HP Omen 16 Gaming Laptop Review: Surprisingly Powerful Laptop

HP Omen 16

3.9

Overall

3.9/5

The Good Stuff

• Stylish design
• Decent display
• Adequate brightness
• Excellent performance
• Great gaming graphics
• Good battery life

The Bad Stuff

• Mediocre keyboard
• Tends to get warm

HP Omen 16

The HP Omen 16 gaming laptop has a fantastic display and excellent performance in a stylish gaming laptop with a long battery life.

SPECS

HP Omen 16 Gaming Laptop – Overview

In the market for a reliable gaming laptop at a fair price? Your best option could be the HP Omen 16 gaming laptop. With its Ryzen 9 7940HS and RTX 4070 components, the Omen 16 delivers a potent combination. Complete the package with a respectable 16.1-inch display and long-lasting battery. What then is the catch? Although it has a poor keyboard and can become a little warm, its biggest flaw is that it doesn’t really shine in any one area. It isn’t a star, but it is okay overall.

Over the years, Omen laptops have seen several redesigns. In 2023, HP decided for a very understated style. Choosing to move away from the busier or more gaudy styles of the previous ten years, it’s a contemporary and appropriate option for the laptop market today.

The HP Omen 16 gaming laptop of today is a sleek slab with a hint of metallic sheen. Although the official color is Mica Silver, which is a dark gray, it is also available in black and white, both of which have a sleek appearance. The logo, which has a straightforward reflecting diamond above the Omen name and an overall rather clean design, is even more appealing than previous iterations.

Though it doesn’t have an overly large footprint, the Omen 16 is still far from the lightest gaming laptop available at 16 inches. The Omen 16 weighs 5.3 pounds (2,4 kg). The laptop feels heavier, maybe due to its density, but the entire set is somewhat portable when required. 

There’s no shortage of space for productivity and gaming with the 16-inch display. Especially in midrange to high-end gaming laptops, it’s been popular over the past year and offers a pleasant halfway ground between 15.6- and 17.3-inch computers. For people who like to shift their gaming laptops sometimes, the Omen’s medium weight and thin design make it a good option.

The display specs are really simple. It combines a 144Hz refresh rate with full HD (1,920 by 1,080-pixel) resolution, which is virtually the standard for contemporary gaming systems. This is a significant improvement over the typical 60Hz refresh rate of consumer laptops, and playing games at high frame rates is easier with the 1080p resolution.

At this price, it’s understandable to be dissatisfied that the screen only goes as far as full HD, or at the very least, that the refresh rate maximum isn’t greater. Other Omen 16 variants with a refresh rate of 165 Hz or 1440p are available from HP.

Nevertheless, 1080p gaming works well at 144Hz, which puts the pricing closer to the center of the market than the upper end. Although nothing special, the display quality is adequate in terms of sharpness, brightness, and color.

The remainder of the structure is typical. While there’s nothing really wrong with the keyboard, it’s also not very gratifying. The keys aren’t precisely mushy, but they also don’t provide much feedback. The touchpad, however, is spacious but has a shoddy feel about it. These comparatively little components, which make more sense in the base model than in more expensive variants, presumably aid in lowering the price.

Connectivity is one area where the Omen 16 shines. There are a few ports on each flank, and a few more around the back.

A USB Type-A (5Gbps) port, an Ethernet port, and a headphone jack are located on the left side, while two more 5Gbps USB-A ports are located on the right. The power connector, two 10Gbps USB Type-C ports with power supply, and an HDMI monitor port are located on the back.

Overall, the HP Omen 16 gaming laptop comes with midrange specs that is reflected according to the price. Let’s see in more detail what this midrange gaming laptop is all about.   

Design

Once more, the Omen 16 has a sophisticated appearance thanks to its velvety black finish and glossy black Omen logo. The inside is simple black, with a keyboard typeface and 16 logo that seem a touch too gamey. Although the display’s bezels are rather narrow, there is still space at the top for a camera and privacy shutter.

The HP Omen 16 measures 14.5 x 10.2 x 0.9 inches and weighs 5.4 pounds. Like its twin, the keys aren’t clicky; rather, they seem a little spongy and tiny, although they are sufficiently spaced. Although the absence of texture on the keys initially confused me, it wasn’t that horrible after I got used to it.

The keys could need more feedback, though. The WASD keys are located in one of the four key illumination zones on the Omen 16. The Light Studio is located in the Omen Game Hub, but you’ll need to install it because it’s not already there. You may then alter your lighting profile from there.

The HP Omen 16 has ports all over it. Two Thunderbolt 4 connectors and a headphone jack are located on the device’s left side, while one USB Type-A port is located on its right side. The power jack, an Ethernet connector, an HDMI port, and one USB Type-A port are all located on the rear of the Omen. If theses are not enough, you can always get a USB Hub. 

