The quick list ↩
1. Best overall: Dell XPS 17
2. Most powerful: Razer Blade 17
3. Most portable: LG Gram 17
4. Gaming: Predator Helios 300
5. Budget: Acer Aspire 5 17
6. Best business: ThinkPad P17 2
How to choose
How we test
FAQs
One of the best 17-inch laptops can be a good choice for creative professionals of different kinds, including photographers and videographers. Smaller laptops are more comfortable for travel and commuting, but the price of portability is less screen space to work with and often less power, battery life, cooling performance and ports.
Powerful components and a larger screen put some 17-inch laptops among the best laptops for photo editing, especially for those who don't have an external monitor. We've tested and reviewed many of the options on the market through a combination of benchmark tests and real-world use, including for photo and video editing. Based on our evaluations, we've picked the options in the guide below, highlighting the best 17-inch laptop for different needs.
If you're not yet sure that you want a 17-inch laptop, you might also want to see our guide to the best MacBooks. Apple doesn't make a 17-inch laptop, but it does make 16-inch MacBook Pros, which we find offer impressive performance and battery life.
The quick list
This premium option can be configured with powerful components, it has plenty of ports, and it also looks impressively sleek for a large laptop. We think it's a superb if pricey laptop for photo editing, content creation and more.
Read more below ↓
Designed specifically for gaming and content creation, this is a beast of laptop that can be configured with a powerful GPU for 4K gaming and seamless video editing.
Read more below ↓
This is the thinnest, lightest 17-inch laptop we've tested. It doesn't have the sheer power of the laptops above, but we think it's a more practical option for editing on the go, and it's more affordable too.
Read more below ↓
The Blade 17 offers all the power for demanding video work and gaming, but for a more affordable option, we think this option from Acer is very well priced for its solid specs and an FHD display with a 144Hz refresh rate.
Read more below ↓
Aimed at the business market, this isn't exactly cheap, but it is more affordable than the other laptops on our list. We found that it does the job for Lightroom and Photoshop, but we recommend that video editors opt for one of our other picks.
Read more below ↓
This chunky workstation looks a little staid, and it's the heaviest laptop in our guide, but some will welcome the robust build. It's fast, bright, and we found the full keyboard a delight to work on.
Read more below ↓
The best 17-inch laptops in 2024
Why you can trust Digital Camera World Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out how we test.
The best 17-inch laptop overall
1. Dell XPS 17
Our expert review:
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
The Dell XPS 17 may be a premium laptop, but we think every penny is well-spent thanks to the combination of performance, design and feature set. There are a lot of configuration options, so you can power up pretty much as far as your budget will allow, right up to Intel Core i9, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 and 64GB of RAM. There's also the option of a 4K display, which provides excellent colour coverage and accuracy, covering 100% sRGB and 94% DCI-P3.
Unsurprisingly, we found this laptop had us covered for photo editing and video editing. We also appreciated the generous quantity of ports (4X Thunderbolt 4, plus an SD card reader for those who still prefer to transfer their material that way). On top of that, we thought it looked gorgeously sleek, which is not something we can say for many 17-inch laptops. It weighs in at a relatively portable 4.79lbs (2.17kg).
There are a ton of other features here, including a fingerprint reader and an infrared camera with face recognition. And battery life didn't fare badly in our testing, giving us nearly 12 hours of online streaming. Not as good as a MacBook Pro, but very acceptable. The one use case for which the specs could do with a boost is for gaming, on which note...
The best 17-inch laptop for power
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
The Razer Blade 17 may come from a gaming brand, but it's also designed specifically with creative professionals in mind. We were pleased to see the gaming design touches are toned down (there's RGB keyboard backlighting, but this can be configured to static white or turned off completely. Meanwhile, the specs deliver outstanding PC gaming while also catering to creatives with excellent colour coverage.
You can take the configuration up to Intel Core i9, RTX 3080 Ti and 32GB RAM. We tested an i7, RTX 3080Ti, 32GB configuration and achieved a 3DMark Time Spy benchmark score of 12,298 – almost what we would expect from a premium desktop gaming PC. As for the display, you have an option of 4K with a 120Hz refresh rate or QHD with a massive 240Hz refresh rate. In both cases, coverage runs up to 100 per cent of the DCI-P3 color space, ideal for video editing and other visual work.
