2022 LG Gram 16/17 announced

[hfm]

 

 

• Same 16:10 displays (as @RS4 notes below with new anti-glare coating)
• Option for an RTX 2050
• 90Wh battery with discrete GPU
• 80Wh battery with iGPU only
• 12th Gen i5-1240P or i7-1260P (16" only has the i5 apparently)
• 8GB - 32GB LPDDR5 RAM, no upgrades it's all soldered on
• 2x PCIe x4 4.0 SSD slots
• Also new Gram+View portable monitor launching

They are running a pre-order campaign in South Korea from Apr 11-21 with free Gram+View and some other stuff, I would imagine we'll see it in the Americas and Europe a month or three after that.

 

Bunch of pictures at the link below at GSMArena

https://www.gsmarena.com/lg_gram_16_and_17_unveiled_with_12th_gen_intel_cpus_optional_nvidia_rtx_2050_gpu-news-53647.php

 

I'm probably not going to be interested I'm still fine with my old 2019 model with i7-8565U. Might be hard to resist though!

[RS4]

The biggest change  is LG adding anti-glare coating to the display, would love to get that display but I bought mine just six months back and will have to use it for few more years before upgrading.

 

 

 

[John Ratsey]

It's good to see that LG hasn't messed up what is a good basic design. The anti-glare coating is the one feature that I'd like to have. I don't like white or silver keyboards because backlit lettering doesn't show up.

[hfm]

On 3/22/2022 at 10:14 PM, RS4 said:

The biggest change  is LG adding anti-glare coating to the display, would love to get that display but I bought mine just six months back and will have to use it for few more years before upgrading.

 

 

 

 

Depends on how they handle this, I personally am not a fan of the anti-glare coatings as long as the panel has enough nits; those coatings usually slightly dilute the clarity of the panel. But I get that perhaps I'm in the minority here as I don't work outside or have direct sunlight on my panel. The existing panel is far and away bright enough for any other case.

[RS4]

3 hours ago, hfm said:

 

Depends on how they handle this, I personally am not a fan of the anti-glare coatings as long as the panel has enough nits; those coatings usually slightly dilute the clarity of the panel. But I get that perhaps I'm in the minority here as I don't work outside or have direct sunlight on my panel. The existing panel is far and away bright enough for any other case.

 

Usually there are two types of coatings, one is proper matte coating which I hate as it makes everything grainy but matte coating is necessary for people who work outside.

 

There is a second type of anti-glare coating which retains the glossy look but cuts back on the reflections, In TV industry we can see Samsung having this and in laptops we have the 4k OLED display of Dell XPS 15 with this type of coating. I like this type of coating as it retains 95% of clarity while massively cutting down on reflections, currently the LG Gram is so glossy that even the lights in home or office environment makes it a reflection heaven.

[extremecarver]

There is already a Korean very detailed review out. 

The changes are not ending there. The version with graphic cards gets a 90wH battery, dual heatpipe and dual vent. It is 95g heavier.

 

Sadly they do not say anything about the type of coating, and the screen is only 330nits average.

Battery life no comparison to older model.

 

The performance is up about 80 percent on multicore. 3450 cinebench r20.

Actually that review is the very first review I can find for any alder lake P processor!

 

You can surely again ditch the i7 and go for the i5 at same performance multi core and slight degradation single core. If you get no GPU I expect performance to be way worse as I would expect the old heatpipe because weight didn't change.

 

I cannot find that review anymore. Maybe it was pulled because not supposed to be published already?

 

Well besides the screen I think LG did everything right. Needs confirmation that the non GPU model sticks with old cooling, but essentially the new cooling was enough for 55watts sustained GPU and CPU power. So twice the old cooling, while still being super silent and off for surfing the web, or idle . The quiet mode turned out more performant than the normal mode. Performance mode is needed for real proper numbers as in quiet / normal the processor would throttle already around 70 degrees instead of 90 for performance mode.

