Yet, HP hasn’t had a flagship gaming laptop that felt like it could compete with the Razers and Alienware’s of the world. HP is well recognized in the PC gaming industry for its Omen brand. Yet that’s exactly what the recently revealed Omen Transcend 16 is.
It is not only significantly more advanced than the ordinary Omen 16 (0.78 inches thick and 4.6 pounds), but it is also smaller and lighter. The new mini-LED panel is the show’s focal point. At CES earlier this year, many of these same mini-LED screens were debuted for gaming laptops, and HP is continuing the trend by including them in the Omen Transcend 16.
Mini-LED screens can be significantly brighter than those made feasible by LED or even OLED, so in theory they can create stunning HDR gaming. While claiming that the screen has a maximum HDR brightness of 1,180 nits, HP omitted to include the number of dimming zones. Also, the screen in question boasts a 240Hz refresh rate and a 2560 x 1600 resolution. Of course, HP also offers entry-level Omen Transcend 16 variants with slower, less precise displays and LED backlighting.
A 1080p webcam, a manual shutter door, two Thunderbolt 4 connections, a graphics switcher, and a significantly larger 97-watt-hour battery are among other notable upgrades to the Omen Transcend 16. For a gaming laptop, HP claims that this larger battery may provide up to 11 hours of battery life.
The only thing that is actually missing are selections for the best graphics cards. For whatever reason, HP has opted to limit it to the RTX 4070, which has a 130 watt TGP (Total Graphics Power). Nevertheless, the individual GPU designations don’t always precisely correspond to performance, so once it arrives for evaluation, we’ll have to put the thermal capabilities to the test.
It’s interesting to note that HP has also made a slight upgrade to the basic Omen 16, which now supports just the Intel edition of the more potent RTX 4080 graphics card. Yet, a thicker chassis may be the reason for the difference.
The entry-level brand of HP, Vectus gaming laptops, has also received some improvements. The Vectus 16 may be configured to be an economical gaming laptop or to its fullest capacity with an RTX 4070 and the most recent Intel and AMD processors. It continues to be built of recycled materials, available in three different colors, and has a MUX switch now.
This spring, Best Buy and HP.com will start selling the Omen Transcend 16 for $1,670. The Vectus 16 starts at $1,050, while the normal Omen 16 starts at a more reasonable $1,300.
