HP Victus 16 (R1165TX) Review

Gaming laptops have always been expensive, and there’s a good reason for it. They pack similar power and performance as that of high-end gaming PCs. As you all know, top-spec gaming PCs aren’t cheap either.

In recent years, brands have been introducing more affordable gaming laptops but you do sacrifice performance. It’s perfect for those who need to be productive and want to play games, but don’t have a big budget to splurge on a six-digit gaming laptop.

Today, we’re looking at another mid-range gaming laptop that we’re all too familiar with – the HP Victus 16 (R1165TX). Specifically, this is the new 2024 model powered by a 14th Gen Intel Core i5 Processor and an NVIDIA RTX 4060 GPU.

With a price tag of PHP 79,950USD 1,362INR 115,496EUR 1,298CNY 9,922, it is still a lot of money, but is it the one you should consider getting this 2024? Well, I suggest you read on to find out.

Design and Construction

First, we have to talk about the design of the HP Victus 16, and thankfully HP didn’t change much here as compared to the model we tried out last year. Most gaming laptops give off a loud gamer vibe, but HP went with a sedated look for the Victus 16.

As a result, you have a minimalist design with an all-matte black finish. The only signature touch? A big dark chrome V logo on the center of the lid. Despite HP saying the body is made out of aluminum, it doesn’t really feel like it. It feels more like plastic to the touch, which doesn’t give the most premium feel. Still, I do like the blacked-out design instead of going wild, but what do you think?

Probably the most stand-out feature of this laptop are the large rear vents. They aren’t really visible though since you’ll be looking at the screen most of the time anyway. But hey, at least they serve a function in keeping the laptop cool.

Like most gaming laptops, the HP Victus is neither slim nor lightweight. This being a 16-inch model further emphasizes that further. This laptop still weighs 2.3kg and is 2.39cm thick. If you’re used to slim laptops then you might have to adjust a bit if you do end up choosing this laptop. It will have a hard time fitting in most bags unless you have a bigger one.

Moving on to the keyboard, they offer a comfortable typing experience. They’re soft enough, but not that soft that gamers will be compromised. It is also a full-sized keyboard with a num pad, so you can either use it for productivity or hotkeys for your game.

For reference, I used this laptop to type several reviews, and my fingers didn’t get hurt or tired from all the typing I did. You also get a dedicated OMEN button to bring up OMEN Gaming Hub.

You can even change the color of the backlit keys to your liking in the setting. However, you can’t make it do a constant RGB color, rainbow, waves, or more. This means you will have to choose one and stick to it.

I like the position of the trackpad since it is relatively ergonomic. It also doesn’t get in the way of my hands when I’m typing on the keyboard. If you aren’t gaming, the trackpad is more than enough to go around.

There are no special features you can do using the trackpad such as adjusting volume or more, so do keep that in mind. Still, I would recommend getting a decent mouse to match with this laptop. It is hard to game without using one after all. More importantly, it’s a lot more convenient too.

Above the keyboard, you might mistake the holes for speakers. However, these are cooling vents, so they can’t feel a bit warm even when you’re just using the laptop for productivity purposes. At the bottom of the laptop, you’ll find more large vents for the fans and stands.

When you need to plug in your USB and other accessories, you do have several ports at your disposal. These include a USB-C (Thunderbolt) port, 3 USB-A ports, a full-size HDMI port, a 3.5mm audio port, and even an ethernet port.

Overall, there’s not much to comment on about the design and construction of the HP Victus 16. I did wish they used a different material for the lid to give it a more premium finish though.

Display and Multimedia

The HP Victus 16 may look great on the outside, but as I mentioned earlier, most of the time you will be looking at the screen. This being a 16-inch model, you get a 16.1-inch FHD (1920 x 1080 resolution) IPS display with a 144Hz refresh rate. It also comes with slim borders all around, giving you a bigger screen to work with.

It might not be an OLED panel, but the display’s color accuracy and contrast levels are a bit decent out of the box. I tried editing photos on the screen, and the colors weren’t too far off from the PC I use at home (which has been color-calibrated by a DataColor SpyderX).

Still, it’s far from perfect. The colors lack saturation and the blacks aren’t as deep, meaning it might not offer the best viewing experience for watching movies or more. It’s not as bright too at only 300 nits. To get the best viewing angle, you need to sit directly in front of the screen. So if you need 100% color accuracy and more, you should factor this in when considering this laptop.

Since you have a 144Hz refresh rate, playing games is very enjoyable. This is a gaming laptop after all, and high refresh is a must. Even when you’re not playing games, you will enjoy the smooth animation when scrolling through apps or when you’re watching videos.

Speaking of watching videos, you will enjoy listening to the speakers on the Victus 16. The dual speakers are located at the bottom of the laptop, and they do have a decent sound stage when you’re in front of the screen.

