Gram Pro is shown at about 6m 20s in this video review The fan layout looks to be identical in both versions of the Gram Pro. I haven't yet found an answer as to whether the extra cooling provided for the Intel version just keeps the notebook quieter or whether LG has increased the CPU power limit compared to the normal Gram (reviews show that this power limit is a constraint on performance compared with other notebooks using the same Intel hardware). One way to find out is to buy one!

I've just been looking at the details of the Gram 17 Pro although it's been around for a year or more. There are two versions: 1. With a Nvidia GPU, which I was vaguely aware of and knew it had two cooling fans 2. With the Intel CPU / GPU, which I've just discovered also has two fans according to https://www.lg.com/uk/laptops/gram-pro/17z90sp-g-aa78a1/. I've tweaked the photo on the LG website to show more detail and it can be seen that one fan is smaller than the other. Nonetheless, the extra cooling capacity is welcome. The right hand fan occupies the space where the SSD slots are on the standard Gram 17 model. One slot has been relocated next to the CPU while the other is on the right hand side of the photo. The other features of the Pro version are that it is thinner than the standard Gram 17 and the weight is reduced from 1.35kg to 1.30kg. The battery capacity of the Intel GPU Gram 17 Pro is 77Whr but so is the standard 2024 Gram 17. The Nvidia GPU version of the Pro has a 90Whr battery. I'm getting tempted on account of the improved cooling system and the knowledge that my 2024 LG SuperSlim seems to sleep OK. Perhaps it's this detail which has caused my 2022 Gram 17 to have nightmares during the past few days: It's been waking from hibernation! I've done several reboots to see if that will clear what is a serious bug (could the latest Windows update have included something causing this?). I've also looked around to see if there are alternatives to the Gram 17 in the same size. Most have 16:9 displays or have a strong gaming bias.

I propose that LG makes a 15" 16:10 notebook. The display (preferably more resolution than 1920 x 1200) size would be 201mm x 323mm which is slightly higher than a 15.6 panel and about 20mm narrower. I would make the notebook narrower and provide a column of navigation keys instead of the numpad. The overall size will be slightly smaller than the SuperSlim so there would be no difficulty in keeping the weight below 1kg. This design would fill the gap between the 16:10 14" and 16" models.

A couple more comments: 1. The SuperSlim seems to sleep properly whereas the fan runs on my Gram 17. I presume that someone figured out how to get the hardware and BIOS to wprk properly with Windows Modern Standby. 2. A useful little feature is that holding down the Fn key brings up a list of extra Fn key short-cuts suh as Fn+Q to change the fan setting.

Same here. The length is the critical dimension to fit into the zip pockets of some of my clothes. I would be happier, however, if Samsung increased the thickness slightly to give a significant boost to the battery capacity.

Here's a photo of the SuperSlim 15.6 between the 13" Samsung and the Gram 17. Size-wise it's half way between the two. By itself, the SuperSlim looks big but the Gram 17 puts it into context. In reality, there are few compromises compared to the standard Gram 15.6" which also has an FHD display: Fewer ports (easily fixed with adaptors), a slightly smaller battery and, I assume, a thinner fan. The internal arrangement looks very similar (the 2nd SSD slot now contains a 2TB SSD) and I'm mystified how the weight reduction was achieved. I've done a few performance tests. In Cinebench 23 the Intel Ultra 7 155H CPU comfortably out-performs the i7-1260P CPU in my 2022 Gram 17 but in wPrime the opposite applies. I suspect that wPrime is too old to know how to get the best out of those 16 cores with different performance characteristics. I've done a simple battery test by playing mp4 videos. The result looks more than sufficient for my needs (I remember when getting 3 hours on this test was a very good result!). One issue I would highlight is that whereas the 2023 SuperSlim featured an anti-glare coating on the display, the 2024 model does not so reflections are a potential problem. Another issue for UK (and I think EU) purchasers is that the SuperSlim is shipped with a power brick and two leads which weigh 0.36kg. I have left that in the box and use a much lighter 65W wall-mounted USB-C PSU. The SuperSlim will work, however, with lower rated USB-C PSUs but won't be able to concurrently charge the battery and handle a big CPU load (the maximum battery charge rate is 35W). As for wanting an 800 nits screen, I wonder what the battery drain would be like?

