HP Omen 16 laptop review: An affordable RTX-powered gaming laptop

Price When Reviewed

$799

Best Prices Today: HP Omen 16-wd0995no

Playing PC video games isn’t low cost. A great gaming PC can value as a lot as a black market kidney, at the least when you have excessive ambitions. Some people need one of the best of one of the best with ultra-fast excessive refresh price screens and the newest {hardware}. But you don’t should spend a ton of cash to get good efficiency out of a gaming machine. That’s the place this laptop computer from HP is available in, a 16-inch laptop computer from their Omen model.

As of proper now, it prices simply $799.99 at Best Buy, a really modest value for a well-built laptop computer with fashionable {hardware}. You’re getting DDR5 reminiscence, quick W-iFi, and the newest technology of processors and graphics.

The pc is a strong construct with a sheet metallic chassis lined in matte black plastic. It’s a bit angular with beveled surfaces as gaming laptops are typically, however in any other case has a clear and easy design. You can simply fold it up within the workplace with out attracting consideration with its RGB keyboard and neon-colored ornament. It has a normal white backlight adjustable in three steps. There are apparently different fashions with RGB keyboards, however not this one. Read on to study extra.

Looking for extra choices? Check out PCWorld’s roundup of the best gaming laptops accessible proper now.

HP Omen 16: Specifications

Product title: Omen Gaming 16
Tested: October 2023
Manufacturer: HP
Processor: Intel Core i5-13420H, 4 Performance cores as much as 4.6 GHz + 4 Efficieny cores as much as 3.4 GHz
Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050, 6 GB
Memory: 16 GB DDR5
Storage: 512 GB SSD
Displays: 16.1 inch semi-matte ips, 1920×1080 pixels, 144 Hz
Webcam: 1080p
Connections: Usb 3 gen 1 kind c with displayport, 3 pcs usb 3 gen 1 kind a, gigabit ethernet lan, hdmi 2.1, headset
Wireless: Wifi 6e, Bluetooth 5.3
Operating system: Windows 11 Home
Other: Backlit keyboard
Noise stage: 34-40 dBa
Battery life: 1 hour 35 min (excessive load, full brightness) to approx. 7 hours 10 min (low load, low brightness)
Size: 36.9 x 25.9 x 2.4 cm
Weight: 5.18 lbs
Current value: $799.99 at Best Buy

HP Omen 16: Performance

Cinebench R23, CPU: 12,491 factors
Cinebench R23, CPU single core: 1,715 factors
Geekbench 6, CPU multi-core: 10,726 factors
Geekbench 6, CPU single core: 2,426 factors
Geekbench 6, GPU: 82,384 factors
3dmark Fire Strike (DirectX 11): 20,799 factors
3dmark Time Spy (DirectX 12): 8,618 factors
3dmark Port Royal (ray tracing): 4,726 factors
Disk, learn: as much as 6,716.07 MB/s
Disk, write: as much as 4,012.97 MB/s

HP Omen 16: Portability

Mattias Inghe

A big cooling grid on the backside raises the pc barely, however in any other case it’s fairly skinny. That mentioned, it’s not gentle, because it weighs over 5 kilos. This is primarily a pc that you’ve got at dwelling except you could have devoted house for a desktop field.

HP Omen 16: Right pondering within the design

The massive format does wonders for the keyboard. It options comfy, well-spaced keys with a superb typing really feel. This is partly as a result of the truth that HP has skipped the numeric keypad, however saved the “center keys”, i.e. arrow keys and buttons comparable to Insert, Home, Page Up, and Page Down. So it’s like a full-sized desktop keyboard, however with out the final half on the correct. The mouse pad is massive and purposeful, however doesn’t have excellent element precision. A separate mouse is really useful if you wish to tweak pixels in Photoshop or play video games.

If you purchase the Omen 16 via HP’s personal on-line retailer, you’ll see that you would be able to select totally different configurations, with two selections every for processor, storage, show and graphics card. My check pc has the only model of all the things, however it doesn’t really feel in the least budget-friendly. The selections are between good {hardware} and higher.

The examined mannequin has a Core i5 processor of the 13th technology. It’s an H-type, the extra highly effective laptop computer processors from Intel that, not like the P- and U-series, sacrifice vitality effectivity for longer-lasting efficiency peaks. To that you simply get 16 gigabytes of DDR5 reminiscence, and 512 gigabytes of fantastically quick SSD. Is it an excessive efficiency monster? No, however it’s a particular step up from thinner and lighter laptops for doing heavy, time-consuming jobs. For instance, exporting an edited video challenge.