There's a wide variety of ports, vapor chamber cooling for better heat management and a 1080p webcam that provides a good picture for streaming and video meetings with clients. All in all, we think this is the perfect 17-inch laptop for those who want a device for video editing, 3D rendering, gaming or all three.
Read more: Razer Blade 17 (2022) review
The best 17-inch laptop for portability
3: LG Gram 17
Our expert review:
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
The LG Gram 17 isn't as powerful as the top-placed devices in our pick of the best 17-inch laptops, but it slays the competition when it comes to portability. It's the lightest 17-inch laptop we've seen. In fact, it's thinner and lighter than many premium 15-inch laptops too, which is an impressive feat.
It's also significantly cheaper than the laptops we've chosen to top our guide while still providing strong features and performance for photo editing. There's even the option to configure it with a graphics card, up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050. That's a decent mid-range graphics card for gaming and video editing, but it's not going to handle all games at the highest settings.
We found the tall 16:10 WQXGA display pleasant to edit on, with good colours covering 99% of the DCI-P3 space. As for the downsides, we were put off a little by the slight flex of the magnesium chassis, which is something we have to accept in such a light device. We were also torn on the inclusion of a numberpad. It can be handy, but the implementation here made the whole keyboard feel a little squashed.
The best 17-inch laptop for affordable gaming
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
We've already mentioned one 17-inch laptop that's very well-equipped for gaming, but the Razer Blade 17 at number two on our list is also very expensive. The Acer Helios line delivers gaming power at a comparatively affordable price, and we found it to be a serious option for video editing too – although the more obviously 'gamer' styling may put some people off.
It's available with Intel Core i7, Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti and up to 32GB RAM in its top-of-the-line guise, and with up to 2TB SSD, or a SSD and hard drive double act, it can be configured enough storage space to satisfy 4K footage hoarders. As for the screen, our review unit had a 1080p 144Hz display (other options are available), and we found this to be bright and vivid.
In our benchmark tests, our unit achieved decent scores for photo and video editing. We also liked the keyboard and trackpad. Like the LG Gram 17, it includes a number pad, but it felt less squished in since the whole laptop is more bulky. Battery life is poor, giving us only four hours on our video streaming test, but that's not surprising for a gaming laptop. Overall, we think this is a versatile and well-priced option if you don't mind the gamer design touches like the Predator logo on the lid and the fonts used on the keys.
Read more: Acer Predator Helios 300 review
The best affordable 17-inch laptop
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
We've found it hard to pick out an affordable 17-inch laptop that performs well. The Acer Aspire 5 can only just about be described as such, coming in at the top end of the category, but it is cheaper than the other laptops on this list. It can be configured with up to an Intel Core i7 processor and 32GB RAM. You can even get it with a dedicated graphics card (the configuration we tested came with Nvidia GeForce RTX 2050).
Those are decent specs, but the laptop fell short of the kind of performance we hoped for in our testing. We found basic work in Lightroom and Photoshop to be no problem, but when we ran our Handbrake test, the machine took 15 minutes 15 seconds to transcode a 10-minute 34-second 4K video to 1080p. That's pretty slow. Photographers may find it suffices, but anyone working with 4K video would be best to look higher up in our list.
If you're after a larger laptop for general work and productivity rather than more demanding creative work or gaming, this will do the job at a cheaper price than others in this guide. However, we do wonder a little who Acer was aiming at with this option.
See our full Acer Aspire 5 17-inch review for more details.
The best 17-inch laptop for business
6. Lenovo ThinkPad P17 Gen 2
Our expert review:
Specifications
Reasons to buy
Reasons to avoid
The Lenovo ThinkPad P17 Gen 2 is one of Lenovo’s contenders in the business laptop market. It's aimed at users who need to crunch big datasets or those working in areas like CGI rendering and CAD, but it could also appeal to other creatives who aren't too concerned about portability (and who have a large enough budget).
It can be packed with some powerful specs, including Nvidia RTX A5000 16GB Max-Q, and the 4K display version serves up a bright 500-nit panel with Dolby Vision HDR and factory color calibration. The taskbar-based X-Rite Color Assistant utility allows us to switch from the default colour profile to sRGB online, Adobe RGB photo and illustration, DCI-P3 cinema, Rec. 709 HDTV and DICOM medical imaging, covering a lot of colour needs.
