Best inexpensive 17″ laptop computer?

by philg

Folks: I want to buy a luggable/shippable note computer for use in doing some reading of PDF documents, reviewing some source code with standard Unix tools (could use cygwin if Windows-based), and editing documents with Open Office. A large screen will make the machine much more productive, so 17″ is the minimum screen size (1600×900 resolution is fine due to my ancient eyes being unable to read tiny fonts anyway; Dell charges about $100 extra for 1920×1080 resolution and I guess it would be worth $100 but not more). It would also be nice if the laptop had HDMI and DVI outputs (up to 2560×1600 for driving a 30″ monitor) for those situations in which it can be hooked up to an external display.

The budget is not heavily constrained, but as this computer will be used for just a single purpose I don’t want to overspend. Here are a few options that have been suggested:

Anyone have experience with these or similar 17″ laptops? Another brand to suggest? I don’t think it needs to run Windows (as long as it can run Adobe Reader, Open Office, etc.), though I also don’t want to take the time to install an operating system so it needs to come with an OS pre-installed. A solid-state drive would be nice, but it seems crazy to spend more on a boot drive than on the computer itself. Where are all of the laptops with the hybrid solid state/hard disk drives that we were promised by now? Why isn’t a hybrid drive, at least, standard or at least available on mainstream laptops?

30 thoughts on “Best inexpensive 17″ laptop computer?”

  2. High DPI is good for your eyes even if you end up using large fonts. In my experience Linux UIs scale better than Windows (which uses pixel layouts).

    Sounds like SSD is a waste of money for your intended purpose.

    A 17″ laptop is going to be heavy.

  3. I have a cheap 17″ Dell Vostro (about 2 years old) at work and the screen is just horrible. Anything other than native resolution will look unacceptable, the fonts are very small and faint, glare. More recent models may be better though. Other than the screen, it seems to be pretty solid.

    I also use an HP Pavillion, and before that a Compaq laptop. The biggest problem is cheap plastics that they use. They outgass like mad when hot, which could be a problem if you use it in poorly ventilated area.

  4. I bought the same HP Pavilion for my wife 3 months ago but wish I had checked out the track pad. I did not try out any computers first hand prior to purchase- just ponied up my cash and had one shipped to me but found the track pad on our particular system requires a heavy hand to operate.

  5. Adi: Thanks for the tip on those workstations. I don’t think we need 32GB of RAM, though!

    Steve: For this application, we will very seldom be moving the machine, so plugging in a USB mouse will be easy. How’s the screen on the monster HP?

  6. Our model has the glossy screen which I often find annoying with the reflection but if your work station doesn’t have bright windows behind you the quality is good enough for your stiff cornea unless you are viewing RAW images or (shudder) trying to do video editing.

  7. I’ve had a 17″ Toshiba Satellite for the past five years and I use it mainly for coding and reading PDFs. Really nice machine for this purpose. One of my friends has a newer model which looks similar to the one you linked and it seems equally nice, though I find the glossy finish distracting.

  8. I’ve had a Satellite A505 for a couple of years. They are solidly built and don’t feel cheap and breakable. What the Dell Latitude used be, that’s what the Toshiba Satellite is now.

    Until things change, I’ll only be buying Toshiba laptops.

  9. Philip,

    As a green alternative, would you consider something like a used 17″ MacBook Pro? These are typically very durable computers with good video capability.

  11. If you want to drive a 2560×1600 external monitor, you will need either “dual-link” DVI or DisplayPort. I don’t think HDMI, at least as implemented on most contemporary PCs and monitors, will go that high yet.

    I hope you find something you like. 4:3 ratio screens on laptops are history (though reappearing on some tablets), and even 16:10 screens are going the way of the dodo. I have a 3-year-old Dell Inspiron with a gorgeous 1920×1200 screen, and while it’s big enough to play cards on — the manual, paper kind, not the electronic ones — I love the screen real estate. My newer HP, which I otherwise like (faster, smaller, lighter, cooling is much better than on the Dell), feels a bit vertically cramped sometimes with its 1920×1080 panel.

  12. Phil,

    If you aren’t going to move it much why don’t you consider one of the smaller CPUs, like a Mac Mini. I know Dell and HP had them also. Hook one of those up to a monitor you have and you would have a fairly portable system, with some room for expansion and it would be simple to add an SSD later if needed.

  13. Pretty much any laptop in this range will have a terrible screen. I would either pay more for a laptop with a decent screen or get a lighter laptop and try to plug it in to a monitor most of the time.

  14. Philip,

    I have been buying Dells (the budget Vostro/Inspiron lines) for my extended family for a few years, and have been happy until now. However, the recent mid-level Inspiron 15R I bought was very disappointing – the keyboard is extremely flimsy, there is a lot of body flex, and the battery life (with i5) is disappointing. Make sure you try out the keyboard on the budget Dells before buying. Higher-end Dells (XPS) are fine, but also considerably more expensive.

  15. Scott: Why not a used Apple 17″ laptop? Certainly paying nearly $3000 for a laptop (the price of the Apple with a dual link DVI adapter and a bit more RAM) wasn’t part of my plan. I don’t think a used machine is acceptable from a security point of view, however. The information to be kept on this computer is confidential (which is why it has to be a separate machine, not networked). It would defeat the purpose if we were to buy a computer and could not be confident that the OS were clean. (And as noted earlier, I don’t want to spend the time to reformat and reinstall anything.)

