skipper

You should really have a look at the 2023 RTX version. There is less flex, matte screen and higher brightness. There is no other laptop at this size/weight/battery/performance. Wish they went with Ryzen, but is is still good.

LG Electronics 16Z90R-A.ADB9U1 As I explained it is i7 13th gen with the RTX3050, 32Gb RAM and 2x1TB SSDs. It is the US version, I don't think the dGPU version has made its way in most European countries. Still very happy with the upgrade.

Just finished chatting with LG support in US. He said that the 2nd SSD is for storage and the slower speed is by design. I was seeing in HWinfo64 half the speed in the PCIE bus. Maybe it is also because it has the dGPU and it occupies bandwidth. Anyway, not a big problem, but interesting to know that it is useless to buy a PCIE 4.0 drive for the second SSD. I guess I might use the 970 of my older Gram then. Just a question: Did you do a clean install in the new @2Tb SSD or did you clone the original one? Any advice how to proceed with cloning if I need to keep original factory setup?

I got 9601 in Cinebench R23 multicore, more than double my 2021 Gram. The fans are not louder under load but kick more often but I am getting used to them and the increase in speed that I noticed with some VMs is phenomenal. Have I already mentioned I really prefer the screen? I still miss the fingerprint reader and a USB one I have that was working at the desktop setup with my old Gram is not recognized by this one, it is active in Device Manager but Windows Hello does not find it. Also I spent also hours trying to figure out how to avoid losing the Windows Hello credentials every time I was restarting with the eGPU connected, had to fiddle deep in the BIOS Settings (CRTL+SHIFT+ALT+F7 for the advanced settings).

Greetings LG Gram fans. I am writing this on my new LG Gram 16 with RTX3050 and 32Gb RAM at the airport. I will add later in the week/next week more detailed impressions and add comparative photos, but just to let you all know that it is a HUGE upgrade from my 2021 11th generation. The first immediate and impressive improvement is the display. Much brighter, no reflections, crisper. This has the variable refresh rate which I have the feeling improves massively the battery life . It has the massive 90Wh battery and the Nvidia card is NOT having any influence on battery for most normal productivity uses. Right now I am at 66% and Windows shows 8h20m, brightness at 30%, (seems more like 50% on the old version), wifi on, Chrome and Firefox showing a couple of tabs and writing on Word. Since the display has much less reflections I can also keep the brightness at lower levels and still see better while typing. Keyboard is very similar, maybe a tad less mushy feeling, crisper and faster feedback, trackpad very similar but clicking is a bit harder, I am tapping more than clicking. And the whole keyboard has much less flex everywhere and underneath in the back the feet resemble the ones from the 12th gen, much better stability. And of course it has much better cooling, double the intakes underneath. In High cooling mode, it can become loud, much louder than my old one, but the pitch is lower so I don’t find it disturbing. But under normal use it is super quiet. For storage it came with two 1Tb Samsung SSDs (SAMSUNG MZVL21TOHCLR-OOBOO), which seem to be the same model, but with the 😧 drive I get no more than 3400MB/s sequential reads at CrystalDiskMark, which is almost half of the 6500 sequential reads of the 😄 drive. In my old Gram I had a PCIE 3.0 drive in the 😧 slot, so I could not see a difference. But here I guess the 2nd SSD only provides half the speed, a bit disappointing. The only thing I miss is the fingerprint reader, I keep tapping on the power button. The IR camera is ok indoors, but while I was outdoors under the sun I had to always type my pin. I have not yet tried to play any games or put the RTX3050 in use. Don’t hesitate to ask me what you want to know, I will try to do some Cinebench tests soon when I get back home. In summary, if one wants to upgrade from the 2021 model, I think one should opt for the RTX version.

Of course you do not have to update every year. The 12th gen processor is more than double fast (in theory, actual cooling mitigates the improvement), you have 32gigs RAM and matte display. For me if I end up upgrading from the 2021 model I would go for the RTX version for thee reasons I mentioned.

Almost all the new 2023 Grams are now on LG.com. The LG Gram style is too much form over function and the OLED screen kills the battery, it shows in the specs almost half the battery of the normal Grams. I think I might go for the RTX3050 version, better variable refresh rate and the best battery.

