LG Gram Style 14 laptop review: Elegant, fast, and (too) hot

The focus of the LG Gram Style 14 is mobility. With its low weight, very small case for the 14-inch display, and long battery life, its strengths are an exact match for this goal. At the same time, with an i5 or i7 processor of the Intel Raptor Lake P series, there are no concessions in terms of the computing performance. The rest of the equipment also fulfills upscale requirements with a 3K OLED display, high-quality input devices, and large as well as fast storage.

What is quite out of the ordinary is the color design of the palm rest and whole display lid, which is anything but ordinary. Depending on the light angle, the appearance changes with numerous colorful facets. On the other hand, the laptop can also remain really discrete, thanks to its passive mode, which is otherwise offered together with similarly powerful equipment only by an Apple MacBook Air 15 M2.

Some other, similarly mobile and fast competitors are, for example, the HP Dragonfly G4 or the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro 14 with an identical display. Find out in our test, where the competitors do better, where the LG Gram Style does well, and why it still doesn't remain completely quiet.

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Only at first glance does the case of the LG Gram Style look white. As soon as the light hits it from a side angle, the color changes - even if in a discrete way - including some rainbow effects. Various light sources and changing angles also bring a constantly changing appearance. At the same time, the case surface is relatively immune against fingerprints. However, once we noticed some prints, we were only able to clean them with a moist microfiber cloth.

There are no complaints about the workmanship. The laptop is assembled cleanly and appears stable enough considering its size and weight. Even though the display can be warped, this isn't more than we'd expect from its slim display frame. The case bottom can also be pressed down, so users might get the impression that they have to be particularly gentle when opening the lid or lifting up the LG Gram Style.

The keyboard frame and palm rest, on the other hand, are made from metal, have hardly any give, and offer a solid impression when typing and operating the laptop.

In terms of the weight, none of the competitors can even come close to the subnotebook from LG. The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro with a display of the same size weighs 20% more. In addition, it is 1 cm (~0.4 in) deeper. The footprint of the Gram Style comes close to an A4-format sheet of paper.

The case thickness, on the other hand, is only average, and many competitors that are focused on minimal size format such as the Apple MacBook Air or Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro are even significantly slimmer. But when carrying the laptop, the thickness of the device probably matters less than its width and length.

The number of connections couldn't really be smaller, but the two Thunderbolt 4 connections on the left side still open up many usage options. One of the connections also remains available while charging. If you use an additional docking station on your desk, you can connect anything else to that.

On the road, the headset port, slot for microSD cards, and single USB-A port with 10 Gbit/s almost always offer sufficient connection options. Even if the selection of connections seems suitable in terms of practical usability, their number can also be fairly limited.

When copying image files, our AV PRO microSD 128 GB V60 reference card delivers average values, allowing for example to copy a full 32-GB card in close to 7 minutes.

The soldered Intel AX211 WLAN module works at least in the 6 GHz band as expected. Even though there were no other WLAN signals in close proximity that might have interfered with our measurements, the test at 5 GHz produced results that were slightly below average.

In practical use, even almost 1,000 Mbit/s is absolutely excellent. More than 1,600 Mbit/s when using Wi-Fi 6E surpasses a simple LAN connection significantly, as long as the distance to the also Wi-Fi 6E capable router remains as small as possible.

The Full-HD webcam is suited well for video calls, and the images achieve a satisfactory quality. The camera particularly succeeds in still delivering an easily recognizable recording in low light conditions. But you only shouldn't wear black at that time, since at least in our test unit, all black clothing is recorded with an extreme green tint.

In addition, there is an infrared camera to support logging in via face recognition. There is no mechanic lense cover.

The microphone is suitable for the targeted usage scenarios. Voices are recorded easily understandable and at an even volume, even when the distance to the speaker and speaking angle varies. A slightly metallic undertone won't interfere at least with video calls.

The sealed bottom plate is not very maintenance friendly. You need some finesse and suitable tools to remove the five glued-on feet and three additional screw covers without causing any damage. But after that, there are no further difficulties removing the bottom plate. However, this might become much more difficult after two or three years of using the laptop. Once the glue has hardened, in our experience it is hardly possible anymore to remove the rubber feet intact.

