If you're a big-picture sort of person, you need a laptop to match. You yearn for a notebook (the word "laptop" is a bit of a misnomer for these bulky thigh-crushers) that not only capably replaces a desktop PC, but also gives you an easy-on-the-eyes, panoramic view of your workspace or playing field. That means a 17-inch model, one with the largest popular screen size in the portable universe.

Almost all 17-inch laptops feature displays that, technically, measure 17.3 inches on the diagonal (just as so-called 15-inch laptops usually measure 15.6 inches corner to corner). That's enough for a magnified view of full HD or 1080p resolution (1,920 by 1,080 pixels), or a comfortable view of higher resolutions such as 4K (3,840 by 2,160), which can make you squint on a smaller screen.

Ready to go big? Read on for a breakdown of our current top, tested 17-inch models in a variety of user categories, followed by a guide to what to look for in the right 17-inch laptop for you.

Dell XPS 17 (9720)

Pros	Cons
+ Maintains earlier version's slim, classy design	- Pricey as configured
+ Beautiful 4K touch-display option	- No OLED screen option
+ Strong overall performance with new 12th Gen Intel CPU	- Subpar 720p webcam is disappointing for the price
+ Graphics options up to GeForce RTX 3060	- USBC ports only
+ Four Thunderbolt 4 ports

Why We Picked It

Dell’s flagship XPS laptops are frequent visitors to our testing benches, and it’s the XPS 17’s turn for a 2022 update. The new XPS 17 model 9720 (starts at $1,849; $3,049 as tested) is very similar to last year’s edition, but brings Intel’s 12th Generation “Alder Lake'' processors to bear. This slim, premium-feeling chassis is home to an optional 4K touch panel and Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics in our review configuration, as well as plenty of RAM and storage. This combination costs a pretty penny, but the end result is a big-screen laptop for power users that has few true competitors. If you own a recent XPS 17, a CPU bump isn’t worth the upgrade, but those with a bigger budget seeking a shiny new desktop replacement can’t do much better.

Asus VivoBook 17 M712

Pros	Cons
+ Large, sunny screen	- Older-generation AMD processor
+ Stylish, modern design	- Even older USB 2.0 ports
+ HDMI port and microSD card reader	- Disappointing battery life

Why We Picked It

COVID-19 complications and parts shortages have wreaked havoc on the availability and prices of budget laptops, so if you're wearily sorting through the meager options for an inexpensive, big-screen notebook, the Asus VivoBook 17 M712 ($550 at Amazon.com) might be a sight for your sore eyes. Yes, it uses an older third-generation instead of new fifth-generation AMD Ryzen processor, but it ticks nearly every other box. A stylish silver chassis, a comfortable keyboard, and just enough power for everyday computing tasks make this 17.3-inch rig one of the best large laptops you can buy if you're on a strict budget.

Dell Inspiron 17 3000 (3793)

Pros	Cons
+ Decent keyboard and large 1080p screen	- Uninspiring plastic construction
+ Adequate productivity performance, though gaming is out of the question	- No USB C port
+ Onboard DVD burner	- Keyboard isn't backlit

Why We Picked It

PC vendors rarely opt to send us budget laptops for review, instead opting for decked-out review units that have the best chances of acing our benchmarks. At the end of 2020, we went shopping for economy laptops to see what kind of deals cash-strapped consumers can find here in the early days of 2021. The Dell Inspiron 17 3000 (starts at $502; $710 as tested) will appeal to budget buyers who want to watch DVD movies on a big screen, or otherwise luxuriate in a large panel at a low price. It lacks frills like a backlit keyboard or biometric login, but it offers an optical drive and a 17.3-inch display with full HD resolution, along with tolerable performance for everyday apps. You'll never mistake it for a high- or even middling-priced notebook, but it'll get the job done as a plus-size desktop replacement.

Origin EVO17-S (2022)

Pros	Cons
+ Outstanding gaming performance	- Ultra-expensive
+ Beautifully built	- WiFi 6, not 6E
+ Superb input devices	- Keyboard backlighting not as advanced as competitors'
+ Full HD webcam with Windows Hello

The Bottom Line:
Origin's cost-no-object EVO17-S gaming laptop dazzles with stellar quality and screaming performance from its Core i9 and RTX 3080 Ti.

