While LG is a household name in the United States, American consumers have not seen its computer…but will have a chance to soon.
LG doesn’t just make TVs, smartphones and appliances
The Korean electronics behemoth has been making computers for some time just not in the United States. The company, at least in the U.S. is best known for its kitchen appliances and televisions. This may change soon as Americans looking to purchase an ultrabook laptop may very well run into either LG’s Gram 13 or Gram 14. The numbers refer to the monitor size and will be sold between $899 and $1399 depending on individual hardware configurations in addition to the monitors’ diagonal measurements.
The two will be released with HD IPS displays and will either feature an Intel Core i5 or Core i7 processor. The two will weigh considerably less than a 13-inch Macbook Air with each model coming in below a kilo (2.2 pounds).
“LG has a long history of developing innovative consumer electronics products and has applied that expertise, along with its laptop success in other markets, to the LG gram series in the U.S.,” David VanderWaal, LG Electronics USA’s VP of marketing, said in a press release. “We recognize this is an extremely competitive category, and are confident consumers will respond well to this product that combines powerful performance with lightweight design.”
Can LG pull of that weight?
Here at Valuewalk, we’ve not had an opportunity to “test drive” one of LG’s new offerings as tech news sites like CNET and others have, but to take a look at news sites that have had a chance to play around with it there seems to be a consensus. It feels flimsy, especially when compared to Apple’s Macbook Air and its brushed aluminum housing. From nearly everything I’ve read, an apt comparison is a boxer who has shed to many pounds and lost his/her punching power.
On the other hand, most reviewers have been pleasantly surprised with the computing power of LG’s Gram series. However, the idea of a laptop having a flex to it and a flimsy feeling is difficult to get past.
Not surprisingly considering its weight, the Gram offers no USB ports like the Macbook Air and LG expects most storage to involve the cloud.
Both models will run Windows 10 out of the box and will be offered in Microsoft’s stores.
