LG Gram 15

                                        

The LG Gram-15Z960, available for AED 4,399, is a midrange ultraportable notable for its record-setting light weight. Despite the 15-inch display, it weighs just 905-gms, lighter than many smaller laptops, without compromising the large screen or performance. There's a wide variety of connectivity options and battery life is good, but aspects of the design do suffer given the tight build.

The overall construction is a bit flimsy. The LG Gram line's calling card is its feather-light build, and the 15.6-inch version delivers on that front. The system measures 8.99-by-14.08-by-0.66-inches and weighs just 905-gms. This is really impressive as it feels more like you're holding a cardboard mock-up than a full-size Windows 10 PC. The chassis is made of magnesium alloy that feels more high-end than plastic, but allows for the lighter design.

The white colour looks good, and is complemented well by a silver LG logo adorning the lid. The featherweight design does come with some drawbacks. There's a good amount of flex on the keyboard deck, lid, and bottom, which makes the laptop feel a bit cheap. Still, that's necessary to get the weight so low, and may bother some users more than others.

The touchpad could be sturdier, and makes loud clicking noises, while the keys are flat with shallow travel and no backlighting. The speakers on the Gram 15 are internal, with no visible grilles, so the laptop doesn't get very loud. The speakers aren't too quiet if you need to play, say a video for a small group, and the quality doesn't degrade at full volume, but the sound certainly won't fill a room, and there's not very much bass.

The 15.6-inch IPS display bears full 1080p (1,920-by-1,080) resolution, and it looks sharp and vibrant. There's a very thin bezel on the top and sides, which is what helps the screen fit into the 14-inch frame, and the nearly edge-to-edge design makes it look even more appealing. It's a little reflective, but very clear even from wider angles, and sometimes a matte anti-reflection coating can really dull the picture, so this is preferable to me.

There's a 256GB solid-state drive on board for storage, which is pretty standard for this category. Despite the slim build, port selection is strong here. On the left side, there's the power jack, a USB 3.0 port, an HDMI port, and a USB-C port. On the right, you get a USB 2.0 port, another USB 3.0 port, an audio jack, and a microSD slot.

The 720p webcam is located on the hinge under the screen, rather than above the display, which is becoming more common as manufacturers produce thinner bezels not thick enough to house webcams. The system features dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi with Bluetooth 4.0, and is covered by a one-year warranty.

Equipped with a 2.3GHz i5-6200U processor, 4GB of memory, and integrated Intel HD Graphics 520, performance doesn't suffer given the LG Gram 15's build. On the PCMark 8 Work Conventional productivity test, the laptop scored 2,126 points. And to make things feel speedy, LG also includes a feature called Instant Boot, which lives up to its name. Even when turning the system on from a completely powered-off state, it was up and running in a matter of seconds.

The Gram 15 fared pretty well on multimedia tests, too, finishing the Handbrake encoding test in 2 minutes 55 seconds, the Photoshop test in 5:37, and scoring 261 points on CineBench. Unlike Given the integrated graphics, and as with the comparable systems, 3D performance is not a strong point. As for gaming, the Gram can't reach a 30 frames per second (fps) frame rate on the Medium-quality settings Heaven and Valley gaming tests.

Battery life is crucial for ultraportables, and the Gram 15 fares well in this regard, lasting 7 hours 55 minutes on our rundown test. The LG Gram 15 is an incredibly light laptop with a top-notch 1080p display and good battery life. Its weight alone makes it noteworthy (I couldn't help but show it off around the office so my coworkers could marvel at its design), but it's also a good performer and offers solid connectivity.

1. Build quality suffers as a result of aiming for such a low weight. But then, the LG gram 15 is a super lightweight laptop with fast performance and a nice 15-inch 1080p display. Though the build feels a bit flimsy, it may work for those looking for a feather-light ultraportable.