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  • About the HP Victus 16

  • What we like

  • What we don’t like

  • Should you buy the HP Victus 16?

  • Related content

  • About the HP Victus 16
  • What we like
  • What we don’t like
  • Should you buy the HP Victus 16?
  • Related content

Pros

  • Good performance

  • Springy keyboard

  • Long battery life

Cons

  • Bloatware

  • 1080p screen

The HP Victus 16 is a fantastic gaming machine that can do a bit of everything.

About the HP Victus 16

Laptop closed on a table
Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar
  • Processor: Intel Core i7-11800H
  • Graphics: Nvidia GeForce RTX 3060
  • Memory: 8GB DDR4 3200MHz
  • Storage: 512GB SSD
  • Display: 144Hz @ 1920p x 1080p display with 100% sRGB gamut
  • Webcam: 720p with integrated dual array microphones
  • Ports: 1 x USB-C, 3 x USB-A 3.0, 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x Ethernet, 1 X headphone jack
  • Wireless: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5
  • Battery: 70Wh Li-ion polymer battery
  • Weight: 5.44 pounds
  • Dimensions: 14.57 x 10.24 x 0.93 in
  • Warranty: One-year limited warranty

The HP Victus 16 is an entry-level gaming laptop with a good assortment of configuration options. The cheapest model, which retails for $809.99 and has been on sale for as little as $649.99, includes an AMD Ryzen 5 processor, Nvidia GTX 1650 graphics, 8GB memory, and 256GB of storage. We tested the priciest configuration, which retails for $1,249.99.

The best value lies in the midrange products, which cost as little as $899.99 on sale, and offer an Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti graphics card—this card is almost as powerful as the RTX 3060 we tested, but you would save hundreds of dollars over the top Victus model.

What we like

Its performance meets the standard

Side view of laptop
Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

Equipped with an Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics card and an Intel Core i7-11800H processor, it’s no wonder the HP Victus runs major game titles with ease. Its performance is nearly equal to similarly priced laptops, too. The Acer Predator Helios 300, which is about $1,200, slightly edges-out the HP Victus when it comes to graphics performance.

When we played Shadow of the Tomb Raider on max 1080p settings, the Victus ran at about 90 frames per second, whereas the Helios 300 ran it at a slightly higher 94 fps. Similarly, in the 3DMark Firestrike benchmark, the Victus scored 17056 points while the Helios 300 scored 17433 points. That’s a 2% difference in scores, and it’s not noticeable during gameplay. When we played Cyberpunk 2077 with ray tracing turned on and the 1080p ultra graphics preset enabled, the game ran at a fairly smooth 45 fps. Bumping it down to the medium graphics preset (ray tracing still enabled!), you can get 55 fps. Less demanding games, like Far Cry 5, can run at 105 fps on their highest graphics settings.

overhead view of laptop keyboard
Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

The Victus’s central processor is like its graphics card—snappy, but not the fastest chip on the market. In our CPU benchmarks, the Victus scored well, earning 9400 points in Geekbench 5’s multi-core test and 10306 points in Cinebench’s test. The Predator Helios 300, which has the same processor, also scored similarly, with 7971 points in Geekbench and 11357 points in Cinebench.

In our Blender render simulation, the HP Victus sped through our model scene and rendered it in four minutes and five seconds with its CPU, six minutes and 20 seconds with its GPU. It’s slightly faster than most high-end productivity laptops, which can take eight minutes or more to render a scene with their high-efficiency CPUs (the M1 MacBook Air, for example, takes seven minutes 54 seconds to render the scene). If you need a reasonably affordable laptop for serious rendering work, the HP Victus 16 is definitely worth a look.

It has great battery life

Laptop pictured on a desk under a light
Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

Recent gaming laptop releases have really stepped up their game when it comes to battery life, and the HP Victus is no exception. When we ran our battery test, which simulates an average user’s web browsing habits, the laptop took seven and a half hours to drain its battery.

It’s not the best battery life we’ve seen in the category (that honor goes to the MSI Delta 15 with almost ten hours of battery life), but it’s far beyond the three- to six-hour battery life that’s typical for gaming laptops.

