HP 17.3" Silver 2023

The HP 17-cn3053cl is a 17.3 inch productivity laptop with a 13th Gen Intel Core i5, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD, priced around $899 to $949. It's great for office work and multitasking thanks to the generous memory and storage, but the integrated graphics and small battery hold it back. Buy it for the big screen and RAM, not for gaming or portability.

The Core i5-1335U is a 10-core chip with a 1.3GHz base clock, and it lands around the 42nd percentile for CPUs in our database. That's solidly average for a productivity laptop. It'll handle browser tabs, Office apps, and light development work without breaking a sweat, but it's not going to impress anyone doing heavy video editing or compiling massive codebases. The 32GB of DDR4 RAM is a different story. At the 73rd percentile, it's well above average and gives this machine real headroom for multitasking.

The Intel Iris Xe graphics sit at the 49th percentile, which is about what you'd expect from integrated graphics. You can play older titles and indie games at low settings, but anything modern will struggle. The 1TB NVMe SSD is a bright spot at the 80th percentile, meaning fast boot times and plenty of room for files. The 17.3 inch 1920x1080 IPS display lands at the 41st percentile, so it's fine but not remarkable. Colors are decent, brightness is okay, and the 60Hz refresh rate is standard for this class.

Compared to the Apple MacBook Pro M4 Pro, this HP is in a completely different league. The MacBook destroys it in CPU performance, graphics, battery life, and build quality, but it also costs two to three times as much. The HP's advantage is the big 17.3 inch screen and the lower price. Against the Lenovo Legion 5i, the HP loses on gaming performance since the Legion has a dedicated GPU, but the HP offers more RAM at a lower price point.

The ASUS ROG Flow Z13 and MSI Raider are gaming-focused machines with far better graphics, so they're not really direct competitors for someone shopping for a productivity laptop. The Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition is the closest rival in spirit. It's more portable, has better battery life, and a nicer display, but you'll pay more and get less RAM and storage at similar price points. If portability matters, the Surface wins. If screen size and memory matter more, the HP makes a case for itself.

At $899 to $949, the HP 17-cn3053cl is a mixed value proposition. You're getting a lot of RAM and storage for the money, which is rare in this price bracket. But the CPU is mid-pack, the graphics are basic, and the battery is underwhelming. If you need a big screen and lots of memory for office work, this is a reasonable buy. If you want any gaming capability or long battery life, you'll find better options elsewhere. The Lenovo Legion 5i costs more but adds a dedicated GPU, and the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition offers better build quality and battery life in a smaller package.

The HP 17-cn3053cl sits in that big-screen productivity laptop category, the kind of machine you buy when you want a 17.3 inch display and a full keyboard with a number pad without spending MacBook money. It runs a 13th Gen Intel Core i5-1335U, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, and a 1TB NVMe SSD, with Windows 11 Pro out of the box. Pricing floats around $899 to $949 in the US, which puts it in the budget-to-midrange zone for a 17 inch laptop.

Is the HP 17-cn3053cl good for everyday work? For spreadsheets, email, web browsing, and light coding, yes. The 32GB of RAM is the standout spec here, way more than most laptops at this price. But the integrated Intel Iris Xe graphics mean this is not a gaming machine, and the 41Wh battery is small for a 17.3 inch chassis. We'll dig into what that means in practice below.

People searching for a big screen laptop for office work or a Windows 11 Pro machine for business use will find this HP checks a lot of boxes on paper. The question is whether the compromises, especially around graphics and portability, are worth it for your use case.

Skip the HP 17-cn3053cl if you want to play modern games, edit 4K video, or need a laptop you can carry around all day. The integrated graphics can't handle demanding workloads, and the 2.09kg weight plus small battery make it a poor travel companion. Students who need something light for classes should look at the Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition. Gamers should check out the Lenovo Legion 5i or ASUS ROG Flow Z13. And if you need serious CPU power for rendering or heavy development, the Apple MacBook Pro M4 Pro is worth the extra money.

Should you buy the HP 17-cn3053cl? If you want a big screen laptop for office work, web browsing, and light productivity, and you value having 32GB of RAM and a 1TB SSD, this is a solid choice at under $950. The keyboard is comfortable, the display is large and easy to read, and Windows 11 Pro is a nice bonus for business users.

But if you plan to play games, edit video, or carry your laptop around all day, look elsewhere. The integrated graphics are a hard limit, and the 41Wh battery combined with a 2.09kg weight makes this a desk-bound machine. It's a good tool for a specific job, not an all-rounder.