The best 17-inch laptops are at the top of the notebook food chain. These sometimes hulking beasts often stand out from the pack, perhaps bearing lurid colorful stripes, and maybe large air vents or spoiler-type ridges that make them look more like a sports car than a portable PC.
17-inch laptops are often built for gamers, with their large screens being ideal in terms of making out the finer details of those gorgeous graphics – or indeed spotting your opponents in an online shooter.
And of course because 17-inch laptops are big anyway, that gives manufacturers a certain amount of license to push things further in making them thicker, to fit in more powerful gaming components like a high-end GPU (and equally importantly, these notebooks possess the space to hopefully fit in quality cooling solutions to let these beefier bits of hardware really stretch their legs).
Naturally, there are 17-inch laptops which aren’t gaming machines, with these larger notebooks also being ideal for business or heavyweight computing, given the potential desktop-levels of power which can be crammed into the chassis. And again that expansive display is well-suited for design applications like CAD or indeed business presentations.
These notebooks can be aimed at the average everyday user, too, who simply wants to enjoy a big screen for watching movies, or playing casual games on the move, all with an ultra-portable machine. Because yes, 17-inch laptops can be thin: even gaming models, thanks to Nvidia’s Max-Q technology which helps such portables shed some weight and inches (well, millimeters).
If you want the best 17-inch laptop, whatever the purpose, we’ve got you covered here (and if you’re after a smaller model, of course, be sure to check out our 13-inch or 15-inch laptop recommendations – or indeed our overall roundup of best laptops).
The best 17-inch laptops 2019 at a glance:
- LG Gram 17
- Alienware Area-51m
- Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701
- Asus TUF Gaming FX705DT
- Asus ROG Strix Scar III G731GW
- Dell Inspiron 17 7000 2-in-1
- HP Laptop 17z
- HP ZBook 17 G5
- Lenovo ThinkPad P73
- System76 Serval WS
- Also check out all the best Windows laptops of 2019
The best 17-inch laptops of 2019
As you might guess from the name, LG’s focus with the Gram is on making a very lightweight and thin notebook which still manages to pack in 17-inches of screen real-estate. The Gram 17 is 17.8mm thick, appropriately, and weighs 1.34kg, making it extremely light for a large machine. Unbelievably light, in fact.
That 17-inch IPS display, incidentally, boasts a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 and is fantastic for a spot of movie watching on the go. Another major positive with the LG Gram 17 is a good level of battery longevity, which helps if you want to watch a couple of movies while on a long journey.
You also get a good selection of ports, and while the SSD may not be the fastest, this notebook still offers great performance for everyday computing thanks to an Intel Core i7-8565U processor capable of Turbo to 4.6GHz, along with 16GB of system memory.
The end result is an excellent all-rounder which can cope with everything, bar gaming – but it wasn’t designed for that. Furthermore, LG’s Gram can truly be dubbed ‘ultraportable’, which is a real achievement given the 17-inch chassis – and that’s why this LG laptop snatches our top spot.
Alienware makes some fantastic gaming machines, including the best 17-inch model on the market in our opinion. The Area-51m benefits from a great build quality and striking design, but more importantly, some supremely powerful components to drive fast frame-rates.
This laptop can pack up to an Intel Core i9-9900K processor and GeForce RTX 2080 graphics, all backed with up to 64GB of RAM. All of this helps to make the most out of the Full HD display’s 144Hz refresh rate, with G-Sync on hand to keep everything super-smooth in demanding games.
There are plenty of other smart touches with this Alienware model, including the ability to upgrade the GPU and CPU for future-proofing, a quality keyboard, and some very impressive speakers delivering both clarity and bass. Notebook speakers that don’t suck? Yes, they do exist…
The downside is the amount of damage the Area-51m will do to your bank balance, particularly for a higher-end spec. Still, if you’ve got the cash, it’s well worth the outlay.
Read the full review: Alienware Area-51m
Who says you can’t have your gaming cake and eat it, because with laptops like this ROG Zephyrus, it’s possible to have an incredibly powerful portable which isn’t even remotely hefty, but remains very svelte and, er, portable.
It is, in short, a gaming machine for which you don’t have to employ air quotes around the word ‘portable’, being 18.7mm thick (or rather, thin) and weighing 2.7kg. Compare that to the above Alienware which is 43mm and 4.8kg…
Yet with this Asus 17-inch laptop you still get a Core i7-8750H hexa-core CPU backed by a GeForce RTX 2080 Max-Q with 8GB of video RAM (there’s up to 24GB of system memory, incidentally). All this means you can ramp up the detail levels and enjoy any game you want.
The display is also a fabulous piece of work, and what’s more it’s Pantone Validated with 100% sRGB color gamut, meaning the color accuracy is spot-on out-of-the-box, and this notebook can be used for professional photo or video editing.
Bear in mind however that battery life is disappointingly short, and the price is disappointingly hefty. For those who don’t have the hefty budget to cope with this, or the aforementioned Alienware laptop’s price tag, breathe easier and check out our next entry for a more affordable gaming option.
Read the full review: Asus ROG Zephyrus S GX701
The words ‘cheap’ and ‘gaming laptop’ don’t mix well. Simply put, if you’re on a strict budget, you won’t get a machine capable of playing the latest games at palatable frame-rates – especially if you want a 17-inch screen to boot. So that’s why the FX705DT is our ‘affordable’ pick as opposed to ‘budget’. Remember, if you want to go really bargain basement, you’ll be confined to casual gaming only.
This Asus gaming laptop, however, packs a Ryzen 5 3550H processor with a GeForce GTX 1650 graphics card with 4GB of video RAM, plus there’s 8GB of system memory. The FX705DT also boasts a roomy 512GB NVMe SSD and a backlit keyboard optimized for gaming.
