Compact 12- and 13-inch laptops are all the rage nowadays, and while the portability of these ultrabooks is convenient in an age of mobile technology, they leave a lot to be desired when it comes to screen real estate. And if even 14- and 15-inch laptops are still too small for you — meaning you’re after a laptop that’s more akin to a portable desktop PC than a compact notebook — then the good news is that there are some great 17-inch laptop deals out there. To help you find them, we’ve already scoured all the best 17-inch laptop sales and have rounded up the best bargains right here:
Today’s best 17-inch laptop deals
How to choose a 17-inch laptop
Laptops have been slowly creeping towards the smaller side, with advances in mobile hardware technology allowing manufacturers to pack more hardware into smaller spaces. It’s not hard to see why these compact ultrabooks are so hot: They’re light, they’re powerful, and they’re easy to carry around. The problem is that they’re rather cramped. Aside from their displays (which may nonetheless look great despite their smaller size), the built-in keyboards and touchpads on these down-sized laptops generally aren’t particularly suitable for hours of work, to say nothing of immersion-focused activities like gaming.
The good news is that PC makers haven’t left the larger laptops behind, and in fact, they seem to be undergoing something of a mini-renaissance lately. The same mobile hardware developments that have caused regular laptops to shrink have also allowed their bigger siblings to slim down, too. Look through any of these 17-inch laptop sales and you’ll notice that today’s plus-sized machines are pretty sleek, with thinner chassis and narrower bezels than those of yesteryear. Although any 17-inch laptop will be larger and heavier than a 13-inch ultrabook, that doesn’t mean you’re going to be sore after carrying it around campus all day.
The only real catch (assuming you’re willing to deal with the extra size and weight of a 17-inch laptop) is that you’re pretty much stuck with Windows. MacBooks only go up to 16 inches, with the MacBook Pro 16 replacing the previous 15-inch model. You’re not likely to find any 17-inch Chromebook deals, either, as these Chrome OS-powered laptops tend to be on the smaller side; 15 inches is about as big as you’ll get here, with 14 being more common. Gaming laptop deals, on the other hand, are fairly popular in the 17-inch size category, as many gamers — particularly those looking for a laptop that can more or less replace a desktop PC — opt for these larger displays.
But if you can live with that and are willing to trade some portability for a larger, more comfortable computer, then you’re ready to start hunting around online for some 17-inch laptop sales. We suggest setting a budget and sticking to it, though, and this will largely determine what kind of hardware you end up with. If you don’t want to spend a lot and are only planning to use your PC for basic things like web browsing, email, word processing, making spreadsheets, and maybe watching some videos, then look for 17-inch laptop deals in the $350-$500 range. These will feature specs like Intel Core i3, Core i5, AMD Ryzen 3, and Ryzen 5 CPUs along with 4GB-8GB of memory (more is always better, so spring for 8GB if at all possible). Storage options will also be fairly basic in this price bracket, with 128GB to 256GB SSDs being common. Some of these cheap laptops may pair a small solid-state system drive with a larger HDD for overflow.
If your budget threshold is a bit higher — between, say, $500 and $1,000 — then look for upgrades like Intel Core i5/i7 and Ryzen 5/7 CPUs, 8GB-16GB RAM, and larger 512GB-1TB SSDs. And if you want the best of the best and can spend more than a grand, the sky’s the limit. You can find premium models like the Dell XPS 17 or the LG Gram 17 packing beefy hardware along with premium features like Quad HD (1440p) and 4K displays, touchscreens, and discrete GPUs among these 17-inch laptop sales.
And speaking of discrete graphics, you’ll definitely see some nice gaming machines when shopping around for 17-inch laptop deals. MSI, Dell, Alienware (which is actually part of Dell’s stable), Asus, and Razer are a handful of brands making 17-inch gaming laptops, so keep your eyes peeled for those. Along with the hardware recommendations above, we suggest looking for laptops with Nvidia GeForce GTX GPUs in the sub-$1,000 price bracket and RTX GPUs above that. You may also find some of AMD’s new Radeon 5000M-series mobile GPUs here and there when poking through online 17-inch laptop sales, although Nvidia cares are still fare more common on these portable PCs. Also pay attention to the display’s specs: You want something with a high refresh rate, ideally 120Hz or more, which will let you enjoy smoother gameplay at a higher frame rate.
