The LG Gram Style is an iridescent 16-inch laptop with a disappearing trackpad

Of all the new LG Gram laptops unveiled at CES 2023, the Gram Style is the most eye-catching. It features an iridescent finish on the lid and keyboard deck that, even under the garish convention center lights here in Las Vegas, managed to look pretty. Like the rest of the Gram line, the Style is an impressively thin and light laptop for its size, with the 16-inch model coming in at 1.2kg (2.7 pounds). In fact, it’s so light that the bicep curls and front raises I did using the laptop didn’t feel like any work at all (weird flex, I know).

Speaking of flex, though, I did feel the 16-inch Style yield a little under my grip during the front raises, and it’s worth reminding you that we’ve had issues with the build quality on previous Grams. Though nothing ever actually broke during our testing, in general Gram laptops have felt less premium than other ultraportables, and almost plasticky. The Style has what LG calls a “glass design,” and I use quotes because the entire laptop isn’t actually made of glass. In fact, even after I picked it up, I couldn’t tell what the back of the device was made of, and had to ask. While the base of the notebook is made from a nano-magnesium alloy, the lid and keyboard deck, where the iridescent finish is, are Gorilla Glass 3.

That keyboard deck is also another highlight here. At first glance, it looks like there’s nothing below the keyboard, but drag your finger across the surface and two LED lines light up to indicate the boundaries of the trackpad. When I tried doing that, I didn’t even feel a difference between the touchpad and the rest of the deck — looks like LG took this “hidden trackpad” in a tactile sense as well. It’s an interesting concept that might have aesthetic benefits, but I’m not sure it will appeal to those who rely on touch to figure out where the trackpad is.

The Style laptops also feature anti-glare OLED screens, which was so effective that I initially thought this was just a really bright and colorful LCD. That’s not a ding on the display though, I still found the Windows 11 wallpaper vibrant and crisp. 

The Gram Style isn’t the only new laptop LG showed off at CES — there are new sizes available, and all models are also available in Intel’s latest 13th-generation Core processors. For all the details on those products, as well as the full specs of the Gram Style, check out our news article here.

LG’s updated Grams get thinner, add OLED and ‘hidden touchpads’

LG has new Gram laptops at CES 2023. The latest entrants in the company’s ultra-portable line include the “thinnest Gram model yet” and a glass laptop with a “hidden” LED-lit trackpad.

With a depth of 10.99 mm, LG says the new Gram Ultraslim is the company’s thinnest notebook. The device weighs a mere 998 g (about nine percent lighter than the model it’s replacing) and has a 15.6-inch OLED display with 1080p resolution. Of course, it gets a processor bump with 13th-gen Intel Raptor Lake chips.

The Gram Style is a new variant for this year with a glass design. Shipping in 16- and 14-inch variants, the Style has anti-glare OLED screens: 3,200 x 2,000 resolution and a 120Hz refresh rate in the 16-inch model and a 2,880 x 1,800 OLED with 90Hz for the 14-inch variant. LG says the Style has a “hidden touchpad” with LED backlighting that illuminates when you touch it. Along with 13th-gen Intel Raptor Lake chips, the new machines include Gen4 NVMeTM solid-state drive in 256GB, 512GB and 1TB tiers.

A woman sitting on a blanket in a park, using the LG Gram 2-in-1 tablet/laptop PC with a stylus.
LG Gram 2-in-1
LG

LG has new variants of the standard Gram laptop line in 17-, 16-, 15- and 14-inch variants. These models have IPS displays, updated Raptor Lake Intel chips and NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop graphics. LG is also updating its Gram 2-in-1 line with 360-degree rotating hinges. These updated models ships with 14- or 16-inch touchscreen IPS displays at 2,560 x 1,600 (16-inch) or 1,920 x 1,200 (14-inch) resolution. Additionally, they include pre-installed note-taking and drawing apps designed for the bundled LG Stylus Pen.

