LG gram Pro 16 (2024) Laptop Review

The LG gram Pro 16 is available in Black or White. See the bottom of the laptop here.

The LG gram Pro’s build quality is excellent. Its magnesium-alloy chassis feels quite sturdy but somewhat plasticky, which, combined with its lightweight design, can come off as being cheap, especially when compared to models with a full-aluminum chassis like the Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M3, 2023). The display twists a little when manipulating it, but not enough to be of concern, and there’s very little flex on the lid and keyboard deck. The finish doesn’t scratch easily, and surprisingly, the dark color model doesn’t pick up many fingerprints.

The LG gram Pro has an outstanding hinge. It feels smooth when opening and closing the lid and is stable, exhibiting very little wobble when moving the device or typing heavily.

The LG gram Pro’s serviceability is mediocre. Accessing the internals is relatively easy; you need to remove the feet (not glued on) and four Philips screws, then undo the clips holding the bottom panel. You might need a prying tool, as the clips are somewhat challenging to undo. Both storage slots support M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSDs.

Get the online manual here.

• 65W USB-C power adapter and cord
• Documentation

Note: Models with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU have a 90W power adapter.

The LG gram Pro 16 is available with the following displays:

• 16" IPS 2560 x 1600 144Hz (matte)
• 16" OLED 2880 x 1800 120Hz (glossy)

Both displays look very sharp and provide plenty of space for split-screen multitasking. The 2.8k OLED display is technically sharper (212 PPI), but the difference is hard to notice at typical viewing distances. Both are 16:10 displays. This aspect ratio is great for productivity, as you get slightly more vertical space than a standard 16:9 display, allowing you to see more information when reading a document or website. The OLED display is susceptible to permanent burn-in, especially with static elements like Windows' taskbar; however, it's unlikely to be an issue for those viewing varied content.

The QHD+ display has a high refresh rate to provide a more responsive desktop experience; however, its response time is quite slow, resulting in noticeable ghosting behind fast-moving objects. The OLED display has a slightly lower refresh rate of 120Hz but likely a much faster response time, as the response time on OLED panels is typically near-instantaneous. Both displays support LG’s Various Refresh Rate, a power-conservation feature similar to Windows’ Dynamic Refresh Rate and Apple’s ProMotion. This means it can change the refresh rate (between 33Hz and 144Hz) depending on what you’re doing and whether you have the laptop plugged in. Note that Various Refresh Rate isn’t the same as FreeSync and G-SYNC, so you’ll still see tearing when gaming with an uncapped frame rate.

The QHD+ display's contrast ratio is good and within the typical range for most IPS panels. However, it's still relatively low compared to other display technologies like VA and OLED. This contrast level makes blacks look gray in dim settings. The OLED display has effectively an infinite contrast ratio since it can turn off individual pixels to produce perfect blacks, making it a much better option for dark room viewing.

The QHD+ display gets bright enough for use in most indoor environments. Outdoor use is possible, but you may have trouble seeing dark-color content on bright, sunny days or in direct sunlight. As for the OLED panel, although it has the same advertised brightness of 400 cd/m², remember that it has a glossy finish, so you'll likely get more distracting reflections, even with the screen at max brightness. The screen gets very dim at the lowest brightness setting, which helps reduce eye strain when viewing content in the dark.

The QHD+ display's reflection handling is decent. Viewing light-color content isn't a problem because the screen gets bright enough to compensate; it's mostly dark-color content that'll be hard to see. The 2.8k OLED panel has a glossy finish and will likely struggle more with direct, mirror-like reflections.

The 2.8k OLED panel's black uniformity is perfect since it can turn off individual pixels to produce perfect blacks.

The QHD+ IPS display's horizontal viewing angle is okay. The image dims and washes out relatively quickly as you move to the side, so you need to be more or less directly in front of the screen to get the best accuracy. The 2.8k OLED panel will likely perform better regarding color washout and brightness loss, but it'll struggle more with color shifting.

The QHD+ IPS display's vertical viewing angle is okay. Like the horizontal viewing angle, the image dims and washes when viewing from above and below, so you need to look at the screen more or less straight on to see an accurate image, which can be challenging in tight places where you have little room to tilt the screen, like on a bus or airplane. Again, the OLED panel will likely perform better regarding color washout and brightness loss but will struggle more with color shifting.

The QHD+ display's accuracy is passable out of the box. The white balance inaccuracies are relatively minor except at higher brightness levels where there's too much blue. There's a good amount of oversaturation when it comes to the colors. Some people might like this oversaturated look; it just isn't accurate. The color temperature is on the cooler side, giving the image a blueish tint, and the gamma sticks to an almost flat 2.2, making dark scenes too dark and bright scenes too bright.