If you noticed in the review the photos of the back cover, the tape covering the vents leaves more space than in the iGPU version. Some people claim that they have improved thermals by removing the tape completely, but the laptops have become louder. Some users of the dGPU version on Reddit were very happy saying that when not under stress, for general productivity the laptop stays quiet. On the other hand at the review they are clear that the quiet mode is almost unusable.

At last a review of the 2022 model with the RTX2050. https://www.notebookcheck.net/LG-Gram-17-review-A-super-light-17-inch-laptop-with-a-modest-dGPU.698340.0.html The increase in weight is so small compared to the bigger battery and much better cooling. The dGPU is the cherry on the cake. Unfortunately it gets much much louder... For 2023 models we will get RTX3050, variable refresh rate displays and better speakers. I guess it is worth upgrading only to the dGPU version.

https://www.lgnewsroom.com/2023/01/2023-lg-gram-lineup-offers-more-stylish-yet-powerful-user-experience/ Again incremental changes, probably the dGPU RTX versions look better, variable refresh rate screens and slightly brighter. The new models, Ultraslim and Style go to the wrong direction of looks and form over function.

I think next year I will upgrade to this one: https://www.notebookcheck.net/Schenker-Vision-16-Pro-Laptop-Review-Lightweight-16-inch-Ultrabook-with-RTX-3070-Ti.670849.0.html It has a very light magnesium alloy frame like the Gram, better cooling and is very configurable. It is 400gr heavier, but I guess this is the price to pay for real performance, but is still more than 400-500gr lighter than the lazy competition. I will wait for the next iteration, hoping they will use a better less power hungry monitor, less oriented for gamers and improve battery efficiency. Meanwhile I hope LG works on their cooling and maybe AMD for the next generation. I am used to Windows, some of my software is exclusive Windows (and a bit of gaming) and Apple is always lazy with optimizing weight, so I think no Mac for me

So, the standard setting of LG Glance is to be suspended when on battery. I did not change it because I guess they know better... Also it does not work when the windows settings are open. I cannot tell if the 720p camera is less efficient in my 2021 Gram, but basically it works as it is supposed to, I think it follows the face, not the eyes. The window movement from one monitor to the other is hit or miss and ends up being a gimmick. But I started having better results with a 2nd external monitor. To move a window from the far left to far right monitor it is pretty effective. Also the cursor moves to the monitor you look. In the beginning it was not very practical because I was using VMs that were capturing the cursor and made a mess. For normal office work looked more interesting. I have to try it a bit longer to see if it really increases productivity or it is a gimmick after all.

Just to let you know that I installed the Mirametrix software in my 2021 Gram 16 and works perfectly. Still figuring out if it really helps or I will uninstall it eventually. But just to say that one less difference between the 2021-22 versions. I followed the 2nd link in the following page and installed it through the app store. https://help.mirametrix.com/hc/en-us/articles/360018030672-Installing-Glance-on-your-system

I thought the 2022Gram does not have the fingerprint reader. When I read this review I thought that they just did copy-paste and they did not really bother.

The 11th Gen had only 1277 points in multi core vs 2979 points for the Alder Lake. This is 133% faster!!! I also do not understand why Notebookcheck uses Normal performance as their base for measurements (at least they show both in Cinebench, 10% faster and more stable in performance). They are stuck also with Cinebench R15 where its the only version where the differences between Performance and Normal mode are minimal, maybe this is why they are miss-guided. In Geekbench it is 56% faster!! Only in PCMark the difference is 8%. So I guess for normal productivity-Office work the gains will be small and you get more noise, heat and less battery. But in case of video editing or some heavy processing the update is a no-brainer. I will pass this version because I am still ok with my 11th gen and I think the multiple cores of Alder Lake are not yet optimized. I would love if LG went for Ryzen 6800. On Notebookcheck there is an article of a new LG Ultra with Ryzen, but they have crippled specks compared to the Grams. I have "upgraded" to Win11. I don't see a change in battery, but have not tested extensively. I hate the OS decisions and use ExplorerPatcher to get back the Win10 functionality, but I saw a substantial improvement in how it handles my multi-monitor setup and this is why I stayed with it.