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LG Gram Book: Two-minute review

(Image credit: Future)

Sometimes, even the best laptops can be a bit... boring. That doesn't have to be a bad thing, though; forgo some of the fancy features and the over-designed chassis, and you'll often find yourself with a solid, minimal-frills laptop that comes with a sensible asking price.

That's the case with the new LG Gram Book. It's a new entry to LG's iconic Gram laptop series, but designed to fill a hitherto non-existent position within the Gram ecosystem: a midrange laptop.

See, the LG Gram series makes for some pretty decent laptops, but they're also rather expensive, typically sitting comfortably above the $1,000 / £1,000 / AU$1,500 mark. For that high price, you're getting a premium-feeling laptop that LG has tried as hard as possible to keep at the 1kg weight point - hence the name. But what if LG stopped worrying so much about the weight, and just focused on making a good midrange laptop?

(Image credit: Future)

Enter the Gram Book. It weighs in at 1.65kg, which arguably means LG should've tried to find a different name for it, but to be fair, I do own some actual paper books that are heavier than this. Rather than going for ultra-premium hardware, this laptop sits more in the budget-to-midrange space, with a 1080p display and 13th-gen Intel Core i5 processor.

It's not much to look at, but I actually think that's fine: this isn't a laptop for people who care too much about appearances. It feels quite sturdily built despite an outer casing made of matte plastic, and features a full-scale keyboard with a numpad.

Unfortunately, the price-to-performance ratio simply isn't there; this laptop is fundamentally underpowered and offers seriously lackluster battery life for the asking price.

The Gram Book is clearly aimed at office workers and students who need a straightforward laptop for work or studying, and I had hoped it might qualify for a position on our ranking of the best student laptops. In some areas, it does deliver in that regard. There are a few nice additions here, which I'll get to further down in this review, but for the most part, it's just a deeply unexciting laptop.

LG Gram Book: Price and availability

• How much does it cost? Starts at $799 / £699 / AU$1,199
• When is it available? Available now
• Where can you get it? Available in the US, UK, and Australia

With a price tag of $799 / £699 / AU$1,199, the LG Gram Book isn't exactly what I'd call a budget laptop. In fact, considering the specs on offer, I'd argue it's a little overpriced; you could spend a similar amount on one of Acer's excellent Aspire laptops and get slightly more bang for your buck.

It's certainly not terribly expensive, especially since the LG Gram line has historically come with some uncomfortably steep asking prices. It's just unfortunate that you could definitely do better without needing to pony up more cash. There's currently only one configuration of the Gram Book available, listed below.

Outside of Windows laptops, the obvious competitor here is the new MacBook Neo. While it doesn't offer the same amount of oomph as the mainstream MacBook Air and Pro models with M-series chips, Apple's first 'budget MacBook' is indisputibly a better choice. It offers better performance, a full metal chassis, and a nicer display - and it's actually a bit cheaper than the Gram Book, costing just $599 / £599 / AU$899.

• Price score: 2/5

LG Gram Book: Specs

LG Gram Book

CPU

Intel Core i5-1334U

GPU

Intel UHD Graphics

RAM

16GB DDR4

Display

15.6-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, 60Hz

Storage

512GB

Ports

2x USB-C 3.2 Type-C, 1x USB 3.2 Type-A, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3,5mm combi audio jack

Wireless

Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2

Weight

1.65kg / 3.64lbs

Dimension

36.0 x 23.8 x 1.94cm / 14.2 x 9.4 x 0.76 inches

LG Gram Book: Design

(Image credit: Future)

• Display is merely okay
• Lots of ports
• Touchpad feels a bit cheap

At first glance, the LG Gram Book isn't much to look at. The outer chassis is plain gray, with a subtle Gram logo emblazoned on the lid. Opening it up, you're met with the same no-nonsense color scheme - bar the retro red power button, which is immediately reminiscent of the infamous red 'laptop nipple' navigation nub found on Lenovo's ThinkPad series.

I actually quite like it. It's befitting the design ethos of this laptop, not trying to draw your attention with fancy aesthetic design choices or LED keyboard backlighting. The Gram Book looks like a laptop belonging to the type of person who shows up, gets the job done quickly and efficiently, and goes home.

On the topic of the keyboard, it's fine but unspectacular; there's not quite as much travel as I'd like, and the keys feel a little spongy on firm presses. This is a full-layout laptop keyboard, featuring a numpad and function key row, but I will admit that it never felt cramped to type on in my testing; if anything, I'd say the key size and spacing are good.

(Image credit: Future)

Sadly, I can't say anything nice about the touchpad, which feels cheap and plasticky, with far too much flex in the chassis when I pressed down firmly. Clicks are muted and responsive, which is something, but this is definitely a case where I'd recommend connecting a mouse. For the asking price, it smacks of bargain basement hardware.