Why We Picked It

Florida-based Origin continues to make a name for itself with super-premium products like the EVO17-S, its flagship 17.3-inch gaming laptop. 2022's best tech is inside, including a 14-core Intel "Alder Lake" processor, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics, DDR5 memory, and PCI Express Gen 4 storage. You'd think the EVO17-S isn't cheap, and you'd be right—its starting price is $2,888 and our Core i9 review unit tops out at $3,540. But its strong metal chassis, high-resolution display, and superb scores in our gaming tests show where the money goes. The Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 may be flashier, but the Origin's build is a cut above. The system earns an Editors' Choice award among lavish, big-screened gaming machines.

Alienware m17 R5

Pros	Cons
+ Standout style	- Bulky and heavy
+ Sky-high frame rates from our all-AMD test unit	- Intel 12th Gen CPUs outpace our Ryzen chip in processing tasks
+ Display options inlcude 480Hz full HD and 120Hz 4K panels	- Full speed mode is awfully louad with little performance gain
+ Many config choices including Nvidia GPUs and satisfying Cherry MX mechanical keyboard
+ Impressive battery life

Why We Picked It

The latest entry in Alienware's M series of full-size high-end gaming laptops, the m17 R5 (starts at $1,599.99; $2,649.99 as tested) pushes the power envelope with an under-the-hood update to the m17 R4. Our review unit is an all-AMD model with an eight-core Ryzen 9 6900HX processor and Radeon 6850M XT GPU, which teamed up for some very potent performance numbers. Playing demanding AAA games is a breeze on this big-screen laptop, and while our unit sported a 4K resolution display with a 120Hz peak refresh rate, 1080p players can choose a mind-blowingly fast 480Hz panel instead. Alienware's unique sci-fi styling remains, and the m17 R5's surprising battery life belies its weight and bulk.

An enthusiast laptop through and through, the R5 is actually reasonably priced relative to its competitors, with a starting price and configuration options that give lots of flexibility. All these factors make it our newest Editors' Choice winner among high-end 17-inch gaming laptops. MSI's GT77 Titan, reviewed a few days earlier, retains its own Editors Choice award for the ultimate high-end laptop, with its Core i9 Intel HX CPU (more about which in our testing section). But the Alienware should prove the more popular choice for modern budgets.

Alienware x17 R2

Pros	Cons
+ Thin design with unique sci-fi style	- Steep starting price (and sky-high test configuration)
+ Powerful gaming performance via GeForce RTX 3080Ti and 12th Gen Core i9	- Slim design doesn't add to practical portability
+ Pleasing customizable per-key and chassis lighting	- Fairly loud and hot under load
+ Satisfying optional Cherry MX mechanical keyboard

The Bottom Line:
The latest muscle components boost Alienware's already formidable x17, but the second-gen rev of this costly gaming laptop doesn't stand out for its power or portability.

Why We Picked It

The Alienware x17 R2 (starts at $2,249.99; $3,999.99 as tested) is a revision of last year's original that focuses on adding even more firepower to this premium gaming laptop. Our ultra-expensive review configuration boasts an Intel "Alder Lake" Core i9 CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 Ti graphics, literally going for broke on its two key components. The x17 R2 delivers undeniable performance, but no more than some competitors: As with the original, the laptop's marquee thinness doesn't really make it much more portable, and in fact limits its power potential while adding cost. Some deep-pocketed shoppers may love the Alienware aesthetic enough to snap this one up, but more-appealing options, to our eyes, are the Asus ROG Strix Scar 17 and the Origin EVO17-S.

