LG to take on MacBook Air with Gram laptops
29 Sep 2015
Closely following the introduction of its new G Pad X 10.1 Android tablet, and a new super premium phone confirmed to be on the way -- LG is set to introduce its first laptop line to the US, one that looked to challenge the MacBook Air in the ultra-thin-and-light category.
The new family of laptops has been dubbed Gram, by the South Korean company due to the pair of notebooks -- 13-inch and 14-inch, respectively which weigh under a kilogram each.
Particularly, each model tipped the scales at just 980 grams, or 2.16 pounds as against the 13-inch MacBook Air which comes in at 2.96 pounds. The 11-inch version weighs a couple of ounces more than the Grams -- though the latest MacBook weighs 2.03 pounds, with a 12-inch display, however.
S Korean electronics giant LG built the Gram's chassis out of a magnesium alloy, but early users say the build quality was deficient, possibly due to the use of plastic for other hardware.
According to commentators, come concessions apart, the Grams seemed equipped to have been built with some decent specs, using either Intel Core i5 or i7 Broadwell processors and featuring 8GB of RAM, 1,920x1,080 IPS screens (MacBook Air has a 1,440x900 display), 64-bit Windows 10 Home edition, and either 128GB or 256GB SSDs.
According to commentators, the main selling points of the Gram had little to do with Microsoft's new operating system, there was no touchscreen option or RealSense camera for Windows Hello.
Rather LG was relying on classically useful laptop features like compact dimensions and an attractive display.
The 14-inch LG Gram was no larger than the 13-inch MacBook Air and Lenovo Yoga 3 Pro, and its 1080p IPS display looked much better than the one on Apple's ageing Air.
The name Gram is obviously derived from its weight at less than a kilogram (980 grams / 2.16 pounds) which was lighter than even the 11-inch MacBook Air.
LG's pricing was also matched to compete with Apple's range, which started at $899 for the 13-inch Gram with an Intel Core i5 processor, 128GB of storage, and 8GB of RAM.
Microsoft would sell the LG Gram laptops at its retail locations and online store, designating them with its Signature Edition label to signify that they came without any superfluous bloatware.
In May LG unveiled an ultra-thin 'wallpaper TV', that is less than 1mm thick, and weighs just 1.9 kg light enough to be mounted on a wall using just magnets. (See: LG unveils super-thin LED TV that can be stuck to a wall).