Inside, the battery and fan are easily accessible. You can also replace or expand the two M.2 NVMe SSDs. A single 2-TB SSD would have worked just as well and allowed for easier storage expansion. At the same time, the two SSDs installed in parallel would also lend themselves for a permanent system backup. The WLAN module and RAM are soldered in, which is not very surprising when considering the slim case.

The display hinges appear a little too delicate. Despite the low weight of the LG Gram, a larger hinge area would have improved the stability of the folding mechanism significantly.

LG offers a two-year warranty for the Gram Style 14Z90RS, but for the battery, there is only the minimum warranty required by law.

Aside from the charger, the USB-C to USB-C cable (only suitable for charging), and the warranty material, there are no additional accessories in the box. The packaging itself consists almost exclusively of recycled card bord, which deserves some praise. Unfortunately, the LG Gram itself is placed inside a plastic case made from mixed materials, so that cannot be recycled.

The keyboard is almost deserving of the highest praise. Its 1.6-mm stroke (according to our measurements), the well-adjusted resistance, and a robust keyboard frame result in an excellent typing experience. The only negative might be the white illumination of the white keys. When the light gets weaker in the evening hours and you want to activate the keyboard illumination, you will notice that you then won't be able to see anything all on the keys anymore. In complete darkness, however, the illumination is comfortably even, although it could use more than the two brightness levels.

The touchpad operation is accurate, immediately responds to any command, and it is visually pleasing. At the same time, there are also some grave weaknesses. First, its edges are only recognizable by two delicate light strips. While that looks great, we didn't notice that our fingers wandered outside the touchpad area several times during our testing, so that they couldn't operate the touchpad anymore. But you probably would get used to this.

What is really unusual is the feedback to a firm key press. LG doesn't use any mechanical keys in the Gram Style, but an electromagnetic linear actor instead. Perhaps you might already know something like this from the Home button of the iPhones. Unfortunately, the noise of the key press seems much too loud to us. This is particularly the case, when the passive mode is activated and the laptop remains otherwise completely quiet.

Even though the key noise is of course controlled by software, this behavior cannot be turned off or adjusted. Although the regular operation is also possible without pressing the touchpad keys, we also noticed that the key press is also activated and becomes audible when the finger touches the pad for a longer time period. In that case, the feedback becomes doubly irritating, since no key has been pressed.

The OLED display in the LG Gram Style 14 subnotebook offers all the amenities that are to be expected. Thanks to the minimal black value, the contrast turns out very good, resulting in vivid and bright colors. Even without calibration, the color reproduction is very accurate, and the extent of the color space is very large.

The resolution of 2,880 x 1,800 pixels, widely called 3K, allows for extreme detailed images. But at only 14 inches, this also seems a bit exaggerated. If your zoom level is at 100%, text can hardly be read anymore. A slightly lower resolution that also would save a bit more on the battery life would surely be sufficient at this size, while high resolution photography would still continue to look excellent on the screen.

LG is able to significantly remedy one of the large weaknesses of OLED displays. Where other models show some PWM flickering of 60 or 120 Hz, the Gram Style is able to at least increase the frequency to 350 Hz, a value that most users shouldn't be able to register anymore. Only those who are particularly sensitive and have some prior bad experiences might still be able to notice some flickering. At that point, the only thing that will help is choosing a laptop with an IPS panel that doesn't use PWM flickering such as the HP Dragonfly G4.

The subpixel grid could bring some slightly washed-out edges. However, the resolution is high enough that you basically might only see this under the magnifying glass - and even then, only barely. There are no light halos or screen bleeding. Even looking at it with long exposure, the display remains completely black.

* ... smaller is better

The color reproduction offers the usual wide extent. The basically full coverage of the DCI-P3 color space that is used for professional video production is remarkable.

The display is definitely sufficient for higher demands in all cases, and you can also use it for image and video processing at a very high level.

At a DeltaE of less than 3, the deviations in the color reproduction are not noticeable anymore, even for the trained eye. While the deviations are slightly higher in several blue and red color tones, at a DeltaE of barely above 4, they are still very limited.

An additional calibration did not bring any further improvement.

The display backlight flickers at 350 Hz (Likely utilizing PWM) .

The frequency of 350 Hz is relatively high, so most users sensitive to PWM should not notice any flickering. However, there are reports that some users are still sensitive to PWM at 500 Hz and above, so be aware.

