Gadgetory

it feels like most computer manufacturers approach their design in one of a handful of ways sacrificing weight and size to the performance gods or delivering the best possible spec for a killer student-friendly price features and build quality be damned for example but I don't think I have ever seen a computer with this kind of laser-like focus meet the LG Graham a 15 inch notebook designed to be as light as possible so light in fact that I can hold it up by the corner with two fingers cooler masters master case maker 5 features their freeform modular system allowing you to customize adjust and upgrade make it yours at the link in the video description so let's begin then I suppose with the tour of the device the outer shell is made out of blasted magnesium a metal in the same family as lithium and one of the lightest on the periodic table with a subtle champagne finish that both looks good and does an amazing job of repelling fingerprints they absolutely nailed this the material choice is a big part of what gives the ground its astonishingly low curb weight and it comes with some other advantages as well it still feels like metal when you touch it giving it a more premium feel than a plastic notebook can achieve but it warms up almost as fast as plastic with the heat of your hands no more cold wrist rest first thing in the morning and it's excellent heat conductivity means that the ground runs fanless Li until it's seen about a minute and a half of sustained load at which time those two tiny vents near the screen hinge are called into action to keep that dual core hyper threaded core i7 6500 you cool and all of this is at very reasonable temperatures and barely audible noise levels so then you're probably asking yourself at this point why doesn't magnesium get used more often if it's so awesome well it's not the first time I've seen it done to be clear I remember oddly a Panasonic Toughbook in my local London drugs in the mid 2000s but magnesium comes with some baggage it's really really malleable so it takes some clever alloying with other metals and structural reinforcement in order to achieve even the strength that you see here with the mushy wrist rests and screen that can be bent to a subtle curve then straightened again without much force at all but LG apparently thought that this R&D work and ruggedness compromise was worth it because they looked at competitors like Apple who seems to be going as far as to treat their thin and light models like track cars and thought there must be another way because the grab has ports on the left you'll find a power plug that I wish was a little more robust or even magnetic USB three HDMI and a Type C USB 3 port though it's unfortunately not equipped with Thunderbolt then on the right you'll find USB to USB 3 again a headphone microphone combo jack and a bit of an odd one a microSD slot I mean don't get me wrong it's better than nothing but the number of times I found myself thinking gosh I sure wish I had a micro SD reader on my laptop can easily be counted on one hand while an SD slot which can be easily adapted to micro would have probably been worth the extra couple of grams to me but would there have even been room so my signature edition model sports 8 gigs of ddr3 L memory a 512 gig samsung PM 871 SATA based and dot 2 SSD and intel AC wireless 7265 wireless module and a 44 95 milliamp hour battery that LG advertises as being capable of 7 hours of use but in practice like pretty much all laptops it only hits that kind of a number when it's used in airplane mode with the screen dimmed all the way something I normally don't test but I was actually stuck on dark buses for hours with this thing so yeah the standardized PC mark battery test I usually run gave the Graeme respectable but less impressive score and the thing to remember here is that is in spite of the non benchmark shattering do cool core processor a more normal 15-inch laptop you might look at and go well it lasts for a similar amount of time but that one will do much more in that battery time if you're looking to tackle heavier tasks like working in Photoshop or light video editing while you're on the go but that normal laptop probably won't have such an interesting form factor let's take a look at the screen the bezels are impressively thin meaning that the Graham is going to be smaller in almost every dimension then other devices rocking a 15-inch matte finish IPS display now the 1920 by 1080 resolution with no upgrade options might raise some eyebrows in the age of 3k and 4k notebook screens but honestly it doesn't bother me at 15 inches I agree with LG's choice to salvage some battery life or allow me to run the backlight a little bit brighter as a trade-off for that extra resolution which isn't to say though that I agree with every trade-off they've made presumably to save on weight the webcam has been put in that horrible unflattering position below the screen on the bottom bezel which is a shame because otherwise the image quality and sound is pretty good and the keyboard oh the keyboard okay positive things first the tactile feedback considering the z-depth that is the thickness of the laptop is not bad and the keystrokes are very quiet for working on your novel in the local Starbucks without disturbing the other patrons but I think it would take me a very long time using only this machine to get used to some of its eccentricities like the layout of the three column number pad and the proximity of the arrow keys to the spacebar and in this day and age I understand that weight savings was the name of the game here a non backlit keyboard is a total drag the good news is that having a number pet is something that a lot of people will find very valuable and the click pad is pretty good with 200 operation only sometimes glitching out and tracking feeling responsive and accurate leading us then nicely to I guess the final summary there are things that laptop shoppers will like and there are things that they will dislike about the gram no device is perfect unexceptional battery life tablet like performance no touchscreen and lackluster ruggedness are low points I mean I seriously I wouldn't even put this thing in an overstuffed backpack for fear that it would bend but the good if not high resolution IPS screen complete lack of junk where steam and Ida were installed by me loud enough speakers standout aesthetics one finger hinge which blew me away given how light this thing is and of course the overall weight of the device are enough for me to even if I can't give it an unconditional bye now recomendation feel the need to congratulate LG on their achievement here in a sea of devices that seek to strike a balance between battery performance price etc and all end up being pretty much the same damn thing for it LG's Graham team had a unique vision and saw it through that is what makes people pretty much universally including myself say wow this thing is cool when they hold it for the first time so I've got to give them mad props for that the device they built is unlike anything else and if you want a big screen on a notebook that you'll hardly even realize you're carrying then look no further because nothing else nails this quite like the Graham and on the subject of extremely unique products this is a funny one that mass drops featuring this is the red scarf 2 plus version B custom mechanical keyboard kit so this is a build-it-yourself mechanical keyboard kit featuring a unique 78 key layout it consists of a PCB clear acrylic bottom and a CNC aluminum case plate and feet this allows for customization of lighting layout including ISO and ANSI and Colour the Rs 78 is fully programmable allowing users to utilize the unique layout as they see fit and there's a variety of choices of Dyess aluminum color comes in black gray red or silver you can also add a set of standards lay out blank or laser etched front printed PVD keycaps in cherry profile and the lighting can be controlled via a remote check out it and any of the other awesome products on mass drop where they just find manufacturers who are willing to give a volume discount and a lot of consumers who are committed to buy and they put them together and they get awesome prices on some very unique products all the way from camping gear to build it yourself keyboards that link draught up slash whatever one we've got down there in the video description so thanks for watching guys that this video sucked do you know what to do but it was awesome get subscribed hit that like button or even consider supporting us directly by buying a cool shirt like this one or with a direct monthly contribution through our community forum which is linked in the video description now that you're done doing all that stuff you're probably wondering what to watch next so click that little button in the top right corner to check out eight gamers one CPU the follow up to the epic seven gamers one CPU now with more gamers than ever before