When we are talking about laptops, one of the main factors that people buy them is portability. But if that is one of your least concerns, maybe you would like something with more power for your work. The best 17-inch laptops can do just that for you since they pack quite the specs for you to create to your heart’s content.
One of the biggest concerns of people, when they buy laptops is that they should be easy to move with. But not everyone would agree with that, some people want more power to help them unleash their creative side. With a bigger screen and more specs than what a smaller laptop can have, 17-inch laptops are your best bet.
Although they might be bigger in size, they are still portable enough. Though they will take some effort to move around with since they can be quite heavy, they are still more portable than a desktop. With that in mind, what are some of the things that might compel you to choose a bigger laptop over the smaller ones? Let us discuss all of that in a buyer’s guide ahead.
What to consider when buying a 17-inch laptop?
So 17-inches means bigger chassis, more powerful specs, bigger screen, and a bigger battery. Although the last one is kind of dependent on the specs of the laptop itself. Like a powerful gaming laptop has almost non-existent battery life due to having heavy power consumption components.
Better Cooling
When you are not limited by space, you can install better cooling solutions on the laptops. Not only that but bigger sizes in laptops would mean more space for ventilation as well. The bigger chassis allows you to install more venting space for the fans to blow the heat out of.
This will help, especially when you have powerful components producing massive amounts of heat. This way your laptop can reach peak performances, significantly easily, without any trouble.
Powerful Components
When laptop manufacturers build their laptops, they have to build a whole computer inside of a small chassis. But since a 17-inch chassis is bigger, they can install better components without limitations of space.
With bigger ventilation for effective cooling, installing better components is not an issue anymore. You are at a lesser risk of throttling and you can push the limitations of the components easily.
That is why some of the most powerful gaming laptops come in a 17-inch model. There is enough space to fit in a powerful GPU and enough cooling to clock the GPU at enough speeds to get results.
Bigger Display
When it comes to displays, bigger is better. That might be the whole reason for people buying bigger screens for their computers. With a bigger panel, people who do content creation can work on details better without having to zoom in every second and waste time.
The same goes for laptops, a bigger screen would benefit content creators, artists and those people who like to watch movies on a bigger screen. That is where a 17-inch laptop shines the most.
With a bigger screen, content creators have a lot they can do, and well people have a bigger screen to have an immersive experience while watching their favorite shows and movies.
And well gamers will also appreciate the bigger screen with higher refresh rates and resolution.
Best 17-Inch Laptops for Productivity and Creation
Best Overall
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Dell XPS 17
The Dell XPS 17 has all that you need, whether you are a content creator or an artist, it does not get better than this.
When it comes to Windows laptops, XPS 17 has been hailed as the best by many tech enthusiasts. And all for good reason too, it has a solid battery life, a great design, powerful specs and an amazing panel for display.
So Dell XPS series of laptops has been slowly but steadily overtaking the 15 and 17-inch market. When it comes to a Windows laptop, content creators and laptop users, in general, would not find a better laptop than the XPS 17.
There are a plethora of reasons behind why the Dell XPS 17 is being crowned as the best Windows laptop at the moment. First and foremost, we have to give it to Dell for its amazing design.
The LCD has the most minimal bezels we have seen on a laptop. The panel has almost no bezels, not even a chin that most slim bezel laptops have. Kudos to Dell for pulling something like this off, something that most laptop lovers have been asking for in heart.
Not even the MacBook Pro 16-inch variant has as full screen. So Dell takes the trophy when it comes to the screen ratio. But that is not all, the screen itself is a marvel to look at.
With 4K and 1080p options, both of them having over 500 nits of brightness and around 100% Adobe RGB, we get a screen we can fall in love with. Color accuracy is something content creators and photo/video editors always need. And the Dell XPS 17 gives them just that.
The design itself is amazing, the smooth and silky exterior along with carbon fiber on the wrist rest is leaps ahead of the previous generation XPS laptops. The carbon fiber material makes a return, but this one just feels better, as it is more resistant to fingerprint marks.
The 17″ version has the option to install an NVIDIA RTX 2060 Max-Q for those who need that graphical processing power. This GPU addition is something that will be much appreciated by those who need it for 3d rendering tasks.
Also, the laptop has an Intel Core i7-10875H, an 8-core, 16-thread CPU which can clock up to 5.10GHz. Of course, the laptop will be limited by the thermals and power consumption. But you can still get some decent benchmark scores on this device.