Mattias Inghe

HP Omen 16: The 4050 GPU exceeds expectations

It additionally has a separate, discrete graphics card for additional efficiency in such applications and particularly for video games. Here is a GeForce RTX 4050 with six gigabytes of video reminiscence. It’s the only laptop computer graphics card in Nvidia’s newest 4000 sequence, however has confirmed to have the potential to ship above expectations for such a low-priced card.

That’s partly as a result of it shares its fashionable structure with the 4000 sequence heavyweights, supporting applied sciences like DLSS 3, which permits suitable video games to run a lot quicker. With configurable energy ranges, a pc producer can push the efficiency of the cardboard on the expense of energy consumption.

It has considerably restricted video reminiscence, which reportedly limits the performance for ray tracing. But heavy ray tracing results are nonetheless the very first thing I flip off in most video games if I have to tweak their efficiency. And for probably the most half, they appear good anyway.

HP Omen 16: Reasonable display screen and sound high quality

In the Omen 16, the pc has a modest 1920×1080 pixel display screen to show the video games on, which additionally helps so much to maintain gaming efficiency up. For shifting photos like movies and video games, it gives a superb expertise, however for quiet desktop work with a number of strains and textual content, it will get a little bit annoyingly pixelated at instances.

Its IPS panel offers it glorious viewing angles and srb-class shade gamut with what seems to be reasonable and impartial shade copy. At about 270 cd/m2 in brightness, it is best to keep indoors, however it’s loads shiny for regular use, and distinction is unusually excessive for an IPS show, with distinct blacks and good dynamics. It has no particular assist for HDR viewing, apart from dealing with HDR video, however there’s no additional dynamic vary when enjoying it.

Mattias Inghe

Speakers hidden contained in the chassis present an ethereal sound with good stereo dispersion, however with noticeably increased quantity on the left facet. There is a scarcity of weight within the bass, however in any other case you get a pleasing expertise for music, movies, video games, and voices. I can’t discover any apps or settings to regulate both the equalizer or stability. But it sounds completely wonderful with out. Not nice, however first rate.

HP Omen 16: Plenty of ports

If you need extra management, you possibly can plug in exterior audio and there’s loads of room for that, with loads of USB ports on the quick sides of the pc. One is kind c and the opposite three are kind a, all with 5 gigabit USB 3 speeds. The kind c port just isn’t full thunderbolt 4 class, however you possibly can join a show. You can even do this through a separate HDMI 2.1 port. A earlier mannequin of the Omen 16 had a number of the ports on the again which gave a freedom of selection that I appreciated, however now they’re moved to the edges and most are crammed on the correct facet.

The cooling within the pc is efficient and I by no means really feel that it will be disturbingly sizzling, a little bit uncomfortably heat on the high of the keyboard, and lots of warmth escaping backwards and out to the edges. A stress run of the processor and graphics card in 3DMark reveals no indicators of efficiency degradation over time. But the followers can produce an intrusive noise below excessive load and it’s by no means fully freed from fan noise, however a semi-damped noise is fixed.

You can select between three modes within the accompanying Omen Gaming Hub management software program: Eco, Balanced, and Performance. But not one of the modes, together with handbook management, can dampen the followers additional. The identical program additionally gives an interface for optimizing and launching put in video games, community optimization instruments, system cleansing and a retailer tab with presents for gaming companies comparable to GeForce Now and discounted video games, seemingly completely from Ubisoft.

Mattias Inghe

HP Omen 16: Some bloatware to clear away

Beyond that, HP has a bunch of small applications for assist, safety, and equipment, which may be ignored till you may want them. You additionally get a bit an excessive amount of typical laptop computer bloatware, trial variations of antivirus, VPN, Office, and Gamepass that should be prolonged with fee after 30 days. Would it have been nicer with out it? Yes, however they’re simple to take away as nicely.

The 70 watt-hour battery is sufficient for a brief one-hour session of intensive CPU and GPU use or at finest seven hours of low-powered driving. That’s just about what you’d anticipate from a extra highly effective laptop computer, and it is best to hold the ability adapter shut at hand. It additionally performs higher plugged into the wall, so for demanding or semi-demanding jobs and video games, you’ll wish to depart it plugged in. The pc has well-functioning hybrid graphics and in normal mode switches right down to Intel Iris Xe when the extra highly effective Geforce card just isn’t wanted. Not that it does any direct wonders for battery life.

There are issues that aren’t excellent concerning the Omen 16, however given its low value, it’s onerous to complain about them, so long as your expectations are set proper. This is a $799.99 laptop computer, not one which prices hundreds of {dollars}. And for that cash, you get an terrible lot.

This evaluation was translated from Swedish to English and initially appeared on pcforalla.se.