TOP 5 mid-range gaming laptops with a 17-inch display

The original Lenovo Legion was one of the first minimalist laptops with blurry positioning that tried to sit on two chairs at once, being both a gaming laptop and a laptop for designers. The hybrid turned out to be so successful that almost all manufacturers borrowed this idea, and the Legion series itself was bombarded with awards. The hero of this review Lenovo Legion 5 17ACH6 visually practically does not differ from the models of the previous generation with their minimalistic body and protruding rear panel. Apparently, the company's designers are in no hurry to fix what already works fine, preferring to update the hardware and add some relevant features.

Introduced at the beginning of 2022, the Legion 5 modification, codenamed 17ACH6, was equipped with a 6-core fifth-generation Ryzen 5 processor that supports multi-threaded processing and accelerates to 4.2 GHz. In combination with 16 GB of DDR4-3200 RAM and a GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card, the laptop can handle most of the popular titles of yesteryear (The Witcher 3, Metro Exodus, Cyperpunk 2077) at 1080p and medium-high graphics settings. To store the game collection, a completely standard NVMe drive (class PCI-E 3.0) with a 512 GB memory reserve, which is usual for recent years, is intended. Coldfront's proprietary Cooling system is responsible for cooling the iron, with support for intelligent control and additional options for manual configuration. What is convenient is that it can be configured depending on the task, switching between economical, balanced and productive modes. The RAM is soldered on the board, so adding a second one, alas, will not work.

The Lenovo Legion 5 has a 17.3-inch IPS display with a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels, a refresh rate of 144 Hz and good, but not a record-breaking color reproduction (72% NTSC). Interestingly, the display is claimed to support HDR content, although the display brightness is only 300 cd / m², which is not enough even for the minimum requirements of this standard. But among the strengths of the laptop, you need to highlight a capacious battery with fast charging (gives 50% in 30 minutes), a modern network controller with Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.1, a large set of USB ports, the current HDMI version 2.1 interface, a massive touchpad, an intelligent gaming a single-color backlit keyboard, as well as an additional 2.5" slot for installing a second drive. then noticeable shortcomings, like many entry-level gaming models.

Around the end of 2020, HP's gaming division embarked on a massive reshuffling, which resulted in the Omen flagship laptops looking like absolutely any ultrabook under $1500, and the affordable and boring gaming machines from the Pavilion Gaming series were transplanted to an ornate Omen-style chassis with an elegant mount display. In order not to completely confuse potential customers, in Pavilion devices, instead of red backlighting, they decided to use the acid green color of the Hulk.

In terms of equipping the HP Pavilion Gaming 17-cd2000, it is quite possible to write down in the category of "Omen at the minimum". Despite the fact that the body of the laptop is completely plastic, the whole structure turned out to be extremely strong, and the base and lid practically do not flex. The keyboard is the same as in previous generations of the Pavilion series, with the difference that the keys are set a little higher. The touchpad is not the largest and most convenient, apparently HP uses mice exclusively. The 17-inch display with anti-reflective coating and far from the thinnest side frames displays an image with a frequency of 144 Hz and natural color reproduction (100% sRGB). The cooling system performed well both in stress tests and in everyday life. Among other goodies, fast charging, a card reader and a built-in stereo system, which were developed by the Danish wizards from Bang & Olufsen, stand out.

The HP Pavilion Gaming 17 is powered by the standard entry-level hardware configuration, consisting of a 4-core Intel Core i5 11300H processor and an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card. Despite the fact that the 3050 Ti is the youngest model in the Ampere series, it, like older brothers, is equipped with separate cores for hardware ray tracing, DLSS implementation and other machine learning chips. But the processor could be more powerful. The memory layout is as follows: 16 GB DDR4 + NVMe SSD with a capacity of 512 GB. Such a set allows you to squeeze textbook 50 - 60 FPS at medium graphics settings in almost any AAA game of recent years. Unless, of course, it's Forspoken or Gotham Knights, whose creators seem to have given up on optimization.

Acer Nitro series laptops have long gained fame among gamers who appreciated the right priorities and the company's competent pricing policy. The Acer Nitro 5 AN517-42 that came to our test confirms this rule - this is an excellent entry-level gaming laptop with a 144-Hz display, a noisy but efficient cooling system, a comfortable keyboard and a productive stuffing. Inside, the laptop uses a moderately powerful combination of a 12-thread Ryzen 5 6600H, a GeForce RTX 3050 Ti graphics card, and 16 GB of brand new DDR5 RAM running at 4800 MHz. Despite the fast memory, this is a classic laptop variant that will deliver around 60 FPS at high graphics settings in past hits like Metro Exodus, RDR2 and Borderlands 3, but it does not have the biggest headroom against next-gen games based on the Unreal engine engine 5.

