LG Gram 17 review: under three pounds, even with a huge 17", 2560 x 1600 display, but the graphics are weak, the chassis is flimsy, and it's pricey at $1,600+
Monica Chin / The Verge :
Context & Ripple Effects
LG has been running the same Gram playbook since it entered the US laptop market in 2015 with $899 ultrabooks: strip the chassis to hit an aggressive weight target and accept the structural cost. The recurring verdicts tell the story — the original 14-inch Gram was dinged for a flimsy build and screen wobble, and the 17-inch line arrived in 2018 as a 2.9lb clamshell pitched on battery life rather than power.
This review shows the formula intact at a higher price point: a huge 2560 x 1600 panel under three pounds, but weak graphics, a bendy chassis, and $1,600+. The interesting comparison in the coverage is Razer, whose Blade 18 buys a gigantic high-refresh display with real power at $3,800 — the opposite end of the big-screen trade-off.
First-order effects
- Buyers shopping a 17-inch screen get a clear either/or: LG's machine wins decisively on carried weight but concedes graphics performance and build rigidity to heavier rivals like Razer's Blades.
- At $1,600+, LG is asking ultrabook money for a chassis that reviewers keep flagging as flimsy — the price now sits well above the $899 entry point that launched the line.
Second-order effects
- Razer's premium big-screen laptops face no pressure from this product on performance; the competitive boundary hardens into weight-versus-power, letting Razer defend its $2,400–$3,800 pricing against a cheaper-but-weaker alternative rather than a direct rival.
- LG's own follow-up, the Gram Style with its OLED panel and color-changing body, repeats the pattern — lightweight and bold design, again limited by thermals and a bendy chassis — suggesting the trade-off is a deliberate line identity, not a one-off miss.
Third-order effects
- If the pattern holds, the 17-inch-and-up laptop market splits structurally into two camps — featherweight productivity machines and heavy performance machines — with little middle ground, because the physics of thin, light chassis keeps capping thermal headroom.
- LG's eight-year consistency on this trade-off points to a brand position built on portability alone; whether that sustains $1,600+ pricing without durability improvements is the open question the review raises.
The trend: Large-screen laptops are polarizing into ultra-light productivity machines and heavy performance machines, with LG Gram holding the light end and Razer's Blades anchoring the powerful end.