The HP Omen 16: A Premium Gaming Laptop with Room for Improvement
The HP Omen 16 stands out in the competitive market thanks to its powerful 40-series GPU, but its all-round performance leaves a lot to be desired. The laptop’s high price tag and less than ideal performance make it a less desirable option, especially when you consider the presence of better alternatives out there.
The laptop’s sleek and minimalist design is immediately apparent, with ‘OMEN’ displayed proudly on the Shadow Black chassis. However, the surface is an attractive fingerprint magnet, and users will likely find themselves wiping it clean regularly.
Performance
The HP Omen 16’s performance is a mixed bag, with consistently poor CPU performance and slightly better GPU performance. The laptop consistently ranks last in CPU performance, lagging behind other laptops with similar price points.
In the Geekbench 4 CPU test, it scores 5,566, which is lower than the Asus ROG GX800VIII, ROG GX800VI, and ROG GX800VII. Its GPU performance is slightly better, but still lingers towards the lower end of the rankings. High frame rates are achieved in games like Diablo 4 and Hitman, but users will notice stuttering in crowded areas.
HP lists the RTX 4080 as 145W, which is higher than previous generation GPUs. The extra power draw affects the laptop’s overall performance, which feels sluggish compared to similar gaming laptops.
The HP Gaming Hub offers a gaming “Booster” feature that uses Nvidia’s Gameaware technology to improve frame rates. However, it only marginally improves frame rates and is likely to consume more power. The presence of a similar feature in the Asus ROG GX800VI is likely one of the main reasons why we recommend that model over the HP Omen 16.
The HP Omen 16 is quite noisy during benchmarking, but it’s nowhere near as bad as some other models out there. Users will probably have a hard time hearing the fan whirring during gaming sessions, but it’ll become apparent if they enable stress testing tools like Prime95.
Bloatware
A less than stellar gaming experience is compounded by a sea of pre-installed software, much of which users can’t uninstall. The laptop comes with a whopping 69 different programs pre-installed, including Dropbox and McAfee Security. While some of them can be uninstalled, it’s an unnecessary annoyance and adds to the overall experience.
RGB
Thankfully, the abundance of bloatware doesn’t affect the laptop’s RGB settings, which are handled by the HP Gaming Hub. The specific configuration of the laptop that we reviewed comes with a complimentary HyperX Cloud II Core Wireless Headset, which users can use to match its glowing accents. The headset is already pre-paired with the laptop, offers decent wireless performance, and has a good microphone.
Windows Manager
The Windows Manager is HP’s software solution for customizing the RGB backlit keyboard. While it’s not as comprehensive as the Asus ROG Armoury, it’s a convenient solution for quickly changing the colors of specific keys.
Conclusion
No, users shouldn’t buy the HP Omen 16. The laptop fails to deliver expected performance and value compared to similar 16-inch RTX 4080 laptops. Its CPU and GPU performance feels sluggish, especially considering its high price point. On top of that, it comes loaded with bloatware, which is a frustrating experience on its own, and its gaming experience is subpar.
If users are looking for a competitive 16-inch gaming laptop, we recommend checking out our best gaming laptop guide.
