HP 17z: An Honest Review

HP’s consumer laptop offerings include the Spectre, Envy, Pavilion, and the HP Laptop series. The HP Laptop entry-level series’s 14-, 15-, and 17-inch models prioritise providing the finest performance for the lowest price. The cases are made of plastic; there are a minimum number of ports and no fancy extras. That’s logical (to an extent, at least), given that costs begin at less than $500 and can drop to half that during sales.

Those looking for a larger screen for home office use, entertainment, or general computing can take advantage of the affordable costs that stretch to the 17.3-inch size. Our tests showed a decent battery life of almost 9 hours. In addition, HP provides a wide range of configuration choices, allowing you to strike the optimal balance between cost and performance.

HP 17z: An Honest Specifications

PROS

• Reasonable Costing
• Stylish appearance
• Huge screen
• Ports aplenty

CONS

• GPU performance is low.
• Plastic-built

Design

The HP 17z is one of the few low-cost laptops that doesn’t appear to cost as much as it does. That’s because it looks good. However, the HP 17z, for all its beauty, is constructed entirely of plastic, like its predecessor. Because of its plastic construction, this laptop is highly delicate.

The HP 17z is also available in three stunning hues: black, silver, and blue.
This review focuses on the silver model of the HP 17z. This laptop looks great in the three available colours, but my favourite is silver. The “HP” logo is proudly displayed in the middle of the HP 17z’s lid. When engraved, the “HP” logo appears to be split between black and silver. This logo stands out most clearly in a silver colour scheme. The laptop lid feels rough when you run your palm across it, which detracts from its aesthetic appeal.

When you lift the lid of your laptop, you’ll see that two thick chrome hinges support the screen. These HP-made hinges are very sturdy and reliably keep the lid closed.

It’s not a big deal that the lid wobbles when adjusting it. This laptop’s 17.3-inch, white LED-backlit display will surely be a highlight. The screen’s resolution is HD+ (1600 x 900).

A display with HD+ resolution offers an intermediate quality level between an HD monitor and a Full HD display. Therefore, an HD+ display is preferable to a standard HD display.

Performance

This laptop’s AMD Ryzen 5 3500U processor is among the best available. The base frequency of this processor is 2.10 GHz, and it features four processing cores. The processor can run at speeds up to 3.70 GHz and features a 4 MB cache. This laptop’s processor has four cores, making it capable of running several programmes simultaneously easily.

But if you want to know what this processor is capable of, I’ll show you the CineBench R15 benchmark result. The processing speed of a computer can be measured with the help of the benchmarking program Cinebench R15. The Cinebench evaluation is split into two sections. As a first step, we run a test using a configuration with a single CPU core. In the meantime, the second section of the test is a multi-core test that takes advantage of many processing cores.

Storage

The HP17z gives you a choice between three different storage capacities. First, it has 256 GB of storage space on a PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD. A second storage choice pairs one terabyte (TB) SATA hard disc drive (HDD) with a 128 GB solid-state drive (SSD). The hard disc rotational speed of this storage solution is 5400 RPM. Lastly, the HP17z can be equipped with a storage solution incorporating a 256 GB SDD and a 1 TB SATA HDD operating at 5400 RPM. The hard disc drive (HDD) and solid-state drive (SSD) in the second and third storage options function independently.

Graphics

Due to its status as an integrated graphics card, the AMD Radeon Vega 8 may struggle to deliver flawless performance in the most demanding graphics-intensive applications. However, if you play the latest games on medium settings, you should obtain playable frame rates.

For instance, this laptop should be able to run Far Cry 5 (2018) on medium settings with a frame rate of 16 fps. In addition, Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018) should run at 12 frames per second on medium settings.

In addition, I’ll show you the laptop’s 3DMark score so you can judge its graphics performance for yourself. The graphics card’s ability to produce 3D scenes is evaluated using 3D Mark.

Powered-Up Time

The HP 17z has a Li-ion battery with three cells and 41 Wh of capacity. HP claims that their battery will last up to 8 hours. With a battery life of 8 hours, you won’t have to worry about plugging in too often throughout the day. However, HP’s assertion needs to be checked.

The results of several battery life tests conducted by notebookcheck.com will be considered. The test revealed that the laptop could be used for continuous web browsing for 4 hours and 52 minutes. The test laptop’s battery life was significantly shorter than HP claimed. But before I decide on the battery life, let’s see how it stacks up against competing laptops.

FAQs

Why is a touchscreen interface optional?

This laptop can be had either with or without a touchscreen, thanks to its optional touchscreen.

How much does an HP 17Z laptop cost?

The HP 17z started at $499 when I wrote this review in February 2022.

Does the HP 17Z have a GPU that runs exclusively on its own?

Unfortunately, there is no dedicated graphics processor on this laptop.