The LG Smart Assistant app has a few display-related settings, including a Professional Mode, which supposedly lets users access a wider color gamut for content creation work; however, it doesn't seem to have much effect. Here are the accuracy results and the color gamut measurements with it enabled.

The QHD+ IPS display's color gamut is outstanding. It has full sRGB and DCI P3 coverage, making it suitable for media consumption and content creation. Its Adobe RGB coverage is excellent, though it may not be good enough for professional print photography, as it can't reproduce the highly saturated greens that define Adobe RGB. The 2.8k OLED display has the same color gamut.

The 2.8k OLED display flickers; however, it's unlikely to cause eye strain, as the flickering is usually a tiny drop in brightness.

The LG gram Pro has a decent keyboard. It feels spacious and sports flat keycaps with a light, almost imperceptible texture. There isn't anything particularly weird about the layout, but it might still take some time to get used to, especially if you aren't accustomed to a full-size keyboard with a numpad. The keys provide good tactile feedback; however, they don't have much travel and require a fair amount of force to actuate, which can cause some fatigue over time. The backlighting is white, leaning on the cooler side.

The LG gram Pro has an excellent touchpad. It's large, smooth, and responsive to all movements and gestures. Palm rejection is okay for the most part, though you might get a few unintentional triggers once in a while. The buttons feel tactile but only work in the bottom half of the touchpad.

The LG gram Pro 16's speakers get pretty loud with minimal compression or distortion at higher volume levels. Sound-wise, they emphasize vocals quite a bit, almost to the point of drowning out other instruments. They also sound a tad unnatural. There's some bass, but not a whole lot.

The LG gram Pro has a good webcam. The image looks detailed and well-exposed, but also slightly noisy, with a somewhat unnatural saturation boost to some colors. Voices sound loud and clear over the microphone, with little to no static or background noise.

The LG gram Pro has an outstanding port selection. Both USB-A ports support USB 3.2 Gen 1 data transfer speed of up to 5Gbps. The two USB-C ports support Thunderbolt 4 (up to 40Gbps data transfer speed and two 4k @ 60Hz displays), USB 3.2 Gen 2, and Power Delivery. The latter lets you fast charge the laptop and other PD-compatible devices connected to the port.

The LG gram Pro's wireless adapter is an Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211.

The LG gram Pro 16 is available with the following CPUs:

• Intel Core Ultra 5 125H (14 cores, 18 Threads, up to 4.5 GHz, 18MB Cache)
• Intel Core Ultra 7 155H (16 cores, 22 Threads, up to 4.8 GHz, 24MB Cache)

Both are high-performance CPUs from Intel's Meteor Lake family. Unlike Intel's 14th Gen processors (13th Gen Raptor Lake refreshes), these CPUs have two low-power E-cores (LP-E) to further improve efficiency and an NPU (Neural Processing Units) to handle AI-based tasks, like background-blurring on video calls and some functions in photo editing apps. These processors can easily handle general productivity tasks, like text processing, web browsing, video playback, spreadsheets, and presentations. You can perform more demanding tasks like programming and video editing, though the experience won't be as smooth as on a laptop with a higher wattage CPU, like the Dell Alienware m18 R2 (2024), and tasks will take longer to complete. Regarding core composition, the Core Ultra 5 has four performance cores, eight efficiency cores, and two low-power efficiency cores (4P+8E+2LP-E), while the Core Ultra 7 has six performance cores, eight efficiency cores, and two low-power efficiency cores (6P+8E+2LP-E). Both CPUs have the same Neural Processing Units (NPU).

The LG gram Pro is available with Intel Arc graphics (integrated) only or an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU (discrete). While better than Iris Xe, Intel's Arc integrated GPU is still a low-power graphics processor designed for general productivity tasks, not demanding workloads like gaming and 3D graphics. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU is better and can handle some intensive tasks, but don't expect too much of it, as it's an aging, entry-level GPU with only 4GB of VRAM. LG doesn't specify the TGP (Total Graphics Power), though it's likely at or near the minimum 35W, considering the chassis size and the included 90W power adapter. In other words, it'll get the job done, but you might experience slowdowns or stutters if the material is overly complex.

You can configure this laptop with 8GB, 16GB, or 32GB of RAM. The memory isn't user-replaceable.

You can configure the LG gram Pro with 256GB, 512GB, or 1TB of storage. The SSD is user-replaceable. There are two slots; both support M.2 2280 PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSDs.

