With ultraportables, you typically sacrifice screen size to shave something off from the overall size and weight. But as LG showed us with its 13.3-inch Gram laptop, it's possible to get a larger screen into a smaller and remarkably lightweight body, and still get solid everyday performance and battery life. 

The 2017 Gram models -- available in 13.3-, 14- and 15.6-inch sizes -- start at $1,000 for a non-touchscreen 13.3-inch Gram, but climb up to $1,500 for the 15.6-inch version reviewed here (approximately AU$1,990 or £1,185 in Australia and the UK, respectively) with a full-HD IPS touchscreen and an Intel Core i7-7500U processor, 16GB of memory and a 512GB SSD.

The price is certainly fair for those components in a laptop that's a touch less than 2.5 pounds (1,080 g) and is only 0.6 inch thick (15.5 mm). The bigger screen in the smaller, lighter body is the main selling point, though, so if those aren't crucial to your needs, you might want to consider something else such as the 15-inch HP Spectre x360 or the Dell XPS 15.

Price as reviewed	$1,499
Display size/resolution	15-inch 1,920x1,080 touch display
PC CPU	2.7GHz Intel Core i7-7500U
PC memory	16GB DDR4 SDRAM 2,133MHz
Graphics	128MB dedicated Intel HD Graphics 620
Storage	512GB SSD
Networking	802.11ac wireless, Bluetooth 4.2
Operating system	Windows 10 Home (64-bit)

For as much as I love how little the Gram weighs, the look and feel is not as easy to like. The magnesium alloy body just doesn't have the same sturdy feel as a premium aluminum-chassis ultraportable. The lid in particular has a lot of flex to it. However, this doesn't mean that it won't stand up to the day-in-day-out abuse of a commute or getting dragged around from class to class. 

Also, while anyone who picks it up will be amazed by its weight, the Gram likely won't wow them with its looks. The chassis is dark silver inside and out with the exception of the chrome LG logo on the lid and below the display. Politely put, it is unassuming and will blend into any environment, be it boardroom, classroom or cafe.

Bigger, but not necessarily better

The Gram 15 is essentially just a larger version of the Gram 13. That, unfortunately, means that a couple issues I had with the 13.3-inch version are found on the 15.6-incher. For example, the Gram 15 has a slim bezel around the screen like the Gram 13, which is great because it means you're looking at almost nothing but display when you open the lid. A side effect of this, however, is LG moved the webcam to the screen's hinge so it shoots straight up your nose while also placing the camera so low that the screen has to be at a 90-degree angle to keep you entirely in the shot. 

As you might expect from a company that makes TVs and displays, the screen on the Gram is nice. It's sharp with very good color and excellent off-angle viewing. It gets reasonably bright, too, but you still might struggle with some of the glare from the glossy touchscreen. LG also includes a Reader mode setting that lets you quickly reduce blue light.