    Beau: Thanks for the mini-brick idea. I don’t think it works, though, because I don’t always want to have to swap cables out if I want to check something quickly. And the computer may be shipped from state to state periodically.

    Corey: I think you’re right about the resolution limit on cheap HDMI-only laptops. I think I will have to relax that requirement.

  16. Dell XPS 17 with the Core i7 2630QM processor. (Passmarks=6346). With 1920×1080 resolution and hdmi. Even their lower end nvidia 550 graphics card will do 2560×1600 (altough I don’t use that feature)

    I was able to spec one out w/6Gb for about $1300.

    The machine is a screamer. Dell has sales every now and then; you might be able to get it cheaper.

  17. Ray: Thanks for the concrete suggestion. It looks like it can be configured for about $1100 (8 GB of RAM and the i5 CPU) plus another $100 if one wanted to watch Blu-Ray videos on it. The Dell sales support chat person claims that it won’t do higher than 1920×1080 since that is the laptop’s native resolution and even with a DVI output it just drives the same resolution as the laptop. … Now she changes her mind and says that it will drive to the full external monitor resolution, but only via the HDMI output, not the DVI output.

  18. I got a 17″ Inspiron from Dell outlet. It was a scratch and dent. They usually have monthly coupons and the laptop came out to $500. It was an i5 with bluRay. Now the unfortunate part, it stopped working within 10 minutes lol. I was in the US when I bought it and now Canada. I transfered ownership to Dell Canada. And they have to replace it with the same model or give an upgraded version. Well they didn’t have a similar model so they gave me an XPS with upgraded video card. And it ended up being brand new. Took 2 months to finally get it resloved though, but I don’t need it till travelling in the summer anyways.

    THat being said I would visit fatwallet or slickdeals, and wait for a good deal on a 17″.

    I just did a quick search at FW and there is a 17″ i3 for $455 at staples.
    And there’s an i5 Sony for $800 if you want a Sony, they are pretty reliable with good support.

  20. Phil,

    The dell XPS 17 has display port that should be able to drive 2560×1600. The HDMI is limited to 1080p output and the DVI is single link so it can only drive 1920x1080p. Just make sure the monitor has a displayport input. All the dell and the apple ones do.

  21. Not a 17″ but this ASUS G53JW-XA115.6″ does have a 1980×1080 screen resolution. Screen is very nice. Has an HDMI output port, i7 1.73GHZ quad core, 6GB ram, Windows 7 Home Premium with a luggable heft. Price is reasonable and you can get it by tomorrow from Amazon.

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00486USL8

    On a used MacBook Pro: The reformat on a MacBook Pro would be trivial. Typically the MacBook seller would configure the system so that it would boot to a factory state so the OS would be clean.

  23. I had a 17″ HP pavilion dv6000 or so in Iraq. Used it daily for 15 months and then another 2.5 years after that. Despite being in the dust, dirt, thrown around and carried, it held up.

    Still have it now running Ubuntu, but there’s a black line down the screen and I had to disassemble it and hack the bottom out of the case to get airflow.

    Bought a second one about a year and a half ago and so far no problems. Very pleased, very study.

  25. My girlfriend bought the Toshiba Satellite you mention. She is enjoying it. Only drawbacks she has mentioned, the track pad has a very sensitive zooming feature that is too easily triggered. The battery life appears to be a bit less than advertised. Excellent sound, and nice display, and inexpensive for what you get.

  26. Not sure what you mean by “review unix code” but for reading and annotating documents like pdf and text, I think an Ipad with goodreader is a good choice. It creates annotated documents that can be read with acrobat readers on other computers. For annotating, buy a stylus and you can write directly on the document. It’s also great for reading technical papers, e-books and so on that have detailed graphics.

  27. Bob: Thanks for the suggestion. I’m not sure how a 9.7″ screen with an Apple logo on it is better than a 17″ screen with no Apple logo. About six years ago, I tried the experiment in the other direction, replacing a 23″ display with an Apple logo with a 30″ display with a small “Dell” in the corner. It turned out to be easier to review documents and take notes with two windows opened side-by-side on the 30″ higher resolution display.

  29. Les: Whoa, $350 for a 17″ laptop with 3 GB of RAM and 802/11n. That does sound pretty hard to beat. Since Bob, above, raised the question of whether a better choice might not be something with an Apple logo, I checked the Apple store. They have a 17″ laptop with 4 GB of RAM for $2500. With the difference in price, the USDA says that you could feed a family of four for nearly three months! (See
    http://www.cnpp.usda.gov/Publications/FoodPlans/2009/CostofFoodJan09.pdf )

  30. I’ve a 2 yr. old VAIO w/ 17.6″ monitor that’s lightweight, 1920×1080, HDMI out. It was top of the line then, 500GB disk, 64GB RAM, Blu-Ray burner, fingerprint security and more, and was only $1500. Very dependable, non-reflective display, and very fast. I still use it heavily, the screen is easy on the eyes.

    Sony still makes some good, inexpensive large display notebooks from $700. Look at:

    http://www.sonystyle.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/CategoryDisplay?catalogId=10551&storeId=10151&langId=-1&categoryId=8198552921644784035

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