Acer Nitro 5 (17-Inch)

Pros	Cons
+ Strong 1080p gaming performance with Ryzen 7 and GeForce RTX 3080	- Relatively dull display
+ More bang for the buck than some high-end competitors	- Uninspiring overall design and build quality for this price range
+ Plenty of useful ports including USBC and Ethernet
+ Good battery life

Why We Picked It

Acer's Nitro line of gaming laptops spans a range of sizes and prices. Most of the Nitros we've tested have been relatively affordable, while this new 17.3-inch Nitro 5 is on the high side at $2,099 (the updated 15-inch version starts at $1,599). Fortunately, the system justifies its price with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3080 GPU, AMD Ryzen 7 processor, and a 360Hz display for a powerful gaming experience. Less fortunately, the build is unremarkable, the chassis has some flex that premium competitors lack, and the screen is a little on the dull side. This Nitro 5 delivers the good value the line is known for, so you shouldn't overlook it, but it lacks the build quality and appeal of high-end rivals that can be similarly configured, such as the Razer Blade 15 and Lenovo Legion 7 Gen 6.

LG Gram 17 (2022)

Pros	Cons
+ Solid performance from 12th Gen Intel CPU	- No touch screen
+ Long battery life	- No discrete GPU for gaming
+ Super light at just under 3 pounds
+ Full HD webcam
+ WiFi 6E

Why We Picked It

Most of the lightest laptops are compact little machines with 13-inch screens, but the LG Gram 17 (starts at $1,599.99, $1,799.99 as tested) breaks the mold by offering a spacious 17-inch screen, full keyboard and numeric pad, and performance that just won’t quit. The new model is still the lightest 17-inch laptop you can buy, but it steps things up over last year's model with a 12th Generation Intel Core i7 processor and battery life that stretches past the 20-hour mark. Throw in a few upgraded features, like a 1080p webcam, and it’s easy to name this our favorite big-screen ultraportable laptop.

Acer Chromebook 317

Pros	Cons
+ Jumbo 1080p display	- No HDMI port or backlit keyboard
+ Comfortable-feel keyboard	- Tepid performance
+ Two USBC and two USBA ports, plus a microSD card slot	- Screen could be brighter
+ Low price	- Weak sound

Why We Picked It

The phrase "big Chrome" no longer refers to the 1957 Chevy BelAir. It seems surprising, since Chromebooks have been around for a decade, but the Acer Chromebook 317 ($369.99) is the first Chrome OS laptop with a 17.3-inch screen. It's an economy model, with a humble Intel Celeron CPU and eMMC flash storage instead of a solid-state drive, but the 317 is a suitable choice for consumers seeking big-screen video viewing or a movable, if not overly portable, alternative to an inexpensive all-in-one PC as a family-room browser kiosk and homework station.

Lenovo ThinkPad P17 Gen 2

Pros	Cons
+ Spectacular CPU and GPU performance	- Huge and heavy
+ Superbly bright and colorful 17.3" display	- No OLED or touch screen option
+ First-class keyboard	- Expensive
+ Full complement of ports
+ Optional 4G LTE
+ Tons of config choices

Why We Picked It

We've referred to 15.6-inch flagship mobile workstations like the HP ZBook Fury 15 G8 and Dell Precision 7560 as heavyweights, but they're actually not at the top of the food chain—there are 17.3-inch laptops in this segment, too. The Lenovo ThinkPad P17 Gen 2 (starts at $1,739; $5,596 as tested) is a whopping 8.1 pounds of power for computer-aided design (CAD), CGI rendering, and crunching mammoth datasets. It flaunts a jumbo screen with 4K resolution for a vast view of visual apps, too. The P17 Gen 2 doesn't replace the ZBook Fury 15 as our Editors' Choice honoree among no-holds-barred mobile workstations because it's just too ponderous, but it's a formidable weapon—make that a whole arsenal—for getting demanding jobs done.

MSI GT77 Titan

Pros	Cons
+ Deity-level performance	- Huge and heavy
+ Room for four storage drives (including one PCI Express 5.0!)	- Colossal price, espeically for RTX 3080 Ti config
+ Tactile mechanical keyboard	- Loud under load
+ Plentiful RGB lighting	- Ho-hum webcam
+ Built-in biometric features
+ Impressive battery life

Why We Picked It

MSI's GT77 Titan (starts at $3,199; $5,999 as tested) is a 17.3-inch gaming laptop that is truly titanic. With its massive size—this might be the largest laptop sold today—comes performance approaching that of top-end desktops, thanks to a 12th Generation Intel Core HX processor, a high-wattage Nvidia GeForce RTX 30 Ti graphics card, and quad storage drives. It made record-breaking runs through our benchmarks, yet somehow managed near-all-day battery life. It also has exotic creature comforts, including a mechanical keyboard with Cherry switches and extensive RGB lighting.