The body of the device has become less angular, the side edges are now smooth and smooth, and the lid does not look as militant as in Nitro models of previous years. As before, the gaming nature of the laptop is given out by air intakes similar to the exhaust pipe of a sports car, which are located on the rear panel, aggressive keyboard backlighting and visually highlighted WASD keys. In this modification, a solid red is used, however, alternatives with 4-zone RGB backlighting can be found on sale. As before, the case is completely made of plastic and assembled to last. But the weight has grown, if a couple of years ago the 17-inch Nitro weighed 2.3 kg, then the current modification weighs all 3 kg. This is due to the use of a more massive video card and a modified cooling system. Which, by the way, perfectly manifests itself during the game, preventing the filling and the body from heating up too much.

Considering the middle class of the device, where they usually save on screens, this model is no exception. The laptop uses a 17.3-inch IPS panel with a refresh rate of 144Hz and a fast response time, but visually it lacks brightness and contrast. Otherwise, it has a standard set for a gaming laptop in 2023: a specialized Killer E2600 gaming LAN controller, an audio path with DTS X Ultra support, modern connection ports and a good battery that can hold a charge in non-gaming mode for 8 hours. It is also important to note the possibility of self-replacement of RAM and the installation of a second SSD drive. Of the obvious shortcomings, we note only an extremely mediocre webcam and not the most convenient touchpad.

A few years after the triumph of TUF Gaming laptops, Asus design bureau in 2022 decided to update the appearance of this line, at the same time upgrading the chassis and cooling system to meet the requirements of the current generation of NVIDIA graphics cards. The updated case looks more modern and sleek, reminiscent of the TUF Dash series models with their thin side bezels and a small scallop that hides a webcam eye. As for other differences, the TUF logo is now embossed on the metal cover, the keyboard is not too recessed into the case, and additional ventilation grilles have appeared on the sides. As before, the case complies with the MIL-STD-810 protection standard.

The performance of the laptop is provided by a rather powerful Intel Core i7 11800H processor by laptop standards with 8 physical cores and 8 additional virtual ones, which can automatically overclock to 4.6 GHz. The GeForce RTX 3050 Ti is responsible for video graphics processing with 4 GB of GDDR6 video memory and a power consumption limit of 75 watts. On the one hand, the card is relatively new, it supports DLSS 2.0 and hardware ray tracing, but it does not have the largest margin of safety, and even now playing the conditional Hogwarts Legacy has to maneuver between basic and medium graphics settings. The processor and graphics card are complemented by 16GB of DDR4 RAM and a 512GB M.2 SSD. At the same time, the manufacturer left room for self-upgrading the RAM and installing a second drive.

Of the obvious shortcomings of this modification, a 17-inch IPS display should be noted. It stands out due to the high contrast ratio and built-in Adaptive-Sync, but it has low brightness, a long response time by the standards of the gaming class, and modest color reproduction at the level of the simplest IPS screens that are usually installed in inexpensive office laptops. Otherwise, the Asus TUF Gaming F17 is a fairly high-quality and proven gaming laptop with an excellent cooling system, support for fast charging, DTS X Ultra, a modern set of connection ports and an RGB backlit keyboard.

In 2021, MSI introduced two new lineups of gaming laptops, Katana and Sword, designed to compete with the popular entry-level gaming laptops Acer Nitro and Asus TUF. These rulers were designed by Japanese illustrator Nagano Tsuyoshi. Their potential formula for success is very similar: a simple plastic chassis without unnecessary decor, a high-quality cooling system, a mid-range IPS display, and rather vigorous hardware that can comfortably run most of the gaming hits of recent years. At the same time, the difference in hardware between Katana models is quite insignificant, so a general conclusion about the series can be made after getting acquainted with only one laptop.

In the hierarchy of the company, Katana is several steps below the flagship MSI GP Leopard models and slightly inferior in terms of capabilities to MSI Pulse GL laptops. And this is especially evident in the available hardware configurations, which are limited to the Core i7 processor and the GeForce RTX 3060 graphics card. It was this option that fell into our hands. Let's say right away that the epithet "limited" is used for a reason - on paper and taking into account its price, the MSI Katana GF76 11UE is very good, but in reality the impression is somewhat blurred by the 85-watt power limit, which, on the one hand, saves charge and lowers temperature, on the other hand, it does not allow the video card to reveal its potential by 100%. But I was pleased that MSI does not lag behind fashion, allowing users to add RAM modules and install additional drives.

The neat matte black chassis with beveled corners around the display is clearly inspired by MSI's Pulse and Thin laptops. The resemblance is enhanced by a mesh bottom and a branded keyboard with a brutal red backlight. The 17.3-inch IPS screen installed in the laptop has a resolution of 1080p, a refresh rate of 144 Hz and covers 45% of the NTSC color spectrum, which is hardly an impressive result. Even for the simplest web design, this is a so-so option. But on the other fronts, full order. In particular, MSI Katana is equipped with a Hi-Res sound card with support for Nahimic software, a comfortable keyboard with a solid red backlight, and a network card with a dedicated LAN port and Wi-Fi 6 wireless module.