All new Gram laptops this year include Dolby Atmos audio for the first time, and LG touts the “ultra-compact” power adapter shipping with all new Gram models. In addition, their displays all have anti-glare coatings and support the LG Glance privacy tool. Unfortunately, we’ve run into build-quality issues with past Grams, so hopefully, the new models will fare better.

LG hasn’t yet announced pricing for the new laptops. They will launch globally starting in February. The company says it will announce US pricing and availability later.

Dell’s revamped G-series might be the best looking new budget gaming laptops at CES

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NVIDIA brings GeForce RTX 40 graphics to laptops

It didn’t take long for NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX 40 graphics to reach portable PCs. The company has introduced RTX 40 GPUs for laptops that promise large leaps in performance, even in lower-end systems. The flagship RTX 4080 and 4090 GPUs are reportedly powerful enough to play games across three 4K monitors at 60 frames per second — you might not need a desktop to immerse yourself in a flight or racing sim.

Even the mainstream GeForce RTX 4050, 4060 and 4070 chips are billed as faster than the outgoing RTX 3080. They’re quick enough to deliver 1440p gaming at up to 80FPS, and are supposedly up to twice as fast as a PlayStation 5. They also make it more practical to handle pro tasks like 3D modelling and AI-based media editing on 14-inch laptops, according to NVIDIA.

The RTX 40 architecture is notoriously power-hungry on desktops, but NVIDIA claims it’s keeping energy efficiency in check with the laptop variants. DLSS 3 AI upscaling is now optimized for mobile use, while finer-grained “tri-speed” memory control lets the GPU drop to lower-power RAM states. On-chip memory tweaks(such as doubled bandwidth) and low-voltage GDDR6 RAM also help wring the most out of the video hardware.

You’ll have to wait a little while to buy a laptop with GeForce RTX 40 tech. The first RTX 4080 and 4090 models will be available February 8th at a starting price of $1,999. If you want an RTX 4050 machine, you can buy them beginning February 22nd with an entry price of $999. NVIDIA didn’t provide a full list of laptops, but you can expect adoption from well-known brands like Acer, Alienware, ASUS, Dell, Gigabyte, HP, Lenovo, MSI, Razer and Samsung. It’s too soon to say if the GPUs live up to NVIDIA’s billing, but they’ll be welcome updates if you were already eying RTX 30-based computers.

Intel’s 13th-gen laptop CPUs offer up to 24 cores

Intel is bringing the power of its 13th-gen desktop CPUs down to laptops — all 24 cores worth. At CES today, Intel unveiled the Core i9-13980HX, the pinnacle of its mobile lineup. It features 24 cores (a combination of 8 Performance cores and 16 Efficient cores) and a boost speed of a whopping 5.6GHz. It’s the continuation of Intel’s high performance HX line, which debuted last year as a way to bring more power to beefier laptops. The company claims the new Core i9 CPU is 11 percent faster than last year’s top-end 12900HK when it comes to single-threaded tasks, and it’s 49 percent faster for multithreaded work (intensive tasks like encoding video and 3D rendering).

Intel’s 13th-gen HX lineup scales all the way down to the Core i5-13450HX, which offers 10 cores (6P, 4E) and up to 4.5Ghz boost speeds. Basically, if you’re hankering for more performance and don’t mind a hit to battery life, there should be an HX chip within your budget. The rest of Intel’s 13th-gen lineup looks noteworthy, as well. The P series chips, which are meant for performance ultraportables, will reach up to 14 cores, while the low-power U-series CPUs top out at 10 cores (2P, 8E) with the i7-1365U.

Intel 13th-gen HX CPU lineup
Intel

We weren’t too impressed with Intel’s previous P-series CPUs on laptops like the XPS 13 Plus — the performance gains seemed negligible for most tasks, while the battery life hit was massive. Hopefully Intel has made some improvements with its new lineup. The company also claims select 13th-gen chips will offer VPU (Vision Processing Unit) AI accelerators, which can help offload tasks like background blurring during video calls. The lack of a VPU was one major downside to the Intel-equipped Surface Pro 9 (and the one major advantage for the Arm model), so it’ll be nice to see some sort of AI acceleration this year.