All told, the GT77 Titan elevates laptops to entirely new performance levels and claims an Editors' Choice award among ultimate gaming rigs. If you want the baddest, fastest gaming notebook on Earth, here it is. Just don't look for it in our best budget laptops list anytime soon.

Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR

Pros	Cons
+ Sizzling performance	- Somewhat flexible chassis
+ Awesome screen	- Frustrating touchpad
+ Solid backlit keyboard
+ All the ports you will need

Why We Picked It

Here at PC Labs, we have a confession to make: We played games on the Gigabyte Aero 17 HDR ($3,199 as tested). Yes, Aero is Gigabyte's brand for designers and digital content creators—it's the company's Aorus laptops that target hardcore gamers—and the 17.3-inch notebook tested here is particularly artistic-minded, thanks to its stunning X-Rite Pantone-certified 4K screen, which meets the VESA DisplayHDR 400 spec. But the Aero 17 also boasts a fiery eight-core Intel Core i9 CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Max-Q graphics, not to mention a spiffy RGB backlit keyboard. It's more than fast enough to be a great platform for challenging games. Call it a best-of-both-worlds example of a big-screen premium laptop.

MSI Creator 17

Pros	Cons
+ 17.3" Mini LED display is roomy and bright	- Sky-high price
+ Core i9 and RTX 3080 combine for outstanding performance	- Display options force a choice between Mini LED and 120Hz refresh rate
+ Thunderbolt 4 support	- Brief battery life
+ Includes fingerpint reader and IR webcam

Why We Picked It

Three B's: It's big, bright, and built for creators. While MSI is best known for its gaming laptops, its Creator 17 (starts at $2,349.99; $3,799.99 as tested) is an imposing desktop replacement that targets creative pros à la the Dell XPS 15 or the Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED XC. Last year's version was the first laptop to feature a Mini LED display, and this year's has the same screen in all its 4K-resolution glory. Hardcore gamers will snub the bright and expansive 17.3-inch panel for its merely average 60Hz refresh rate and lack of Nvidia G-Sync—they can swap out the Mini LED screen for a less expensive configuration with a faster IPS display—but if you want the biggest and brightest laptop for digital content creation, the Creator 17 is a top pick if you can afford its price.

MSI Creator 17

Pros	Cons
+ 17.3" Mini LED display is roomy and bright	- Sky-high price
+ Core i9 and RTX 3080 combine for outstanding performance	- Display options force a choice between Mini LED and 120Hz refresh rate
+ Thunderbolt 4 support	- Brief battery life
+ Includes fingerprint reader and IR webcam

Why We Picked It

Three B's: It's big, bright, and built for creators. While MSI is best known for its gaming laptops, its Creator 17 (starts at $2,349.99; $3,799.99 as tested) is an imposing desktop replacement that targets creative pros à la the Dell XPS 15 or the Gigabyte Aero 15 OLED XC. Last year's version was the first laptop to feature a Mini LED display, and this year's has the same screen in all its 4K-resolution glory. Hardcore gamers will snub the bright and expansive 17.3-inch panel for its merely average 60Hz refresh rate and lack of Nvidia G-Sync—they can swap out the Mini LED screen for a less expensive configuration with a faster IPS display—but if you want the biggest and brightest laptop for digital content creation, the Creator 17 is a top pick if you can afford its price.

Asus Zenbook 17 Fold OLED

Pros	Cons
+ Impressive big screen design in compact, folding form factor	- Extremely expensive
+ Attractive 17.3" OLED touch panel can turn into two functional smaller displays	- Underwhelming performance from Intel U-series processor
+ Wireless keyboard and built-in kickstand offer versatile layouts for work and play	- Finicky, frustrating Bluetooth keyboard link
	- Shiny display is a reflective fingerpint magnet
	- No stylus support

The Bottom Line:
More a costly proof-of-concept than a laptop you'd consider buying, Asus' Zenbook 17 Fold OLED is a step forward in PC design that will hopefully lead to future development.