In comparison: 54 % of all tested devices do not use PWM to dim the display. If PWM was detected, an average of 19050 (minimum: 5 - maximum: 3846000) Hz was measured.

The brightness of the OLED display is sufficient for text to be readable outdoors. While images don't look quite as vibrant anymore, they are still easily recognizable. In direct sunlight, the reflective surface prevents reading of the screen contents.

Regardless of the viewing angle, there are no color changes or any dimming of the brightness. Only at a steep viewing angle of almost 90°, some slight deviations are noticeable. This is typical behavior for an OLED display.

With the Intel Core i7-1360P, the LG Gram Style 14 uses a CPU that impresses with a high performance as well as good mobility. In addition, there is 32 GB of LPDDR5 working memory that ensures fast data rates with a maximum bandwidth of 6,000 MHz.

With this, the computing performance is at the approximate level of a good business laptop. Complex applications pose no difficulties for the LG Gram Style, and neither does multitasking. On the other hand, graphically very demanding applications are hardly usable. The performance of the iGPU is sufficient for video streaming and even a little bit of image and video processing in the non-commercial realm. But 3D applications and video rendering can hardly run in a reasonable manner.

We were unable to run CPU-Z with our test unit, and the program continued to cause some blue screens even after a system reset.

The preinstalled LG Smart Assistant offers some very practical setting options. In addition to the options of a dark mode that in combination with the OLED display can extend the battery life noticeably, or of changing the color temperature, the Usage Scenarios also have some significant effects on the behavior of the subnotebook. In the "Work" mode, the LG Gram Style offers the highest computing performance. In "Study" mode, it switches to quiet operation and limits the intensity of blue light in the display.

But particularly, the selected Cooling Mode has the most influence on the computing performance. We list the power consumption limits of the CPU in the table below. Since the High fan setting offers the best computing performance, we use that to create our benchmark measurements.

The Intel Core i7-1360P is characterized by a total of twelve cores, four of which are Performance cores, and 16 Threads as well as a clock speed of 5.0 GHz. It is currently one of the fastest mobile processors. However, it is unable to keep up with an Intel Core i5-13500H, whose construction reminds of a desktop CPU and which also needs significantly more space and power.

In addition to the computing performance, a second strength is the efficiency of the processor. It hardly consumes any power for most simple tasks and warms up correspondingly little, hardly needing any cooling. This is even more the case in the LG Gram Style, since with a peak consumption of 43 watts, the CPU is only allowed to consume less power than for example that in the Huawei MateBook X Pro, which provides up to 64 watts. So it is not very surprising, that the competitors with identical processor perform slightly better overall.

In the constant load test with Cinebench R15, the resulting chart resembles that of most comparable subnotebooks. Due to the limited cooling options, the values drop by about 20% after the first run. After that, they remain comfortably stable, which speaks for sufficient power of the cooling.

When pulling the plug, the setting options and limits for the CPU performance we listed above remain unchanged. This means that the LG Gram also keeps its full performance in battery operation.

You can find additional benchmarks and more information in our CPU benchmark list.

* ... smaller is better

The PCMark 10 benchmark gives a good impression of the laptop's behavior in everyday operation. The distance to the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro and Huawei MateBook X Pro, which both also use the i7-1360P processor, turns out extremely small here. The limited power consumption doesn't have much of an influence when surfing the Internet, making video calls, or running Office programs.

When the fan performance is reduced in the LG Smart Assistant, the values drop by about 10%. However, selecting the passive mode has a significantly larger effect, since the processor can than only use 8 watts constantly, instead of 28 watts. The values then drop to the level of an Apple MacBook Air or Acer Swift 3 SF314 from 2019.

Even though the lower performance is very noticeable, it only has a minimal effect while surfing, reading text documents, creating a spreadsheet, or performing similar tasks. This means that you can use the Gram Style with completely deactivated fans in many situations, and it will continue to perform everyday tasks smoothly, comparable to a good but four-year-old laptop.

* ... smaller is better

At least compared to our competing subnotebooks, the LG Gram Style fares okay in the latencies. However, with particularly demanding tasks such as real-time audio processing, you should expect some stutters. But admittedly, the Gram isn't even designed for this. In addition, some driver updates or new software might also change the result significantly.

When streaming a 4K video with YouTube, there was exactly a single dropped frame. While this is not a perfect result, it is decent for the hardware. However, at almost 30%, the iGPU load turns out very high.

