Storage, Thermals, Battery Life

The one chief downside to system performance is the SSD. The 256GB unit included with the Gram 13 is but a SATA Samsung PM871 drive, with performance capped effectually the 500 MB/s mark for sequential transfers. The best laptops similar the Dell XPS 13 apply an NVMe bulldoze with performance in the GB/s range, whereas with this SATA drive y'all're not getting annihilation like that. Considering you tin't get a configuration with more than 256GB of storage anyway, it could exist worth swapping it out yourself if you are bang-up on the Gram'due south strengths.

The Gram 13 does have an active libation for the CPU, however we were quite impressed with it. Nether the full load of a Handbrake x265 encode, the libation is quiet, producing but 34 dBA from 50cm abroad. Surface temperatures are also kept in check: we recorded 43C in the upper middle of the keyboard and 36C on the underside.

1 of the areas nosotros were most interested in is battery life. With a 72 Wh battery inside the thirteen-inch model, the Gram thirteen is loaded with more battery capacity than most competing laptops, which typically top out effectually the 50 to sixty Wh marking. The touchscreen included with our review unit will sip a bit more power than the base model without touch, still we were still expecting very good results from the Gram.

And beyond the battery tests we ran, the Gram delivered. Bombardment life was either at or most the height of the charts in every exam, delivering some of the best results I've seen from the past couple of generations of laptops I've tested. Despite the quad-core CPU within, the Gram even does well in battery tests that are more CPU intensive, which is great news for those that desire to run power hungry workloads off the charger.