The LG gram Pro has an outstanding overall score in Geekbench 5. The Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU performs well in a variety of workloads and can easily handle general productivity tasks like web browsing, text processing, and video playback. You can run more intensive, multi-threaded applications; however, you might experience some stutters and slowdowns if the work is overly complex. Also, the CPU throttles a lot after 10 or 15 minutes of heavy, sustained load, so you'll see a dramatically longer completion time. If you have a demanding workload, you're better off getting a laptop with a faster processor, like the Intel Core i9-14900HX in the Dell Alienware m18 R2 (2024) or Apple's M3 Pro/Max SoCs in the Apple MacBook Pro 14 (M3, 2023) and Apple MacBook Pro 16 (M3, 2023), paired with a superior cooling system. As for GPU computing tasks, the Intel Arc integrated GPU isn't suitable for such workloads, but the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 is. That said, the 3050 is an entry-level GPU, and it likely runs at a low wattage, so don't expect to have the smoothest experience or the fastest completion times.

The LG gram Pro 16's Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU scores well in the Cinebench R23 benchmarks. It can handle heavy multitasking and intensive, multi-threaded applications. However, this laptop still isn't ideal for workloads that put the CPU under load for more than 10 to 15 minutes at a time, as the processor throttles significantly at that point, leading to a much longer completion time. The Core Ultra 5 125H is slower and only suitable for general productivity tasks.

You can do 3D graphics work in Blender on the LG gram Pro 16, but it's best to get a model with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050, as this discrete GPU will provide a smoother experience and render images in significantly less time than the CPU.

The Basemark GPU score is mediocre. Intel's Arc integrated GPU is certainly better than the older Iris Xe and even beats AMD's Radeon 780M, but it's slower than Apple's base M3 SoC and doesn't even come close to the performance of an entry-level discrete GPU like the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650. You can play some light, older games, but only with low graphical settings. The NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 performs better and can handle some demanding games at 1080p, but again, you'll have to play with low settings to get playable frame rates.

Models with a 2.8k OLED display and/or NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU likely have a shorter battery life.

Borderlands 3 runs poorly on the LG gram Pro. The Intel Arc integrated graphics can't handle such a demanding game. Models with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Laptop GPU will fare better and get you closer to 60 fps; however, you'll have to play at 720p or with the lowest graphical settings, and even then, you might still experience a lot of stutters.

Civilization VI is playable on models with Intel Arc graphics with medium to low settings. You'll still experience stutters, but they aren't game-breaking since it's a strategy game that doesn't require precise aiming or fast reaction time. Models with an NVIDIA RTX 3050 will have no issues running this game.

Counter-Strike 2 runs poorly. The Intel Arc GPU can push over 60 fps with low settings, but the gameplay is still choppy due to frame drops. This game will likely run well on models with an NVIDIA RTX 3050 GPU with minimal tweaks in the settings.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider runs poorly on the LG gram Pro. The gameplay is extremely choppy, even with the lowest graphical settings. Models with an RTX 3050 discrete GPU will perform better and get you closer to 60 fps, but you'll have to play with relatively low settings and rely on DLSS to get there.

The keyboard gets a little toasty under load but isn't uncomfortable by any means. The fans are barely audible. You can change the fan profile via the LG Smart Assistant app.

The LG gram Pro 16 has many pre-installed applications, including:

• Intel Unison: Lets you connect your smartphone to the laptop, allowing you to send and receive messages, view photos on your smartphone, and transfer files, similar to the MyPhone app.
• LG Glance by Mirametrix: Software application that adds attention-sensing capability. When enabled, it can automatically lock your computer when you walk away, pause a video or blur the content when you aren't directly looking at the screen, or move windows from one screen to another.
• LG gram Link: Lets you link your smartphone with the PC. You can use it to transfer files, use your smartphone as a second display, or mirror your phone's content.
• LG On Screen Display 3: Adds an overlay that informs of any changes, like whether Caps Lock is on or off.
• LG PC manuals: User manual.
• LG Security Guard: Monitors suspicious activities when the user is away from the laptop.
• LG Smart Assistant 2.0: Lets you change the fan and power settings, enable dark mode, toggle USB-C offline charging, and enable AI noise canceling.
• LG Update: Checks for software and driver updates.
• Solitaire & Casual Games: Solitaire, FreeCell, Spider, Mahjong, Sudoku, and other casual games.
• Spotify Music: App for the music streaming service.

The LG gram Pro has a facial recognition IR camera. You can use it to log into Windows, authorize Windows Store purchases, and auto-fill saved passwords on supported websites.