HP Victus 15 overview: As low-cost as gaming laptops come

Gaming laptops are typically costly, and the chip scarcity has solely made that scenario worse lately. HP’s new Victus 15 slides in with choices effectively below $1,000 that try to supply a repair to that downside.

Whereas the bigger Victus 16 will get you as much as an RTX 3060, the Victus 15 tops out at an RTX 3050 Ti — and begins at a budget-tier GTX 1650, which is what my overview unit included. Regardless of having the most recent Twelfth-gen CPUs, we don’t usually advocate gaming laptops with graphics which can be fairly that backside of the barrel. Whereas our unit lacked in efficiency, there are some configurations within the lineup that would make the Victus 15 a stable buy — particularly contemplating the options.

 Design

Just like the Victus 16, the Victus 15 has a design that carries over a couple of components from HP’s Omen lineup however maintains a extra conservative aesthetic. The Victus brand shares the Omen brand’s primary geometry, reducing off and retaining the underside portion. The emblem reveals up on the lid and within the venting above the keyboard. In any other case, the Victus 15 has easy traces and few gamer-oriented components. The rear vent has a little bit of a fighter jet look, however from the entrance and sides, you wouldn’t be blamed for mistaking the Victus 15 for a mainstream finances laptop computer. That notion extends to the skinny facet bezels and fairly small high bezel that distinction with the large chin on the backside of the show.

There are three out there colours, Mica Silver (darkish grey), Efficiency Blue, and Ceramic White. The Victus 15 doesn’t look precisely like a smaller model of the Victus 16 — the rear edges are extra rounded, giving a sleeker look. It’s common for gaming laptops to strike a extra mainstream look. Different examples embrace the Razer Blade 15 and the Asus ROG Zephyrus G14. If you’d like a laptop computer that appears like a gaming machine, you’ll wish to contemplate one thing just like the Asus ROG Strix G15 that’s a gamer by means of and thru.

The Victus 15 is made from all plastic, similar to the Victus 16. Additionally like that laptop computer, it has a lid that’s fairly bendable. The keyboard deck additionally comes with a little bit of flex, though the smaller mannequin is a little more stable. The hinge works effectively, permitting the lid to be opened with one hand and avoiding any critical wobble throughout intense gaming motion. Total, the Victus 15 is barely improved over the Victus 16, nevertheless it falls effectively in need of costlier machines just like the Lenovo Legion 5i Professional and the Razer Blade 15.

Even given the big chin on the underside of the show, the Victus 15 is sized like the everyday 15-inch gaming laptop computer. It’s fractions of an inch narrower and shallower than the Lenovo Legion 5, for instance, and simply as thick at 0.93 inches. The HP is barely lighter at 5.06 kilos in comparison with 5.3 kilos. The Acer Nitro 5, a equally priced gaming machine, is about the identical dimension, however thicker at 0.94 inches and lighter at 4.85 kilos. HP didn’t goal to make a skinny and lightweight laptop computer, nevertheless it didn’t make the thickest or heaviest both.

Connectivity is powerful, with one exception. There’s a USB-C 3.2 Gen 1 port, two USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 ports, a full-size HDMI 2.1 port, an Ethernet connection, a 3.5mm audio jack, and a full-size SD card reader. The one evident omission is Thunderbolt 4, which we’ve seen on laptops at this worth level. Wi-fi connectivity is both Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.2 or Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.2, relying on the configuration.

Worth and configurations

Inexpensive gaming laptops are robust to return by lately, particularly ones which can be truly value shopping for. As with all low-cost laptops, although, digging into the configurations is essential — and sadly, HP has created a complicated lineup with the Victus 15, providing preconfigured fashions by way of retailers that make the most of completely different Intel CPUs than you should buy by way of HP’s configure-to-order (CTO) system.

The preconfigured fashions vary from a $600 (on sale from $880) configuration with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H CPU, 8GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and an Nvidia GTX 1650. My overview unit was related, although it value $800 and features a Core i5-12450H and a 144Hz Full HD show. On the excessive finish is the $1,000 (on sale from $1,100) mannequin with a Core i7-12650H, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and the Nvidia RTX 3050 Ti. Different choices embrace the AMD Ryzen 7 5800H and the RTX 3050. These higher-end choices will provide you with much better efficiency.

