LG Gram Pro 16 2-in-1 reviewed: work without the weight

A big laptop that doesn’t feel big? Sign us up, as LG builds a hybrid tablet laptop made to feel lighter than it should. Is the LG Gram Pro 16 2-in-1 perfect, or does it need work?

It’s been a long time since carrying a laptop was seen as an arduous task or chore. Most laptops these days aren’t the behemoths they once were, but they can still be smaller. Laptop manufacturers can still make our workhorses to be slimmer and lighter so we don’t actively need to remember that, yes, we’re still carrying them.

That could be what LG is channelling with its “Gram”, a laptop range that begs for a point of difference by focusing almost exclusively on its size and weight. It’s all there in the name, shedding grams by stating the name as the brief.

In the Gram 16 Pro 2-in-1, LG is all about making a bigger laptop thinner and lighter. Is it every bit the pro laptop it needs to be in every other way?

Design

There’s not a lot that needs to be said about the LG Gram 16 Pro’s 2-in-1 design: it’s simple, it’s minimalist, and while it may not be the most “pro” looking laptop we’ve seen, it definitely matches one of the briefs LG has been talking about since it returned to laptops a few years ago.

If you missed the memo, LG’s Gram series is about shedding as much weight as possible and making a laptop that’s light. Really light.

Designed with both magnesium and plastic, the LG Gram 16 Pro 2-in-1 is a 1.4kg laptop with a 16 inch screen and a 360 degree hinge. That is quite light, so much that you can hold it up with one hand comfortably. By comparison, the slightly smaller 15 inch M4 MacBook Air is 1.51kg, giving LG a good 100 gram minimum weight range and a whole inch of screen size more.

The Gram 16 also manages to measure around 1.2cm, or just shy of 1.3cm. It’s not as thin as your phone, but it’s so thin, you won’t really question it.

Features

While the laptop is built to be thin, it does come with a surprising number of ports, covering two USB-C ready Thunderbolt 4 ports you can charge the laptop from, two rectangular USB-A ports (covering USB 3.2), a single HDMI, and a 3.5mm headset port.

And that’s just part of the feature set.

You’ll also find an Intel Core Ultra 7 second-gen chip here (255H), 16GB RAM, 512GB storage, and Windows 11 Home.

We’ve already touched on wired connections, but you’ll also find WiFi 7 on-board as well as Bluetooth 5.4, sitting in the hardware, as well as a Full HD webcam with infrared, a mic system, and a small stereo speaker system with a virtualised Dolby Atmos component, too.

Display

The other major feature is impossible not to see: a large 16 inch screen running a resolution of 2560×1600. Sure, it’s not 4K, but it’s still a sizeable display area, and one that looks great on the 16 inch 144Hz panel.

That screen is easy on the eyes, even if it is just an LCD with touch. Sadly, there’s no OLED or Mini-LED here, though you do get 99 percent support of the P3 colour gamut, meaning folks who like their colour accuracy should be relatively happy.

The good news is it means you have 16 inches of display to feast your eyes upon and to touch, should you choose to. That’s one way of controlling the laptop.

In-use

Another is the mouse and keyboard, and like most laptops, you’ll find a keyboard and trackpad waiting for you. Unlike some other laptops, however, neither the keyboard or mouse is particularly fantastic.

The travel is really low for the keys, and the typing experience feels very plasticky and shallow, as if you’re hardly typing on anything at all. Overall, the result makes the experience of entering anything into the LG Gram 16 as clunky at best, and while we normally write a laptop review on our review laptops, we tried to get away from this one as quickly as possible.

It’s a similar picture with the trackpad, which is fast and responsive, until that is you need to actually press something where it misses the satisfying click of others.

The keyboard is clearly the weakest part of the package, but you can get used to both. If anything, the inclusion of the pen with the touchscreen is handy, as is the 360 degree hinge, which can see this laptop turn into an oversized tablet should you want it to.

Even the numeric keypad on the right side is useful, though not super comfortable to keep using.

You’ll get used to it, sure, but there are definitely better keyboards out there.

Performance

On the other hand, the performance was better than we expected.