Speaking of thermals, this model has a vapor chamber cooling system. Most laptops have heat pipes for cooling the components, Dell took is a step further and installed a whole vapor chamber that cools the high core count CPU and powerful GPU.
Lastly, this laptop has one of the biggest trackpads and the best keyboard in a Windows laptop. Content writers, you shall not be disappointed by the quality of the keyboard or the trackpad.
Now, we have spoken how good of a laptop it is, but we need to address the elephant in the room. This laptop is heavy as they come, it is almost 5 pounds in weight.
Another big issue we saw, it has no USB-A ports, but good news, 4 Thunderbolt 3 ports. But it limits you severely when it comes to attaching peripherals on this laptop. You will need a Type-C wire on your peripherals to attach things.
But there is a solution for that, although it will end up costing you more. By attaching the Thunderbolt Dock you can hook the laptop to a bigger screen and attach all the peripherals you want.
Now, the big thing that you need to consider before choosing this laptop. Is this laptop worth its price, and let us tell you, this laptop does not come cheap at all. The answer to that will be, yes.
We feel this laptop has a lot going on, and if you feel that the laptop is too expensive, you can customize your model on Dell’s official site. If you take out the 4K display, which is unnecessary and maybe move to something less powerful than an RTX 2060 Max-Q, you can save money.
Best Workstation
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MSI WS75
Those of you looking for something with that extra oomph in their workstation laptop, you needn’t look any further, as the MSI WS75 9TL has what you need.
Powered by an RTX Quadro GPU, the MSI WS75 9TL is a superb laptop that is thin but dense as it gets. The laptop is in a class of its own.
MSI has been under fire as of late by a lot of tech support YouTubers. and all for good reason as well, but even they cannot deny that the company produces some of the best components.
The MSI WS75 9TK proves the superiority of the brand through its horsepower. The laptop packs some of the best specs in the market and is one of the best 17-inch workstation laptops.
The laptop is not just a graphical horsepower packed machine, it is also stylish looking. We love the design that MSI has chosen for this laptop, the black on golden looks incredible.
The theme goes well with the premium price as well, as this laptop will cost you an arm. Maybe a leg as well. But either way, for those who need the RTX Quadro Graphical power, it does not get better than this.
First of all, this laptop has an RTX Quadro 4000 GPU, 8GB of raytracing goodness. And as we all know, the Quadro series of cards is meant to be a workstation GPU.
Now let us look at the CPU, albeit an older generation, the Amazon link has a Core i7-9750H. This 9th Generation CPU has 6-cores, 12-threads running at 2.6GHz base clock, and can turbo up to 4.50GHz.
The Newegg link has a Core-i9 and a bigger SSD for those who can spend more on better components. But even the Core i7 is not a bad deal on this laptop, it is more than enough to support all your heavy tasks.
Although, not a gaming laptop, with the GPU and CPU, you can get some decent frames per second on games. But if you want something for gaming, you can look at the best gaming category below.
The laptop does have a 4K UHD display, but that would significantly bump up the price. The laptop is expensive on itself without having the addition of 4K resolution.
In all honesty, a 4K resolution is all well and good, but for a laptop, FHD is more than enough. Which brings us to another good feature on the laptop, Thunderbolt 3 port. The laptop has Thunderbolt 3 port if you want to attach it to a bigger display.
So, all of this brings us to the biggest issue on this laptop. If you thought the XPS 17 was heavy with its around 4.5-pound weight, this laptop breaks that expectation. This laptop weighs over 5 pounds! Yikes! So this laptop might not be so much portable. But if you are willing to carry the weight, you get all the power you need to work on your projects.
Best Gaming
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ASUS ROG Mothership GZ700GX
The ‘Mothership’ is a heavy-duty machine, compact, innovative, feature-rich, and pure gaming excellence.
ASUS ROG Mothership GZ700GX has so much going for itself. However, it is incredibly expensive and heavy. That doesn’t deter it from making it to the best 17-inch laptops list.
Over the years, it has been witnessed that innovation and gaming go hand-in-hand. If there’s something that encompasses these two things at the highest of levels, it is the ASUS ROG Mothership GZ700GX laptop. The GZ700GX is a bulky 17 inches machine of pure gaming excellence.
The name says it all; the GZ700GX is a gaming mothership. ASUS has never been the one to back out from its gaming innovation and this laptop proves it. The design is one of the best and the features it packs are even more impressive still.