It's the heaviest laptop on this list by far, and I wouldn't want to be carrying it around too often. That said, the upside of this is that the laptop feels reassuringly robust, and didn't flex anywhere we pressed it. Another benefit of such size and solidity is the keyboard, which we found very comfortable to use, with plenty of travel on the keys. You also get a bunch of security features, a very wide range of ports, including a SIM slot for optional 4G LTE mobile broadband.
How to choose the best 17-inch laptop
We recognise that there’s no one best 17-inch laptop for everyone. When choosing the right device for you there are several things to consider. Most important of these is what you'll be using it for. Since you're reading Digital Camera World, we expect you're probably looking for a 17-inch laptop for photo or video editing, and we've ensured that all of the laptops in our list will have you covered there to an extent, providing at least FHD resolution and broad colour coverage.
For video editing in particular, you're going to want a reasonably powerful dedicated graphics card, and several of the laptops in our list meet that criterion. Other things to look for when it comes to photo editing are the inclusion of an SD card slot and several port options so that you can easily transfer material from your cameras to the computer or to external storage and hook up other peripherals or display options.
Another big consideration with 17-inch laptops is size and weight. By definition, a 17-inch laptop is going to be less ideal for travel and for using in places like cafes and bars than a smaller device. However, the weight and thickness of these larger laptops can vary greatly. Some options on our list, particularly the LG Gram 17 could
serve for commuting reasonably well, while others would almost need a briefcase of their own.
Finally, you'll also need to consider your budget. Larger laptops are almost always more expensive than their smaller siblings, and our top two choices are particularly costly. If you don't need that amount of power, a cheaper option could be a better buy.
How we tested the best 17-inch laptops
When we review laptops, we carry out a mix of standardised benchmark tests and real-world tasks to assess their internal hardware features, build quality, ergonomics and performance in a variety of usage scenarios. We also consider value for money and the overall suitability for different target buyers.
Although we'll evaluate a laptop with a typical user in mind, we will also pay particular attention to the perspective of photo and video enthusiasts. This means paying particular attention to screen quality and colour space coverage. We use a monitor calibrator to measure a laptop's display performance to assess whether it matches a manufacturer's claims, while software benchmarks like GeekBench are used to measure a laptop's processor and graphics card capabilities. We also put each device through several days of real-world use, living and working with the device and evaluating how it performs in a range of tasks, from photo and video editing to media consumption, browsing and general productivity.
FAQs
Is a 17-inch laptop good for photo editing?
Many of us prefer editing better on a large screen since it makes it possible to view images, or video at a larger size, reducing the need to zoom in. It can also make it easier to navigate the interface of our editing software or work across multiple panels. One option is to use an external monitor, but if that's not possible, a 17-inch laptop can be ideal.
That said, the downside of the extra size is the weight, and 17-inch laptops aren't great for working on the go. These larger laptops tend to weigh between 2kg and almost 4kg, which isn’t exactly conducive to lightweight commuting, and it's going to attract more attention if you work at cafe or bar. Even rare devices that seem to defy physics, like the LG Gram 17, are still too big for many people to want to travel with regularly, so the best 17-inch laptops are better left sitting comfortably on your desk at home or in the office, at least for most of the time.
What is the largest laptop?
For many brands, 17-inch is the largest laptop screen size that they make. However, if you want even more workspace, there are bigger laptops out there. Some gaming laptop brands, such as Razer, Dell's Alienware and Asus ROG Predator make 18-inch laptops. Asus even used to have a 21-inch gaming laptop, the ACER Predator 21 X, but it was absurdly expensive as well as being rather impractical to use as a laptop.
What are the benefits of a 17-inch laptop?
As we noted above, this really depends on your priorities and where you use your laptop. Many laptops today range from 13 to 15 inches, which makes them great for slipping into a bag and using on the go or for travel. But with that portability, you sacrifice on workspace.
A 17-inch laptop is great for many tasks since the larger screen can allow you to work more comfortably across more windows and to see what you're working on at a larger size. A larger chassis also often means that 17-inch laptops pack higher-performance components, better cooling solutions and larger batteries – all great for intensive tasks like gaming, programming, and content creation. The downside, of course, is that the device is larger and heavier, which many people will find less comfortable to carry around.
A 17-inch laptop can make sense if you rarely take your laptop long distances and tend to use it at a desk. If that's your situation, you might be tempted to go for a desktop computer and monitor instead, but crucially, a laptop, even such a large one, does provide at least some portability in cases where you sometimes need to move to another room or take your work to a client's office, for example.
