HP Omen Transcend 16 Review

Verdict

The HP Omen Transcend 16 is the model’s try so as to add a touch of finesse to its gaming vary. It largely succeeds, with an excellent design, pleasing keyboard and comparatively low weight, however a excessive worth and low comparative efficiency is the principle hindrance.

Introduction

The HP Omen vary has been a powerful choice within the gaming laptop computer marketplace for a number of years now.

The brand new HP Omen Transcend 16 seems to be to construct on it with some good ending touches to broaden its attraction, and probably even chase the MacBook Professional crowd in addition to the players, with the choice (not less than within the USA) to improve to a Mini LED display.

It’s a excessive bar to shoot for however HP’s tackle the system seems to be to have gotten its priorities proper, even when the £1700/$1699 value of entry could also be too excessive and the execution could not fairly maintain tempo with key rivals. That is my evaluate.

Design and Keyboard

• Prime quality really feel
• Pretty light-weight
• Nice gaming keyboard

These aware of the HP Omen vary gained’t be instantly struck by the look of the Transcend, until you go for the placing White color choice. The Black model seems to be usually Omen, however its supplies set it aside.

It has a soft-touch end, which is a delight to select up, and the magnesium and aluminium mixture reduces the general weight – making this 16-inch gadget really feel quite transportable regardless of its dimension. The size are available in at 2.17kg and 19.9mm skinny. It’s not astonishingly skinny and light-weight, however tops many 16-inch rivals on this space.

The stealthy black look means this laptop computer will match nicely into any atmosphere, whether or not that’s amongst your gamer buddies or an workplace setting.

The keyboard is true up there with the perfect of them too. It doesn’t fall into the entice of erring on the facet of a extra productivity-friendly keyboard, an everyday challenge with laptops that blur the traces of creativity, gaming and a light-weight design. It is a gaming keyboard, providing loads of journey and a good quantity of suggestions.

My important qualm is that the keys might be a tad greater, to make for a extra comfy typing expertise, and that is additionally hindered by retaining a numpad which strikes all the pieces to the left barely.

The RGB backlighting is wondrously and refreshingly vibrant, with tweaks enabled inside HP’s modern and easy-to-use Omen software program. On the trackpad, it’s well-sized however the click on affords low-travel, making it really feel fairly uninteresting.

The Omen Transcend 16 is well-equipped within the ports division, unhindered by its trim dimensions, providing 2 x USB-A 5Gbps, 2 x Thunderbolt 4, 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x Ethernet and a headphone jack. It’s a wide variety solely let down by the dearth of an SD or MicroSD card slot.

HP has closely thought-about sustainability with the construct of this gadget. The laptop computer itself makes use of agricultural waste for its keyboard mechanism, significantly spectacular given the way it retains sturdy efficiency on this space, in addition to ocean-bound plastic for the bezel, inner-frame and speaker enclosure. The keycaps and scissor mechanisms use PCR whereas recycled metallic is used within the base and hinge. For the packaging, HP doesn’t point out any sustainable practices in use right here and it doesn’t seem to make use of recyclable supplies.

Show and Sound

• Lacklustre FHD IPS panel
• Robust peak brightness
• First rate audio for a gaming machine

A giant promoting level of the brand new HP Omen Transcend 16 is the choice to equip it with a QHD Mini LED 240Hz show however, sadly, my evaluate mannequin options the common ol’ FHD IPS 165Hz. That is the one model at the moment on sale within the UK however the US affords wider configuration choices, together with the Mini LED.

However, specializing in the mannequin I do have to check, it’s a wonderfully fantastic show. The principle challenge is that this isn’t an affordable gadget so a FHD IPS 165Hz panel on a laptop computer that prices greater than £1700/$1600 actually hurts it as a worth proposition. Nonetheless, the show is expectedly speedy and, to the attention, the IPS know-how affords acceptable ranges of color and element. It’ll serve you nicely for gaming and normal use, however you aren’t going to be wowed.

Nonetheless, our show benchmark testing could depart creators contemplating the Omen Transcend 16 quite disillusioned – scoring 100% DCI-P3 however simply 78% Adobe RGB and 78% sRGB. As such, the IPS mannequin isn’t an choice for critical creatives. The Mini LED model ought to supply enhancements however that’ll come at an excellent larger value than this already expensive machine. What you do get is a powerful peak brightness of 486.3 nits accompanied by a matte coating on the show, which means this can be a sturdy choice for many who work in awkward lighting environments.

On the subject of hopes of this laptop computer being a MacBook Professional competitor, the missing show is met by audio that isn’t even in the identical league as its Apple rival. The sound is pretty detailed however lacks any sort of bass and does begin to distort as you make the most of its, admittedly, excessive quantity. It tops many gaming targeted rivals, however falls wanting inventive rivals. The webcam isn’t something to put in writing dwelling about both, with acceptable element if a tad heat in shade – it’ll do for many.

Efficiency

• Doesn’t take advantage of the RTX 4060
• Can get scorching and loud
• Beneath par SSD speeds

When testing laptops with comparable specs, the outcomes are sometimes fairly shut, with the most important differentiations taking place when producers tinker with dimension and weight. Effectively, the HP Omen Transcend 16 appears to endure for its design, with our testing exhibiting its efficiency lags behind rivals with comparable specs to the Intel Core i7-13700HX processor and Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU.

As a productiveness machine, this laptop computer expectedly performs extraordinarily capably. However, that isn’t what the Omen Transcend 16 is made for. As you’ll be able to see for our testing outcomes, the HP is comfortably outshone by the Razer Blade 14 that dons comparable specs.

