The HP OMEN 16 gaming laptop is a powerhouse that offers a fantastic blend of design, performance, and thermal management. This laptop is a worthy successor to the Victus 16, and it easily earns our recommendation.
The OMEN 16 sports a minimalistic and professional design, with a diamond-shaped logo and simple text on the lid. One unique feature of the laptop is the large vent on the bottom, allowing for better heat dissipation and providing more fresh air to the fans.
At 2.4kg, the laptop is on the heavier side, so it may require a robust backpack for transportation. However, its solid construction and attractive design make it a worthy investment.
The OMEN 16 features a TKL (tenkeyless) keyboard layout, providing an intuitive typing experience with separate home cluster and arrow keys. The keys themselves feel great for both gaming and typing.
The 16.1″ IPS panel offers a resolution of 2560 x 1440 at 165Hz, with a 3ms response time and 100% sRGB coverage. The display is suitable for gaming, though its maximum brightness of 300 nits may leave some users wishing for more.
The laptop boasts a generous port selection, including USB Type-A and Type-C, HDMI 2.1, RJ-45 Ethernet, SD card reader, and a 3.5mm combo jack.
The OMEN 16 shines in terms of performance, featuring an AMD Ryzen 7 6800H processor, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070 Ti GPU, 32GB DDR5 RAM, and 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD storage. The laptop excels at gaming, delivering outstanding performance at both 1080p and 1440p resolutions.
The OMEN 16 has excellent thermal management, with temperatures remaining around 75°C during gaming loads. The fans are audible but not obnoxiously loud, making for a comfortable gaming experience.
The Ryzen CPU is limited to 35 watts across all performance profiles, which may affect content creation tasks but does not significantly impact gaming performance.
The decision to limit the CPU power in favour of thermals is a reasonable one for a gaming laptop.
The laptop offers easy upgradability, with access to RAM slots, WiFi card, and M.2 SSD slots. It also features an 83Wh battery, providing 6-7 hours of average use. The Bang & Olufson speakers are mounted on the bottom and provide decent audio quality.
Pricing for the HP OMEN 16 is reasonable, with the reviewed configuration costing around S$2,999 in Singapore.
Overall, the HP OMEN 16 is a well-rounded gaming laptop that checks all the right boxes, making it an excellent choice for gamers who value performance and thermal management.