LG's 'Aerominum' Gram Professional laptops really feel impossibly gentle and robust

For years, LG has pushed its ultra-light Gram laptops as a technique to stand out from the PC crowd, for higher or worse. I used to be’t an enormous fan of the flex-prone case within the 2017 Gram, and we had related issues with the first 17-inch Gram in 2019. However in equity, it has been some time since we have reviewed one, and we discovered so much to love in our preview of final 12 months’s AI-equipped mannequin. Now LG is again with a serious Gram Professional redesign at CES 2026, which includes a new aluminum/magnesium alloy it is dubbed “Aerominum.” And at last, it appears LG has discovered a stability between constructing a super-light pocket book (the 16-inch Gram Professional weighs simply 2.6 kilos), and crafting one thing that truly feels sturdy.

Admittedly, the Gram Professional does not look notably spectacular at first look. It has a big 16-inch 2.8K OLED display screen, which definitely seems to be good, however does not actually stand out from the glut of different OLED laptops on market. It is also powered by Intel’s new Panther Lake chips, and it helps twin NVMe SSDs. The magic occurs while you choose it up: My mind had a tough time computing how such a big pc felt so gentle in my arms. And better of all, it did not flex a lot after I tried to squeeze the case.

There’s nonetheless a little bit of give, to be clear, however it did not really feel as precariously flexible as earlier fashions. I would not stress an excessive amount of about throwing it right into a messenger bag with out extra safety. The extra I dealt with the Gram Professional, the extra I needed different PC makers strived for related weight discount. The Gram Professional weighs about as a lot because the 13-inch MacBook Air! That is definitely a formidable feat.

I simply want LG spent as a lot time refining the Gram Professional’s keyboard as its case design. There’s barely any key journey, which made for an unresponsive and unsatisfying typing expertise. I get it, LG in all probability does not have the obtainable vertical top for a lot key motion, however there are different methods to make typing really feel extra dynamic. The Gram Professional’s trackpad, in the meantime, is serviceable, however it additionally did not really feel as clean and responsive as what we see from Apple’s notebooks or Microsoft’s Floor Laptop computer.

Along with the 16-inch Gram Professional, LG additionally debuted a 17-inch mannequin with an Aerominum case, which is notable for being the lightest pocket book at that dimension with an NVIDIA RTX GPU. Particularly, it is toting the RTX 5050, which ought to be sufficient to play most video games on the laptop computer’s native 2,880 by 1,800 decision (or 1440p blown up a bit). Given the extra highly effective {hardware}, the Gram Professional 17 is heavier than the 16-inch mannequin, however it nonetheless is available in beneath 4 kilos. I did not get an opportunity to play any video games on the laptop computer, sadly, however general it seems to be like an honest possibility for somebody who needs a big display screen with a little bit of horsepower.