It features a full-size backlit detachable keyboard that offers more freedom and comfort. The screen has a stand that can be used to stand it upright when the keyboard is detached. This also results in improved air ventilation and keeps the machine at optimal temperature.
The GZ700GX features a 17.3’’ full HD display with a 144 Hz refresh rate, which is a standard for gaming at this point. The reason why it’s called a ‘Mothership’ is that it houses a 9th Gen Intel Core i9-9980HK (8 cores/ 16 threads) with a base speed of 2.4 GHz up to 5 GHz, 64 GB of RAM, and the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080; Best believe that the ‘Mothership’ can run the latest AAA titles with ease. It also comes with a 1.5 TB SSD storage for speedy functionality. Windows 10 Pro is the choice operating system for the GZ700GX.
ASUS ROG Mothership GZ700GX has so much going for itself. However, it is incredibly expensive and heavy. That doesn’t deter it from making it to the best 17-inch laptops list. The ‘Mothership’ is a heavy-duty machine, compact, innovative, feature-rich, and as we mentioned before, pure gaming excellence.
Best Budget
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Gigabyte AORUS 7
Now if you want something a bit more budget-friendly, that will work for gaming, creativity, and productivity, the Gigabyte AORUS 7 laptop offers all that.
Gigabyte seems to have budget gamers covered with the AORUS 7, a 17-inch laptop that is powerful and thin. But by now we should know, all 17-inch laptops weigh more than what they look like they would weigh.
So to start off, this laptop is part of the AORUS series of laptops by Gigabyte. The AORUS 7 is pretty much balanced, it has good performance for its price. You can game on this thing without worries with high graphics settings, no problems.
We can back this claim due to the CPU and GPU on this thing, it has an NVIDIA RTX 2060 and a Core i7-10750H. Now, this configuration is not all that great, but it’s not bad either for its price.
So let us talk about the GPU, the RTX 2060 is not the best RTX card in the market. It is the lowest tier GPU with raytracing support, but it is not a bad GPU in the least. It can play games on high graphics settings with ease.
The CPU, on the other hand, is great, a 10th Generation Core i7-10750H. This CPU can boost up to 5GHz when given the ideal cooling conditions. There are a total of 6-cores and 12-threads on this processor. Not too shabby.
The display is FHD with a refresh rate of 144Hz, a higher refresh rate is always better for gaming. The laptop does lack Thunderbolt though, but for the price point, we expected as much.
The AORUS 7 isn’t can be configured according to your needs, but our model, which was the cheapest, had a 512GB NVMe. It also had 16GB of DDR4 RAM, but you can take it up to 64GB and the storage up to 6TB if you have the money.
But if you had that much money, we would recommend going for something better, like the Razer Blade 17 Pro. Either way, this laptop is great for its price and has a great design which is pretty thin.
5 – Razer Blade Pro 17
We kept talking about the Razer Blade Pro 17 as a more reasonable gaming choice. To be honest, we wanted to put this in the category of the best gaming, but the Mothership is way more powerful.
We all know Razer and love how thin the Razer Blade laptops are. The 15-inch variant is one of the thinnest gaming laptops we have seen with great performance. The 17-inch model is also pretty thin, but looks can be deceiving, the laptop is well over 5 pounds.
This laptop can not only be your gaming laptop but also your work laptop. It looks great, it is thin, amazing, you can even get a 4K touch display if you want it for editing work.
This laptop also features a vapor chamber for its cooling solution. And it needs all the cooling if you want to keep the thermals in check after having powerful components.
Our model of the Razer Blade Pro 17 had an RTX 2070 Max-Q, but you can go up to RTX 2080 Super Max-Q on this laptop if you have money to spare. Of course, the mobile variant will lack behind a little compared to the desktop GPU. And that is why the ASUS ROG Mothership took the crown for best gaming.
Our base model had 16-GB of RAM but you can go up to 64GB. The storage is 512GB but can be expanded to 1TB. You can also choose between FHD and 4K touch resolution, FHD does not have touch support.
The CPU is an Intel Core i7-10875H, an 8-core, 16-thread CPU that can easily reach 5GHz if provided enough cooling. So there is no need to hold back your game graphics settings, set it to ultra and still get over 90FPS in most games.
The model we had and the maxed-out model had a difference of $1500. The base model costs us around $2500, while the maxed-out version will cost you in the range of $4000.
This is still significantly lower priced than the ASUS ROG Mothership, making it an ideal gaming laptop. But it is still pretty heavy, so you might get tired of using it in your lap after a while.