Speaking of connections: the Gram Book has plenty of physical ports, which is always nice to see. We've got two USB-A and two USB-C ports (sadly, the latter don't support Thunderbolt 4) along with an HDMI port and a headphone jack. The only thing missing here is an SD or microSD card reader, but this isn't really a laptop for photo/videography specialists, so it's an understandable omission. Wireless connectivity includes Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2, which again, is perfectly acceptable if not on the cutting edge.

The display is a bog-standard 1080p 60Hz IPS panel, which performed reasonably well in brightly-lit environments but isn't particularly impressive. The webcam is also a fairly pedestrian 720p camera, although it does include a physical privacy shutter - something I personally think should be mandatory on laptops.

• Design score: 3/5

LG Gram Book: Performance

• Decent but hardly exciting performance
• Handles everyday tasks fine
• Not for gaming

I won't beat around the bush here: the Intel Core i5-1334U chip powering the LG Gram Book isn't exactly brimming with power. You can expect to get reasonably good everyday performance from this laptop, but it's not going to be running triple-A games or resource-intensive creative software anytime soon. Even lightweight titles like Civilization VI struggled a bit.

Frankly, the benchmark results don't paint a very impressive picture, with absolutely feeble graphical performance and decidedly average scores in productivity and AI tests. But synthetic benchmarks don't always tell the full story.

LG Gram Book review: Benchmarks

Here's how the LG Gram Book performed in our suite of benchmark tests:
3DMark: Night Raid: 11,566; Fire Strike: 2,883; Time Spy: 1,179; Steel Nomad: 776
Cinebench 2024: Multi-core: 446; Single-core: 101
Geekbench 6.4: Multicore: 4,745; Single-core: 1,354
Geekbench AI: Single Precision Score: 1,288; Half Precision Score: 516; Quantized Score: 2,383
PCMark 10: 5,156
Crossmark: Overall: 1,471; Productivity: 1,533; Creativity: 1,385; Responsiveness: 1,555
Sid Meier's Civilization VI: (1080p, Medium, No Upscaling): 19fps; (1800p, Highest, No Upscaling): 12fps
Borderlands 3: (1080p, Highest, No Upscaling): 8fps
Rise of the Tomb Raider: (1080p, Highest, No Upscaling): 13fps
Shadow of the Tomb Raider: (1080p, Highest, No Upscaling): 11fps
Battery Life (TechRadar movie test): 6 hours, 59 minutes

In real-world testing, I actually found the Gram Book to be quite responsive, having no difficulty opening numerous Chrome tabs or watching a YouTube video while working in another window. Considering that most of my work involves typing, emailing, and surfing the web, it was a sufficient replacement for my usual workhorse - the 2019 model of the venerable HP Spectre x360, which is starting to show its age a little. Then again, it's not exactly flattering to compare this laptop to a device from six years ago.

If you want to do anything more demanding than that, though, the cracks start to show. I was able to use GIMP 2.0 to do some light image editing without things getting too sluggish, but that's about the extent of this laptop's creative prowess. The Gram Book's rendering and video editing capabilities simply aren't up to snuff, and while I was able to play Stardew Valley just fine, attempting to run modern titles with 3D graphics felt like a fool's errand.

(Image credit: Future)

Interestingly, the LG Gram Book also has a dedicated Copilot button, and is marketed with support for Microsoft's handy AI assistant as a key selling point. I found this a little strange initially, as the Intel Core i5 chip doesn't actually have a dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU) for handling local AI tasks - something that Microsoft has previously mandated for laptops to receive the new 'Copilot+ PC' designation.

However, it seems that LG has decided to go ahead with including a Copilot button regardless, which is great for power users who want to make the most of AI in Windows - though it's important to note here that the Gram Book is not a true Copilot+ system, meaning that you don't get access to a handful of specific features that do require an NPU, such as the controversial Recall functionality. It also means it's unable to process AI tasks locally - instead, you'll need to be connected to the internet, with all the associated risks to privacy that using cloud-based AI tools entail.

Still, the Copilot button works mostly as advertised, letting you summon Microsoft's chatbot at the press of a button. It was even able to helpfully explain the difference between using Copilot with and without an NPU for me - but don't worry, I made sure to double-check its information.

(Image credit: Future)

• Performance score: 3/5

LG Gram Book: Battery

I'm going to keep this section short: the battery life on the LG Gram Book is unimpressive, perhaps even bordering on dismal. In our video playback test, with the laptop set to the power-efficiency preset in Windows, volume at zero, and brightness at 50%, the Gram Book didn't even make it past the seven-hour mark. In practical testing during my regular workday, it perished before I reached six hours of continuous use.

Considering how much this laptop costs, it's frankly disappointing that it couldn't even survive through a full eight-hour workday without needing to be plugged in. Crank up the brightness, turn on the speakers, or start running multiple programs at once, and you'll get even less time between charges.

