LG is one of the most innovative companies in the world, but you wouldn’t know it by looking at its products. Forever oscillating between frumpy, plasticky, and gimmicky, LG’s industrial design is characterized by a great deal of effort and very little effect. This makes it difficult to review the company’s products: do I prioritize the laudable electronics within or the unlovable plastics without? And why doesn’t LG ever seem to be able to get both aspects right?

The Gram laptop is LG’s latest attempt at correcting its ways, and on first glance, it looks quite handsome and promising. Like a performance-tuned car, this 14-inch PC sheds all comforts and extras — such as a touchscreen or a backlit keyboard — in the pursuit of the lightest and most efficient form. At 980 grams (2.16 pounds), the Gram weighs less than Apple’s 11-inch MacBook Air, while thin bezels around its display help it fit within the same physical footprint as the 13-inch Air. It’s not all plastic, either, as LG is using fancy magnesium alloys to enhance this laptop’s durability. Microsoft has also bestowed its Signature Edition label upon the Gram, certifying that it’s free of added bloatware that might spoil the Windows 10 experience.

LG HAS TURNED LIGHTNESS INTO AN OBSESSION, AND THIS IS ITS PHYSICAL MANIFESTATION
It’s easy on the eyes, it runs fast right out of the box, and it’s lighter and smaller than any other 14-inch laptop on the planet. The LG Gram looks like it might be a really good laptop, but looks can be deceiving.

My first sensation upon unboxing the LG Gram is one of profound familiarity. That’s an odd thing to experience with a computer that marks LG’s debut in the Western laptop market, but it’s there all the same. The reason? Pretty much everything about this machine has been modeled on Apple’s MacBook line, from the minimalist white packaging to the look and shape of the laptop itself. The Gram is essentially a MacBook Air made by LG, replacing the aluminum with plastic and magnesium. In fact, it’s so reminiscent of Apple’s computers that I instinctively reached for the top right of the keyboard to start it up and, sure enough, that’s where the Gram’s power button resides.

Before I’ve turned it on, LG’s Gram betrays a few of its shortcomings relative to heavier and more solidly built machines like the Air or the Dell XPS 13. I hate to say it, but the Gram feels flimsy. It creaked as I was extracting it from the box and continues to do so on a regular basis. There’s a hollow space between the laptop’s bottom cover and its internal components, which I can press into with my thumb. Flex is also apparent across the keyboard, palm rests, and display. For all of LG’s claims of using the same advanced magnesium alloys as can be found in race cars and spacecraft, I could easily be convinced that the Gram is made entirely out of bad old plastic.