 

I hope the screen was pre production, but the panel number was new with a 2 Vs the old LG gram so unlikely. 

 

If they included a 500 nits anti glare panel with 90wH battery with new heatpipe, but without GPU I would instantly order to upgrade

 

 

[extremecarver]

https://quasarzone.com/bbs/qc_qsz/views/1266221

 

Here is the review. Super detailed nearly notebookcheck quality (except no comparison to other notebooks and the missing review on the coating)

 

 

Edit: strangely the only thing they tested the non GPU model for is battery life. While the GPU model got 13:11 hours application mode, the non GPU model got 13:51 hours.

 

I would want to see the benchmarks or opening up the case to see if the non GPU model has the same cooling solution or not.. the cooling on the GPU model is vastly superior to the old Gram. Note they tested at 26 degrees room temperature. At 20 degrees you would get about 10 percent higher numbers!

 

I guess the screen is semi glare which is perfect, based on the pictures, but it seems identical otherwise to the 2021 model.

I guess non GPU i5 would get another hour of battery life, if it's the same with alder lake Vs tiger lake. For sure the i7 is throttling so bad that effectively the i5 is same speed. Even worse should the Double heatpipe only be on the GPU model. The only difference is CPU speed, and the top end will be a few seconds only before throttling, so effectively no need for i7.

 

Oh Yeah, if the battery life test was at 120nits/55percent brightness it is not improved over 2021 but identical.. not sure what the efficiency cores do then except improving multi core performance. This is a bit disappointing to me for alder lake knowing the gram has the most efficient base out there more or less that exists in x86.  I have not yet seen any other P alder lake review.

 

In the video there is talk about video editing. I don't understand it though, it's still too slow? That would be quite important to me, the old Gram simply doesn't cut 4k videos in Adobe Premiere.

 

 

Otherwise quite surely we can soon find the new panel for 250 USD or so to buy and upgrade in the 2021 gram.it should be compatible without problems. Yes expensive but best solution to anti glare.

[hfm]

19 hours ago, extremecarver said:

https://quasarzone.com/bbs/qc_qsz/views/1266221

 

Here is the review. Super detailed nearly notebookcheck quality (except no comparison to other notebooks and the missing review on the coating)

 

 

Edit: strangely the only thing they tested the non GPU model for is battery life. While the GPU model got 13:11 hours application mode, the non GPU model got 13:51 hours.

 

I would want to see the benchmarks or opening up the case to see if the non GPU model has the same cooling solution or not.. the cooling on the GPU model is vastly superior to the old Gram. Note they tested at 26 degrees room temperature. At 20 degrees you would get about 10 percent higher numbers!

 

I guess the screen is semi glare which is perfect, based on the pictures, but it seems identical otherwise to the 2021 model.

I guess non GPU i5 would get another hour of battery life, if it's the same with alder lake Vs tiger lake. For sure the i7 is throttling so bad that effectively the i5 is same speed. Even worse should the Double heatpipe only be on the GPU model. The only difference is CPU speed, and the top end will be a few seconds only before throttling, so effectively no need for i7.

 

Oh Yeah, if the battery life test was at 120nits/55percent brightness it is not improved over 2021 but identical.. not sure what the efficiency cores do then except improving multi core performance. This is a bit disappointing to me for alder lake knowing the gram has the most efficient base out there more or less that exists in x86.  I have not yet seen any other P alder lake review.

 

In the video there is talk about video editing. I don't understand it though, it's still too slow? That would be quite important to me, the old Gram simply doesn't cut 4k videos in Adobe Premiere.

 

 

Otherwise quite surely we can soon find the new panel for 250 USD or so to buy and upgrade in the 2021 gram.it should be compatible without problems. Yes expensive but best solution to anti glare.

 

That's a super detailed review, the model with the 2050 isn't that much heavier. Not bad, not bad at all.

[extremecarver]

I guess the graphics card itself 10g, battery 35g, heatpipe and second fan 45g.