Why We Picked It

Folding smartphones have arguably begun the transition from novelties to real products. Are PCs set for the same path? Following Lenovo's 13.3-inch ThinkPad X1 Fold from late 2020, Asus has introduced the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED ($3,499.99), a folding-screen convertible with built-in kickstand and wireless keyboard. The design delivers versatile mode options for different workflows, and the 17.3-inch display is big enough to divide into two smaller screens that are still large enough to be useful. Like Samsung's $1,800 Galaxy Z Fold 4, the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED is painfully expensive, and its Intel Core i7-1250U processor is much weaker than you'd normally get in a laptop at this price, putting it about as far from a value recommendation as possible. Wealthy early adopters may take the plunge, but everyone else will mostly find it an admirable engineering exercise that represents a first step toward making similar technology more accessible in the future.

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How to Buy a 17-Inch Laptop: First, Is a 17-Inch Laptop Worth It?

If you're a multi-window user on your laptop, or your eyesight is challenged, a 17-inch screen can be a godsend. On the negative side, this screen size dictates a bulky machine—one that's often too big for a briefcase, requiring a special laptop bag, backpack, or roller bag, and too heavy for more than occasional transport between home and office or cubicle and conference room.

The lightest 17-inch laptops, with one major exception, weigh in at just under seven pounds. (The outlier, the LG Gram 17, is an extraordinary case that comes in at under 3 pounds.) The heaviest, which are invariably gaming models, tip the scales at a back-breaking 10 pounds or more, and in some cases, that's not counting two ponderous AC power bricks. Airline tray table? Forget it. More like checked baggage.

Nor should you expect long battery life from a plus-size notebook. These machines are designed to run on AC power most of the time. If yours can endure unplugged for more than four hours, consider yourself lucky. (Just take a look at the tested runtimes of our favorites in our spec comparison table.)

So, are these tradeoffs too much to suffer merely for a pleasing view? Are luggables just the large-print books of the laptop world?

No—they're also the performance leaders. Their chassis accommodate the most powerful processors and graphics cards, the strongest cooling systems, the most memory, and multiple solid-state drives (SSDs) or hard drives for ample storage. They have plenty of room for all the ports you might need, as well as spacious, near-desktop-class keyboards with full keypads for numeric data entry.

Jumbo laptops aren't for frequent fliers, but they fill a big niche. Let's look at what they can do, and what to look for as you shop for one.

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Work or Play: What Is Your 17-Inch Laptop For?

A few 17-inch laptops are general-purpose PCs for people who want an occasionally portable system with a large screen. Most, however, fall into one of two camps with diametrically opposed, but equally hardcore, audiences: mobile workstations, and serious gaming laptops.

Both types can handle what many PC users think of as work: office productivity and email using Word, Excel, Outlook, Chrome, Slack, and so on. But mobile workstations, as seen in our special guide, laugh at such modest apps. Instead, they carry independent software vendor (ISV) certifications of compatibility and smooth operation with programs for way tougher computing jobs: computer-aided design (CAD) and advanced 3D modeling and rendering, crunching through huge scientific or engineering datasets, or delving into video editing and the creation of worlds for virtual reality. And they rely on state-of-the-art CPU and GPU power to do so.

With the exception that CPU muscle is a little less important while GPU strength is paramount, much the same applies to gaming rigs (also the stars of their own buying guide and roundup of ours that's worth checking out). They're designed to play the latest and greatest titles at high speeds—at least 60 frames per second, double the rate recognized as providing minimally smooth gameplay—with all the visual details and eye candy turned up to 11. Onscreen stuttering or tearing just won't cut it. Lag can be fatal during a fragfest.

Whichever class of 17-inch machine you are considering, you're likely drawn to it by the one big thing the two main types have in common: the screen. Let's look at that.

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What Kind of Display Is Best in a 17-Inch Laptop?

In the 17-inch class, workstation and gaming laptops alike benefit from choosing the right screen type. A solid baseline pick would be an in-plane switching (IPS) or indium gallium zinc oxide (IGZO) panel, which gives you the sharpest colors and contrast, as well as the widest off-center viewing angles. Touch screens aren't very popular in either class, with both gamers and workstation pros preferring the pixel-by-pixel control of a mouse.

