HP Laptop 17 review: Does this laptop get anythingght?
HP Laptop 17 Review: A Oversized Budget Notebook That Fails to Deliver
Finding a competent large-screen laptop on a budget is a notoriously difficult task. The HP Laptop 17 attempts to fill this niche, offering an expansive 17.3-inch display at an entry-level price point. However, a massive footprint means very little if the underlying hardware and build quality can’t keep up. Aside from a surprisingly robust audio setup, this machine cuts far too many critical corners to justify its price tag.
Hardware Configurations & Pricing
The entry-level iteration of the HP Laptop 17 typically retails around $649 (though frequently discounted closer to $470). For this price, the baseline specifications include:
- Processor: AMD Ryzen 5 5625U
- Graphics: Integrated AMD Radeon
- Memory: 8GB DDR4 RAM
- Storage: 256GB SSD
- Display: 17.3-inch FHD ($1920 \times 1080$) IPS panel
- Color Options: Jet Black
While higher-tier configurations offer upgraded internals—such as AMD Ryzen 7 or 12th Gen Intel Core i7 processors, up to 16GB of RAM, and expanded dual-storage options—the fundamental flaws of the chassis and display remain unchanged across the lineup.
Design: Unfortunate Aesthetics & Awkward Ergonomics
Visually and texturally, the HP Laptop 17 makes a poor first impression. The entire body is constructed from a matte black plastic. HP attempted to inject some personality by engraving a dense pattern of tiny interlocking “+” symbols across the lid and keyboard deck. While it provides a tactile grip, the execution is highly flawed.
🚫 Design Flaw: The keyboard deck is speckled with intentional, microscopic white dots embedded in the plastic. Rather than looking like a premium finish, it creates the permanent illusion that the laptop is covered in dust or food crumbs.
Weighing in at 4.6 pounds and measuring 15.78 x 10.15 x 0.81 inches, this is a cumbersome machine to transport. Furthermore, despite its massive size, the port selection is surprisingly sparse:
- Left Side: 1x USB Type-C, 1x USB Type-A, HDMI 1.4, and a 3.5mm combo audio jack.
- Right Side: A solitary USB Type-A port.
- Missing: There is no SD card reader and no secondary USB-C port, which feels like a massive oversight on a chassis this large.
Display: Bigger, Not Better
While a 17.3-inch 1080p panel sounds excellent on paper for media consumption, the actual visual quality is incredibly disappointing. Colors appear washed out, artificial, and muddy, turning vibrant cinematic scenes into flat, uninspired imagery.
The primary culprit is a severe lack of brightness and color depth, failing dramatically when stacked against slightly more compact competitors:
| Display Benchmark | HP Laptop 17 | Acer Swift 3 | Dell Inspiron 16 2-in-1 |
| Average Brightness | 237 nits | 300 nits | 307 nits |
| DCI-P3 Color Gamut | 48.2% | 72.9% | 69.5% |
At just 237 nits, the screen struggles significantly in well-lit environments, sitting far below the standard industry average for mainstream laptops.
Interface: Uncomfortable Typing & A Flawed Trackpad
The input methods do little to redeem the device. While it features a full-sized layout complete with a dedicated numeric keypad, typing is far from pleasant. The abrasive, textured plastic pattern on the palm rest rubs uncomfortably against your wrists during extended use. Additionally, the keys completely lack backlighting, rendering it frustrating to use in low-light environments.
The $4.6 \times 2.8$-inch trackpad feels equally compromised. The physical housing feels loose; pressing lightly on the bottom edge causes the pad to sag inward unevenly before a click is even registered. The surface lacks smoothness, introducing a stuttering friction when performing basic navigation gestures.
Performance, Thermals, & Battery Life
Equipped with an older AMD Ryzen 5 processor and a meager 8GB of RAM, the HP Laptop 17 is strictly built for casual, single-task workloads. Open too many browser tabs or attempt to stream video while working on documents, and the system quickly begins to stutter.
Benchmark Comparisons
- Geekbench 5.4 (Multi-Core): The laptop notched a score of 5,121, lagging heavily behind the Acer Swift 3 (6,205) and the Dell Inspiron 16 (6,757).
- File Transfer Speed: It crawled through a 25GB file duplication test at a rate of 463 MBps, failing to match the Swift 3 (538 MBps) or the swift Inspiron 16 (802 MBps).
- Video Encoding (HandBrake): Transcoding a 4K video down to 1080p took 12 minutes and 27 seconds. While it narrowly beat out the Acer Swift 3 (12:59), it couldn’t touch the category average.
Thermals and Noise
The laptop struggles significantly with heat dissipation. Under standard video playback, the underside spikes to a localized 99°F, exceeding the standard 95-degree comfort threshold. More frustratingly, the internal fans are poorly tuned; simply launching a web browser triggers a loud, high-pitched whirring that mimics a heavy workload.
Battery Endurance
The massive chassis houses an underwhelming battery. In continuous web-browsing tests over Wi-Fi, the machine survived for 7 hours and 31 minutes. While sufficient to get through a casual afternoon, it is thoroughly eclipsed by the Acer Swift 3 (14:48) and the Dell Inspiron 16 (13:28).
The One Bright Spot: Audio Quality
If there is any redeeming quality to the HP Laptop 17, it is the speaker configuration. HP opted for top-firing speakers positioned right above the keyboard deck. The acoustic performance is surprisingly robust, offering clear vocals, well-separated instrumentation, and an unexpected amount of lower-end punch. While it suffers from minor distortion at maximum volume, it easily outperforms the standard, tinny audio typical of this price bracket.
The Verdict
The HP Laptop 17 is a clear example of prioritizing screen size over fundamental usability. Its dim display, frustrating tracking pad, subpar performance, and crumb-like design aesthetic make it incredibly difficult to recommend. Even at a steep discount, your money is far better spent on slightly smaller, vastly superior alternatives like the Asus Zenbook 14, which offer the performance, display quality, and premium build that this machine sorely lacks.