The less expensive Asus TUF Gaming A15 is the place the disappointing gaming efficiency of the Omen Transcend 16 actually involves the fore, with the Asus barely arising quick regardless of the round £600 worth hole.

When careworn, this laptop computer may additionally get very popular and produce loud fan noise, probably explaining the missing efficiency with some throttling probably at play.

It performs surprisingly nicely in our inventive PugetBench for Adobe Premiere Professional benchmark check with a 628 rating, topping the likes of the Samsung Galaxy E book 3 Extremely (and its stronger RTX 4070 chip) at 492 and simply beating the Blade 14 at 597. As such, it’s completely able to intensive enhancing work, however the show lets it down in my evaluate configuration.

The efficiency of the SSD within the HP Omen Transcend is one other space of disappointment given its excessive worth and goals to rival graphically sturdy rivals with each gaming and inventive chops.

The outcomes of my exams have been 3542MB/s learn and 4944MB/s write. That is nicely under many key rivals that high 5000MB/s learn and write nearly throughout the board. It didn’t noticeably hinder efficiency, however in the event you care about best-of-the-best switch speeds then it’s best to look elsewhere.

Software program 

• HP Omen gaming hub is modern, easy and helpful
• Some non-gaming targeted bloatware is current

HP isn’t shy about together with its personal software program and there’s a disappointing quantity of bloat with regards to the non-gaming facet of issues.

HP Assist Assistant, HP Connection Optimizer, HP QuickDrop and MyHP may be largely ignored for extra platform agnostic choices. McAfee LiveSafe, ExpressVPN and LastPass Premium are all pre-installed too, with the latter two providing free 30-day trials. You additionally get an Xbox Sport Move 1-month free trial with this gadget.

However, the HP Omen gaming hub is a particularly great tool, with the Mild Studio, Efficiency Management, Optimizer and Community Booster all included that will help you get probably the most out of the RGB lighting, efficiency and community capabilities. It retains issues easy with uncomplicated visuals and menus.

Battery life

• Stable productiveness battery life
• Lower than 1 hour and a half of gaming

The battery life on supply isn’t half dangerous for a machine with a devoted GPU. My testing confirmed the Omen Transcend 16 to be able to 6 hours and three minutes for a productiveness workload. That is greater than the 4 hours and 37 minutes of the Razer Blade 16, however falls nicely shy of the ten hours and 18 minutes of the Razer Blade 14.

A number of the variations may be defined by the extra highly effective GPU within the Blade 16, whereas the Blade 14 has the exact same graphics chip because the HP. For gaming, you’ll be able to count on round 60-90 minutes of gameplay relying on how demanding the title is you’re enjoying.

The HP Omen Transcend may be recharged speedily with a strong 230W charger included, getting you again to 100% from 0% in not a lot multiple hour.

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Trusted Evaluations check information

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PCMark 10

PugetBench for Premiere Professional

Cinebench R23 multi core

Cinebench R23 single core

Geekbench 5 single core

Geekbench 5 multi core

Geekbench 6 single core

Geekbench 6 multi core

3DMark Time Spy

CrystalDiskMark Learn velocity

CrystalDiskMark Write Pace

Brightness (SDR)

Black stage

Distinction

White Visible Color Temperature

sRGB

Adobe RGB

DCI-P3

PCMark Battery (workplace)

Battery Life

Battery recharge time

Borderlands 3 body fee (4K)

Borderlands 3 body fee (Quad HD)

Borderlands 3 body fee (Full HD)

Horizon Zero Daybreak body fee (4K)

Horizon Zero Daybreak body fee (Quad HD)

Horizon Zero Daybreak body fee (Full HD)

Grime Rally (4K)

Grime Rally (Quad HD)

Grime Rally (Full HD)

Cyberpunk 2077 (Quad HD)

Cyberpunk 2077 (Full HD)

Cyberpunk 2077 (Full HD + RT)

Cyberpunk 2077 (Full HD + Supersampling)

Returnal (Quad HD)

Returnal (Full HD)

F1 22 (Quad HD)

F1 22 (Full HD)

HP Omen Transcend 16

7106

628

13635

1034

1876

14346

2470

13338

9792

3541.62 MB/s

4944.9 MB/s

486.3 nits

0.39 nits

1240:1

6700 Okay

100 %

78 %

78 %

6 hrs

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

65.34 fps

27.07 fps

115.59 fps

–

74 fps

–

–

Razer Blade 16 (2023)

6515

–

7133

–

2007

14345

2662

13350

15708

6670.83 MB/s

–

523 nits

0 nits

0:1

5900 Okay

100 %

91 %

100 %

–

–

–

61 fps

106

129

68 fps

116 fps

126 fps

138 fps

184 fps

197 fps

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

Razer Blade 14 (2023)

7850

–

15071

1807

1985

11066

2658

11683

10448

6664.73 MB/s

4937.3 MB/s

531.2 nits

0.46 nits

1150:1

7500 Okay

100 %

93 %

99 %

10 hrs

–

80 minutes

–

62.69

85.84

–

81 fps

113 fps

–

117.9 fps

126.97 fps

42.95 fps

88.55 fps

18.11 fps

89.04 fps

69 fps

82 fps

81 fps

169 fps

Asus TUF Gaming A15 (2023)

7097

–

–

–

1473

9455

1988

9505

10078

4301.46 MB/s

–

293.2 nits

0.23 nits

1270:1

7600 Okay

100 %

83 %

83 %

9 hrs

9 hrs

–

–

–

72.56

–

–

100 fps

–

–

104 fps

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

–

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