Gamers often choose displays capped at 1080p resolution for high frame rates' sake; fast gaming at 4K resolution requires a costly, top-of-the-line graphics processor (GPU) like Nvidia's GeForce RTX 2080 Super, GeForce RTX 3070, or GeForce RTX 3080. By contrast, some workstation users enjoy the highest-resolution screen possible to mimic the desktop experience of multiple monitors or for editing 4K video. Some mobile workstations also excel at precisely matching what's seen on screen to your finished work's destined output, offering a choice of the web's sRGB, print's Adobe RGB, or cinema's DCI-P3 palettes or color spaces. A few recent models from makers such as Asus and Gigabyte also come with validations by Pantone for color accuracy.

Most standard laptop LCDs have a refresh rate of 60Hz, redrawing the image on screen 60 times per second. That's fine for the human eye—television is 30Hz and most movies 24Hz—and for 90-plus percent of applications and users. But it's not enough for fanatic gamers who've invested in graphics chips that can crank out more than 60 frames per second. Hence the availability of gaming laptops with so-called "high refresh" 120Hz, 144Hz, 240Hz, or even 300Hz and 360Hz displays. (See more about whether you really need a high-refresh display.) Shoppers in this stratosphere will also find some screens that support Nvidia's G-Sync technology, able to synchronize the refresh rate of the display on the fly to the GPU's output for smoother appearances.

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CPU, Memory, and Storage: Which Components to Get in a 17-Inch Laptop?

When it comes to CPUs, Intel parts teamed with discrete GeForce, RTX A-series (formerly Quadro), or Radeon RX graphics processors lead the popularity contest over AMD's mobile Ryzen 5 and 7 chips with their integrated graphics. The most popular option for 17-inch gaming notebooks is Intel's Core i7 H Series, not the lighter-hitting Core i7 U- or G-Series CPUs that show up in thinner, lighter laptops. The mighty—and mighty costly—Core i9 chips occupy the top of the market. (Read much more on choosing the right laptop CPU.)

For mobile workstations, the Core i7 and Core i9 are joined by Intel's Xeon processors, which offer support for server-style error correcting code (ECC) memory. Though outside the mainstream for ISV apps, ECC's ability to detect and fix single-bit memory errors is a plus for scientific, architectural, or financial computing jobs intolerant of even the slightest data corruption.

Regular, non-ECC RAM will serve just fine for most buyers, though. An allotment of 8GB of memory is the bare minimum for a gaming laptop, with 16GB preferable. (More than that's not really necessary, unless you have buckets of money to burn.) Workstations have a heartier appetite for RAM, with 16GB a practical minimum and 32GB not uncommon; many models support a whopping 64GB or 128GB. In the case of a workstation portable, you'll want to look into the specific RAM requirements of the applications you plan to run to gauge how much you should splurge on memory.

As for storage, look for one or two M.2 solid-state drives, often joined by one or two 2.5-inch hard drives—the SSD for the operating system and favorite applications, the roomier hard drive for games and data. Most performance-conscious portables use slightly quicker PCI Express (PCIe) rather than SATA solid-state drives. In connection with PCIe SSDs, you'll often see the acronym "NVMe" (for Non-Volatile Memory Express) bandied around, as well as a few proprietary monikers, such as HP mobile workstations' Z Turbo Drives. Both indicate the fastest SSDs. (See our guide to the best PCI Express NVMe SSDs.)

Half a terabyte of storage (for an SSD-only system) is the smallest amount you should accept; 1TB or 1.5TB is more mainstream, and some workstations boast up to 3TB or 4TB of capacity. If money is a limiter, a smaller SSD (say 256GB or 500GB) as the boot drive, paired with a roomy hard drive, is a good compromise. A 17-inch laptop is the kind most likely to have room for both. Some 17-inchers may have an empty bay to let you install an aftermarket 2.5-inch drive or an M.2 SSD yourself. This can be an economical option.

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Choosing a GPU: Will Your 17-Inch Laptop Be Good for Gaming, or Pro Work?

