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It's not subtle, but the Predator 17's slick performance, gorgeous screen and top-notch cooling has won us over. Its lengthy battery life (for a gaming laptop) very nearly tips it into excellence, with only the lack of portability, and its small SSD, likely to be long-term niggles.
We liked
The Predator 17 is fully capable of running the latest games at their best, evidently to an even greater extent than the Predator 15. Not that this is some plucky underdog; its hardware, including an up-to-date Intel Skylake CPU, is on par with a respectable desktop.
Even so, it manages to keep cool thanks to a powerful fan system, and there's enough battery for multiple movies or a decent session of solid gaming.
We disliked
Unfortunately, a laptop does still need to be mobile, and the Predator 17 is so thick and dense that lugging it around becomes a dreadful notion. By contrast, the 128GB SSD is miniscule, unable to cope with more than two or three big games. The cooling system, as effective as it is, also makes a frankly terrible racket.
Final verdict
If it was quieter and shed a few pounds, the Predator 17 would be a close-to-perfect gaming machine. As it stands, it will have to settle for merely being a great one, combining solid performance with (mostly) wise design and a dependable battery. Just don't take it backpacking.
