Hi all, I got the LG Gram 16 2023 from Costco two weeks ago and thought I'd share my impressions for those who are still on the fence. A friend of mine bought one and took it with him to the EU for me. This is a black colored gram in a 1TB SSD, 32GB RAM, RTX3050 config.

A bit of context:
I work as a consultant in product and am out and about for half of my workweek. I'd describe my workflow as 'light creative'. My daily use consists of various office and communication tools, VDI's, and a web browser with ~10-20 tabs open. I also do some occasional photoshopping, light video editing and I play a casual game once in a while.

Good to know is that I am kind of a productivity/gadget freak and have owned too many laptops / convertibles to count. Some of the devices I've owned are a Surface Pro, Surface Book 2, XPS 15, Macbook Pro 16, Macbook Pro 13 M1, Zephyrus G14 (2022), Zephyrus G16 (2023) and probably more that I forgot about. So I do have some reference for comparison :P

Impressions (in no particular order)

• Overall build quality is really good. Materials used/texture feels nice. Nice clean aesthetic. This laptop definitely does not feel flimsy.

• Chassis flex is more than acceptable. This is such a big relief as this was my biggest concern. All these laptop reviewers are really exaggerating chassis flex on laptops IMO. They way they film it also makes it look way worse than it really is. Yes there is some flex if you really apply pressure, but that's not regular use. If you are just typing or grabbing the laptop from a table you won't notice anything. Huge relief.

• Keyboard is solid. Typing is more on the tactile side, which I like. This is the first time that I have a numpad on a laptop, which means the keyboard is slightly off-centered, but I got used to it within 15 mins. The trackpad is glass, smooth with good tracking as well.

• Screen is excellent, with one small caveat:

  • Colors are good, it comes very close to my G16

  • VRR is very nice and not many devices have this

  • The brightness is just okay. I find myself setting the brightness indoors on about 60-70% which means that it might be problematic outdoors.

• Port selection is excellent. Would have liked to see regular SD instead of micro SD.

• USB Type-C charging is very convenient (especially coming from Zephyrus devices with huge power bricks lol)

• For bottom firing speakers the sound quality and overall volume are surprisingly good. On higher volumes the bass muffles away though.

• Black color collects fingerprints

• Battery life looks like it is excellent. I easily get 1,5 workday of my regular use on battery.

• There is heat, but not really problematic in daily use. Heat only builds up in heavier workloads. The heat is located near the top of the deck at the function keys, so you won't notice it too much.

• The fans spin up in medium-high workloads. On medium load they spin up but are more than silent enough. On higher loads they can get louder than I’d like. It hasn't happened to me that often fortunately. I do feel like that overall the thermal solution is a point of improvement for LG, but it's definitely not a dealbreaker as-is.

• LG Software adds some nice useful features > mainly the smart assistant

• LG Software adds some bloat & maybe even spyware? Looking at you Glance.

• Hinge tightness is good, the screen does wobble when adjusting, but when put in place there is no wobble during usage. Opens one handed.

• This is the first laptop I have ever owned that hasn't shown some modern standby issues. Not sure what LG did, but I love it.

In conclusion I am very happy with this device as it seems perfect for my use case. Most negatives are minor. I think that screen brightness is it's biggest weakness together with the thermal solution in heavier workloads.

If you have any questions or like me to do some tests / video or extended review just let me know :)