 

Alternatively graphic card 20g, battery 70g???

 

As the overall battery weighs 330g for 80wH it I am correct, the 90wh should be around 360-365g. So solution 2 seems unlikely. Or am I wrong on the weight of a mobile graphic card? And both models have the new dual heatpipe? At least the old LG gram 16 usually was 1150g so there are 40g increase for the new model without GPU..

 

Could be some in between solution, Like both have two heatpipes nie, but GPU Version geht's a Second Fan too. I guess second heatpipe is half the game. Two heatpipes are desperately needed. Two fans. Not soo much as they are besides each other. Would be different with two locations. So far all other laptops tested where H models with 100w cooling or more. They managed up to twice the results on benchmarks. I'm sure P series can be much faster with stronger cooling plus upping the temperature limit to 100 instead of 90. 26-90 is only 64 degree Delta vs the usual 80 (20-100) of laptops tested. That's why there is 10-20 percent higher benchmarks possible for the gram, but for sure other P series will be faster and using more power/battery. That's fine. 35-40w cooling is enough for a huge difference Vs older LG Gram at only tiny weight penalty.

 

It's clear the alder lake P28 needs a bit more performant cooling else the power increase will be much less (maybe 30 percent). Remember 28w should be the base power, and the old cooling solution only managed 22-24w depending on room temperature. So for putting the P series I really want 30-35w cooling capacity (even though I assume the P series will be more efficient than I above 10-15w, while less efficient below, from 30-35w or above the H series will be more efficient due to having more cores)

 

[hfm]

12 hours ago, extremecarver said:

I guess the graphics card itself 10g, battery 35g, heatpipe and second fan 45g.

 

Alternatively graphic card 20g, battery 70g???

 

As the overall battery weighs 330g for 80wH it I am correct, the 90wh should be around 360-365g. So solution 2 seems unlikely. Or am I wrong on the weight of a mobile graphic card? And both models have the new dual heatpipe? At least the old LG gram 16 usually was 1150g so there are 40g increase for the new model without GPU..

 

Could be some in between solution, Like both have two heatpipes nie, but GPU Version geht's a Second Fan too. I guess second heatpipe is half the game. Two heatpipes are desperately needed. Two fans. Not soo much as they are besides each other. Would be different with two locations. So far all other laptops tested where H models with 100w cooling or more. They managed up to twice the results on benchmarks. I'm sure P series can be much faster with stronger cooling plus upping the temperature limit to 100 instead of 90. 26-90 is only 64 degree Delta vs the usual 80 (20-100) of laptops tested. That's why there is 10-20 percent higher benchmarks possible for the gram, but for sure other P series will be faster and using more power/battery. That's fine. 35-40w cooling is enough for a huge difference Vs older LG Gram at only tiny weight penalty.

 

It's clear the alder lake P28 needs a bit more performant cooling else the power increase will be much less (maybe 30 percent). Remember 28w should be the base power, and the old cooling solution only managed 22-24w depending on room temperature. So for putting the P series I really want 30-35w cooling capacity (even though I assume the P series will be more efficient than I above 10-15w, while less efficient below, from 30-35w or above the H series will be more efficient due to having more cores)

 

 

It would be interesting to see a teardown of the model that doesn't have a dGPU. Depending on what they do with the heat management on that unit, assuming they go with single heatpipe+fan, it might be worth it to buy the one with a 2050 and just hardly ever use it, just to get the extra 10Wh and beefier heat management. 

 

This is all conjecture and speculation until we see a teardown with our own eyes.

[extremecarver]

But the battery runtime while surfing/video was worse even though it has bigger battery.

 

Can you take out the dgpu? Cause disabling doesn't seem to work usually.. (or maybe if disabled in bios it will?).

[hfm]

On 4/1/2022 at 12:16 PM, extremecarver said:

But the battery runtime while surfing/video was worse even though it has bigger battery.

