LG unveils two Gram laptops ahead of CES: 17" 2.9lb clamshell with claimed 19.5 hour battery for $1,699+, and a 14" 2-in-1 with a Wacom stylus, price TBA
Valentina Palladino / Ars Technica :
Context & Ripple Effects
LG's Gram line has been running the same experiment since its US laptop debut in 2015 at $899: maximum screen for minimum weight. The reviews keep pricing the trade-off — the original Gram 14 was dinged for awful battery life and a flimsy build, and last year's Gram 17 review landed on the same verdict: under three pounds even at 17 inches, but bendy, underpowered, and expensive.
This pre-CES reveal pushes both ends of that formula. The 17-inch clamshell holds the sub-3-pound line at $1,699+ but quotes a 19.5-hour battery — a notably more conservative figure than the [[a:915521|24-hour claim CNET showed in 2017 rested on a decade-old benchmark assuming no Wi-Fi and low brightness]]. The second machine, a 14-inch 2-in-1 with a Wacom stylus, is the newer move: pen input is not something the Gram line has offered before.
First-order effects
- Buyers of big-screen laptops get a 2.9-pound 17-inch option at $1,699+, confirming Gram's premium-over-mainstream pricing while the battery claim comes down to a more defensible 19.5 hours.
- The Wacom-stylus 14-inch 2-in-1 takes LG into pen-enabled convertibles for the first time in this line, with pricing still unset — leaving LG free to position it against the $1,699 clamshell or below it.
Second-order effects
- Rivals selling large lightweight laptops are forced to compete on Gram's home turf — weight per screen inch — because LG's $1,699+ price shows the segment tolerates a premium for it.
- Wacom gains a marquee OEM placement in mainstream consumer laptops, though the partnership lands just as researchers found Wacom tablets log every opened application's name and send it to Google Analytics — a scrutiny risk LG inherits by association.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the Gram brand consolidates around portability-at-a-price rather than build quality: across the 2015 Gram 14, the 2022 Gram 17, and the 2023 Gram Style, reviewers keep flagging chassis flex as the cost of the weight records.
- Battery marketing looks to be normalizing under press scrutiny — after the 24-hour benchmark episode, LG's 19.5-hour figure suggests vendors drifting toward claims they can defend in real-world testing.
The trend: LG's Gram line is maturing from an ultraportable experiment into a premium franchise defined by extreme lightness — now adding stylus input — while reviewers hold its battery and build claims to a higher bar than in 2015.