* ... smaller is better

The system SSD delivers the expected results across several tests and disciplines that should be achieved using a PCIe 4.0 connection. The second, identical SSD performs at the same level.

What is less convincing, is the behavior in the constant load test. The SSD and its controller get too hot and throttle the transfer rates. While this should be hardly, if at all, noticeable in practice, the cooling capabilities definitely hit their limits here.

* ... smaller is better

With the Intel Iris Xe 96 EUs graphics card, the LG Gram Style 14 subnotebook uses an iGPU that has already been in use since 2020. At that time and still today, it offers sufficient performance for playing videos, for connecting an external 4K monitor, and even for more complex tasks. Particularly image processing and even cutting the occasional video will succeed, even if it may take longer.

With its 96 Shader processors, it is able to keep up at least with very simple dedicated graphics cards, while at the same time being extremely efficient, without producing any more heat than the fully loaded processor itself (into which it is integrated anyways).

Particularly some games that aren't completely current anymore can be played at the lowest setting levels. But as soon as you increase the resolution or detail level, the frame rate will drop so much, that there won't be a lot left of your gaming experience.

The Gram Style 14 allows you to play some less demanding sports simulations that already have been on the market for several years, or basically all classics.

Our constant load test with The Witcher 3 evaluates whether the LG subnotebook is also able to deliver a constant computing performance for longer time periods. Even though the frame rate drops from 15 to 10 FPS after a few minutes, it reliably remains at that value for the rest of the hour. This means that the small fan is able to cool the components reliably, but only after some noticeable throttling.

Even the maximum fan speed won't result in more than some slightly annoying whirr. Many gaming and business laptops get twice as loud. The Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro with an identical CPU but much slimmer case is also 40% louder than the LG Gram Style 14. You also have to recognize that the LG Gram offers two additional and significantly quieter fan settings that only decrease the system performance slightly.

Then there is also the passive mode, where the background noise level of between 22 and 25 dB that constantly surrounds us isn't exceeded. But choosing that mode will lead the computing performance to drop significantly. While the laptop still remains very usable, some more complex tasks will only progress slowly.

On the other hand, your seat neighbors in the library or during a presentation might still feel disturbed by the strange, loud clicking noise of the touchpad. Perhaps some future software update will still provide some remedy here.

Noise Level

* ... smaller is better

The Gram Style shares its more than insignificant warming with its similarly slim competitors. Where there is only limited space for a large cooling system and two fans running in parallel at best, and where the distance between the case and CPU is only minimal, the heat necessarily has to be transferred outside via the case.

This is the reason for the LG laptop to already heat up while performing simple tasks. However, you should still be able to use the laptop on your lap or on a soft surface, particularly since the CPU heat is transferred toward the top along the display. This results in a hotspot temperature of more than 45 °C (113 °F) in the area of the central function key. We also measure similar values while gaming. The Gram should definitely be placed on the desk at that time, but at least, the temperature of the palm rest always remains below 30 °C (86°F).

* ... smaller is better

The temperatures and maximum clock speeds remain stable during the stress test, aside from the first minute under highest load. After that, the power consumption, CPU temperatures, and clock speeds drop but remain stable during the rest of the test. What is interesting to see, is the change from the "No noise" to the "Quiet" mode under full load. While the temperature of the processor drops by 10 °C (18 °F), the average clock speed increases by 50%.

Overall, the Gram Style 14 isn't designed for constant load. It develops its best performance when the processor is loaded for only short periods of time repeatedly. This should also come closest to the typical usage scenarios even for demanding users.

Particularly the upper bass and lower mids lack in power. While the stereo speakers produce a decent sound in the higher frequency ranges, for example with voices, it isn't more than that.

You can use them to listen to music, without immediately wanting to turn it off. But when you listen closer, you will quickly notice the lack of precision and detail that should be reproduced in high-resolution recordings. Otherwise, you can also connect headphones via USB, Bluetooth, or the audio port.

