LG Gram 17 review - A super light 17-inch laptop with a modest dGPU

The Gram 17 is very slim, this being typical for the LG Gram series. With its thin bezels, the 17-inch laptop is barely larger than other 15.6 to 16-inch devices. The laptop's magnesium case has hardly changed since the 2021 LG Gram 17Z90P. Only the choice of colors appears to have expanded. In the meantime, a black LG Gram 17 is also available. On the underside of the laptop, the sometimes impractical rubber feet have been replaced by a stand that takes up nearly the full width of the device. At least this eliminates flex when the keyboard is pressed too hard. Nevertheless, for our taste, the case is still a little too flexible and feels very delicate. Occasionally, the laptop creaks when twisted even though the finish appears even and there are no visible gaps in the case.

In the last two years, nothing has changed concerning the port configuration. The LG Gram 17 offers well-balanced connectivity with two fully-featured USB-C ports. Added to this, there is also Thunderbolt, PowerDelivery and Displayport.

The LG Gram 17's microSD card reader is very speedy and few devices offer significantly higher transfer speeds with the Angelbird AV Pro microSD.

Compared to the previous model, the LG Gram 17 2022's webcam has been improved. It now offers a higher FullHD resolution and face recognition via Windows Hello. The camera is not particularly bright and requires good lighting in order to produce reasonably sharp images. However, the webcam is sufficient for basic video calls. 

The Windows Hello-capable webcam is new. In return, the LG Gram's fingerprint sensor has been dropped. A Kensington Lock Slot takes care of physical security, and, on top of that, the Intel Core i7-1260P offers security features such as TPM 2.0 and SecureBoot.

Out-of-the-box, LG has only included a USB-C power adapter as well as typical documentation and has largely done away with plastic in the packaging. Only the power adapter finds itself in a bag and a protective film covers the display lid. Part of the packaging can be upcycled to a perpetual calendar and a pencil box thanks to prefabricated punch holes. 

Unfortunately, LG has made no progress in the area of maintenance. All of the device's screws are covered by glued-on feet or plastic covers. Internally, the laptop only has only a few swappable modules. Likewise, the WiFi module and RAM are soldered. Nevertheless, one free M.2 slot for an additional SSD is available. 

In Europe, LG provides a manufacturer's warranty of 24 months. Furthermore, LG doesn't offer extended warranties or insurance.

Only slight keyboard changes have been made compared to the previous model. From a mechanical point of view, both devices are identical. The lettering has shrunk a little meaning the keys no longer look oversized. Mechanically, the keyboard is the same as before. A tangible pressure point is complimented by short key travel and ensures the slim laptop is pleasant to type on. The touchpad and keyboard profit from the new built-in stand. The base bends much less and there is also less give when pressure is applied to the keyboard. The touchpad no longer gets accidentally triggered as easily when increasing pressure is exerted on the palm rest. When positioned on the user's lap, accidental clicks still happen.

The new LG Gram 17Z90Q is available in various configurations. Buyers have a choice between an Intel Core i5-1240P or Intel Core i7-1260P with 16 or 32GB of RAM, respectively. The Nvidia GeForce RTX RTX 2050, Intel Core i7 and 32 GB of RAM review device can therefore be seen as LG Gram's top-of-the-range model. Read our LG Gram 17Z90Q-G.AA56G review to find out which performance the Intel Core i5-1240P and 16 GB RAM version offers.

The Intel Core i7-1260P is a high-end processor for slim laptops. Eight E and four P-cores provide 16 threads. With the configuration in the LG Gram at PL1 and PL2, the APU performs somewhat below its potential. This is evident in all benchmarks. Even though the LG Gram's scores cannot be considered poor, the results are, nevertheless, slightly lower than the CPU's average. However, our review model easily beats the other two LG Gram 17s in our comparison head-to-head. On the one hand, the Core i7 is inherently more powerful than the i5 processors found in the other two LG laptops, but, on the other hand, the review device has a slightly higher PL1.

The severe drops in the processor's performance in "Low" cooling mode are also noticeable. In the "High" cooling mode, the processor managed seven runs in the Cinebench R23 Loop within 11 minutes. In quiet mode, only three runs were logged after 11 minutes. In other words, performance dropped by more than 50 %. 

In PCMark 10, the review device has one clear advantage over the LG Gram 17 without a dGPU, with this benchmark highlighting the graphics card's performance significantly more than Crossmark. In this case, the LG Gram 17Z90Q-G.AA56G enjoys a small performance advantage thanks to a somewhat higher boost performance. Also, due to the Nvidia GeForce, our review device is much more versatile when it comes to its possible range of applications. The laptop is definitely useful in everyday situations. Thanks to the dGPU, creative applications such as video and photo editing run quicker on this device than on the LG Laptops without a dGPU.