HP Victus 16 review
Our Verdict
The HP Victus 16 delivers respectable functioning for its price. Simply with a design that isn't very portable, it's probably best used as a mid-range gaming desktop.
For
- Solid performance for the price
- 1080p 144Hz brandish looks great
- Precipitous design
- Speakers sound good, when you can hear them
Against
- Heavy, even for a gaming laptop
- Under ii hours of portable gaming fourth dimension
- Keyboard is awkward to use
- Fans make headphones a practiced idea when gaming
Tom's Guide Verdict
The HP Victus sixteen delivers respectable performance for its price. But with a pattern that isn't very portable, it's probably best used as a mid-range gaming desktop.
Pros
- +
Solid operation for the price
- +
1080p 144Hz display looks keen
- +
Precipitous design
- +
Speakers sound expert, when you tin hear them
Cons
- -
Heavy, even for a gaming laptop
- -
Under 2 hours of portable gaming time
- -
Keyboard is awkward to utilise
- -
Fans make headphones a proficient idea when gaming
HP Victus 16 specs
Price: $809 to starting time, ~$1,429 every bit reviewed
CPU: Intel Core i7-11800H
GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060
Display: 16.1-inch FHD 144Hz IPS LED (1920x1080)
RAM: xvi GB
Storage: 512GB SSD + 32GB Intel Optane
Dimensions: 14.57 x 10.24 10 0.93 inches
Weight: 5.4 pounds to beginning
The HP Victus sixteen ($809 to start) is the commencement entry in HP's new Victus line of gaming laptops, which seem intended to be more affordable alternatives to HP's existing Omen gaming laptops. Only don't let that dim your involvement: configurable with the latest CPUs from Intel and AMD plus some of the hottest Nvidia GeForce RTX thirty-series graphics cards, the HP Victus xvi is more than respectable as a gaming machine.
If you're looking for portability, even so, the Victus is hard to recommend over other gaming laptops on the market. Plus, it has some design issues that make it a bit annoying to apply on a daily basis without plugging in a fair number of peripherals.
This HP Victus 16 review volition outline this laptop's strengths and highlight its weaknesses, which are surmountable only ultimately continue it from challenge a spot on our list of the all-time gaming laptops y'all tin purchase.
HP Victus 16 review: Price and availability
- Price ranges from $800 to $2,000, depending on configuration
- Expect to pay at least $1k if you lot desire the latest Nvidia graphics cards
The Victus is available for order direct from HP's website, every bit well equally at third-political party retailers like Newegg and Best Buy. The base configuration starts at $809, but that model comes with an older Nvidia GPU. To go a model with one of the latest Nvidia GeForce RTX thirty-series laptop cards, y'all should expect to pay at to the lowest degree $1,000, and close to $2,000 if you kit it out with all the bells and whistles.
Our Victus review unit of measurement came configured with a 16.one-inch FHD (1920 x 1080) 144Hz display, an Intel Core i7-11800H CPU, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060 laptop GPU, 16GB of RAM and a 512GB SSD with an boosted 32GB of Intel Optane retentiveness. For this configuration you'll typically pay about $1,400, though since this review is existence published during the holiday shopping season HP currently has some Victus models on auction or out of stock.
HP Victus 16 review: Design
- Sharp, angled design looks slick and offers plenty of ports
- Fans get loud enough to drown out the speakers when playing games
- Weighs in at over 5 pounds, making it non great for daily carry
The Victus sixteen sports an understated dark silver (or blue if you pay an extra $10) chassis that has a lot going for it.
The 2 built-in fans keep the auto nice and absurd even in high-operation situations, and with iii USB-A ports, one USB-C port, an HDMI out and even an Ethernet port, information technology'due south got plenty of options for plugging stuff in. Heck, I've looked at desktops that cost as much as this laptop and don't have as many ports.
