I got my first experience with the LG gram lineup back in 2020, and I quickly learned why they're some of the best laptops on the market. This year's LG gram 17 is no different. LG has upgraded to 12th-generation Intel Core P-series processors, delivering even more performance than before, alongside other upgrades like a 1080p webcam, which is absolutely welcome in 2022, and on top of already great specs like a Quad HD+ display.

But those upgrades don't change the core philosophy of the gram. It's still an incredibly lightweight laptop, and that's why it's one of my absolute favorite laptops on the market. This is a large laptop with a massive screen, yet it's so easy to carry around anywhere. Its size truly betrays its weight, and it's always a marvel to just pick it up.

If there's any downside to this machine, it's probably the battery life, which isn't terrible but not that great. That's a consequence of upgrading to Intel's P-series processors, but the large battery in the gram 17 helps make up for it, and the increased power makes sense for a large laptop like this.

About this review: LG sent us a gram 17 for the purposes of this review. It did not review the contents before publishing.

LG gram 17 (2022): Pricing and availability

• The LG gram 17 is available at various retailers, including Best Buy, Amazon, and LG
• Our review unit officially costs $1,599.99, though you can find it for much less

LG introduced 2022's gram lineup earlier this year, including the gram 14, 16, and 17, and they all launched in the U.S. in June 2022. You can find them at most major retailers, including Best Buy and Amazon, though specific configurations may not be available at every retailer. We couldn't find the equivalent of our review unit at Best Buy, but you can get it at Amazon. Purchasing one through LG directly will give you the most customization options.

The official pricing for our configuration is $1,599.99, which is a fair price for this large Quad HD+ display, 16GB of RAM, and a 512GB SSD. However, you can often find it for much less, depending on where you look. At writing time, this configuration can be found for just under $1,200, which is a great deal.

Design and ports: I can't believe it's so light

• The LG gram 17 weighs just under 3 pounds, which is impressive for a 17-inch laptop
• It doesn't miss out on ports, with all the essentials built-in

As the branding implies, the LG gram lineup has always been about one specific thing, and that's weight. If you've used a gram before, this isn't news, but it's still so incredibly refreshing to pick this laptop up. The gram 17 weighs just 2.98 pounds, making this lighter than many 13-inch laptops on the market right now. I just recently reviewed the HP Envy x360 13, and that weighs almost the same despite being so much smaller. Every time I pick up the LG gram 17, I still wonder how it's so light.

LG achieves this by using magnesium for the majority of the construction of this laptop, which might be something you won't like. Magnesium can be very durable while being much thinner than aluminum, which is why it's a common choice for extremely light laptops like this. But magnesium can also feel much cheaper, and that's definitely the case here. It feels like plastic — solidly-made plastic, but plastic nonetheless — and while that doesn't bother me a lot, it might bother you if you want something that feels solid. I also find that magnesium surfaces are a bit harder to clean.

LG makes the gram 17 in two finishes: gray or black. I got the gray model, which is probably my least favorite. Still, it looks fine, and both colors are very subdued, so you can take this into an office or any work environment without getting unwanted attention.

The LG gram 17 has a lot of ports, which I never expect from such a light laptop.

Despite having the goal of being as light as possible, LG isn't afraid to make a slightly thicker chassis to accommodate all the ports you might need, and I love that. The LG gram 17 has a lot of ports, which I never expect from such a light laptop. On the left side, it has two Thunderbolt 4 ports, HDMI, and a 3.5mm headphone jack.

On the right, you have two USB Type-A ports, a microSD card reader, and the Kensington lock port. This is a superb set of ports, and you'll likely be able to plug in any peripherals you have. It adds to the magic of having this super light machine because it doesn't feel like LG is looking at all the corners it can cut to reduce weight. It just is that light, and there aren't huge compromises for that.

Keyboard and touchpad: It's not outstanding, but it gets the job done

• The LG gram 17 has a full-size keyboard with a number pad
• The touchpad is fairly big, though there was space for more

Unlike major brands like HP or Lenovo, LG isn't known for the best keyboards, but I don't have any major complaints with the keyboard on the gram 17. It's a full-size keyboard with a number pad, so it's good for crunching numbers if that's part of your workflow. The keys have a decent amount of travel, though they don't feel quite as satisfying to press as they would on those laptops from HP and Lenovo.

One thing I don't like, though it's a relatively minor thing, is the way LG labels the keys. All the key labels are pushed up to the top, even for keys with secondary actions, which can be quite confusing. I legitimately wasn't sure how to use certain symbols and accents on this keyboard when I first started using it, though it's something you get used to quickly once you realize that the secondary actions are on the right side. I just don't think there's a good reason for it to be this way.

In the top corner of the keyboard is the power button, which still has a fingerprint reader built-in. In the past, this was the only biometric authentication method available for Windows Hello, and it works fine, but I'm glad it's not the only option anymore.

Below the keyboard is the touchpad, and it's quite nice to use. It feels great to the touch, and it's very smooth. It's also relatively large, though there was definitely space on this chassis to make it much bigger. It didn't need to be wider, but I would have liked it to be taller. But really, that's more from a visual standpoint; while using it, I never thought the touchpad was too small.