I have been using a Galaxy Book Pro 13.3 (model NP-935XDB) as my travel notebook for the past 3 years (I didn't realise it was that long). It's behaved very well and the most recent upgrade was to a 2TB SSD in the M.2 2230 format. However, I've become increasingly annoyed by two aspects (i) the lack of keys for Home / End / PgUp and PgDn and (ii) the keyboard / touchpad layout is sufficiently different from my LG Gram 17 to cause a lot of mis-types for several days after changing notebooks. My eyes would also appreciate a bigger screen (although the Samsung's display quality is excellent). After my latest trip I resolved to look around for a replacement travel notebook which provided the missing navigation keys with the minimal weight or thickness increase. I've found that this time of year is good for computer shopping as retailers want to clear their 2024 model stock to make space for the 2025 products. Samsung, despite my slim and light (0.9kg) Book Pro 13.3, make nothing similarly lightweight in a bigger size plus the 15" model lacks the wanted navigation keys. HP makes 14" notebooks with a column of navigation keys to the right of the keyboard but these weigh 1.3kg or more (almost as much as my Gram 17). Some Lenovo notebooks have PgUp/PgDn in cursor block and lightest is X1 Carbon (1.08kg) which is somewhat expensive. I then looked at LG's line-up and discovered the SuperSlim 15.6 which was introduced in 2023. It wasn't so much the slimness which caught my attention but the weight of a few grammes under 1kg. I wasn't looking for a display as big as 15.6" but the format meant that the computer has a 3 column numpad which I can use for my navigation keys. It also has what LG claims is a premium OLED display. The next question was whether it was available in the UK and how much did it cost? The 2023 model (15Z90RT) was offered by a third party on Amazon but further searching revealed that the 2024 model ( 15Z90ST) with a 16GB RAM + 1TB SSD was available at a major UK electronics retailer for a lower, and what I considered to be reasonable) price so I placed my order. What have I found? The SuperSlim is indeed both thin and light. It's 3/4 of the weight of my Gram 17 with 80% of the screen area. I've been less impressed by the display quality. The supplied LG colour profile had a strong red bias but this has been fixed by my Spyder 5 monitor calibrator. 1920 x 1080 resolution in the 15.6" seems a bit coarse compared to both the Gram 17's and smaller Samsung's displays. A 16:10 panel would also have been a welcome improvement. I suspect, however, that once the LG designers had decided upon a weight of less than 1kg, they found other other compromises had to be made. Hence only USB-C ports (three) and no USB-A although Samsung managed to fit the latter into a notebook of the same thickness. A micro-SD card slot is also absent. They didn't, however, compromise on the battery which is 60Whr. The fan noise at the default cooling mode is noticeable in a quiet room. I've visited the BIOS advanced settings (accessed using the key sequence here) to raise the fan threshold temperatures by 5C to encourage less fan activity. I've noticed one improvement over my 2022 Gram 17 - the new notebook sleeps silently. The SuperSlim has dual M.2 SSD slots and the second one is now occupied by a WD SN770 SSD which had been sitting on my shelf since it was superseded by a 4TB SSD in the Gram 17. Only time will tell if the SuperSlim will fulfill my travel notebbok requirements (spending most of it's travel in a bag and only used in the evenings). At the moment it's the second device on my desk with the primary use of streaming TV. Photos and some data to follow.

What does BatteryInfoView report as the battery statistics and power drain when idle or light usage?

It's a mystery to my why hibernate isn't enabled by default on laptops but have you tried the steps here Shut down, sleep, or hibernate your PC - Microsoft Support ? Also, unless you are needing the maximum hours on battery, enable the battery saver mode which limits the maximum charge to 80%.

