HP Essential HP 2025 Essential 17 Laptop Natural Silver

The HP Essential 17 is a budget-friendly workhorse with 32GB of RAM and 1.5TB of storage for $799. It's great for productivity but weak on graphics and battery life. If you need a big screen and lots of memory for office work, this is a solid buy.

The Ryzen 5 7430U sits right around the middle of the pack in our database, which is fine for everyday work. Six cores and twelve threads chew through browser tabs, Office apps, and light photo editing without drama. The 32GB of RAM is a genuine standout, well above average, and means you can run a VM or two without your system grinding to a halt. Storage is also strong, with the 1TB NVMe drive landing in the top 12% of laptops we track. The weak spot is graphics. The integrated Radeon GPU is near the bottom of our rankings, so don't expect to game on this beyond solitaire or very old titles. The 41Wh battery is also a concern, HP claims up to 8 hours but real-world use will likely land lower, especially with that big screen pulling power.

Stacked against the MacBook Pro M5 or Surface Laptop 7th Edition, this HP gets absolutely smoked on build quality, battery life, and graphics performance. Those machines cost two to three times as much, so that's expected. The more relevant comparison is something like the Lenovo Legion 5i or ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14, which cost more but add dedicated GPUs and better displays. If you need gaming or creative work, those are worth the extra cash. But for pure productivity on a budget, the HP's 32GB of RAM and 1.5TB of storage beat what you'd get from most competitors at this price point. The MSI Creator A13V is closer in spirit, but it's aimed at creators who need more GPU muscle.

At $799, this is a solid deal if you need a desktop replacement that mostly stays on a desk. The 32GB of RAM and 1.5TB of total storage would cost you significantly more in most other laptops. The bundled accessories, wireless mouse, earbuds, HDMI cable, and that 500GB external drive, sweeten the pot. But you're paying for practicality, not polish. The screen is average, the ports are limited, and the battery won't get you through a full day away from an outlet. For the money, it's a fair trade if your priorities are RAM, storage, and screen size.

The HP Essential 17 is a big, practical workhorse for people who need screen space and storage without spending MacBook money. You get a 17.3-inch FHD IPS panel, a six-core Ryzen 5 7430U, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 1TB NVMe SSD plus a 500GB external drive in the box. That's a lot of laptop for $799.

It's not exciting. The integrated Radeon graphics are weak, the port selection is basic, and the 41Wh battery is small for a machine this size. But if you're doing spreadsheets, web apps, or light dev work, this thing handles it without breaking a sweat.

Skip this if you need any kind of real graphics performance. The integrated Radeon GPU is one of the weakest we've seen, so gamers, video editors, and 3D modelers should look elsewhere. Also skip it if portability matters, at 4.58 lbs with a small battery, this is a desk-bound machine. And if you need modern connectivity like Thunderbolt or USB-C charging, the single data-only USB-C port will frustrate you.

Buy this if you want a big-screen work laptop with tons of RAM and storage for under $800. It's ideal for office work, web development, data entry, or running a small business. The Windows 11 Pro license and included Office suite make it a turnkey solution for professionals who don't want to mess with software subscriptions. Just keep it plugged in and don't expect to play games on it.