All of which makes it a great choice for tackling the majority of games at good detail levels while still keeping things pretty smooth – and remaining relatively wallet-friendly. At the time of writing, there are some pretty tempting deals to be had on this Asus machine, too.
Competitive gamers who are looking for a portable powerhouse for super-smooth frame-rates in shooters should check out this Asus offering. The ROG Strix Scar III G731GW boasts a display which is something of a work of art – a 17.3-inch Full HD panel with a refresh rate of 240Hz.
The latter is of course a big part of the puzzle for smooth gaming, as it allows frame-rates to be pushed up to 240 fps – and the Strix has hardware capable of that with up to an Intel Core i9-9880H CPU twinned with a GeForce RTX 2070 graphics card (that’s a full-fat GPU, not Max-Q).
The display is extremely impressive, and sports vivid colors with 100% sRGB coverage too – it’s an IPS panel, but still maintains a fast response time at 3ms. Playing games on this screen is something of a dream, in short.
It’s a nifty looking laptop, which never hurts for a gaming model you might want to show off, with nicely slim bezels around that display (although one slightly controversial design decision is the RGB lightbar on the base of the machine, which might not be to everyone’s tastes).
There’s no question that if you need a powerful portable for more serious bouts of gaming, the ROG Strix Scar III seriously steps up to the plate and delivers.
This is something of a tricky one, as obviously the 17-inch form factor doesn’t fit well with the concept of a hybrid device – simply because, well, who wants to use a 17-inch tablet? So as a result, options are extremely limited, but some folks might want such a machine, and if you are hankering for a large 2-in-1, then it’s Dell’s door you should be knocking at.
The Inspiron 17 7000 is powered by an Intel Core i7-8565U processor and has plenty of system memory at 16GB, and even a discrete graphics solution – up to Nvidia’s GeForce MX250. Performance is impressive enough, although it’s best to make sure you get one of the models equipped with an SSD rather than a hard drive, if you don’t want to encounter any potential sluggishness.
This is a rather heavy machine for a 2-in-1, too, but such are the compromises of having such a large convertible. Still, the Inspiron does the job well enough, even if it is rather a hefty thing when being used as a tablet.
If you want a large portable which is wallet-friendly, then look no further than this 17-inch laptop from HP.
It’s a bargain basement Windows 10 machine built around an AMD A9-9425 processor (with integrated Radeon R5 graphics), backed with 8GB of system RAM and a 1TB (or 2TB) hard drive (although it doesn’t cost much to switch that for an optional 128GB SSD). That base notebook runs with a 1,600 x 900 resolution 17.3-inch screen, but another optional upgrade gives you a Full HD anti-glare IPS display if you want to splash out a little more cash.
A DVD writer is included, which may be a bonus for some, and battery life is a claimed 9 hours with fast charging technology included. This is a solid enough notebook, then, and at the time of writing, there are some excellent deals that make the HP Laptop 17z even cheaper.
If you want extreme performance from your 17-inch laptop, HP’s most recent ZBook is absolutely packed with power. We’re talking Intel Xeon processors at the top end – or up to a Core i9-8950HK – backed with heavyweight graphics in the form of up to an Nvidia Quadro P5200 (with 16GB of video RAM).
The ZBook comes with a 17.3-inch 4K IPS DreamColor screen which boasts 100% AdobeRGB coverage (or there’s an option for a more basic 1,600 x 900 panel). There are various storage options for PCIe NVMe SSDs or solid-state hybrid drives, or indeed Intel Optane Memory to accelerate that storage.
That display truly is a fabulous thing, and the HP ZBook 17 G5 is obviously a top-performing machine particularly when fully specced-up, but there’s an equally obvious downside in that it’s very (unsurprisingly) expensive. Still, if you want an incredibly powerful PC capable of crunching through heavyweight computing tasks which you can take on the move with you, well, here it is.
This is another mobile workstation, but it represents a somewhat cheaper – and indeed a slightly slimmer – alternative to the above HP machine, with the P73 being ideally suited to content creators.
You get the choice of an Intel Xeon E-2276M processor or 9th-gen Intel Core CPU (up to an i9-9880H with vPro), with up to Nvidia Quadro RTX 5000 graphics and up to 128GB of system memory. But the display is the jewel in the crown featuring a 4K resolution, 400 nits brightness, Dolby Vision HDR and 100% coverage of the Adobe color gamut. The screen is, quite simply, ideal for serious photo or video editing.
The cutting-edge hardware support continues with Wi-Fi 6 on board, and you get a good selection of ports for wired connectivity, including a pair of Thunderbolt 3 connectors. Creative pros need look no further for something that can cater for all their needs, at a relatively reasonable asking price for the workstation market.
There aren’t many choices for your operating system if you want an alternative to Windows 10 with your 17-inch laptop – there’s no MacBook, or Chromebook at this size – but you could, of course, run with Linux. And this dedicated Linux portable from System76 is a great pick on that front (although it’s worth noting that some 17-inch workstations do have a Linux option, like the above Lenovo which can be pre-installed with Ubuntu rather than Windows 10 Pro).
With the Serval WS you can opt for either Ubuntu 18.04 LTS or Pop!_OS, and choose between a Full HD or 4K display. There’s also a choice of 9th-gen Intel processors (up to the Core i9-9900K) backed with up to an Nvidia GeForce GTX 2080 graphics card. It’s possible to load this portable with up to 64GB of system RAM, as well, and up to 8TB of storage.
So there’s a good deal of power on offer here, and you get impressive connectivity, along with quality input peripherals like a very nifty backlit keyboard. Those who want a 17-inch Linux machine can’t go wrong here.
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