Bottomline. The HP Omen 16 gaming laptop comes with a stylish design. It’s not that heavy, has a sufficient number of input ports, and comes with a backlit keyboard that may take awhile to get used to. 

Display

You have enough of workspace for gaming and working on the 16.1-inch display. It’s a popular size that falls between 15.6- and 17.3-inch computers, and it’s notably common in mid-range to high-end gaming laptops.

The Omen 16 is a good compromise for individuals who wish to move their gaming laptops at least sometimes given its thin design and middleweight weight.

The Omen 16’s display features full HD (1,920 by 1,080-pixel) resolution and a 165Hz refresh rate, which is virtually the standard for contemporary gaming systems. The latter is a notable improvement above the typical 60Hz refresh rate of consumer laptops, and the 1080p resolution is easier to run games at high frame rates.

At this price, it’s reasonable to be dissatisfied that the screen’s resolution is limited to full HD, or at the very least, that the refresh rate maximum isn’t greater. Other Omen 16 models with 1440p resolution are available from HP.

The pricing is kept in the center rather than at the top end of the market since 165Hz is still a good match for 1080p gaming. Although the display quality isn’t exceptional, it is sufficient in terms of sharpness, brightness, and color.

Overall, the display of the HP Omen 16 gaming laptop does the job well but it would be better. It’s detailed, produces great colors and good brightness, and gaming looks and feels awesome, but 1080p feels standard, and this is not a cheap gaming laptop.    

Performance

With its powerful AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS CPU and Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, the Omen 16 is powered by a unique combination that is hard to find in other modern devices.

Even while the comparatively meager 16 GB of RAM and the rather modest 512-GB SSD support these components, you may at least more easily update those parts if you want additional memory.

Performance is just amazing. I tested the Omen 16 against almost every benchmark, and it handily outperformed the competition in every one of them, with the only close call being a narrowly missed score on the VRMark Orange Room test, where it just missed the high standard established by other laptops such as the HP Envy 16. 

The system performed 2 to 30% better on everything else, and it even surprised me by demonstrating battery life of almost 8 hours while testing full-screen YouTube playing. That’s a huge boost because while testing gaming rigs in the last few years, including earlier Omen models, I was fortunate enough to get two hours of runtime.

Overall, the performance of the HP Omen 16 gaming laptop is impressive. For daily use its works very well, for gaming it also performs well but with a short battery capacity. It’s best that it’s plugged in for longer gaming sessions.   

Battery Life

Thanks to its 83Wh battery, the HP Omen 16 has good battery life. In this category, the majority of gaming laptops are powered by 70–80 watts, which gives the Omen the advantage. Exact run times will be greatly influenced by workload and screen brightness.

All of our measurements were made with the brightness at 50%. On medium settings, we were able to attain 10.75 hours of idle runtime, 6 hours of movie playback, and 78 minutes of gaming. Very good figures for a gaming laptop.

Other Features

It’s not terrible, which is impressive for a little 1080p laptop webcam. The test photo from the Omen 16 did a really good job of capturing the hues in my face and clothing, emphasizing my pinkish skin tone and blue shirt.

However, the open window and the weak contrast caused my whole background to be blown out. The image was clear enough to show each of my head’s individual curls.

The HP Omen 16 had strong audio when using a pair of Bang & Olufsen speakers, however occasionally the crucial noises were missed. I turned up Kami Kehoe’s “SLEEP WHEN IM DEAD,” and the song’s opening vocals exploded through the speakers with a powerful punch.

The drums were heavy and the electric guitar was bright, but every now and then the two would blend together in the tune. The voices, however, were clear and prominent throughout.

The conversation and oncoming cars were audibly loud and clear in Cyberpunk 2077. However, occasionally the background music would drown out the conversation, so you would need to change the settings and experiment with sound mixing.

It didn’t sound as thick and weighty as I would have liked it to when I fired my shotgun at the attackers above. Instead, the sound was metallic yet hollow.

It may get hot so be careful where you put it. After playing for 15 minutes, the bottom reached 114 degrees Fahrenheit. The center of the touchpad and keyboard were each at an angle of 75 degrees.

The frightening statistic, however, is the far-rear underside, which measures 133 degrees. When not used for gaming, we have observed the bottom to be 95 degrees, the keyboard to be 89 degrees, and the touchpad to be 80 degrees.

Verdict

The HP Omen 16 gaming laptop isn’t the best gaming laptop in the market right now. However, rather focusing on its drawbacks such as the mediocre keyboard and its tendency to overheat in less than ideal locations, the HP Omen 16 is a good gaming laptop overall and well worth the money it currently costs.

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After all that, if you’re looking for a decent gaming laptop at a mid-range price than look no further than the HP Omen 16 gaming laptop. Click here to fin out more and to purchase if you desire so.