It doesn't even charge particularly fast, since the USB-C ports used for charging don't support Thunderbolt 4's improved power delivery capabilities. In my tests, it took about two hours to charge to full (from 5% battery) while not in use.

• Battery score: 2/5

Should you buy the LG Gram Book?

Notes

Rating

Value

It's cheaper than the mainline Gram models, but you can get better performance for your money elsewhere.

2/5

Design

While the stripped-back retro aesthetic will be appealing for some, the keyboard and trackpad feel a bit cheap and the display is underwhelming.

3/5

Performance

Decently responsive for everyday productivity workloads, but don't expect it to do anything more than that.

2.5/5

Battery

For the asking price, the LG Gram Book's battery life is abysmal.

2/5

Total

I appreciate what LG was trying to achieve with the Gram Book, but it needs to be a lot cheaper to justify its unimpressive build quality and performance.

2.375/5

Buy it if...

You like a retro-styled laptop
With its mostly-monochromatic design and bright red power button, the LG Gram Book evokes a certain era of vintage computer hardware.

You want something simple
As far as everyday office work goes, the Gram Book can hold its own - but for anything more demanding that that, you'll be better served elsewhere.

Don't buy it if...

You’re on a tight budget
The price isn't totally outrageous, but for the specs you get, it's a bit too much to recommend to anyone looking to get maximum bang for their buck.

You want great performance
The Gram Book's overall performance is underwhelming, and the battery life is pretty bad.

Also Consider

Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch (2025)
The Surface product line is finally good now! Yes, Microsoft's signature laptop has a new lease of life, delivering a fantastic ultrabook experience in the same price ballpark as the LG Gram Book.

Read our full Surface Laptop 13-inch (2025) review

Apple MacBook Neo
In a bizarre twist of fate, there's now an Apple MacBook that somehow costs less than LG's attempt at a budget Gram laptop. Yep, the new MacBook Neo is a banger, outperforming the Gram Book in power, looks, and battery life.

Read our full MacBook Neo review

LG Gram Book

Microsoft Surface Laptop 13-inch (2025)

Apple MacBook Neo

Starting Price

$799 / £699 / AU$1,199

From $999.99 / £1,049.99 / AU$1,899

$599 / £599 / AU$899

CPU

Up to Intel Core Ultra 7 256V

Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite

Apple A18 Pro (6-core)

GPU

Intel Arc 140V integrated graphics

Qualcomm Adreno GPU

5-core integrated GPU

RAM

16GB DDR5

Up to 32GB LPDDR5x

8GB unified memory

Storage

Up to 1TB SSD

Up to 1TB SSD

Up to 512GB SSD

Display

16-inch WQXGA+ (2880 x 1800) AMOLED 120Hz touchscreen

13.8-inch 2304 x 1536, 3:2 120Hz HDR touchscreen

13-inch 2408 x 1506 Liquid Retina IPS display

Ports

2x Thunderbolt 4 USB-C, 1x USB-A 3.2, 1x 3.5mm combi audio jack, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x microSD card reader

2x USB 4 Type C, 1x USB Type A Gen 3.1, 1x 3.5mm combo jack, 1x Surface connect port, 1x microSD card reader

USB 3 (USB-C) port, USB 2 (USB-C) port, 3.5mm audio jack

Wireless

Wi-Fi 7 / Bluetooth 5.4

WiFi 7 / Bluetooth 5.4

Wi-Fi 6E / Bluetooth 6

Weight

3.73lbs / 1.69kg

2.96lbs / 1.34kg

2.7lbs / 1.23kg

Dimensions

14 x 9.9 x 0.5 inches / 35.5 x 25.1 x 1.37mcm

11.85 x 8.67 x 0.69 inches / 30.1 x 22.0 x 1.75cm

0.50 x 11.71 x 8.12 inches / 1.27 x 29.75 x 20.64cm

How I tested the LG Gram Book

• Replaced my regular laptop with LG Gram Book for two weeks
• Used the laptop both for day-to-day work and personal projects
• Ran our usual selection of benchmarking software

For this review, I took the usual steps: in addition to our standard testing routine, the LG Gram Book replaced my daily driver for work and personal projects, so I could better get a feel for its performance in real-world settings. This is mostly low-level tasks like writing in Google Docs and doing research online, with a bit of image editing via GIMP 2.0 sprinkled in there. I also used it outside in my yard to see how well the screen performed in bright sunlight.

Each software test in our benchmarking selection is run three times and averaged to avoid outlier results. I tested the laptop while it was plugged in and set to Windows 11's performance power preset (with the exception of the battery life test, naturally, which uses the best efficiency preset).

Read more about how we test

First reviewed April 2025

The LG Gram Book is a reasonably competent middle-of-the-road laptop, good for students or office workers, but it simply doesn't do enough to justify its midrange price tag.

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