This UK seller https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/356279468163 used the following classification for battery health. I haven't any idea whether that's industry standard, nor what testing is done to confirm the health. Very Good - Grade A - has 90% or greater of its original design capacity remaining. Good - Grade B - between 75% and 89% of its original design capacity remaining. Fair - Grade C - between 50% and 74% of its original design capacity remaining It's interesting that the new model has a completely different voltage. Li-ion and LiPo batteries have a nominal voltage of 3.6 to 3.7V, so two of those in series gives a voltage around 7.4V. The fully charged voltage will be up to 4.3V according to https://www.ufinebattery.com/blog/type-of-lithium-battery-voltage/. Perhaps the new Gram 17 battery uses four cells in series and quotes the maximum voltage on the label. I wonder why LG have made the change?

The best way to test the battery is to fully charge the battery, use the computer on battery until it stops, then fully recharge. I have a very dim recollection of there being software which would record time, state of charge and power usage into a file which could then be examined to see if there anomalies in the discharge behaviour. A calibration problem, for example, could result in a very drop from, say, 20% charge to empty. UK ebay listings suggest that the battery is the same across several models. It's likely that the 80Whr part is interchangeable with the 77Whr part and has slightly improved chemistry. I would be happy to get a Grade A battery from computer recycling specialists if they can confirm the battery compatibility (the key requirements are the same voltage and same physical dimensions and holes for fixing screws). My 2022 Gram 17 claims that the battery is still 100% healthy but it's had an easy life sitting on a desk with the charge capped at 80%. A full charge / discharge cycle might reveal that it's not quite so healthy.

I have similar problems with a 2022 Gram 17 running Windows 11. After some initial fiddling with various settings I concluded that the underlying problem is with Modern Standby https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows/power-efficient-settings-in-windows-11-0d6a2b6b-2e87-4611-9980-ac9ea2175734, https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/how-to-enable-s3-sleep-state-and-disable-modern/507c85fb-977d-4891-b5b1-d302c918ee0e. Effectively there's less sleep, more keeping aware of what's going on (checking emails, etc) and has become a security feature to turn off the screen and lock the computer while the user is away from their desk. I'm also old enough to remember that Windows sleep could never be trusted with people publishing photos of melted parts of computers where they had been put in bags while sleeping. Consequently, I've always used hibernation. SSD speeds means that this is a much faster process than with mechanical hard discs.

Amazon https://www.amazon.com/SAMSUNG-Processor-Touchscreen-NP940XGK-KG1US-Moonstone/dp/B0CQ3RRS23/ also suggests that the 14" Samsung is 2880 x 1800. There's also a 14" version of the LG Gram https://www.amazon.com/s?k=14"+LG+Gram with a screen resolution of 1920 x 1200.

I'm now up to 4TB (2 + 2) in my 2022 Gram 17. That's the benefit in having two SSD slots (although, if you have a dGPU then the 2nd SSD has fewer lanes in it's bus and is slower). This Gram 17 has 32GB RAM as I felt that 16GB was hindering performance at times and I stumbled on the 32GB version in Amazon Warehouse with pricing appropriate to the 16GB version so I grabbed it. At the moment I see no need to replace it with something newer.

Somewhere in that string of characters will be something to designate the country/region parts as well as the other hardware differences. eg the computers sold in UK will have a UK keyboard. This Amazon UK listing covers four different specs, all starting 16Z90R-K https://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-ultra-lightweight-i7-1360P-Windows-Obsidian/dp/B0C1HCCVS7/ 16GB RAM + 1TB SSD = AA78A1 16GB RAM + 2TB SSD = AD7AA1 32GB RAM + 1TB SSD = AD78A1 32GB RAM + 2TB SSD = AA7BA1 The same last 6 characters are also used for the equivalent specs in the 17" version https://www.amazon.co.uk/LG-ultra-lightweight-i7-1360P-Windows-Obsidian/dp/B0C1HCBFYN.

Induction hobs somehow sense that there's enough suitable metal sitting on a ring before it will apply power. However, I'm not planning to try cooking a computer to find out what happens.