(±) | speaker loudness is average but good (79 dB)Bass 100 - 315 Hz(±) | reduced bass - on average 10.7% lower than median(±) | linearity of bass is average (13.1% delta to prev. frequency)Mids 400 - 2000 Hz(+) | balanced mids - only 1.5% away from median(+) | mids are linear (5.1% delta to prev. frequency)Highs 2 - 16 kHz(+) | balanced highs - only 3.9% away from median(±) | linearity of highs is average (7.8% delta to prev. frequency)Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz(+) | overall sound is linear (11.1% difference to median)Compared to same class» 6% of all tested devices in this class were better, 3% similar, 91% worse» The best had a delta of 5%, average was 20%, worst was 53%Compared to all devices tested» 4% of all tested devices were better, 1% similar, 95% worse» The best had a delta of 4%, average was 26%, worst was 134%

(+) | speakers can play relatively loud (84.7 dB)Bass 100 - 315 Hz(+) | good bass - only 3.8% away from median(+) | bass is linear (5.2% delta to prev. frequency)Mids 400 - 2000 Hz(+) | balanced mids - only 1.3% away from median(+) | mids are linear (2.1% delta to prev. frequency)Highs 2 - 16 kHz(+) | balanced highs - only 1.9% away from median(+) | highs are linear (2.7% delta to prev. frequency)Overall 100 - 16.000 Hz(+) | overall sound is linear (4.6% difference to median)Compared to same class» 0% of all tested devices in this class were better, 0% similar, 100% worse» The best had a delta of 5%, average was 18%, worst was 45%Compared to all devices tested» 0% of all tested devices were better, 0% similar, 100% worse» The best had a delta of 4%, average was 26%, worst was 134%

The lower consumption limit of the i7-1360P in the LG Gram Style 14 becomes noticeable particularly under load. The consumption is 40 watts on average. In the Huawei MateBook X Pro with the same CPU, this is 20 watts more. The 65-Watt charger with USB-C connection is sufficiently sized for all scenarios.

The consumption under minimal load seems a little high, and many similarly well-equipped subnotebooks do better here.

* ... smaller is better

With the power consumption during idle operation being slightly too high, the battery life doesn't turn out as good as we might expect from the large 72-Wh battery. But 10 hours in our video test and more than 11 hours surfing websites that pose different demands is still good in practice. This means that you can use the Gram Style 14 easily for a whole day on the road without having to look for an outlet.

At the same time, for example the HP Dragonfly G4 with a slightly smaller battery and minimally weaker CPU achieves runtimes that are 4 hours longer. Some better adjustments could have given a top place to the LG laptop here, which is a missed chance.

With a fast processor, very good keyboard especially for a subnotebook, sharp OLED display, and weight of less than 1 kg (~2.2 lb), the LG Gram Style 14Z90RS is an almost perfect device to get work done on the road. Even if the i7-1360P is throttled compared to the competitors, with its 12 cores, it still offers sufficient computing performance for demanding tasks.

In addition, we like the fan settings. With low fan speeds, the system performance remains high, while the noise development ranges at the limits of what is noticeable. Only when you switch to the silent mode can you notice that the laptop was still audible before. The Gram Style continues to handle everyday tasks without any problems while being completely quiet - if only it wasn't for the touchpad that is set to produce a (too loud) feedback click, which cannot be avoided.

When the focus is on mobility and looks, the LG Gram Style 14 is completely convincing.

Considering the technical basics, the battery life appears too short, but it is still considerable at more than 10 hours. The storage equipment of our test unit also looks a little exaggerated. There is hardly any usage scenario for a subnotebook that requires more than 16 GB of RAM. Two SSDs installed in parallel would also only be required in some very specific cases, since in most cases storing important documents in the cloud will almost always be more convenient.

There is hardly any competitor that is as quiet, light, and powerful as the Gram Style 14. Only the Apple MacBook Air 15 2023 offers a faster performance in passive mode, but that doesn't have Windows. The HP Dragonfly G4 presents itself with a longer battery life but is also minimally heavier. If you need the full processor performance, the Samsung Galaxy Book3 Pro 14 could also be a similarly good alternative. However, it stood out in our test with an easily noticeable fan.

The LG Gram Style 14Z90RS we tested is currently available in the US from Amazon for $1797. A version with slightly lower specs is also available from LG for about $1400.

LG Gram Style 14Z90RS-G.AD7AG- 2023-08-2908/29/2023 v7Mario Petzold

The present review sample was made available to the author as a loan by the manufacturer or a shop for the purposes of review. The lender had no influence on this review, nor did the manufacturer receive a copy of this review before publication. There was no obligation to publish this review.