Made from magnesium alloy, the LG Gram looks slick and minimalist. It’s not overdone in any way and follows a clean design principle overall. The ‘Gram’ logo is the only thing on the lid in terms of branding and you get tastefully placed Intel stickers when you open it. It feels great to hold and even with grubby fingers, won’t register massive amounts of smudges or grime.
What truly astonishes us though is the weight! Looking at the form factor of a 16in laptop, your brain instantly expects it to weigh as much as a brick, but pick it up and your brain feels confused. You instantly go ‘WOW’ and start to think if it’s just the shell that LG has sent over. But nah, it’s the whole laptop and it just weighs 1.19kgs which is lighter than some of the 14in units we’ve reviewed here. Picking it up with two fingers is not a problem and of course all of this translates to a super comfortable travel experience if you have to lug your laptop around.
The light weight does not translate to light quality though. The shell feels strong and the Gram has passed 7 different MIL-STD 810G tests for durability! At launch, LG told us we could even stand on it and nothing would happen, but umm, we got cold feet, but hey, we believe them!