 

Can you take out the dgpu? Cause disabling doesn't seem to work usually.. (or maybe if disabled in bios it will?).

 

I'm pretty sure most BIOS have a way, though LG's BIOS have often been pretty spartan, but there was a key combo while in BIOS (alt+F7 or something) that would expose a lot of advanced options.

 

I suppose it's possible that the dGPU would still vampire some current, though the battery runtime they came up with it is quite possible the dGPU was activating for some acceleration activity. There's also going in the nVidia drivers and setting the global option to force integrated for everything.

 

This is all just crazy speculation until we see teardowns of all the SKUs, final regional pricing, battery rundown tests with the option enabled also performance testing if they somehow have the dual fan solution in the model that doesn't have a dGPU. Might not be worth the money in the end at any rate.

[RS4]

Some more new things in the Gram 2022 which I noticed from the qasarzone review:

 

1. The charger is smaller now, more like a smartphone charger.

 

2. The camera has seen massive upgrade, Full HD resolution and addition of an IR sensor which helps in proper face unlock and many more AI based functions like laptop recognising if you are looking at the screen or not.

 

3. The useless small foot in the middle of the two big feet has been replaced by a proper anti-slip strip/pad which is useful as it goes across the entire laptop.

 

4. LG has created a new software called "LG Smart Assistant" to add and control several new functions:

 

i) All the functions which are already available in older Grams.

 

ii)  Select various modes like cinema mode to watch movies.

 

iii)  Out of Office Auto Screen Off is a function that detects your location through webcam and IR sensor and turns off the screen when you are away.

 

iv) The display colour temperature setup has an auto-setup functionality along with the manual warm and cool slider.

 

5. New LG Glance software has all these features:

 

 

 Presence Detection: When the user is out of the camera's field of view, the screen is automatically locked.

 

    Snap Window: (When an external monitor is connected) If you turn your face to another screen while the title bar of the window you want to move is selected, it moves the selected window to the monitor staring at you.

 

    Move the mouse cursor (Smart Pointer): (When an external monitor is connected) Moves the mouse cursor to the monitor the user is looking at by turning his or her face.

 

    Non-gazing screen auto-blur (Smart Display): Non- gazing screens are auto-blurred to reduce exposure to others.

 

    Auto-blur when others are looking at your screen (Privacy Guard): Blur your laptop screen when others are looking at your screen from behind.

 

    Privacy Alert when someone else looks at the screen: When someone stares at the screen behind you, it detects it and displays a warning alert.

 

    Auto Pause Media When Absent (Smart Player): Automatically pauses media when you leave your seat while playing media. When you come back, you can watch it again.

 

    Health notification function (Digital Wellness)

- 20-20-20 Reminder: To protect your eyesight, you will be reminded to look away for 20 seconds every 20 minutes.

- Posture Alert: When you bend towards the screen and your face is close to the screen, it detects it and notifies you to take the correct posture. 

 

    Video Conferencing

- Simultaneous transmission of presentation material and presenter (Virtual Presenter): During a video conference, the presenter's face is displayed along with the presentation material.

- Auto Mute when away from the screen: Automatically mutes the microphone when the user moves away from the screen.

- Speak while muted (Mute Warning): Alerts you when you speak while muted.

- AI Virtual Camera Effect (Virtual Camera): Makes people stand out or blurs the background during video conferencing, and automatically adjusts the camera frame according to the position of the person

 

 

[extremecarver]

No that's the same overweight huge charger as last year. There are half as heavy half size 60w chargers out there. The gram max charges at 50w anyhow

[RS4]

No, the charger is not the same. This is a much smaller charger when compared to last year.

 

2021 charger vs 2022 charger:

 

[John Ratsey]

The new charger is similar to the 65W charger that came with my 2021 Samsung Galaxy Book Pro whereas my LG Gram has the black charger with the separate AC cable. However, it looks as if the cable in the new LG charger is integrated whereas the Samsung charger has a USB-C socket and separate cable. I prefer the latter as often cables die before the charger. A separate cable also means that if the computer is further from the AC outlet than the supplied cable can reach then there's the relatively cheap fix of getting a longer USB-C power cable.