Another pleasant surprise: New low-end chips. Intel quietly killed its Pentium and Celeron branding last year — now we’ve learned that they’ve been replaced with new N-series chips, simply dubbed Intel Processor and Intel Core i3. These chips are mainly focused on education and other entry-level computing markets, subsequently they’re only equipped with E-cores. Intel says its quad-core N200 chip offers 28 percent better application performance and 64 percent faster graphics than the previous-gen Pentium Silver N6000. Bumping up to the 8-core i3 N-305 adds an additional 42 percent in application performance and 56 percent faster graphics. Sure, we all want a 24-core laptop, but better low-end chips have the potential to help kids and other users who don’t need a boatload of power.

Aside from laptops, Intel also roundup out its 13th-gen desktop CPU lineup at CES. They’ll still reach up to 24 cores like the enthusiast-level K series chips, but they’ll “only” go up to 5.6GHz boost speeds, instead of 5.8Ghz. The company says they’re 11 percent faster in single-threaded performance and up to 34 percent faster when it comes to multi-threaded tasks. The 13th-gen desktop chips will also be compatible with 600 and 700-series motherboards, and they’ll work with either DDR5 or DDR4 memory, making them decent upgrades for modern Intel systems.

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Dell’s new sustainable Concept Luna laptop can be dismantled in seconds

Last year, Dell intrigued us with Concept Luna, its attempt at making a sustainable laptop with fewer screws, using components that are easier to upgrade and recycle. It felt like a breath of fresh air compared to ultraportables that trade repairability for thinness. This year, Dell is pushing the concept even further. Its latest Luna device can be fully disassembled in around 30 seconds using just a push-pin tool and a bit of elbow grease. There aren’t any cables or screws to worry about.

How can Dell achieve this sorcery? By developing a completely modular design, wherein every component can be snapped into place without much fuss. And it’s not just marketing hype: As you can see in the video above, it doesn’t take much effort for a Dell representative to deftly disassemble a Luna device. After unlocking the keyboard with a pin tool, he removed two speaker units, the battery, a CPU fan and a slim motherboard. The display was a cinch to remove as well, after unlocking the laptop’s center bezel.

When it’s all put together, the new Concept Luna looks like one of Dell’s 13-inch laptops (more a Latitude than a slim XPS, to be clear). You’d have no idea there was a genuine revolution going on under the hood. Dell’s sustainability angle is a lot more clear this time around. Whereas the previous concept still required a bit of technical maneuvering, it wouldn’t take much for a general user to get under the hood of a fully modular laptop like this. It’s about as hard as ejecting a SIM card.

Someone disassembling a Dell Concept Luna laptop.
Dell

The new Luna laptop also has room for a CPU fan, allowing it to house more powerful processors. Additionally, Dell worked with a micro-factory while developing Luna, allowing the company to automate the ordeal of assembling and tearing Luna devices apart. That process also involves testing individual components — after all, it’s easy to imagine some aspects of a computer getting far more use than others. If you primarily used your laptop on a desk with an external keyboard, its built-in keyboard probably has a lot of life left.

A robot disassembling a Dell Concept Luna laptop.
Dell

“By marrying Luna’s sustainable design with intelligent telemetry and robotic automation, we’ve created something with the potential to trigger a seismic shift in the industry and drive circularity at scale,” Glen Robson, CTO for Dell Technologies’ Client Solutions Group, said in a blog post. “A single sustainable device is one thing, but the real opportunity is the potential impact on millions of tech devices sold each year, and optimizing the materials in those devices for future reuse, refurbishment or recycling. “

While it’s unlikely we’ll see a Luna-like consumer laptop anytime soon, its mere existence could influence the way Dell designs future systems. The company is also pushing its sustainability initiatives in a variety of other ways, for example by dramatically reducing packaging waste, or exploring recycled materials for some PC cases. When it comes to true DIY repairability, Dell already has some competition from Framework (which just unveiled a DIY Chromebook). Still, it’s nice to see one of the world’s biggest PC makers taking sustainability seriously.

Dell Concept Luna
Brian Oh/Engadget