Display and sound: A large, color-accurate screen for work

• The LG gram 17 has a Quad HD+ display that covers nearly 100% of DCI-P3
• The 2022 model also has an upgraded 1080p webcam with Windows Hello support

One of the best things about the LG gram 17 is definitely its display. LG has gradually upgraded its smaller laptops to Quad HD+ (2560 x 1600) resolution, but the gram 17 was one of the first to have it, and the 2022 model keeps that up. This is a very big screen, but it's still just as sharp as you could want it to be. It's great for just about anything, with lots of space for multitasking and for watching videos. My only wish is that it supported touch, but not every laptop will have touch support, and that's OK.

This is also a great display for creative work and media consumption because of its color coverage. LG touts 99% coverage of DCI-P3, and in my testing, I actually found it to go up to 100%. It also covers 100% of sRGB, 88% of Adobe RGB, and 86% of NTSC. It's one of the best displays you'll find on a laptop, hands down.

It's fairly bright, too. LG touts up to 400 nits of brightness, and that lines up with my testing, though the display actually went slightly over 400 nits in my testing. The contrast ratio is also great, going up to 1440:1, which is significantly better than the 1200:1 ratio LG promises.

Above that display is one of the biggest upgrades LG has made with this year's model: the webcam. Previous versions had a 720p webcam, which was fine for a few years, but in 2022, 1080p webcams have become the standard in premium laptops, and LG is keeping up. It's not a mind-blowing camera with smart features, but it's pretty good for video calls and meetings, and you shouldn't need to upgrade. More than the quality of the camera itself, the biggest upgrade is the addition of an IR camera for Windows Hello, which makes logging in easier than ever. All you need to do is look at the camera, and the laptop signs you in.

The biggest upgrade is the addition of an IR camera for Windows Hello

One of the most consistent letdowns I see others mention with the LG gram 17 is the sound, and that's, unfortunately, the case here. Indeed, it has two 1.5W speakers that fire down, and they're not amazing. They do the job fine for watching videos and movies, but they don't get very loud, which is disappointing when you have a laptop this big.

Performance: Intel's P-series is fast, but it hurts battery life

• The LG gram 17 handles day-to-day tasks just fine, even with an Intel Core i5
• Intel's P-series processors take a toll on battery life

Performance is one of the big upgrades the LG gram 17 is getting this year, and it's all thanks to Intel's P-series processors, which are new to the lineup this year. These new processors have a higher TDP of 28W, compared to the 15W of past gram models, which means they use battery faster, but they also get better performance.

My review unit had an Intel Core i5-1240P, with 12 cores, 16 threads, and boost speeds up to 4.4GHz. It also comes with 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD, so it has all the ingredients needed for great performance, and it delivers. In day-to-day use, I rarely felt like the performance was lacking in any way. The only time I had to wait a few seconds was when I was making edits to some high-resolution images while on battery power, but that's not uncommon.

In benchmarks, the LG gram 17 did perform a bit below what you might expect. In PCMark 10, it was in line with other devices like the Lenovo ThinkBook 13s, which has a similar processor, but other tests yielded lower scores than you might expect.

I mostly included the One-Netbook T1 there to show that performance could be worse, but the LG gram 17 falls on the lower tier of laptops with P-series processors. A big problem with these processors is that they're often being put into designs that used to have 15W processors, and there aren't enough changes being made to keep them running cool, so results and performance can be inconsistent. In CrossMark, the LG gram 17 performed very well, but in tests like Cinebench and 3DMark, not so much. The LPDDR5 RAM in the LG gram 17 also performed well in our tests, and so did the storage, which is using a fast PCIe 4.0 SSD.

Battery life on the LG gram 17 is pretty solid

Another big downside of Intel's P-series processors is usually battery life, but I would say the LG gram 17 is a laptop where it actually makes sense to have these more powerful processors. It already has a huge 80Wh battery, so even if battery life takes a hit, it'll still feel pretty good. In these tests, I played a 720p YouTube video with the screen brightness and volume at 50% and battery saver disabled. The LG gram 17 lasted 11 and 33 minutes, which is pretty decent.

Then, for more real-life testing, I just used the laptop as I normally would for work, with brightness usually set to 40% and battery saver kicking in at 20% battery. The keyboard backlight was off because I was comfortable working without it. Battery life ranged from 5 hours and 17 minutes to 6 hours and 49 minutes. For a laptop with a P-series processor and a Quad HD+ display, that's solid. Many of these lower-end results had video calls and meetings involved for at least one hour. Of course, it would have been even better with a U-series processor, but I think the trade-off makes sense.

Should you buy the LG gram 17?

You should buy the LG gram 17 if you:

• Want a large display that's great for multitasking and media consumption
• Often travel with your laptop and need something lightweight
• Need to connect a lot of peripherals without using adapters
• Use the webcam often and also enjoy Windows Hello facial recognition support

You shouldn't buy the LG gram 17 if you:

• Plan on working on heavy content creation workloads
• Want a loud set of speakers for music or movies
• Need something that lasts all day away from a charger

The LG gram 17 is easily one of my favorite laptops on the market, and it's all thanks to that lightweight design. The magnesium chassis may not feel as premium as aluminum laptops, but I still love how easily I can grab this laptop, even when its massive screen would suggest it's hard to carry. Upgrades like the 1080p webcam and Windows Hello facial recognition, paired with a fantastic Quad HD+ display, make this a great laptop for almost anyone who wants a big laptop.

There are some downsides to the LG gram 17, including the average battery life and the inconsistent benchmark results that suggest performance may not always be up to snuff. Still, this is a great laptop for the vast majority of people, and even if its MSRP is a little high, it's still worth it for that incredible portability.