The Victus 16's design does take some issues, though. For starters, the laptop's sharp, angled aesthetic pairs with the big sans serif Five emblazoned on the top of the case to give the Victus a vibe that shoots straight by "serious gaming machine" and approaches "company laptop for an evil corporation in a sci-fi moving picture."
Every bit strong as that aesthetic statement is, the fans may be fifty-fifty stronger, sometimes drowning out the laptop's speakers when playing graphically-demanding games.
The car's weight is also a bit of an issue. HP'south website says the Victus "starts at" 5.44 pounds, and though I didn't take a digital scale handy my gauge is this configuration adds to that estimate. It's a heavy laptop, and though carrying information technology effectually your home shouldn't be an issue, lugging it around in my shoulder bag while I'm out and about seems like it would be a real chore.
These functional pattern foibles are that much more than painful because overall, I like the design of the Victus. As much as I'm poking fun at it for having a lot of design elements that feel, for lack of a improve term, evil, I really admire the Victus team for taking a big swing on the design hither instead of producing another boring black gaming laptop. The design of the Victus might get in wait like Lex Luthor's personal computer, but I tin can at least pick it out of a lineup — which is more than I can say for a lot of laptops on the market.
HP Victus 16 review: Brandish and audio
- 16-inch 144Hz 1080p display looks great, and tin be upgraded
- Speakers deliver excellent sound quality, merely tin be hard to hear while gaming
The Victus sports a xvi.1-inch FHD (1920 x 1080 pixels) display capable of achieving a 144Hz refresh rate past default. Yet, you can pay $forty actress to configure ane with a slightly brighter screen, or pay $110 actress for a higher-resolution (2560 x 1440 pixels) version with a 165Hz refresh rate.
The model we reviewed came with the standard 16.one-inch 144Hz FHD display, and I actually like it. The 16.1-inch screen looks large and bright for a laptop, and while the monitor's resolution is only 1920 10 1080, the Victus is specced (and priced) to deliver the best gaming functioning at 1080p anyhow. The display might feel a flake small if you're used to playing games on a larger desktop monitor, merely luckily the Victus' HDMI port makes it piece of cake to plug in a 2nd monitor.
I was also impressed by the audio quality of the sound coming out of the Victus' speakers. They've been tuned past Denmark-based Bang & Olufsen, and in my experience they're equally corking for listening to music or watching streaming video. Notwithstanding, it'south a bit harder to speak to their sound quality while playing games, because (every bit previously mentioned) they're frequently drowned out by the audio of the fans spinning up during graphically-intensive gaming.
HP Victus 16 review: Performance
- Plays nearly games very well at 1080p
- Performance is on par or slightly behind the competition
The Victus performs as well as most gaming laptops in the $one-$2k range. It can run almost games well at 1080p, and in my hands-on testing I didn't have any trouble playing through my Steam library.
Yet, our lab testing reveals that the Victus delivers somewhat anemic performance compared to similarly-priced gaming laptops. For instance, the 17-inch MSI Katana 76 nosotros recently reviewed has most the same specs (i7-11800H CPU, GeForce RTX 3060 GPU, 16 GB RAM, 1 TB SSD and a 1080p, 144 Hz screen for $1,500) every bit our Victus review unit, nevertheless managed to evangelize slightly improve performance in games like Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Ruby Dead Redemption 2.
The fourteen-inch Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 ($1,449), one of our summit picks for the best gaming laptop you lot can buy, is in the same cost range as the Victus yet delivers nearly twice the performance in Grand Theft Auto V. However, the Shadow of the Tomb Raider graphical benchmark ran quite a scrap better on the Victus compared to the Zephyrus G14.
| HP Victus 16 ($1,429) | MSI Katana GF76 ($1,500) | Asus ROG Zephyrus G14 ($one,449) | |
| Assassin's Creed Valhalla | 59 | 61 | N/A |
| Thou Theft Auto V | 78 | 84 | 115 |
| Red Dead Redemption 2 | 51 | 53 | 34.8 |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider | 67 | 69 | 49 |
That said, the Victus delivers solid overall performance for a 16-inch gaming laptop in this cost range. Which is good, considering this laptop often feels like it'south made compromises in the proper name of delivering affordable gaming performance.