According to HP, the speakers are tuned by Bang & Olufsen (B&O) to help deliver a rich and immersive sound. While the mids and treble are nice, it does lack bass. If you play Starboy by the Weeknd, you can barely hear the bass, but at least the sound is clear. I find it a bit weird considering this is a gaming laptop, and more often than not they go for bass.

For gaming though, it’s more than enough if you want to play without using headphones. You can hear the footsteps and from which direction they are coming from. Still, I would recommend using a pair of headphones when you’re playing to have a more immersive experience.

Performance and Benchmarks

Under the hood, the HP Victus 16 is powered by an Intel Core i5 14th gen processor. Specifically, it uses the i5-14450HX processor which is a 10-core, 16-thread CPU with up to 4.8 GHz speeds using Intel Turbo Boost Max Technology. It is then matched with an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 GPU.

Our review unit also comes with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of SSD storage. It also runs on Windows 11 Home from the factory. If you find the RAM or SSD lacking, you can upgrade them, but unlike other laptops you will have to disassemble this one, making the process a lot more complicated. More importantly, there is only one M.2 slot, so you will have to copy your files over to a different M.2 slot first.

Despite the upgradeability issues, I had no doubts this laptop could handle the demanding tasks I would be throwing at it. I was able to run several demanding applications at the same time and did not feel like the laptop was slowing down.

Specifically, I had Adobe Lightroom, Photoshop, several tabs of Chrome, and I was even listening to Spotify. I could even run ZZZ with either Lightroom or Photoshop, and there were no framerate drops.

One thing you do need to take into consideration is the fans. They can be very loud, especially when you start booting up games. But at least they help keep the temperatures very cool when you’re gaming or rendering videos in Premiere.

You can also adjust the fans in the Omen Gaming Hub out of the box along with other performance parameters. It’s not as intensive as MSI Afterburner, but you can do quite a bit which is great. Omen Gaming Hub automatically boosts performance as well when it detects a game being launched.

When it comes to more graphic-intensive titles, the Victus 16 did well too. I was able to play Tekken 8 without issues with the graphics set to medium, but I did have to plug it into the socket. If you’re not plugged in, you will experience frame rate drops once the battery starts dropping.

To give you a better idea, check out the benchmark scores below.

Geekbench 6
Single Core – 2277
Multi-Core – 11890
OpenCL – 90064

Cinebench 2024
GPU – 9885
CPU (Multi-Core) – 814
CPU (Single-Core) – 0 (ERROR)

CrystalDiskMark 8.0.5
Read MB/s                        Write (MB/S)
SEQ1M (Q8T1)        2465.02                                  2753.93
SEQ1M (Q1T1)        2085.75                                   1821.44
RND4K (Q32T1)     354.56                                     367.36
RND4K (Q1T1)        51.78                                        118.21

Battery and Connectivity

One of the weaknesses of all gaming laptops is the battery. Typically, gaming laptops don’t last very long especially when compared to non-gaming laptops. Interestingly, the HP Victus 16 does last a bit longer than most gaming laptops I’ve tried. For reference, it does have an 83wH battery pack.

When you’re just being productive it does last around 5 hours with battery saver turned on by the 50% mark. But it’s a different story when you’re gaming. While playing Tekken 8, the battery drained down to 50% in just 40 minutes, and by that time the game was also dropping frames badly. Mind you that was on performance mode to give the best gameplay experience possible.

If you do need to charge, it does come with a 230W smart AC power adapter. However, it is very heavy and bulky, making it hard Alternatively, you can also charge the laptop via the USB-C port with your power bank if you don’t want to bring the heavy charger with you.

For connectivity, you do get Wi-Fi 6E which you can take advantage of if you have a fast router to match. You also get Bluetooth 5.3 to match.

Conclusion

All-in-all, the HP Victus 16 is a decent entry-level gaming laptop that offers a nice mix of performance and features. The only problem is the price point. It’s still quite expensive at PHP 79,950USD 1,362INR 115,496EUR 1,298CNY 9,922 for this specific Victus 16 (R1165TX), and the competition is quite tough.

Other brands offer affordable gaming laptop options too such as Lenovo with the LOQ and even some entry-level Acer Predator models. Worst yet, if you stretch your budget by a little bit, you can even find good deals for some HP OMEN laptops.

If you’re looking for a gaming laptop that delivers a good balance of performance and affordability, then the HP Victus 16 is worth considering with its long battery life and overall great performance. The only downside is the screen which isn’t the best in the segment. It’s also not the most portable since it is rather big, especially if you bring the charger with you. And that’s assuming you can swallow the PHP 80,000USD 1,363INR 115,568EUR 1,298CNY 9,928 price tag.

But what do you think of the HP Victus 16 (R1165TX)? Is it the gaming laptop you’d consider or would you go for something else? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

What we liked:
* Great performance
* Long battery life
* Ergonomic keyboard and trackpad
* Omen Gaming Hub

What we didn’t like:
* Expensive price point
* Display isn’t that good