Mobile workstations' graphics cards are divided between Nvidia's RTX A-series (formerly Quadro, and much more common) and AMD's Radeon Pro (far less common) brands. Their silicon is optimized for different operations than the companies' respective GeForce and Radeon parts for gaming laptops, as well as for hard-charging, constantly-on rendering or calculations.

On the gaming side of the fence, too, Nvidia enjoys a big market lead in mobile GPUs. Its "Ampere" architecture defines its current GeForce RTX 30 Series offerings, seen first in desktop video cards like the GeForce RTX 3080. At the higher end of the gaming-laptop market, these GPUs, indicated by "GeForce RTX" instead of "GeForce GTX," are replacing chips based on the "Turing" architecture of Nvidia's GeForce GTX 20 series, though you'll still see some laptops based on these for sale.

The basic story for both workstations and gaming rigs is a familiar one, though: Higher model numbers and higher prices bring you more speed and higher frame rates. They also gain you support for features such as virtual reality (VR), though midrange and high-end gaming-laptop GPUs like the GeForce RTX 1660 Ti (Turing) and above, and all of the current GeForce RTX chips, support playing and exploring VR worlds, while high-end mobile-workstation parts like the Nvidia RTX A series support VR authoring or creating them.

Nvidia's gaming-laptop GPUs in 2021 saw a shift. Before the launch of the 30-Series Ampere and 20-Series Turing laptop chips, it was a simple ladder: They climbed from the GeForce GTX 1050 to the GTX 1050 Ti, then the GTX 1060, with the formerly high-end GTX 1070 and GTX 1080 topping the line. The last three were replaced by the GeForce RTX 2060, RTX 2070, and RTX 2080 (and slightly faster "RTX Super" versions of the last two), which have themselves given way to the RTX 3050, RTX 3050 Ti, RTX 3060, RTX 3070, and top-end RTX 3080 and RTX 3080 Ti. Only the last two will truly satisfy gaming hounds planning to play the latest titles at 4K resolution with all the image-quality settings dialed up, while the GTX chips and lower RTX chips have been designed for gamers with full HD (1,920-by-1,080-pixel) screens. The RTX 2070, RTX 3060, and RTX 3070, meanwhile, straddle the full-HD and 4K realms.

At the lower end, the current chips are the mobile versions of the GeForce GTX 1650, GTX 1650 Ti, and GTX 1660 Ti. (There is no mobile version of the GTX 1660.) Machines with the GeForce RTX 3050 and RTX 3050 Ti started hitting the streets in early 2022; these are the first low-end RTX-class GPUs. All of these GPUs have supplanted the GTX 1050, GTX 1050 Ti, and GTX 1060. You're looking at an up-to-date lower-end laptop if it has one of these GTX 1600-series chips or an RTX 3050-class one.

Traditionally, a very few huge, heavyweight gaming laptops carried not one but two GeForce GPUs for ludicrous speed, using Nvidia's SLI (and in the latest generation, NVLink) multi-GPU technology. But they cost a fortune, their battery life was invariably brutish and short, and not all games benefit from dual-GPU setups, anyway. They are now an anachronism, and if you see one, it's a sign of old tech. AMD's Radeon RX mobile GPUs have made some modest inroads of late in a few machines, but they tend to appear so far in 15-inch-class machines, not 17-inchers. Nvidia dominates laptop GPUs.

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So, What Is the Best 17-Inch Laptop to Buy for Your Needs?

That's about it for general advice, except for matters of personal preference. Keyboards, for instance: Some gaming laptops go wild with colorful, customizable RGB backlighting and feature macro keys for storing frequently used command or combat sequences, while some mobile workstations' touchpads or pointing sticks feature the third (middle) mouse button often used in CAD and similar applications. And we don't think you should buy a 17-inch laptop in either of these groups that doesn't have at least one Thunderbolt 3 or Thunderbolt 4 port, which combines USB-C and DisplayPort functionality with daisy-chainable support for external docking and storage solutions.

At any rate, you're ready to shop for the notebook of your big-screen dreams. Get started by checking out the reviews we've assembled here, and good luck: Flex those biceps and get your back-strengthening routine down pat. You're going to go big. On the flip side, your eyes will be very, very happy.