While most of the Intel-equipped PCs we’ve seen this year arrived with a second-gen Core Ultra model built for balance in the “V” line, the LG Gram 16 Pro 2-in-1 comes with one of the “H” models more for performance.

In synthetic benchmarks, the Core Ultra 255H in the Gram definitely outperforms the Intel 256V and 258V chips, but doesn’t always beat everything.

For instance, some of last year’s laptops opted for a discrete graphics chip, and manage to throttle the Gram even while their system performance isn’t quite as strong.

And then there’s the case of the LG Gram 16 Pro’s obvious competition: the 15 inch M4 MacBook Air.

In what is clearly not a fair case of apples and oranges — or an Apple vs LG — the 15 inch M4 MacBook has a little more in the tank where it counts, even if it lacks the touchscreen. The laptops are close in one score, but Apple’s Silicon outperforms the Intel hardware, even though both have the same 16GB RAM.

Overall, that’s not a bad effort from a performance standpoint, and it’s one where you shouldn’t really find major problems actually using the computer.

Throughout our time with the Gram 16, we didn’t find any major points of lag or slowdowns beyond the LG software, which is always looking for an update, but not always paying attention to you closing the app. That’s a problem with software, not with the laptop itself.

Battery

The battery is also similarly capable, providing a good 8 to 10 hours of regular use, but hitting a solid 12 hours in our benchmarks using 3D Mark’s “Modern Office” test.

That’s an easy work day of battery life and then some, helped by the fact that like every other laptop out there, the LG Gram 16 is powered by a USB-C port, and that’s the universal standard we all love so much.

Simply put, plug it into the same power pack you might charge your phone from, and you’ll see the power trickle in. Or go the opposite way and use your phone to charge from your laptop charger. Easy.

Value

The price is where things get complex, because at $3499 in Australia, it does feel like you’re being asked to pay extra for what gives the LG Gram its name: the slim design and build.

At a little over 12mm thick, the LG Gram Pro 16 2-in-1 isn’t really thick, and isn’t much more than one-and-a-half iPhones pressed together in thickness. Easily doable. But the weight is far more impressive, hitting 1.4kg for a 16 inch laptop.

That’s on another level. The problem is you’re paying for it, and missing out on other features in the process.

What needs work?

Is there a better graphics chip here? Nup. What about an OLED screen? Nope. What about the sound system? That’s not fantastic, either.

Even the durability can feel a little soft, with the hinge lacking the tightness you may expect. The use of magnesium and plastic helps to cut back on weight, but we found the screen hinge sometimes would slip back at times, rather than hold its position upright.

The bones of a great computer are here, but some of the features are a little less where they ideally should be, and that keyboard isn’t fun to use as a touch typist. Errors go up and comfort goes down, and while you can get used to it, the result just isn’t that fun.

Slower typists will be at ease on the LG Gram Pro 16 2-in-1, but faster computer users will just scream for something new.

What do we love?

The thing is that the screen is actually nice, and together with the build, the LG Gram Pro 16 2-in-1 can feel like an exceptional 16 inch 2-in-1.

We don’t see a whole heap of 2-in-1 hybrid Windows tablet laptops anymore, however, and Windows is largely the reason why. In Windows 11, Microsoft has largely moved away from needing a touchscreen, so while it works, it doesn’t work as well as an iPad or even Android.

As a result, Windows laptops may have a touchscreen, but they probably won’t lean on it. We’ve largely moved on from the days where hybrid tablet laptops were everywhere, and no it’s just a feature you might use.

Here in the LG Gram 16 2-in-1, it’s a feature that actually works should you want to use it. LG even includes a pen in the box, and it might just give you another reason to flip the lid in the calmest possible way and use the laptop differently.

Final thoughts (TLDR)

While there are clear ways the LG Gram 16 Pro 2-in-1 can improve, it’s a great starting point for someone who needs a big laptop, but wants to forgo the weight. The keyboard and mouse aren’t amazing for fast typists, but if that doesn’t matter, there are reasons to consider this machine.

It’s work without the weight. The next version might just nail it, and then LG could have a real winner.