The audio is stellar

Laptop pictured on a desk under a light
Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

HP outdid itself with the Victus, which sounds excellent for any laptop, and unbelievably good for a budget laptop. The treble is clear without being tinny, and the bass is present without feeling overwhelming. The mids are full and full of life, with a big, crisp presence and a lot of spatial separation whenever the sound calls for it. This is especially useful for games, where pinpointing the location of sounds can make or break a play of the game. The Victus’s speakers can keep up with the Razer Blade 14’s, even though the HP costs several hundred dollars less.

Keyboard and trackpad are smooth

Person uses trackpad
Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

If performance is king, ergonomic design is queen (excuse the bad pun). The HP Victus is a pleasure to type on. Its keyboard has springy, responsive keys that are easy to reach across the full-size keyboard layout. Meanwhile, the trackpad is large and smooth, closer resembling what you’d expect from a MacBook Pro than what you’d expect from a budget laptop.

The rest of the laptop’s construction is sturdy, especially considering its sub-$1,000 price tag. The lid hinge stays stiff, but it’s still easy to move with one hand. While the body is not made of metal, the hard plastic shell resists movement and has a sophisticated, ultrabook-inspired look to it. We wish it were a bit thinner, but considering the hot hardware inside, a thicker chassis for better airflow is a small sacrifice to make.

What we don’t like

There’s a lot of bloatware

There is no perfect laptop, and this is where the Victus falls short. When you power it up for the first time, a cocktail of bloatware will await you. McAfee security trials and Express VPN promotions are the biggest offenders, constantly bombarding the screen with pop-ups until they’re uninstalled or disabled.

The screen won’t wow anyone

Laptop pictured on a desk under a light
Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

The Victus’s 1080p display is not bad, but it’s not great. With a 144Hz refresh rate, games look crisp, but the visuals are held back by the relatively low resolution for a 16-inch screen. The colors are vibrant, especially for a budget laptop, with a color gamut that covers the entire sRGB range and over 80% of the HDR range (budget laptops can struggle to hit over 65% of the HDR range). However, its 350 nits of brightness slightly mute the colors if you use the laptop in a bright setting, like a well-lit office space. Overall, the display is alright: it’s good enough where it counts, but it won’t wow you in any sense.

Should you buy the HP Victus 16?

Yes, it's a budget gaming laptop that hits all the right notes

Person types on laptop keyboard
Credit: Reviewed / Jackson Ruckar

The HP Victus 16 does not stand out in any one feature, but it does not flop in any, either–it’s a very well-rounded laptop, and for a little over a thousand dollars, it’s a fantastic machine that can do a bit of everything. Its Nvidia RTX 3060 graphics card and Intel Core i7-11800H processor are powerful enough to run most games and programs without any lag, whether you need to run 3D modeling software or edit a large project in Premiere. Its keyboard and trackpad are a pleasure to use, making playtime and worktime stress-free. Most impressively, it can do it all without sacrificing battery life and a price that won’t break the bank.

There are some other excellent budget picks, but none that quite strike the balance the HP Victus 16 managed between comfort, performance, and price. The Predator Helios 300, which is slightly more expensive, has slightly more performance accompanied by a poor screen, bulky body, and horrible battery life. Meanwhile, the Acer Nitro 5 is a steal for the price, but it’s much less powerful than the HP Victus 16. If you have a little more money to spend, the Asus ROG Strix G512 AMD Advantage Edition and the MSI Delta 15 crush the Victus in just about every metric: performance, battery life, and style.

Overall, the HP Victus 16 sits comfortably between barebones budget laptops and mid to high-tier gaming laptops with all the bells and whistles. The model we tested is a good value, but the Victus 16 with a Ryzen 7 processor and RTX 3050 Ti graphics card should offer comparable performance and is $150 cheaper when on sale (at the time of writing this article, it’s currently on sale for $1,049.99 at the HP store). If you need a laptop you know can run 3D modeling or rendering software lag-free and the latest game titles at smooth frame rates, but you don’t want to spend a fortune, this is the laptop to pay attention to.

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Meet the tester

Adrien Ramirez

Adrien Ramirez

Staff Writer

@itsaramkat

Adrien is the PC staff writer for Reviewed with over 4 years of experience covering laptops, desktops, software, games, and more.

See all of Adrien Ramirez's reviews

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