Gadgetory

Oh hey how's it going Dave 2d here so this is the 2018 LG gram and this is a device that gets updated pretty frequently the last update was in like December of 2017 three months later we have another update but this particular update has been one of the more substantial ones actually changed quite a bit of the hardware now this one is the 15-inch LG gram and actually think this is one of the more unique laptops that LG makes because they're sticking the you processor into a large screen to chassis which I actually think is really useful for a lot of people people that just want like a bigger screen without paying for really expensive processors this is a really good choice for them so they've made some nice changes but there's actually a problem this laptop that other reviewers don't seem to be talking about we'll get there but first I'm gonna go through some stuff that hasn't changed so the chassis I think this is pretty much the exact same chassis as the previous generation but it now has the new mil standard 810g and it looks like serious business right there's a green shield and it just makes you feel like there's a degree of durability that this laptop has and it does but I just don't think that particular specification is very stringent like there's a lot of products out there that can get that certification because it's not that hard you know what to say that this isn't a well-built laptop it is considering its weight but keep in mind that its main advantage is that it's a really lightweight laptop and every time I pick this thing up it feels impossibly light especially for something with a 15-inch screen but they have to use weaker materials to reach that weight okay something I've always disliked about the LG gram is just how difficult it is to get into this laptop it's the removal of eight screws but you got to remove a bunch of feet like rubber feet that don't easily go back on because it's using double-sided tape and it's like there's just a lot of stuff you have to do to get into this laptop it's possible but you have to be careful not to break any of the tabs now once you're inside you'll see that the speaker's look like they've been upgraded and they have technically but they sound pretty much exactly the same as a previous generation a little bit louder but the sound quality is still not good I really wish they had properly upgraded the speaker's because this room there's plenty of room in there for some bigger or better speakers but yeah we're stuck with some pretty weak speakers the keyboard also hasn't changed it's not a great keyboard anything it's decent it's just not the best keyboard out there for an ultrabook it's got good spacing backlighting and a good layout but I just find that the key mechanisms are a little bit softer than I'd like another thing that hasn't changed is the charging so this thing uses a barrel plug and they include one a barrel plug AC adapter but I feel like at this price point they should include a USBC charger because it does support USB C charging now the last thing that hasn't changed from the previous version is the screen it's a good screen 1080p touch panel decent color accuracy I wish it was brighter it's not that as dim but in 2018 we're just seeing a lot more ultra ebooks coming out with brighter and better screens this one's still good but there are better displays at this price point okay let's talk about things that have changed the big one for me is the trackpad so it's always had a decent feeling surface with a good mechanism but it now uses Windows precision drivers so the tracking and the gestures are just a little bit more accurate the webcam has been moved so it's always been on the bottom like right along the hinge it's now at the top of the panel kind of like a more traditional spot I don't think the image quality is amazing or anything but it's a respectable webcam for people that need it a nice little refresh they did was to change the location of the fingerprint sensor it's now on the power button not on the top of the trackpad or anymore it's I think a better location but I don't think it makes a world of a difference ok the biggest change in my opinion is the inclusion of a Thunderbolt 3 port so now this thing supports Thunderbolt 3 but the weird thing is they didn't change like the printing on the side of the device like it doesn't have the Thunderbolt symbol on it it's just your regular use BC symbol and instead they've stuck a Thunderbolt 3 sticker on the top of the keyboard the other thing they've changed inside is they've added a bigger battery so this thing now has a 72 watt hour battery which is pretty large for an ultrabook and I'm able to get around eight and a half or nine hours of battery life on a single charge that's with the screen at 250 nits and if you're wondering why the battery life isn't longer considering how big the battery is it's simply because it's a bigger screen 15 inch screen needs more juice to run their claims have sixteen and a half hours on their website uses a pretty unrealistic benchmark so take that number with a grain of salt okay let's talk about performance and I think this is where this laptop has may be an issue depending on what you use this thing for so this is a device that uses an eighth gen you processor and if you're doing regular stuff that you would earn Ultrabook it's great good performance great multi-core performance it's a good laptop the problem comes when you want to play games on this thing so the default card isn't very good it's a UHD 620 it's not great for playing games so whatever but cuz this thing has a Thunderbolt 3 port I connected an external GPU to this thing and the performance is disappointing so this is the problem this laptop was not designed for the CPU to run at Full Tilt's for extended periods of times when you plug an external GPU to this thing you hope for some kickass performance but I got some serious throttling to the point where it just was unusable as a gaming setup the problem is the single fan it's fine for an ultrabook doing Ultrabook things but it's not if you're going to be using the Thunderbolt 3 port so if you look at other devices like the Razer Blade self that has two fans XPS 13 that has two fans even the HP Envy which doesn't have great thermals has two fans pretty much every Ultrabook that has a Thunderbolt 3 port that can connect to an external GPU has two fans because when you're playing games on a thermally Traut CPU it's terrible and honestly I feel like LG just got lazy I feel like they slapped a Thunderbolt 3 port on this machine just so they could say they had one but they didn't spend the time to do it properly they didn't improve the thermals and it's a bit of a shame because this thing's got a lot of good hardware if the thermal solution was better like it's got 16 gigs of RAM to nvme drives and it's got four lanes of PCIe support on that Thunderbolt 3 port it's just not a great gaming setup because of the thermal solution so depending on what you want to use this laptop for if you want to use it just for like ultrabook stuff it's awesome the fan is quiet and the thermals are good it's a great laptop for productivity a little overpriced but it's great but if you're looking to pick this thing up and connecting it to an external GPU for playing games and stuff like that this is not a great device for that ok hope you guys enjoy this video thumbs we liked it subs we loved it see you guys next time