Size Matters: Top 5 Affordable 17-inch Laptops

Taiwanese companyAcer is able to make high-quality and at the same time very inexpensive laptops. Another confirmation of this is the Acer Aspire ES1-732. It has the performance necessary for everyday tasks, a large 17-inch screen and an extremely modest price tag, which few models can boast of even with a smaller screen size.

The laptop case is made of black matte plastic, the working surface and the lid are covered with relief. The body of the assembly is at a high level, even without regard to the price, nothing creaks, does not play and does not hang out. The keys of the keyboard block have an average pressing stroke and good feedback, long-term operation does not cause discomfort.

But the design turned out to be quite controversial. The laptop looks like a hello from the 90s: with rough lines, rough plastic and large frames around the screen. Yes, this is an office machine, but using the example of other models from the top, you can see that a working laptop does not necessarily have to be ugly.

The Acer Aspire ES1-732 screen is made using TN+film technology with a resolution of 1600x900 pixels and unusually good viewing angles for this type of matrix. The picture has a very good contrast, at the level of more expensive models, but the screen itself sometimes lacks a margin of brightness. Although, considering that the laptop will not often leave the house, it is difficult to write down this small brightness as a minus.

The model is equipped with a dual-core Celeron N3350 processor, which, to save battery power, operates at regular frequencies of 1.1 GHz, and, if necessary, automatically accelerates to 2.4 GHz. The picture is complemented by 4 GB of RAM (there is an additional slot for another 4 GB), a 500 GB hard drive and an integrated Intel HD Graphics 500 graphics card.

As you can see, Acer did not expect that someone would want to play World Of Tanks on a lunch break, so the laptop's performance is quite modest. This is a pure workhorse for surfing the web and performing simple work tasks. Moreover, the modest hardware made it possible to make the laptop energy efficient and quiet as a mouse. Especially if you replace the HDD with an SSD.

In terms of switching, we observe a classic picture: one HDMI port, a pair of USB 2.0 class, one USB 3.0 port, a card reader and a LAN for connecting an Internet cable directly.

As for the battery, its volume is 3220 mAh. Given the large screen and undemanding processor, the battery shows battery life at an average level: in the "Balanced" mode, with constant work with websites and periodic switching to YouTube, the laptop works for about 4 hours.

LaptopsAsus in the initial segment often offer very interesting solutions. The Asus Vivobook 17X705MA was no exception, which, in addition to the filling that is performant for the class, boasts modest dimensions and a small weight of 2.1 kg. For comparison, most 17-inch models weigh 2.8 – 3 kg.

The appearance of the laptop is more like the shape of a solid model from another price category, with smooth lines, a neat and thin base and a soft-touch plastic lid, finished with aluminium. If you don't understand too much about the company's model range, then it can easily be confused with the older ZenBook line.

The Asus Vivobook 17 X705MA has a fairly simple TN+film class display with Full HD resolution (1920x1080 pixels), good colour reproduction and high contrast. The response time of the matrix is large (about 22 ms), but this is not critical for a non-gaming laptop. But it's very convenient to watch a new episode of your favorite TV series after work on it. Fortunately, the diagonal of the screen is 17", a good supply of brightness and loud speakers allow you to do this comfortably.

The heart of the laptop is a 4-core Pentium N5000 processor, which operates at a frequency of 1.1 GHz in normal mode and, in case of increased load, automatically accelerates to 2.7 GHz using TurboBoost technology. For an office machine, from which no feats are required, this is a strong reserve of power.

In conjunction with the processor, 4 GB of DDR4-class RAM work. This is already a more modest margin, but it can be expanded to 8 GB and not worry about performance at all. Complements the picture is an impressive HDD with a volume of 1000 GB, which should be enough for several lifetimes.

After the praise there should be some "but", but it is not here. The Asus Vivobook 17 X705MA has a standard battery for this class (holds about 3.5 hours) and a standard connection kit (HDMI, USB, card reader), which is complemented by a USB-C port and fast charging.

Since in the Ideapad 320 series fromLenovo is full of much more expensive models, the younger one inherited a minimalistic sharp-angled design.

The laptop case is made of soft-touch plastic. It creaks a little, bends in some places, but it is assembled quite qualitatively for its price category. Due to the sharp rectangular lines of the case, the frames around the screen seem larger than they actually are. However, this is more of a quibble, the laptop looks great in real life.

The screen with a diagonal of 17" has a resolution of 1600x900 pixels and is made using TN+film technology. It has a sufficient supply of brightness and high contrast, but small viewing angles and insufficient saturation of the picture. However, it catches your eye if you decide to include a colorful blockbuster or play something.

