Finding the right 17-inch laptop is not an easy task at all.
First, you will have to define what tasks you will doing on that laptop, and find the best 17-inch laptop that can handle that. But what if you know nothing about laptops, you don’t don’t know what a CPU, GPU or RAM is?
Or you would like a laptop, that can complete a certain task perfectly, like gaming or video editing but don’t know which one to choose?
Maybe you have a lower budget, and would like to get the best bang for your buck, but not sure which one is the best budget 17-inch laptop?
No worries, we are here to help you. We are not going to teach you how does the CPU or GPU work, instead, we have selected 10 laptops, reviewed them, and made them into a list, to make sure you find the right one you are looking for.
We have created a top ten list of the currently best 17-inch laptops that you can get in 2018. These laptops vary in price, and each has different specifications, which makes it work for one task, or several, based on the price tag.
Have a tight budget, but still, want to play some games? We got you.
You don’t care about money, just want to run games at max settings and enjoy the fabulous graphics? This is your list.
Want to render videos or images as fast as possible? Read on.
Below you will find a table with all the ten best rated 17-inch laptops we have reviewed if you know what you are looking for and familiar with the specifications, feel free to choose one, if you are not, then just simply click on the name, and your browser will jump to the review
Our picks of the Best 17-inch Laptops
HP Pavilion 17 – The Best 17-inch Laptop for students
Are you a student and looking for the best 17-inch laptop for the money? You have found it. The Pavilion from HP is a pretty all-around device if you are looking for one under 1000 dollars, that can satisfy all your needs.
The Pavilion comes with a very cool looking black design, which gives it a metal feeling, but it is all plastic. The hinges of the laptop are good, they are not too loose nor too tight, it easily holds the 17.3 inch glossy screen of the laptop. The laptop has a Windows 10 Home OS installed and activated on it.
This 17-inch laptop has a glossy screen, which means it provides better color intensity, and better contrast ratios, but on the downside, it reflects external light, which can be very annoying. But, if you are using it at night,it is perfect and better than matte screens.
It has a 1600 x 900 resolution, which is between somewhere 720p and 1080p. It is perfect for reading documents, watching videos and movies, or playing games on low settings.
Let’s look at the guts of this little beast. It comes with an Intel Dual Core processor that can easily beat AMD, and a built-in Intel HD graphics card. These are pretty neat if you are an average everyday user, who wants to browse the internet, watch videos, put together a Word document, but it will not hold it is ground for any recent video game.
The Pavilion comes with 8 GBs of DDR4 memories. This is more than enough for an average user, if you aren’t trying to launch seven copies of Photoshop, while running Chrome with twenty tabs open. Beware, Chrome loves eating RAM.
It has 1 TB of space, which can easily hold millions of your documents, several thousand photos and a few hundred hours of videos of your cat/dog while he/she is sleeping.
The DTS Sound built-in speakers are not the greatest, but I wouldn’t expect a Dolby Surround system built into it for this price tag.
There is 1 USB on the right side, and 2 on the right along with an HDMI port.
The 3 cell battery is capable to power your computer up to 7.5 hours under normal use, but to be honest, it is more like 6-6.5 hours, due to the possibility that some software use up more power.
Acer Predator Helios 300 – Best 17-inch Laptop Under 1500 for Gaming
Want to run most games at Ultra, while traveling? Done. The Helios 300 from Acer is your perfecth choice then! For under 1500, this is the best gaming 17-inch laptop currently on the market.
First the looks. The Predator is the Apex Predator in computer design. With its minimalistic, yet modern and well-polished look, it is absolutely the best. It is so cool, if it were a man, we would call him Mr. Steal Yo’ Girl. While the predator logo is not metal like on the 15.6-inch version of this laptop, it still gives a metalish and awesome look.
The Helios 300 has a high-quality plastic casing, with vents on the back. The backlit keyboards make it easy to use the keyboard at night.
It comes with a Windows 10 Home Operating System installed on it, so you don’t have to worry about installing it yourself.
