LG Gram 17

I love my LG Gram 17 from 3.5 years ago (I think it's a 2018 model). Costco sells them, and when they go on sale, the value can't be beat IMHO. Great screen, amazing battery (even after 3 years), zero issues on Linux (Fedora), love the dual NVMe option. I'm thinking of upgrading to a 16" model, but I'll probably wait until another year. Edit to add: Costco now carries 14 different models.

One more very satisfied user of an LG Gram 17. A beautiful LG 2560x1600 screen, amazing (also LG) battery life, less than 3 lbs. I really like the keyboard and touchpad, more so than on a Mac (but that's very personal). The RAM can be upgraded to 40 GB, and there is a second M.2 slot if you want disk mirroring or striping. I run Fedora and have zero problems. (I generally upgrade 3 months after a release.) The model that I have has a 72 Wh battery and newer 17 and 16 inch models now come with an 80 Wh battery. Mine is 3 years old now and it's aged much better than I expected. I can watch a 4K movie over a network CephFS mount and after 2 hours, my battery is at 80%. I bought it on a whim at Costco, and I seriously think I'll get another one next time (maybe a 16"). Costco drops the prices to $350-$400 off every few months, and they're a steal for what you get.

I really like the LG Gram series. I had one of the first generation Gram 17, and this Jan got the 16 (same 16:10 resolution as the 17). My wife has been using Gram 14, and she really likes it. All 3 laptops have been exclusively on Fedora. Zero issues. I really like the screen, the weight, and the excellent battery. On the older model, sleep was not very good in terms of using low power, but with the two latest (last year) models, sleep is ultra low power. Of course the massive battery helps a lot. Trackpad is great, keyboard is great. It's awesome to have dual NVMe slots, although not so great to have non-upgradable RAM. I can do a full work day on battery charged to 80%, including multiple long Zoom calls.

Right now I'm in the second year with an LG Gram 17, and it's easily been the best laptop I've had in a long time. The only thing giving me pause about replacing it with another Gram is Framework. The idea of serviceability and being able to upgrade is really exciting - so much so I'll give Framework a try if the 16" model is available with a screen that is at least 2560x1600 (would prefer 4k) and 32GB RAM.

I'm in love with my LG gram 17. It has a 17 inch screen and weighs less than 3lbs. You can configure the 2023 model with a RTX 3050 too.

I carry an M1 Macbook Air (for xcode) and an LG Gram 17 running Kubuntu for everything else (which is most of what I do). The Gram is probably the best laptop I've ever owned (it replaced an XPS-15) - it's bigger (13" vs 17"), lighter (2oz less than the air) and gets crazy life out of the battery. When new, the Gram got 11-16 hours of battery (it now gets 8-10 hours) under development load (i.e running a node app, a go app and a Django backend, plus support servers). The Air hasn't been used as hard as the Gram, but it's battery gets similar performance. On the power management front, everything works on the air. On the Gram, hibernate is disabled, and sleep works (I've left the Gram in my bag over a three day weekend, and it was at about 20% on Tuesday when I opened it up). I ran Windows for about a week on the Gram and it did got less than eight hours of battery. No idea why.

LG Gram 17 is my favorite laptop. If you want a large screen (17", 2560x1600) while being ultrathin and lightweight (1.35kg), I haven't found better. That being said I ended up uninstalling Linux for Windows because Linux turned out to be a big pain and had too many dealbreakers for me (no two-finger swipe back/forward navigation, couldn't connect Airpod Pro headphones with microphone, too much hassle to do basic everyday stuff). I know Windows isn't ideal, but with Windows Subsystem for Linux you still get your Linux terminal.

I'm a big fan of the LG Gram 17. It's the lightest laptop with a 17 inch screen ever made, even lighter than a Macbook Air. It's not the most performant machine so I wouldn't buy it if you need the best performance, but it's certainly good enough for software development. Just get a anti-glare screen protector with it since the screen is very reflective.

I'd second this recommendation, given your price-bracket. My home laptop is a 2020 LG Gram 17 (which I've augmented to 40GB RAM and a 1TB Samsung Evo Plus SSD). The combination of sheer screen real-estate plus incredible lightness makes this a joy to work with. Obviously, it's never going to win in raw performance benchmark comparisons, but I tend to move any significant heavy lifting to cloud anyway. What makes things easier for me is using it in conjunction with remote VSCode (into either local WSL2 or aforementioned cloud boxes). Of course, if you're wedded to specific Mac software, then I'd imagine that an M1-based machine will be your only realistic option.

Good news, the laptops with the longest battery life aren't Macs. Better news, installing Windows on Intel Macs improves battery life under common use cases. Best news, Linux on that same Mac is even longer. Hilariously, as much as Chromebooks suck, there are many Chromebooks that have half the Wh of M1/M2 99Wh Macbooks, cost half as much, and meet or exceed battery life under common tasks (implying they're both twice as efficient per watt, and twice as efficient per dollar). These Chromebooks can run Linux, and aren't stuck with ChromeOS.... so if you're really into ultra-thin laptops with excessive battery life, well, they're an option. I also semi-recently saw a review for the LG Gram 17, an Intel laptop that has 3/4th the Wh of Macbooks, yet has the same battery life in common tasks, and a 17 inch (!) screen; costs about the same as a Macbook. So, even with the Intel CPU holding it back, its keeping up with those Macs. So yeah, Apple hasn't kept up with the battery life game at all, another myth cranked out by the FUD+FOMO Apple PR machine.