LG Challenges Apple, Lenovo With 2.16-Pound Laptop

Shoppers looking for lightweight laptops have a new and intriguing choice in the LG Gram. The first LG laptop to reach U.S. shores,  the Gram -- so named because it's less than a kilogram -- is available today on Amazon and in Microsoft Stores soon with a starting weight of 2.16-pounds and price of $899.  That's even lighter than Apple's 2.38 pound, 13-inch MacBook Air, but still heavier than Lenovo's 1.8-pound LaVie Z.

Available with either a 13 inch or 14 inch Full HD (1920 x 1080) LCD IPS touch display, and either a Core i5 or Core i7 processor, the magnesium Gram is only half an inch thick, and LG claims that its battery will be able to last up to 7.5 hours (almost two hours shorter than the 9:23 the Air lasted in the Laptop Mag Battery Test Battery Test (Web surfing via Wi-Fi at 100 nits).

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Shoppers looking for a crapware-free user clean experience may be excited to see that The Gram is one Microsoft's Signature Edition devices. That badge designates a device to be free of the bloatware that manufacturers often stuff systems full with.

The Gram may Apple's one USB port-only 12-inch MacBook (2.03 pounds), but LG has equipped it with a solid lineup of ports, with an HDMI port, two USB 3.0 ports and a Micro-SD slot. The LaVie Z has a similar array of ports, but is doomed by its awful keyboard. We're hopeful that the Gram provides a better typing experience. The most decked out Gram will cost $1400 and features an Intel Core i7 5500U processor at 2.4 GHz and a 256GB SSD.

Unfortunately for those looking for the most computing power, the processors in the Grams are the previous generation Intel Broadwell chips, not the newly announced Skylake chipsets.