The screen of the predator is a 17.3″ IPS. 1080P and widescreen as well, with a resolution of 1920×1080. The IPS technology makes it easy to see its full potential from all angles.
When it comes to gaming, the Helios 300 has everything you need. The quad-core i7-7700HQ Processor which can be boosted to 3.8 GHz is more than enough for running new games on high settings. The GPU of this 17-inch laptop is a GTX 1060 with 6 GBs of ram.
The Helios has 16GBs of DDR4 ram, and comes with a 256 GB super-fast SSD, which will make your Operating System load fast, and a 1 TB HDD for all your data.
Sounds are coming out of two speakers on the bottom. They are loud enough to fill up a small room, with very nice highs and mids, but there is like no bass whatsoever.
The battery life is not the greatest. It is no surprise, considering there is only a 48 WH battery inside. It averages 4 hours of use when not gaming, and about 45 minutes to 1 hour when i was gaming.
The Helios 300 manages to be an amazing deal. You are getting decent sound, a very powerful graphics card, enough USD and other ports, and it is pretty quiet as well. Make sure you get the Acer accessories as well.
ASUS VivoBook Pro 17 N705 – 17-inch Budget Gaming Laptop
Asus is not a new brand when it comes to selling laptops. I believe they have more than twenty years of experience in making laptops, and they are particular. You will have to find the right model of course, what matches your needs.
If you don’t have several thousand of dollars to spend, but still want an enjoyable gaming experience, the Asus VivoBook Pro 17 will surely meet your needs.
The ASUS VivoBook Pro 17 has a strong and beautiful design, just as we expect from Asus. The backlit keyboard is very comfortable and offers several light options.
There is a Windows 10 Home ready and installed on the computer, with the default software.
The glossy screen of this 17-incher is 17.3 inches, and Full HD. Although it is Full HD, I didn’t like the quality of it that much, it looks a little washed out. But for this price range, I wouldn’t expect anything better.
The CPU of this seventeen-inch laptop is a 4 core I7-8550U with a max turbo frequency of 4.00 GHz. But the GPU is where things start to get crazy. Finding a laptop, that fits your budget, and can run games at the same times is very hard. Well, the VivoBook is your solution.
It has a GeForce GTX 1050 4 GB Graphics Card, which can run any game for the next 2 years, at like medium-high setting. I’m not saying you will play games at ultra, and have 150 FPS, but this can easily run any game and have a constant 60-70 FPS at medium-high settings.
The 16GB DDR4 RAMs can easily handle any game, or software in the background.
To make the OS load fast, the Vivobook has a 256 GB SSD, with 1 TB HDD storage. Make sure you remove the 4-ounce weight from the 2.5 HDD Bay, even if you are not planning to add an HD to it, it makes it pretty heavy.
The stereo speakers built into the bottom is excellent. It has superb highs and lows.
I expected the fans to be a little quieter, which is not that big of a deal but can be annoying if you are sitting in a quiet room.
The Battery life is not the greatest, it avarages about 3 hours while using it for gaming.
Razer Blade Pro Gaming Laptop – Best 17-Inch Gaming Laptop
The Razer Blade Pro is nothing short of extra, and for this price tag, we expect nothing less.
First, let’s take a look at the build quality. It has a complete aluminum body, with a matt black coating. Razer did a good job on this if you ask me. The computer itself is very sturdy and robust. You don’t have to worry about flexing the screen because there is no give anywhere on it. I highly suggest getting a case for it, when you purchase it from Amazon.
You can easily open this 17-inch laptop with one hand, but on the other side, it collects fingerprints and smudges like a madman. I always had to carry around some cloth to clean it.
We have a lot of connectivity, with three USB ports, 1 Thunderbolt three port, and an SD card reader.
The 4K THC Certified display provides you with an excellent multimedia experience. It has spectacular color accuracy, which makes it ideal for content creation. The viewing angles are perfect. It’s a 2-in-1 because it’s a touch display as well, although my only problem with it that it’s glossy.