 

There's a very big selection of other suitable chargers. Here's one I bought recently that has some extra sockets which can be used for charging other devices without using the computer. The new smaller chargers use Gallium Nitride electronics which generate less heat than Silicon. Heat dissipation has been a bigger problem than shrinking the electronics. More here.

[Steerpike]

No one else has mentioned it but I'm intrigued by the 'Gram+View' package mentioned in one of the reviews. Seems like they are releasing a companion 2nd screen, presumably the same resolution as the main screen, connected through USB-C.  I've just sold my house and technology wise, I'm camping out on my g/f's dining table with no possibility of hooking up an external monitor.  Having a portable 2nd screen like this would be absolutely ideal for me!  I've bought some older USB-powered 2nd screens in the past but they were lower resolution and/or smaller in size. So having a 17" identical resolution 2nd screen would be huge for me!  

[Steerpike]

35 minutes ago, John Ratsey said:

The new charger is similar to the 65W charger that came with my 2021 Samsung Galaxy Book Pro whereas my LG Gram has the black charger with the separate AC cable. However, it looks as if the cable in the new LG charger is integrated whereas the Samsung charger has a USB-C socket and separate cable. I prefer the latter as often cables die before the charger. A separate cable also means that if the computer is further from the AC outlet than the supplied cable can reach then there's the relatively cheap fix of getting a longer USB-C power cable.

 

There's a very big selection of other suitable chargers. Here's one I bought recently that has some extra sockets which can be used for charging other devices without using the computer. The new smaller chargers use Gallium Nitride electronics which generate less heat than Silicon. Heat dissipation has been a bigger problem than shrinking the electronics. More here.

Your link above (to Amazon.co.uk) is showing me 'currently unavailable' but I found it on the US amazon site Amazon.com: Anker USB C Charger, 543 Charger (65W II), PIQ 3.0 & GaN 4-Port Slim Fast Wall Charger, with Dual USB C Ports (45W Max), for MacBook, USB C Laptops, iPad Pro, iPhone and More : Cell Phones & Accessories . From what I read at that page, it seems like it only delivers 45W max on a single port (the '65W' is the combined power over multiple ports). I see no mention of weight.  This is a device I'm looking at for the LG Gram - ZMI zPower Turbo 65W USB-C PD Laptop Charger - it claims to deliver 65W on its one and only output port, and advertises a weight of only 3.42 oz (97g).  

[Steerpike]

On 3/27/2022 at 1:39 PM, RS4 said:

 

Usually there are two types of coatings, one is proper matte coating which I hate as it makes everything grainy but matte coating is necessary for people who work outside.

 

There is a second type of anti-glare coating which retains the glossy look but cuts back on the reflections, In TV industry we can see Samsung having this and in laptops we have the 4k OLED display of Dell XPS 15 with this type of coating. I like this type of coating as it retains 95% of clarity while massively cutting down on reflections, currently the LG Gram is so glossy that even the lights in home or office environment makes it a reflection heaven.

 

This is my 2021 LG Gram 17 screen; every morning I have bright sunlight behind me (sucks to be in California) and I have to maneuver my screen and my head to try to avoid it! 

 

 

Can't wait to see the new anti-reflective coating! 

[John Ratsey]

2 hours ago, Steerpike said:

Your link above (to Amazon.co.uk) is showing me 'currently unavailable' but I found it on the US amazon site Amazon.com: Anker USB C Charger, 543 Charger (65W II), PIQ 3.0 & GaN 4-Port Slim Fast Wall Charger, with Dual USB C Ports (45W Max), for MacBook, USB C Laptops, iPad Pro, iPhone and More : Cell Phones & Accessories . From what I read at that page, it seems like it only delivers 45W max on a single port (the '65W' is the combined power over multiple ports). I see no mention of weight.  This is a device I'm looking at for the LG Gram - ZMI zPower Turbo 65W USB-C PD Laptop Charger - it claims to deliver 65W on its one and only output port, and advertises a weight of only 3.42 oz (97g).  

