Following companies like Lenovo, Asus and, more recently, HP, LG has announced a new laptop built around a single large folding screen. The device is called LG Gram Fold, and will be available to purchase online in South Korea for 4.99 million won (around $3,697) starting October 4. An international release has not yet been announced.
Like previous foldable laptops, the LG Gram Fold can be used in a variety of different orientations. If you’re looking for a traditional laptop experience, you can fold it upright and place a Bluetooth keyboard on its bottom half to use the remaining portion of its screen as a 12-inch laptop with a 3:2 aspect ratio. Or, if you ditch the physical keyboard, you can type on a virtual keyboard on the screen itself. Flattening the laptop completely allows you to use it as a tablet, or you can add a keyboard to use it as a computer with a 17-inch screen. There is also a book mode designed so that you can fold the laptop in half and hold it in your hands in a horizontal position.
The screen itself has a resolution of 1920 x 2560, with a maximum brightness of 500 nits. In a separate press release announcing mass production of the panel itself, LG Display notes that the screen features a “specialized material” in the folding area of the screen to minimize wrinkles. LG says the Gram Fold is rated to survive 30,000 folding cycles. This may seem low compared to the 200,000 or even 400,000 that some foldable phones are rated for, but the idea is that there is typically less folding and unfolding of a laptop over the course of a day, so fewer folds shouldn’t translate into much shorter lifespan. .
Far from the main attraction of its folding screen, the specifications of the LG Gram Fold are more modest. It is powered by an Intel i5-1335U CPU with 16GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and a 72Wh battery. It weighs 1250 grams and is 19.9 mm thick when folded and 9.4 mm when unfolded. The Windows 11 machine comes with a pair of USB-C ports, one supporting Thunderbolt 4 and the other USB 3.2 Gen 2×1. The LG Gram Fold also supports a stylus, but LG sells them separately.
LG Display is proud to mass produce these types of foldable displays and competitors Samsung Display and BOE By making its own foldable panels, it seems likely that LG won’t be the last laptop maker to announce a device like this. Now we just have to wait for future models that don’t cost several thousand dollars.