The keys of the mechanical keyboard are individually lit, which you can control and add cool effects.
Razer has replaced the number pad with a trackpad, which can be annoying to get used to if you are in need of a numpad.
Above the trackpad, there is a scroll wheel for audio, which is very convenient instead of using the function buttons.
The Blade comes with a two-megapixel webcam that is capable of shooting 1080p video at 30 fps. It is good enough for Skype calls, or Messenger Video Chats, but I wouldn’t personally use it to stream.
It has two up pointing speakers on both sides. You can listen to anything on max without any weird noises, and it gets very loud with even some bass in it.
This thing is a monster. As expected, it handles games like a champ. You can play any AAA game on this thing maxed out, without any stutter. The GTX 1080 8GB does its work very well, with the CPU. I never experienced overheating, or thermal throttling at all.
It is awesome for video editing as well. Rendering times of 4K videos are almost 1-to-1 with the time of the project itself.
Cooling all of this hardware are two small fans underneath the laptop. Since the fans are thin, and designed to be minimalistic there isn’t much airflow, and it get’s definitely loud.
Battery life isn’t so spectacular either, with under just four hours of moderate usage, but with such heavy hardware inside, I didn’t expect much here anyway.
This laptop is awesome if you are an on-the-go person and would love to take advantage of the hardware built in it.
Eluktronics N870HP6 Pro-X – The Undercover Prodigy
I know what most of you are thinking. “I don’t know this brand, never heard of them, let’s skip this one.”
And I completely understand that, let’s face the truth, trusting a company with your money that you’ve never heard before is not an easy task.
But this is an advantage for you as well. Since they are not a very well known brand, they can offer lower prices, for products that have the same performance as other laptops from well known brands, for a higher price tag.
By the name, you would assume, that it is another chinese company, trying to trick you into buying their product and disappearing without any guarantees. Well, it isn’t true for Eluktronics. This Eluktronics review will prove that wrong.
Eluktronics is a U.S based company, with a lot of products. You can read about their company if you want, by clicking here.
But let’s talk about the Eluktronics N870HP6 Pro-X.
The build quality of this laptop is marvelous. It has a very slim and sleek profile, especially for a gaming laptop. Although it is made out of plastic, its got gentle contours in its design.
The keyboard is a standard keyboard, nothing too fancy with quiet clicks. I have to mention that the keyboard is a little bit mushy, but nothing too bad. The keys are RGB backlit, meaning you can control the color, and the color can be dimmed. The touchpad is very responsive and recognizes finger gestures.
The Pro-X has a Windows 10 Home OS installed by default on it.
When it comes to ports, this 17 inch laptop has a ton. Its got 3 USB and 1 USB-C ports, 2 Mini Display ports, and one HDMI.
The screen of this laptop is a 17.3″ Full HD IPS. I absolutely love that it is matte, it is a great addition to an IPS display. The color accuracy is great, and with because its IPS, you have wide view angles.
It comes with a powerful Quad-core Intel processor and a GTX 1060 6GB which is plenty enough for gaming on high/ultra. Also, this laptop does not have the same version of GTX 1060 as Acer or Alienware laptops have, but it still holds its grounds. This version has 16 GB of DDR4 RAM.
The PCIe 256 GB SSD is very fast at loading the OS and games, but since this version does not come with a HDD, I would recommend upgrading it with at least 1 TB.
Since this is a cheaper 17 inch laptop, the cooling gets a little noisy, but it is not unbearably loud. Also, when the system can get along with passive cooling, it turns off the fans.
The quality of the speakers is pretty cheap, they sound like a mobile speaker, so i recommend getting an external speaker or headphones.
It has a decent batterylife, somewhere around 5 to 6 hours with normal use.
Don’t be afraid to go with a smaller or not well known brand, just make sure you read some reviews before, just like you did here. You will often find, that these manufacturers offer better specs at lower price. Well, we hope that you liked this Eluktronic review, this is really a decent laptop for your buck.
