Compared to desktops, laptops are known for portability, space efficiency, and convenience, but they have their shortcomings too. Among other things, the smaller, dimmer displays that most laptops come with can feel a little underwhelming.
Things have improved a lot over the years, but perhaps not to a degree where the average laptop screen can match a desktop monitor. Average is the keyword though because there is nothing average about the 17-inch gaming laptops that we are going to discuss next!
Legion 5i Gen 6 (17”) Premium
Right at the top of Lenovo’s top 5 gaming laptops is the extremely powerful and customizable Lenovo Legion 5i Gen 6 (17”) Premium. You can also go for the regular Legion 5i Gen 6 (17”) which will provide excellent value for money and the same display. However, if you wish to improve your gaming PC build with a more powerful Intel Core-i7-11800H CPU, more RAM, and a larger, 1TB SSD, the Premium Edition’s customization tools will let you do just that.
As for the screen itself, we are discussing a 17.3″, 1080p, 144Hz IPS panel that can reach up to 300 nits of brightness. To provide a reference range, consider the fact that the average desktop monitor caps out at roughly 250-nits and the average laptop display caps out at 150-nits. A 1080p display makes it perfect for utilizing the 144Hz refresh rate to its full extent.
While laptops with 4K displays may or may not look appealing at that size, they are terrible if you wish to game on a high refresh rate display. As far as the latest AAA games are concerned, it is virtually impossible for any laptop to date to maintain 120FPS while running at ultra-settings in 4K resolution.
Razer Blade Pro 17
The Razer Blade Pro 17 has a 17.3-inch, 1440p IPS panel with an impressive 300-nits of brightness and an even more impressive 240Hz refresh rate. Powered by an Nvidia RTX 3080 Ti and the latest Intel Core i7-12800H processor, the Razer Blade Pro is one of the best gaming laptops you can buy today.
Unfortunately, the 240Hz refresh rate will be of little use to gamers because no modern AAA game will ever be able to reach even 200fps on a QHD display, even with that much power under the hood. For example, the Razer Blade Pro 17 managed to reach an average of 25fps while running (updated and nerfed) Cyberpunk 2077 at native QHD (Ultra).
The sleek, black, and uber-expensive Razer did pull off an impressive 70fps – 80fps average on Red Dead Redemption 2 and 90fps – 100fps on Horizon: Zero Dawn, but none of those numbers come even close to utilizing the panel’s full capacity. The 17.3” QHD display is a gorgeous 1440p that can also be used for photo editing and media consumption undoubtedly.
ASUS ROG Strix G17
Coupled with powerful hardware, the ASUS ROG Strix’s 17.3”, 1080p IPS panel sports an even more impressive refresh rate of 300Hz. It’s a beautiful, bright display, but once again, the 300Hz refresh rate is mostly a gimmick. Even if you don’t opt for the new 1440p panel, the laptop will not manage to reach 300fps on any of the latest games. Shadow of Mordor reached 180fps – 190fps, but that’s still nowhere close to 300fps and the game is almost 9-years old at this point.
These are among the three best 17” gaming laptops available to buy right now, as of mid-2022. The Lenovo offers amazing performance for the price, and the ASUS sports the most colorful display out of these three. The Razer is great, but considering the price, its performance just can’t match up in comparison.