Thank you for the guide. I'm not convinced that the metal cover over the SSD is for heat dispersion as a thermal pad would probably be better. As noted previously, I wonder if it's shielding against 4G/5G radiation as the version of the notebook without 4G/5G support doesn't have any cover over the SSD. Only Samsung knows the reason. I hope that your Windows has settled down. I don't recall having any issues.

I use Macrium Reflect https://www.macrium.com/reflectfree.

I suspect that it will be much easier to find a compatible charger. The parameters that matter are voltage, amps or watts, plug size and plug polarity (almost always centre positive). The information, except for plug size, is usually on a label on the bottom of the computer. The only plug adaptors I have come across, some years ago, were for Dell which had changed from a big plus to a smaller one. Businesses had large stocks of the old PSUs and wanted them to fit the new computers they had just bought.

I share your confusion. Your board will only take a 2230 SSD (same as my Galaxy Book 13.3 purchased in January 2022) but this notebookcheck review dated June 2021 of a Galaxy Book Pro 360 13 shows a 2280 SSD. Both notebooks are 13.3" and have the same generation Intel CPU (mine is the i5 1130G7 and the review notebook has the i5 1135G7). The possible explanation is that the version in the notebookcheck review appears to not have the SIM card slot whereas your notebook and mine both have it. It's therefore possible that in order to make space for this on the mainboard Samsung had to rearrange the mainboard and use a smaller form factor SSD. Radiation from the 4G/5G antennae might also explain the metal cover over the 2230 SSD. The conclusion is that don't buy a replacement part before looking inside to confirm that it will be suitable (I've probably learnt the same lesson at some stage in the past). If you can't return the 2280 SSD then find a slim USB-C enclosure for it to create some fast external storage. I'm surprised that you call this notebook crappy. Mine is excellent.

The card reader doesn't show up in device manager as a storage drive unless a card is inserted and recognised (the same applies to the USB ports). I suspect that the problem is a bad/dirty contact which prevents the card from being recognised. You could try cleaning the contacts with a suitably sized piece of thin cardboard soaked in isopropyl alcohol pushed in and out of the slot. I admire your bravery in changing the keyboard. At least it was replaceable. I recall that some years the Samsung keyboards were bonded to the back of the palmrest and not built for replacement. Both SSDs (WD) in my 17Z90Q show up as 4x in HWiNFO. Samsung make a Galaxy Book 3 Pro with 16" screen. It might be worth investigating when you LG suffers too much from the hard working life you have given it. My Gram 17 has an easy life in comparison and rarely moves from my desk.

The RTX version is the Gram Pro which has an Nvidia RTX GPU and dual fans to provide better cooling. I would like the latter even though there's a small weight penalty but so far this version of the Gram 17 hasn't been on sale in the UK.

I've just tested my Gram 17 and the microSD card reader shows up as a storage drive but only after I've inserted a card. Consequently, a dirty contact which stops a card from being recognised would prevent the reader from showing up as a storage drive. This is much more plausible than a hardware failure. Contacts are always one of the troublespots in electronics. How to clean it? I would start by trying to blast the slot with some canned air. The next step would be to make a small piece of good quality cardboard with a thickness to suit the slot and cut to a suitable width cut but longer than a micro SD card. I would then wet the bottom side of this card with some Isopropyl alcohol and jiggle it in and out of the slot to try to wipe off any dirt. IIRC the ports on the right side of the computer are on a daughter board connected to the mainboard by a ribbon cable so disconnecting / reconnecting that cable is another troubleshooting option.

I've just treated my Gram 17 to a storage upgrade. It already had 2 x 2TB SSDs but photos and videos gobble space. The slower of these SSDs (WD SN770) has now been replaced by a 4TB Crucial P3+. It's not the fastest 4TB SSD but fine for bulk storage and is very reasonably priced. 4TB was slightly less expensive than 2TB 15 month ago.

I would add that if the computer's power management offers a mode to limit the maximum charge level to less than 100% then use it to reduce battery wear. 80% is a good compromise.