The LG Gram line has been around for years, but the LG Gram Style adds a whole new look. It’s ultra-light, ultra-thin and covered in an iridescent, color-shifting finish. It’s also on sale today, in 14-inch and 16-inch sizes, with a starting price of $1,499.
I looked at the Style in January and it usually looks what I would call silvery white. As you move it around and change the light, it can look anything from bluish to grayish to sunset orange. (Look, I’m not an artist – we’re all doing our best here, and the showroom where I saw the device wasn’t particularly well lit.) The other weird thing about it is that it has an unmarked haptics trackpad that’s backlit by LEDs. While I question the usefulness of this feature (the lights only come on after you click, so they don’t really help you find the touchpad), it certainly looks really cool.
In the past, LG Grams were known for one thing: they weigh nothing. They’ve been great for that particular use case, consistently ranked among the lightest laptops money can buy, but they also tend to look a little bland.
Weighing in at 2.2 pounds (999 grams), the Style probably won’t eliminate fans of the thin-and-light category, but it may appeal to a more style-conscious (sorry, I know) crowd. LG also showed off some more eclectic designs at its CES 2023 booth, including dots and funkier pink and purple finishes. There’s no word yet on whether all of these will hit the market, but it seems to indicate that more fun is ahead.
We’re starting to see more things like haptic touchpads, cute LEDs, and jazzy finishes as companies try to market established premium lines to a new, younger audience.
The ThinkPad Z Series, announced in 2022, brought some distinctly non-Thinkpad colors and designs to the ThinkPad line, while the more powerful user-oriented Dell XPS 13 Plus ditched its physical touchpad and function keys in favor of haptics and LEDs. This year, a number of companies are fishing key products around an elusive hypermobile, style-conscious, remote freelance professional. HP’s Dragonfly Pro (which includes an RGB Chromebook and a Windows PC with a dedicated tech support button) is a recent example.
While I don’t quite see these choices making the LG Gram Style a mainstream, say, MacBook Air competitor – a color-shifting finish certainly won’t suit everyone – it seems likely that the already niche Gram line into niches it has not reached before.
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