LG’s new Gram Pro finally looks like a serious MacBook Pro rival

CES 2025

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Just ahead of CES, LG has announced a refresh to its Gram Pro lineup, as well as launched a budget-friendly Gram Book. The tweaked Gram Pro laptops are the most exciting, though, with the the LG Gram Pro 17 catching my eye.

First off, it’s been thinned out a bit, dropping down to 0.62 inches thick, which is almost the same thickness as the 16-inch MacBook Pro. The LG Gram Pro 17 is also a full pound and a half lighter than the MacBook Pro, both of which are striving to be one of the best laptops you can buy.

This is also the most powerful LG Gram Pro in the lineup, as it now sports an RTX 4050 GPU. The previous model used an outdated RTX 3050, which almost made it a nonstarter compared to the competition. While RTX 50-series GPUs are coming in 2025, the RTX 4050 at least brings the Gram Pro up to date right now.

Unfortunately, LG has positioned its three new Gram Pro laptops in an odd way. Rather than put all the highest-end components into one option, it’s spread the love across the three. For example, the higher-resolution OLED option is exclusive to just the LG Gram Pro 16 2-in-1, while the fastest processor, the Intel Core Ultra 9, is reserved only for the Gram Pro 16. I’d have preferred to at least see LG offer these in the LG Gram Pro 17 as well.

The two 16-inch Gram Pros, however, are the sleeker devices. At just 0.50 inches thick and as light as 2.73 pounds, they are some of the most portable large-screen laptops we’ve seen. The 15-inch MacBook Air remains the winner in this regard, measuring in at just 0.45 inches, but these new Gram Pros aren’t far behind.

I’m happy to see that all the new Gram Pro laptops start at 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. That 16GB of RAM is also important because this is LG’s first Gram entry as a Copilot+ PC, which requires that much memory to enable some of its AI features. Speaking of AI, LG is also announcing some specific gram AI features, such as Gram Chat On-Device, which uses a small language model to locally process AI chats without requiring an internet connection or needing any data to leave your laptop. Gram Chat also includes access to GPT-4o, creating what LG calls a “hybrid AI solution.” Gram Chat can then integrate into things like your personal calendar or email, a bit like Copilot — which also comes built into the device.

Lastly, there’s also an AI feature called Time Travel, which appears to be LG’s take on Microsoft Recall, letting you “easily revisit webpages, documents, videos, and audio files.”

LG did not provide screenshots or videos of these AI features, but I’ll be getting my hands on these devices at CES next week to see how they run in action.

In addition to the three Gram Pro laptops, LG has also announced an entirely new device, the Gram Book. LG calls it an “entry-level model” with an “accessible price,” so it’s clearly targeted at an entirely different demographic. It uses older PC components and standards to bring down the cost of the laptop, such as the old-school 16:9 aspect ratio screen with a 60Hz refresh rate, a 720p webcam, an Intel processor that’s at least two generations behind, and 8GB of RAM at the low end.

LG won’t announce pricing or availability details on any of these new laptops until March 2025, but the Gram Book will need to be priced quite low to be competitive among the best budget laptops.