HP

A big-screen office tank with tons of RAM and a surprisingly good CPU, but that 900p display is a dealbreaker for anyone who likes sharp text. If you can live with a fuzzy screen, it's a solid workhorse.

The Ryzen 5 7430U sits in the 91st percentile for CPUs in our database, which is better than it sounds for a budget-minded big laptop. Six cores and twelve threads chew through spreadsheets, browser tab hoarding, and video calls without breaking a sweat. The 1TB NVMe SSD is also well above average, so boot times and app launches feel snappy. The integrated Radeon Graphics are the weak link, landing near the bottom of our charts. Don't expect to game on this thing beyond solitaire or very light indie titles.

The HP 17 isn't competing with the MacBook Pro M4 Max or the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14, those are in a completely different league for performance and price. The more realistic comparison is something like a mid-range Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition, which will have a much sharper display and better build quality but likely less RAM and storage at a similar price. If you need a giant screen and tons of memory for basic work, the HP 17 makes sense. If you care about screen quality or portability, the Surface or even a used business laptop will feel like an upgrade.

Without a confirmed price, it's hard to call this a steal, but the spec sheet suggests HP is aiming at budget-conscious buyers who want big numbers. 32GB RAM and 1TB storage are generous, but the low-res screen and weak graphics mean you're paying for quantity over quality. If this lands under $600, it's a fair deal for office drones. Much more than that and you should look elsewhere.

The HP 17 is a big, comfortable workhorse for people who want a huge screen and a ton of RAM without spending MacBook money. The Ryzen 5 7430U is a genuinely strong chip for everyday office work, and 32GB of DDR4 plus a 1TB NVMe SSD means you won't be juggling tabs or deleting files anytime soon. But that 17.3-inch display is a 1600x900 panel, and in 2025 that resolution feels like a throwback. It's a practical machine with one glaring compromise.

If you care about screen sharpness, portability, or any kind of gaming, this isn't your laptop. The 900p display and integrated graphics are dealbreakers for creatives and gamers. Go grab a Microsoft Surface Laptop 7th Edition for a better screen, or a Lenovo Legion if you want actual gaming performance.

The HP 17 is a niche machine. It's for people who want a huge screen, a numeric keypad, and enough RAM to never think about closing a tab again. If that's you, and the price is right, it'll serve you well for years of office work. But that low-res display and weak graphics mean it's not a great all-rounder. Buy it for work, not for play.