LG Gram Pro 17 (2026) Review: Lightest 17-Inch Laptop with RTX 5050

LG Gram Pro 17: The World’s Lightest Big Screen Comes with a Catch

If you have ever spent a week traveling with a 17-inch laptop, you know the physical toll it takes. By day three, that gorgeous, expansive screen starts to feel like a literal slab of granite in your backpack. LG has spent years trying to solve this specific pain point, and their latest reveal at CES 2026—the Gram Pro 17—claims to be the lightest 17-inch laptop in the world to pack an NVIDIA RTX graphics card.

It is a headline that sounds like a dream for digital nomads and creative professionals. But as we peel back the marketing layers, we have to ask: is this a marvel of modern engineering, or is it simply light on the power you actually need for 2026-era tasks?

The Feel of Aerominum: Lightness Without the Flex

The big story this year is a new material LG is calling Aerominum. In the past, ultra-light laptops often felt a bit, well, cheap. They had a tendency to flex when you typed or felt like hollow plastic. Aerominum is LG's attempt to bridge the gap between the featherweight portability of the Gram line and the premium, rigid feel of a MacBook Pro.

In the hand, the Gram Pro 17 doesn't have that icy, dense coldness of a CNC-machined aluminum laptop. Instead, it feels strangely impossible—like you are picking up a hollowed-out prop rather than a high-performance machine. It lacks the bulk of a ruggedized PC, but it doesn't feel fragile. LG claims this material significantly increases scratch resistance, which is a massive relief for anyone who treats their laptop bag like a junk drawer. If you are used to the weight of a standard 15-inch machine, picking this up will likely make you do a double-take. It is large, yet it feels lighter than some tablets with a keyboard case attached.

The 8GB VRAM Dilemma: Living in a 2026 World

While the chassis is a triumph, the internals are where things get complicated. LG is touting the inclusion of the NVIDIA RTX 5050 GPU. On paper, having a dedicated graphics card in a laptop this light is impressive. However, the specific configuration—paired with 8GB of Video RAM (VRAM)—is a point of contention for those who actually plan to push this machine.

We are now in 2026, an era where software demands have skyrocketed. If you are a creator looking to run local AI image generation tools like Stable Diffusion XL or specialized AI agents that reside on your hard drive, 8GB of VRAM is the absolute baseline. It will work, but it won't be fast. Similarly, if you are a video editor working on 8K timelines or complex 3D rendering in Blender, that 8GB ceiling is going to hit you hard and fast. You’ll see stuttering previews and longer export times compared to beefier, heavier workstations.

For gaming, the story is similar. The Gram Pro 17 will handle your favorite esports titles or older AAA games with ease on its crisp 2560 x 1600 display. But if you are trying to play the latest blockbuster with ray-tracing turned up, that 8GB of memory is going to be a bottleneck. It is a laptop for the person who needs to edit a 4K YouTube video at a coffee shop, not the person trying to render a feature film in a hotel room.

The Gift-Giver’s Verdict: Safe Bet or Niche Power-User?

If you are looking at the LG Gram Pro 17 as a gift for a loved one, you need to know exactly how they use their computer. This isn't a one-size-fits-all machine.

Rating: 7/10 – A Highly Specific Winner

Safe Bet for: The Traveling Executive or the Graduate Student. If the recipient spends a lot of time in airports, libraries, or moving between meetings and needs a massive screen for spreadsheets, presentations, and multitasking, this is the best gift they will ever receive. It solves the weight problem better than anything else on the market.

Niche Power-User only for: The Hardcore Creative or Gamer. If they are a professional 3D artist or a competitive gamer, they will likely find the 8GB VRAM limiting within six months. For them, a slightly heavier machine with an RTX 5070 or higher would be a better investment.

The Reality of the 2026 Tech Cycle

Because this is a CES 2026 announcement, don't expect to see this on store shelves tomorrow. Traditionally, LG moves from a January reveal to a retail launch in late February or early March. If you are planning a gift for a winter birthday or a spring graduation, the timing is perfect. However, if you need a laptop today, this is a wait-and-see situation.

The Gram Pro 17 is a masterclass in compromise. LG has successfully cut the weight without making the laptop feel like a toy. They have included a real graphics card in a frame that shouldn't be able to hold one. But to get that lightness, they had to stop short of true professional-grade power.

For the right person—the one who values their shoulder health as much as their screen real estate—the LG Gram Pro 17 is a game-changer. Just make sure they aren't planning to build the next cinematic universe on it. In the world of ultra-portables, you can have the lightest laptop or the most powerful one, but even in 2026, you still can’t quite have both in the same box.