Alienware AW17R4-7352SLV-PUS – The VR Ready
The Alienware AW17R4 is a heavy duty machine. If you are planning on running VR games, rendering videos, models, images – this will be an amazing fit.
I say nothing new when I tell you that Alienware makes good looking laptops. The Alienware AW17R4 has a excellent build quality, it does an amazing job by combining a sleek look, with just the right amount of RGB lightning.
Even though it looks like a 17.3 inch gaming laptop, it just looks classier compared to the overdone red and black gaming laptops that are currently on the market.
The majority of the Alienware 17 R4 is made out of aluminum with a soft touch plastic throughout the deck and sides.
This 17-inch laptop weighs 9.74 pounds, which makes it a desktop replacement with the benefit of being somewhat portable.
Alienware decided to place the majority of the ports on the back. There is an ethernet jack, Display port, HDMI, USB Type C. On the left there is a USB 2.0 Type C, one USB 3.0 port and the audio jack.
Finally, on the right, you have one more USB 3.0’s.
Depending on which model you go for, it can be equipped with a full HD, QHD or UHD 17-inch display. QHD is the only one that has the 120 Hertz refresh rate and gsync. It all sounds great, but keep in mind that you will have to live with a TN panel instead of an IPS one. It going to be a lot better for gaming, but not the best choice for design work.
The colors are accurate.
In terms of performance, it can obviously do all the day-to-day tasks, like browse the web, have tons of tabs open, work in Photoshop, do CAD work, but ultimately, this is a gaming laptop. It can easily handle any game at ultra while keeping the framerates at 100-150.
The webcam of this laptop records in 1080P, but nothing too fancy.
The R4 is equipped with Tobi eye tracking, what you can use for Windows Hello facial recognition.
The keyboard is nice and plush with soft-touch plastic keys, they are super comfortable to type on.
Sound Quality on the 17 R4 is amazing. Even with the two speakers on the front and the subwoofer on the bottom, the volume got loud enough to fill up a medium sized room.
When it comes to heat, the Alienware 17 completely nails it. I was super impressed, how well this laptop manages heat dissipation. There was no thermal throttling at all. The fans do get loud, if the temps get higher.
There is RGB lighting so the keyboard can be changed to any color you want.
The battery inside is 99 watt-hours and averages around 4 hours before needing a charge. When gaming, it is only getting about 1.5 hours or so.
The Alienware 17 R4 is a fantastic and one of the best 17-inch gaming laptop, it is a great desktop replacement and it is somewhat portable.
ASUS ROG Strix GL702VS – The Portable
If you have seen the ROG series from ASUS, this 17-incher will amaze you even more. The lid is made out of aluminium with a brushed finish. The ROG Logo looks very cool with the two diagonal lines, especially at night, because they light up, when you turn the machine on.
Of course, not all of the laptop is metal, the deck is plastic with the same brushed look, and the bottom is plastic too. It comes with an activated and ready version of Windows 10 Home.
In terms of ports, you are not going to get an optical drive, and that is just because the laptop is fairly thin, and you can’t really fit one in there.
The left side has the power connector, RJ45, mini display, HDMI , one USB 3.1 type C, one USB 3.0 port, and a combo audio jack.
On the right side, there is an SD card reader and two USB ports.
It comes with a 1080P display and supports Nvidia’s Gsync. Since the display is matte, you won’t get any glare but the color representation isn’t that great if you plan on using this laptop to edit video, or do professional work.
Above the display, there is a front-facing camera which shoots in HD, but the quality is not that spectacular.
We have a normal sized keyboard, with a numeric keypad. You can easily bring up the Gaming Center Software with the ROG button. Although the level of backlighting is adjustable, the only color is red.
In terms of specifications, you have a bunch of options to choose out from. You can get it with GTX 1070, or GTX 1080 graphics card, 16 or 32 GB of ram (Memory), and with a 1 TB HDD and an additional Solid State Drive. You should add another 1 tb hard drive or just buy a 2 tb hdd.
The CPU is a quad-core Intel processor which is capable of running any software or games on the highest settings, without bottlenecking the GPU you chose.