And it's not about browser toys. Thanks to a discrete NVIDIA GeForce 920MX graphics card with 2 GB of GDDR5 video memory, the laptop is able to produce stable 30 frames (at medium settings and medium resolution) in past-gen hits like Battlefield 4 or Batman: Arkham City.

In terms of games, the weak link is not the graphics card, but the rest of the hardware: a dual-core Intel Pentium 4415U processor (2.3 GHz frequency), 4 GB of DDR4 RAM (can be expanded to 16 GB) and not the fastest 500 GB hard drive. If you return from heaven to earth and put aside the games, then this power is more than enough for the usual surfing on the web, launching HD videos and office work.

A set of laptop connectors includes two USB 3.0 ports, one USB-C port, HDMI and a card reader. The set is as modern as possible, but if you are used to connecting speakers, a mouse, a smartphone and some peripherals to a laptop, then there may not be enough ports and you will need a USB hub.

It is also worth highlighting a rather "tenacious" battery, which at an average load ("Standard" mode, brightness by 70%, working with text) holds up to 5 hours. For 17-inch models that do not have high battery life, this is a decent result.

Against the background of all that has been said, the main disadvantage is the lack of an operating system. Neither Windows, nor Linux, nor the fashionable Endless OS is here, so you will have to install the OS yourself.

Acer Aspire 5 A517-51G is a tightly assembled laptop on the Intel Skylake platform for work and study with a swing to games. And thanks to the aluminium strip in the centre, the silver frame and the grooves on the lid, the laptop looks more interesting than any office bee.

The basis of the Acer Aspire 5 A517-51G is a 14-nanometer Core i3 6006U processor. The chip has 2 cores operating at a frequency of 2 GHz, with good energy efficiency and low heat dissipation. DDR4-type RAM with a preset 4 GB can be expanded to 16 GB. HDD with a volume of 1000 GB will provide a memory reserve for years. This volume is especially relevant if you plan to install large game distributions.

This is made possible thanks to a discrete NVIDIA GeForce graphics card with 2 GB of video memory. Video adapters of this series cope with most modern games and demonstrate a more or less comfortable frame rate in them. However, it will not be possible to launch the really demanding offspring of the gaming industry, since the weak link in this chain will be a dual-core processor.

The screen with a diagonal of 17" has a resolution of 1600x900 pixels and is made using TN+film technology. Indicators like colour rendering, maximum brightness and viewing angles are at an average level. However, this catches the eye only in the case of games or if the laptop is taken outside. However, in the price category up to $ 500, better screens, in principle, are not found.

Among the advantages, it is worth highlighting the presence of a modern USB-C port (in addition to it, there are a couple of USB 2.0 ports and one USB 3.0) and a built-in webcam with HD resolution.

In general, this model is fromAcer looks like a universal laptop, which can be called both working and multimedia with equal success.

Dell Inspiron 17 5770 is quite an interesting option in the price range up to $ 500. It has a minimalistic design, more suitable for the office, but at the same time good performance.

The model is equipped with a 17-inch IPS matrix with FullHD resolution (1920x1080 pixels), which shows high contrast, large viewing angles and excellent colour reproduction. Thanks to this, the laptop is comfortable to use both in the native walls and in the open air. Definitely, the IPS display equipment benefited the model, although it affected the price.

The model is equipped with a dual-core Intel Core i3 processor of the sixth generation with a clock frequency of 2 GHz and an integrated Intel HD 520 video chip. The amount of DDR4 RAM with a frequency of 2400 MHz is 8 GB and can be expanded to 32 GB. Moreover, the "bar" of memory can be added to the already installed one, because the laptop has 2 RAM slots, which is not so common in this price category. The drive is a HDD hard disk with a capacity of 1000 GB.

In addition to Wi-Fi, a modern set of connectors is provided for communication with the world: HDMI, 4 USB ports (including USB-C) and a card reader. Fans of video chats will be pleased with an HD webcam and quite powerful speakers.

Right out of the box, the laptop runs the Linux operating system, which is much less demanding on resources than Windows 10, but not suitable for everyone because of the unusual set of programs and interface.

The Achilles heel of this laptop is its cooling system. Firstly, it begins to make a noticeable noise during prolonged work. Secondly, it does not cope well with its task, since the laptop is noticeably heated under heavy loads. If it stands on the table like a regular desktop, it does not cause any inconvenience, but if you put it on your lap and turn on the movie in 2K, then by the middle of the story it will not be very comfortable to hold it.