It performs wonderfully on the game “Cyberpunk 2077.”
Introduction
In this article, we will review the HP Victus 16 and break it down into subheadings with a brief description for each subheading.
HP Victus 16 Price and Specifications Review
The price of the HP Victus 16 in this review is $999. You can find our exact configuration on Newegg, and it comes with the following specifications:
- AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS processor
- Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card with 8GB of memory
- 16GB of RAM
- 1TB SSD storage
- 16.1-inch screen with 1080p resolution
What I Liked About the HP Victus 16
I loved the sleek and elegant design of the HP Victus 16 from the start – and I will continue to do so here. The black color, along with the gray and silver that permeate the laptop market, usually bores me, but the HP Victus 16 is an outstanding laptop. Its design will appeal to gamers who appreciate a minimalist style.
The HP Victus 16 offers a futuristic touch with a shiny “V” in the center of the lid. You will find the word “Victus” written on the back hinge in clean and elegant lettering. This laptop looks fantastic. The only downside is that it collects fingerprints.
The battery life is better than competitors at the same price. As you will see in the battery life section, the HP Victus outperforms all its competitors when it comes to battery life. However, you should have moderate expectations. Gaming laptops typically don’t last long on a charge.
Amazing cooling. I spent an hour playing Cyberpunk 2077, and the chassis remained moderately warm the entire time – it didn’t sound like a jet engine (looking at you, Acer Nitro 5).
Gaming performance surpasses the competition. Based on the actual performance of the internal hardware, the HP Victus 16 delivered impressive results on the Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark. (More on that later.)
The sound is surprisingly good for a budget laptop. I played the song “Paint the Town Red” by Doja Cat on Spotify, and to my surprise, the captivating vocals were smooth and seamless on the dual-speaker audio system of the HP Victus 16. It’s tuned by Bang & Olufsen, so that might be the reason for its sweet audio touches.
What is “Midway” About the HP Victus 16
Sometimes, there are aspects of laptops that evoke nothing but indifference; they are just “midway.” Here are some features of the HP Victus 16 that evoke little more than indifference for me.
The keyboard is not entirely comfortable. What I like about the keyboard on the HP Victus 16 is that it is quiet. You can type all day on this machine without bothering your coworkers with the constant clicking sounds of your fingers. However, the downside of a quiet keyboard is that it feels a bit soft, lacking the crisp and satisfying clicks.
The screen is not bright, but I have seen worse. Like most gaming laptops in this price range, the HP Victus 16 has a 300 nits brightness display, sized at 16.1 inches with 1080p resolution. However, it is not the worst I have seen. For example, the Acer Nitro 5 has a 250 nits brightness display. Good luck playing Alan Wake 2 on this device.
The Omen Gaming app could be better. The HP Victus 16 features the Omen Gaming app, which allows you to monitor system information, including the GPU, CPU, RAM, storage, and more. The most entertaining part of the app is the lighting tab, which lets you light up the RGB keyboard backlight in any color you want. However, I am disappointed that system monitoring is not the first thing you see when launching the app. Instead, the homepage tries to sell you products right away.
WhatWhat I Don’t Like About HP Victus 16
There isn’t much I don’t like about the HP Victus, but there’s always room for improvement.
The screen has a chin barrier resembling the Crimson Chin. The barrier on the HP Victus 16 screen is huge. At least, the top edge is very thick. Fortunately, the side edges are relatively thin.
Heavier than competitors. While the HP Victus 16 is a laptop, it isn’t portable. It is heavy, weighing 5.15 pounds. Compare that to the MSI Cyborg 15 and Acer Nitro 5; each weighs 4.37 pounds and 4.7 pounds respectively.
The ports could be faster. The HP Victus 16 has a respectable array of traditional and modern ports, including a USB Type C (3.2 Gen 1) port, three USB Type-A (3.2 Gen 1) ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, an Ethernet port, and a 3.5 mm audio jack.
However, this USB-C port is relatively slow; it lacks support for USB4. Additionally, when looking at the previous generation, it seems to lack an SD card reader. But remember, the price of the Victus 16 is very reasonable, so compromises are to be expected.
Performance of “Cyberpunk 2077” on HP Victus 16
I don’t want to see less than 60 frames per second while gaming, and in the Cyberpunk 2077 test (high settings), the HP Victus 15 reached 95 frames per second. This is the highest rate we’ve experienced so far this year among laptops priced under $1000. With DLSS running, a feature that doubles frame rates through AI optimization, the HP Victus 16 achieved 110 frames per second.
Battery Life of HP Victus 16
Among the cheap gaming laptops we’ve tested so far, none have lasted more than two hours. However, the HP Victus 16 was the longest survivor on a single charge. It lasted for 1 hour and 56 minutes after running the PCMark 10 battery test (gaming version).
For comparison purposes, let’s take a look at the battery run times of our other budget laptops:
- Acer Nitro 5: 1 hour and 29 minutes
- MSI Cyborg 15: 1 hour and 1 minute
Camera of HP Victus 16
The HP Victus 16 features a 1080p camera, but if I didn’t know better, I would think it had a 720p camera. Like many laptops on the market, the webcam on this laptop is not very good.
Final Thoughts
Among all the cheap gaming laptops this year, the HP Victus 16 appears to be the best I’ve tested. What impressed me most is its cooling. It did a great job of staying surprisingly cool.
Additionally, it has high-level gaming performance, offering stunning frame rates in one of Steam’s most graphically demanding games. It does all of this while looking sleek and stylish. I still think Batman would get the HP Victus 16 in a heartbeat.
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