The front-facing speakers sound satisfying, but the mid frequencies are a bit washed out.
The CPU does not get throttled, even under heavy use, and the fans get pretty loud when the CPU is used 100%, but that is pretty normal for laptops.
The uptime averages 3-4 hours while doing simple things, while gaming this reduces to 2-3 hours on average.
Lenovo ideaPad Y700 – Best Under 1000
The Y700 is a 17-incher with a pretty strong Intel quad core processor, a good enough graphics card and absolutely amazing speakers. Let’s lok at the review.
The cover of the Y700 is made out of a durable, and brushed aluminum which looks beautiful, but collects fingerprints like crazy. The area around the keyboard is covered with a matte soft rubber all to the sides.
Let’s look at the overall look of the Y700. The lid is brushed aluminum, and it’s made durable. If you like to keep your computers clean, keep a cloth nearby because it collects fingerprints like crazy.
The Lenovo ideaPad Y700 provides more ports than you will need. On the left side, you have the traditional ports like AC, Ethernet, Jack. There is a Novo button which can be useful for getting in the boot menu quickly. On the right, there are two USB 3.0’s and an HDMI.
It comes with a Windows 10 Home installed. The wireless drivers are automatically installed as well.
The display is color accurate, but I wasn’t amazed by the brightness of it, even when maxed out. It is anti-glare, but again, i still saw some reflections.
The laptop has a 720p webcam and the quality of the video is not bad.
The keyboard of the Y700 is backlit, with only one color, red. This cannot be changed, unfortunately, but it can be dimmed.
The JBL speakers in the laptop are very impressive. They are loud and sound very marvelous at the same time, and the subwoofer gives nice lows.
The vents are placed at the back of the laptop, which gives the laptop a “gaming laptop” look. You might need a bigger case for this.
The performance of this 17-inch laptop is rad. If you are planning on using it for everyday tasks like browsing the web or reading emails, watching movies, you won’t have any problems.
The Geforce 960M 4 GB does a good job running games, it can handle newer games at high-medium graphics.
The cooling of this laptop is very good. I never had thermal throttling issues, and the fans are fairly quiet, when you are not gaming. When you are gaming, it gets a bit loud. My version came with a 1 tb hard drive.
It’s got a 60 watt hour four-cell battery. The Lenovo Y700 is capable of running for 3-4 hour under normal use, and about 1,5 hours if you are gaming.
If you would like to play games on a 17-inch laptop, but don’t want the best graphics, get this. It’s heavy and big, but if you are planning on gaming, this won’t be that big of an issue.
Dell i5767-5889GRY Inspiron Pro – Best for office work
The Dell Inspiron Pro was created with style in mind. It perfectly fits any desk or business meeting you may have, without directing too many unwanted eyes at you.
This Dell 17-inch laptop has a brushed and beautiful plastic unibody, It was clearly created for work purposes.
It comes with a preinstalled Windows 10. Keep in mind, that Microsoft Office is a separate product and is not included with Windows 10, so you will have to buy it separately. If you are looking for free alternatives, I recommend using Open Office.
What Windows 10 does include is Cloud saving, what makes your Office documents secure, even if your hard drive dies on you.
When it comes to ports, the Dell Inspiron has plenty that you may need. On the left, you have the AC Power port, the Ethernet, a HDMI port, two USB 3.0 ports, and a combo jack. On the right side, you’ve got an SD card reader, an USB 2.0 and an Optical drive.
The lid opens up pretty easily, and it’s not loose at all.
The Dell Inspiron Pro has a 17-inch anti-glare HD display. To be honest, the colors are a little off, and it’s not Full HD (1600 x 900). Due to that, I wouldn’t recommend it for any Photoshop work, or anything that needs good color representation.
The Dell i5767-5889GRY can easily handle and was built for business tasks like reading emails, dealing with documents, browsing on the web. With the Intel Core I5 CPU and integrated graphics, you can easily watch videos and movies as well. It comes with 8 GB of memory, which is more than enough for the average user. The Wireless connectivity is 802.11b/g/n.
