LG Gram 16T90P 16" Green 2021

A stunningly light 16-inch 2-in-1 with a brilliant screen, held back by an ancient processor and reliability that'll make you nervous. Buy it for the portability, but only if you're willing to baby it.

The 11th-gen Core i5-1135G7 is the elephant in the room. It's a 37th percentile CPU in our database, which is a polite way of saying it gets lapped by modern budget chips. For everyday tasks like email, docs, and streaming, it's perfectly snappy thanks to the 16GB of RAM, and the Intel Iris Xe graphics are surprisingly capable for light photo editing. What surprised us, though, is how well it handles the basics despite its age. It won't win any render races, and gaming is a complete non-starter at a 19.3 score, but it never feels sluggish when you're just bouncing between browser tabs and Spotify.

The LG Gram's main rival is itself, or rather, a newer version of itself with a 12th-gen chip. But if you're cross-shopping, the MSI Prestige series offers a similar thin-and-light vibe with more modern internals for a comparable price. On the other end, an Apple MacBook Air M1, even a refurbished one, will obliterate this Gram in performance and battery life while staying silent, though you lose the 2-in-1 form factor and touchscreen. The Gram only wins if the combination of a massive 16-inch 16:10 touchscreen and sub-3.5-pound weight is your non-negotiable feature.

At $900, it's a tough sell. You're paying a premium for the lightweight design and that beautiful display, but the processor is three generations old. If portability and screen quality are your absolute top priorities and you never push your machine, it's a decent deal. For everyone else, you're leaving a lot of performance on the table for the sake of a few ounces.

The LG Gram 16T90P is a featherweight champion that asks you to accept some serious compromises. The one thing to know is this: you're buying a gorgeous, impossibly light 16-inch 2-in-1 with a killer screen, but you're getting it with a processor that's already showing its age and reliability that frankly scares us. At $900, it feels like a clearance-rack deal on a designer item that has a few loose threads. It's a laptop built for people who will trade raw power for the sheer joy of carrying something this big that feels like nothing at all.

If you're looking for a powerful machine for video editing, gaming, or any sustained heavy lifting, this isn't it. Go get a MacBook Air M1 or a newer Windows laptop with an H-series processor instead. You'll sacrifice the 2-in-1 form factor, but you'll gain a machine that won't feel outdated in two years.

The LG Gram 16T90P is a niche masterpiece with a fatal flaw. We adore the design, the screen, and the sheer portability, but we can't recommend a laptop with a 10th percentile reliability score and a processor this old unless you find it for a steep discount. It's a beautiful machine for undemanding users who value lightness above all else, but most people should look for a newer model or a more reliable competitor.