LG gram 16-inch Lightweight Laptop, Intel Evo Edition – Intel Core Ultra 7 Processor, Windows 11 Home, 16GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Black

Whenever I review PCs or laptops I try to set them up and use them like the average consumer would. Typically, when I get a new laptop the first thing I do is wipe the hard drive and install Ubuntu. For a review (including this one) I just turn it on and go through all of the steps suggested by the manufacturer. I also suffer through the experience of using Windows 11 for a few days. The reality is that most ‘computer problems’ experienced by the consumer market is due to the operating system and/or manufacturer installed ‘bloatware’ than an intrinsic problem with the computer. In a perfect world, I’d just ignore the OS entirely and focus on the hardware but I try to be mindful of how most people would use a new laptop.

Let’s start with the hardware. Aesthetically, it’s pretty basic. It’s by no means ugly and is actually kind of sleek in a utilitarian sort of way but it’s not a machine that will cause customers to salivate when they see it in the window of their local electronics superstore. It’s devoid of any branding except for a subtle ‘Gram’ logo on the top. It’s actually very cool and sleek looking and everything from the packaging to the construction has the feel of a quality product. It’s just not eye catching or anything but that’s not really what it’s supposed to be.

The most impressive thing about the LG GRAM 16 is its weight–or more specifically, the lack of weight. The LG website says it weighs 2.78 pounds which makes it easily the lightest laptop of its size on the market. My wife’s 16″ MacBook Pro weighs in at 4.7 pounds and the most comparable lightweight Apple laptop–the 15″ MacBook Air–is 3.3 pounds. In hand (or in a bag) it feels discernibly lighter than any laptop I’ve experienced. It’s also amazingly thin. I traveled with it last week and put it in the same bag as my ‘daily driver’ laptop. In practical terms, just lugging it through the airport and whatnot, I couldn’t tell there was an extra computer in the bag. That in itself is a reason to consider this laptop, particularly if you’re a frequent traveller.

Obviously, to get a computer this thin and light some concessions need to be made–but not many. At least not many that would be noticeable to an end user. The keyboard is full size and includes function keys and a number pad. The trackpad is also generously sized. I usually use a mouse with my laptop but the trackpad is responsive and easy to work with. The ‘interior design’ is also sleek and spare with a small LG logo under the screen and a small ‘Gram’ logo under the right escape key. There’s also the silly ‘Intel’ sticker that you get on every new laptop but that’s easy enough to peel off. It doesn’t come off cleanly but a bit of rubbing alcohol will take care of the remaining adhesive. For such a thin device everything feels nice and solid though clearly this isn’t the laptop of choice if you need serious durability. For general use, the durability is impressive relative to the size and weight.

The display might not be ‘state of the art’ but it’s really much better than I expected given the trim form factor. According to the specs it is a ’16” WQXGA (2560 x 1600) IPS low-glare touchscreen display’. Colors are nice, the touchscreen is responsive and the low glare function is always welcome. You can get more impressive displays on a laptop but not in a unit this light and portable. Going into it, I thought this might be where LG would have made some concessions to get the weight down but for the overwhelming majority of use cases it’s excellent. We’ll get ‘under the hood’ in a moment but one limitation of this laptop might be high end gaming. It uses the integrated Intel Arc graphics processor which is not bad for most uses but can’t hang with a discrete GPU. That said, I played a few of my favorite games on Steam and had no issue. I wouldn’t try to play ‘Cyberpunk 2077’ or any other resource demanding games on it but more basic games such as ‘Magic: The Gathering Arena’ worked just fine. For most work and entertainment use cases it’ll work great.

The CPU is a Intel Core Ultra 7 processor and it worked great for everything I tried. I didn’t do any stress testing or anything but I threw a wide variety of programs and functionalities at it with no problems whatsoever. I’ll preface this by saying I hate the trend toward non-upgradable RAM but on a device like this I understand it. Another thing I usually do when I get a new laptop is to max out the RAM but that’s not possible here. That said, I encountered no issues during my testing and for most uses the 16GB will be plenty. Not to make this an anti-Windows screed, but the reality is that it takes a lot of resource overhead just to run Windows 11. There are ways to minimize this and even if you don’t consider yourself particularly tech savvy most are fairly simple (eg: limiting startup programs). The 1TB SSD is definitely enough for most uses, particularly with so many external/cloud storage options available. It has space for another M.2 SSD but even as someone that has a lot of experience working on laptops I’m not sure it’s worth potentially damaging it by opening the case. The upside of more space just doesn’t justify the downside risk. Battery life isn’t bad but that’s definitely a place where LG couldn’t go overboard and keep it this light. I’ve owned countless laptops over the years and I’ve never found battery life a major consideration. I travel frequently and work on the road and there’s just so many places to plug in these days–even on airplanes.

On board audio isn’t great, but that’s not exactly a strong suit of most laptops. With external speakers or headphones installed it sounds just fine. Again, it wouldn’t be worth adding to the weight with more substantial speakers. The webcam is average–servicable but not great. I always use an external webcam with my laptop and if you need the webcam often I’d suggest doing the same. If you don’t use the webcam frequently the ‘stock’ webcam will work just fine. You’re not going to find a lot of external ports on any laptop circa 2024 but the Gram has more than my top of the line ‘daily driver’ laptop which came with a whopping 3 USB C ports. You’ve got a couple of USB-A ports, 2 Thunderbot 4 ports (which are backwards compatible with any USB-C device), an HDMI port, a 3.5mm audio out and a microSD card slot. For general use, this is more than enough and if you do need more there’s a myriad of USB hubs/docking stations available.

Windows 11 makes initial setup maddening but that’s not the fault of LG or the hardware. LG does pre-install some of their own software but if you don’t need it it’s easy to remove. LG also has a Android/iOS app that links with the laptop and it’s actually useful. Usability takes some initial work but this is also not the fault of the hardware. As someone who has primarily used Ubuntu and other Linux distros I’m always amazed and the non stop effort that Windows 11 makes to sell you something else. I’m sure that’s good for revenue but it has a miserable impact on user experience. Ditto with all of the news, weather, local information, etc. that I don’t want. Maybe some people find this useful but my biggest gripe is that there’s not an intuitive way to get it to stop (pro tip: uninstall Microsoft News to get rid of the news through the app interface). The shame of it is that once you get the intrusive ads and OS micromanagement from Microsoft under control Windows 11 isn’t bad at all–definitely my favorite Windows version to use since XP.

Overall this is an excellent laptop and a borderline amazing laptop once you factor in the size and weight. It’s not the fastest computer, but it’s adequate for most needs. If you need cutting edge video/graphics this isn’t the machine for you. I don’t think I’d be trying to do serious video editing or other heavy resource demanding tasks on this laptop due to the RAM and video limitations. For the overwhelming majority of use cases, it works just fine and it’s an absolute joy to travel with. Highly recommended!