My version had a 1TB HDD, which paired with the Cloud saving or perfect. The keyboard is comfortable, easy to type on, and is backlit.
The stereo speakers of this Dell are not the best, but enough for multimedia purposes.
Since the Dell notebook doesn’t overheat, the fans rarely turn on, and even when they do, don’t make a lot of sound.
The 42WH battery is capable of running the notebook for at least 6 hours at normal use.
If you are looking for a notebook that you can easily carry to work, or watch videos on, the Dell Inspiron Pro is a very good choice.
HP Envy 17t Review – Best Multimedia Laptop with 17-Inch Screen
The HP Envy 17t is the true multimedia laptop you need for your everyday needs. With a Full HD touchscreen, and a decent performance, it beats every laptop in it’s league. This HP Envy 17T review will help you decide if you want this laptop or not.
The look of the HP Envy 17T is minimalistic, yet beautiful. The aluminum chassis gives a premium design to the unibody of the HP Envy 17t.
This 17-inch notebook comes with Windows 10 installed by default.
On the right, you can find a USB 3.1 Type C, a mini HDMI, an SD Card reader, a USB 3.1 Type A, and a combo jack. On the left, you’ve got two USB 2.0 Ports, and the ethernet connection.
The screen is a 17.3 inch Full HD IPS, with Ultra Wide View Angles, and with added edge-to-edge glass touchscreen. The display is matte, so you shouldn’t have any reflections of outside light, but since it’s a touchscreen it collects fingerprints like hell, so if you are planning on using that feature, keep a cleaning cloth nearby!
The performance of this multimedia 17-inch laptop is completely enough for what it’s made to do. It can easily play Full HD videos without stuttering, it can handle several tabs open, and has no problem with working in Photoshop. It has a two core I7 processor, with a Geforce 940MX and 16GB of DDR4 memory. While these aren’t the best specification for gaming, for multimedia and working purposes, they work perfectly.
The laptop is extremely fast with the built-in 512 GB of M.2 Solid State Drive, but my version had an additional 1 tb hard drive as well. If you’d like you can even upgrade it with a normal hard drive as well.
The speakers in the HP Envy 17t are not the best, but fairly enough for watching movies and videos. Although they can’t fill a whole room, they can give enough sound to make you enjoy the video/movie you are watching. The wireless connectivity is exceptional, had nor problems with it. You can find deals on Amazon, where it comes with some handy accessories.
The fans are pretty quiet, never really got loud when I was using this laptop.
The batterylife is pretty good, you can easily get 5-6 hours of use out of the 41 WH batteries.
Upgrading this notebook is a pretty hard task, since the back cover is very hard to remove.
Hope this HP Envy 17T review helped and you were able to decide to purchase it or not!
How to choose the right 17 inch laptop for your needs?
First of all, you will need to define what your needs are! Do you want to play games on the highest presets? Want to watch movies, browse the internet, or just simply edit images and videos?
Well, all of these tasks require different specifications, but we are here to help you choose.
For Gaming: If you would like to enjoy the games with a steady framerate on Ultra, you will need a laptop with a powerful graphics card, starting from the GeForce GTX 1060. In terms of CPU and RAM (Memory), you will need a CPU with at least 4 cores, and 16 GB of ram. An SSD is a must, if you would like games to load fast.
For Simple Tasks: If you only want to use the laptop to browse the internet, write documents or watch movies, you won’t need a very powerful computer. A 2 core CPU, and integrated graphics card can easily handle these tasks, but I would recommend getting at least 1 TB of hard drive and 8 GB of RAM (Memory).
For Design (Video Editing, Image Editing): First of all, you will need a color accurate display, which is at least Full HD. If you are planning on editing videos and rendering them, you will need a good graphics card and CPU as well. I highly recommend getting a hard drive with at least 2 TB of space, and an SSD.
Looking for a nice backpack to carry them in? Check out our 17 inch laptop backpack list!