HP Victus 16 review: Keyboard and touchpad
- Touchpad is large, accurate and unremarkable
- Full-sized keyboard is awkward and hard to employ
The Victus' four.9 x 3.two touchpad feels quite large and performs well for casual tasks. Unfortunately that feels a little like wasted try. Information technology's no replacement for the precision of a mouse, or the extra inputs of the best gaming mice. As a result near people are going to be plugging in a mouse to do any serious gaming.
Then there's the keyboard.
On the positive side, the Victus' Keyboard comes with a total number pad. The keystrokes are nothing to write home near, merely the keys feel responsive and it's clear whether you have or oasis't depressed them completely. The problem is that the addition of a number pad means the residue of the keyboard is slightly off-center which, quite bluntly, drove me slightly mad.
It'south possible that given more time and practice, I could adjust to this. I gave it a real try, worried that I was being unreasonable and likewise detail, but my typing muscle memory fought me at every turn.
Some small design decisions on HP'southward part besides fabricated the adjustment difficult. There are bevels on the F and J keys and so you can reset to typing position past experience, but to my fingers they're likewise small to be very useful. Considering this is a gaming laptop, I'd too accept appreciated a touch guide of some kind to the WASD keys.
On the third twenty-four hours of trying to adjust to the Victus' keyboard I but gave up and plugged in my own.
HP Victus 16 review: Heat
- Serious gaming turns the Victus into a lap-scorcher
Heat's another area where you may be improve off treating the Victus a bit more like a desktop when it's time for serious gaming. In more casual use cases like web browsing or watching videos the Victus stayed at a relatively cool 91 degrees.
After 6 back to back runs of the Metro Exodus criterion even so the underside of the machine reached 117.5 degrees, even with the aforementioned noisy fans working overtime. That's non hot plenty to affect performance, only probably hot plenty you lot'll desire to keep the laptop away from your lap.
HP Victus 16 review: Bombardment life
- Expect over iv hours of web browsing
- ...merely merely an hour and a one-half of gaming
The bombardment life on the Victus doesn't blow the competition out of the h2o, just I as well didn't detect it a hinderance in any way. It took over 4 hours of more than casual apply to get a low bombardment warning. Running a graphics-intensive game cut into that battery life significantly, but in exercise you lot're going to desire to plug in so much stuff for serious gaming that the Victus should probably be stationary and positioned almost a power outlet anyway.
In our gaming laptop battery test, which tasks the laptop with looping a 3D-rendered scene in PCMark 10, the Victus 16 an hour and thirty minutes. That'due south ameliorate than the hour the MSI Katana 76 lasted, though the power-sipping Zephyrus G14 outlasted both.
HP Victus 16 review: Verdict
In the end, how much you like the Victus is going to depend on y'all prioritize the gaming and laptop aspects of your gaming laptop. If your accent is on gaming, the Victus can push out some impressive graphics for not too much money. In fact, I'd say the Victus really shines when used as a kind of budget gaming desktop. Though the design is stark, I recollect information technology'due south a handsome gaming auto. And if y'all plug in a good keyboard and mouse it's slap-up for getting things done, either, especially when hooked up to an external brandish for an impromptu two-monitor setup.
Once I'd plugged in my mouse, keyboard, headphones, 2d monitor and ethernet cable though, it felt pretty featherbrained calling this a laptop. Whenever I tried to use the Victus every bit an actual portable computer, some blueprint misstep or missing feature fabricated me long to plug it dorsum into the half-dozen peripherals that made it fun to apply.
If you're judging by pure functioning, the Victus delivers a pretty skillful showing for its price. But with a pattern that isn't very portable, the Victus too left me wondering why I shouldn't just buy a similarly-priced model of 1 of the all-time gaming desktops to relieve myself some hassle.
Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/hp-victus-16-review
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