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They always fall short for their price tag, still with underwhelming specs that truly matter on a portable-first device, still sacrifice too much performance and heat dissipation and require 2000€ or more for the bare minimum RAM (32GB) and SSD (1TB) required for productive work. For biometrics, there’s no longer a figner-sensor integrated within the power button with this 2022 Gram 16 generation, as on the previous models, which instead has been replaced by an IR-capable camera. Having both would have been nice. Screen CineBench R23: CPU 8807 cb (best run), CPU 7829 (10 min loop test), CPU Single Core 1530 CB (best run); Samsung’s Galaxy Book2 Pro offers some direct competition thanks to an even more impressive all-up weight of just 1.1kg. Even the Galaxy Book2 Pro 360, which is the fully convertible version, only weighs 1.4kg in 15.6in form. As far as the competition goes, there’s the Gram 17 already mentioned, and the Acer Swift Edge, another lightweight 16-inch laptop. That’s built on AMD Ryzen U hardware, which I know some of you will love, but it’s also a low-power design with minimalist cooling, and it gets a 4K OLED screen and a 56 Wh battery. You’ll find all about it in our review. BTW, there’s also an OLED available in the updated 2023 LG Gram, though.
An RTX 2050 dGPU is also available on some variants of this laptop, and I expect that to come with an updated cooling module, so I can’t judge its capabilities based on this iGPU-only unit. Spec-wise, this is based on the 2022 Intel 12th-gen Alder Lake Core P hardware platform. The Core i7-1260P is a hybrid design with 4 Performance and 8 Efficiency Cores, as well as 16 combined threads. This implementation supplies the CPU with 18+W of sustained power in demanding loads, which is lower than most other portable designs on their top-performance profiles. We’ll get in-depth further down. The Normal profile cuts the fan to around 31-32 dBA and 12-17W of sustained power. The CPU runs cooler in this mode, fluctuating between 70 and 85 degrees Celsius. The performance takes a dip, though, around 20-25% lower than on High. The Keyboard is not ISO standard - yes the keys are layed out for a UK audience but instead of the L shaped Enter Key they have the american style horizontal "Enter" and the "#"/"~" key is moved above "Enter". As a programmer this still throws me from time to time and it baffles me that they'd have an American enter key but not an American "Left SHIFT". So it's a half US and half UK layout where we have a UK key placements as well as "Left SHIFT" and "\" living next to one another (as the Queen intended) but we have an American "ENTER" key with the "#" key moved up... WEIRD.The 2020 LG Gram 17 was a great laptop but the 2021 model is even better. LG has made small improvements everywhere you look while doing nothing to undermine the attraction of the original. However, somehow this Gram 16 felt a bit flimsier than the Gram 17, as I noticed some creaks and pops coming from the underbelly panel during my time with it. In comparison, the same part felt a bit sturdier on the Gram 17, but on closer inspection, they’re both the same kind of thin magnesium alloy and the differences are probably within the margin of error for these two designs. There’s a high-resolution 17-inch 16:10 screen on the LG Gram 17, with averagely sized bezels all around and a solid-quality IPS matte panel on this 2022 model. Our review unit is the Intel Core i7-1260P + Iris Xe variant of the Gram 16 16Z90Q, but LG also offer a Gram 16 Pro model with RTX 2050 graphics and some slight internal changes, which we’ll discuss perhaps in a future article.
At the same time, it only offers the performance of a smaller ultrabook, and is in fact outmatched by many of these modern 13 and 14-inch units, mostly because LG use a common internal design between all their Grams, thus the space in this 16-inch chassis is not fully utilized. In other words, that means this Gram 16 is mostly suited for daily tasks and multitasking, but not for serious workloads or for gaming. For storage, LG opted for a premium-tier PCIe gen4 Samsung PM9A1 drive here. There are two M.2 2280 slots inside.READ NEXT: Our selection of the best 2-in-1 laptops LG Gram 16 review: Performance and battery life Our test version is the standard configuration of the 2022 LG Gram 16 16Z90Q, with an Intel 12th-gen Alder Lake Core i7-1260P processor + Iris Xe embedded graphics, 16 GB of LPDDR5-5200 memory, and a fast 512 GB SSD. Graphics are handled by the Iris Xe integrated iGPU, which is dependent on enough power to run at its full potential. In this implementation, it runs at between 70-90% of its potential. I’ll explain why further down.
I can work with this – I don't like ultra-books. 'Alternatives' such as the XPS 17 are no use to me – I have had one – yes, its powerful, yes it's surprisingly small but it weighs a lot and compared to my gaming laptop (I use that for video production as well as gaming), its performance is pathetic. Here’s what we got on our unit, compared to the previous-gen Gram and a few other portable models. Low settings
LG offers this in a few different configurations, some based entirely on an Intel 12th-gen Core P platform with Iris Xe graphics and an 80 Wh battery, well suited for daily activities and multitasking, and a few that pair the same Core P processors with an RTX 2050 dGPU and a 90 Wh battery, for those looking for a little more performance in this format. These are sold as the LG Gram 17 Pro in some markets, but the former Gram 17 variant is the one we’re discussing here.
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