I'd personally opt for a better known brand such as this Amazon charger which is looks a bit bigger but is under 4oz. Items on the Amazon UK website may show as unavailable to you because they won't ship to the US.

1 hour ago, Steerpike said:

 

This is my 2021 LG Gram 17 screen; every morning I have bright sunlight behind me (sucks to be in California) and I have to maneuver my screen and my head to try to avoid it! 

 

Can't wait to see the new anti-reflective coating! 

Some blinds would be a work-around but I learnt many years ago when notebook screens were much less bright to avoid sitting with my back to a window.

[John Ratsey]

2 hours ago, Steerpike said:

No one else has mentioned it but I'm intrigued by the 'Gram+View' package mentioned in one of the reviews. Seems like they are releasing a companion 2nd screen, presumably the same resolution as the main screen, connected through USB-C. 

Not quite identical as it's 16" but has the same resolution as the Gram 17 notebook. See here.

[RS4]

On 4/8/2022 at 11:39 PM, Steerpike said:

 

This is my 2021 LG Gram 17 screen; every morning I have bright sunlight behind me (sucks to be in California) and I have to maneuver my screen and my head to try to avoid it! 

Can't wait to see the new anti-reflective coating! 

 

Do post the comparison pics between the two screens whenever you get the 2022 version. Should be available within a month or two in USA. Also compare the clarity difference between the glossy and anti-glare screen.

[Steerpike]

On 4/8/2022 at 12:48 PM, John Ratsey said:

I'd personally opt for a better known brand such as this Amazon charger which is looks a bit bigger but is under 4oz. Items on the Amazon UK website may show as unavailable to you because they won't ship to the US.

Some blinds would be a work-around but I learnt many years ago when notebook screens were much less bright to avoid sitting with my back to a window.

Do you consider the 'Amazon' brand to be 'better known'? I've never really understood how Amazon's branding works. I assumed Amazon were just approaching some manufacturers and paying them to make 'branded' versions for them; some manufacturers being better than others in this context.  I have bought clothing that is 'Amazon' branded; they really do brand a wide variety of stuff! 

 

FYI, the charger above showed as "This item cannot be shipped to your selected delivery location. Please choose a different delivery location." - but when I changed delivery to my Arizona address, it was just fine!  My default location is currently California. I believe California has imposed new environmental restrictions on numerous items, and Amazon is either not willing or not able to ship within CA. However, further digging suggests a bug in Amazon's system, and that clearing out / re-defining your 'default' address can fix it.  Just thought I'd mention this, as it's not JUST related to UK vs US issues! 

[RS4]

21 minutes ago, Steerpike said:

Do you consider the 'Amazon' brand to be 'better known'? I've never really understood how Amazon's branding works. I assumed Amazon were just approaching some manufacturers and paying them to make 'branded' versions for them; some manufacturers being better than others in this context.  I have bought clothing that is 'Amazon' branded; they really do brand a wide variety of stuff! 

 

FYI, the charger above showed as "This item cannot be shipped to your selected delivery location. Please choose a different delivery location." - but when I changed delivery to my Arizona address, it was just fine!  My default location is currently California. I believe California has imposed new environmental restrictions on numerous items, and Amazon is either not willing or not able to ship within CA. However, further digging suggests a bug in Amazon's system, and that clearing out / re-defining your 'default' address can fix it.  Just thought I'd mention this, as it's not JUST related to UK vs US issues! 

 

You can buy Anker chargers, good quality and they follow all the standards. Just search "anker 65w" on Amazon and you will get many options.

[extremecarver]

are there any updates yet? I haven't found anything. Bit strange Korea is so quiet...