You’ll be able to configure the Victus 15 at HP.com, which helps you to spec out your laptop computer in finer element, starting from $870 on the low finish to $1,230 on the excessive finish. There are two main opponents that worth out intently to the Victus 15: The Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 and the Acer Nitro 5. The Nitro 5 is $50 costlier when configured equally, whereas the IdeaPad Gaming 3 comes with the most recent Ryzen processor for $900.

Efficiency

Crucial distinction is that the Core i5-12450H is a 45-watt, 10-core (4 Efficiency and 6 Environment friendly), and 12-thread CPU, in comparison with the 45-watt, 12-core (4 Efficiency and eight Environment friendly), 16-thread i5-12500H. The Core i7-12650H is a 45-watt, 10-core (six Efficiency and 4 Environment friendly), 16-thread CPU, in comparison with the Core i7-12700H, a 45-watt, 14-core (six Efficiency and eight Environment friendly), 20-thread CPU. We’ve solely benchmarked the Core i7-12700H, however wanting on the Geekbench 5 database, the Core i5-12450H and Core i7-12650H are (as anticipated) slower than their higher-core and higher-thread counterparts.

We haven’t examined a 28-watt P-series Core i5, however once more, wanting on the Geekbench 5 database, it appears to be quicker than the Core i5-12450H in my overview unit. It’s value noting that the Victus 15 couldn’t fairly sustain with laptops working the 28-watt Core i7-1260P with its 12 cores (4 Efficiency and eight Environment friendly) and 16 threads, of which we’ve reviewed fairly a couple of. The AMD Ryzen 7 5800H can also be quicker than the Core i5 in my overview unit.

Accordingly, the Victus 15’s productiveness and creativity performances have been blended. It had the second-slowest Geekbench 5 ends in our comparability group, effectively behind the Core i7-1260P within the MSI Status 14 and the core i7-11800H within the HP Victus 16. The identical held with our Handbrake check that encodes a 420MB video as H.265, though the variations weren’t as vital. On the identical time, the Victus 15 was extra aggressive within the Cinebench R23 benchmark, producing the third-fastest single-core rating and beating the MSI Status 14. The Victus 15 was once more behind many of the pack within the PCMark 10 Full check that runs by means of a spread of productiveness, multimedia, and inventive duties.

Lastly, within the Pugetbench Premiere Professional benchmark that runs in a dwell model of Adobe’s Premiere Professional, the Victus 15 once more fell behind the MSI Status 14. That laptop computer was configured with the RTX 3050, a quicker GPU than the GTX 1650 within the Victus 15, and the Pugetbench benchmark is closely influenced by GPU efficiency. Nonetheless, it wasn’t GPU efficiency that held the HP again. In actual fact, the Victus 15 tied the Status 14 within the GPU part of the benchmark, and it was within the CPU-dependent video playback part that the HP was a lot slower.

Total, mainstream efficiency was nonetheless stable for an $800 laptop computer. The Victus 15 can deal with demanding productiveness workflows and a few low-end inventive duties. However you’ll see quicker outcomes by ordering by way of the CTO system. Curiously, the Omen Gaming Hub app has a efficiency tuning part, however the GTX 1650 model of the Victus 15 doesn’t have a efficiency setting, which is disappointing.

Gaming

Gaming efficiency was largely in step with expectations given the GTX 1650 GPU. These are the lowest-end graphics playing cards you’ll find in a gaming laptop computer, so your expectations needs to be low when firing this up. First, the Victus 15 had the bottom 3DMark Time Spy check in our comparability group, as anticipated. It was significantly decrease than the MSI Status 14’s RTX 3050, additionally as anticipated.

The Victus 15 efficiency OK in most of our benchmarks at 1080p and better graphics settings. It managed playable body charges in Civilization VI and Fortnite, however simply barely within the latter case. You’ll must drop right down to a decrease setting to play Murderer’s Creed Valhalla. The outcomes aren’t listed within the desk beneath, however the Victus 15 managed to hit 45 frames per second (fps) in Cyberpunk 2077 at 1080p and Extremely graphics with DLSS turned off.

Total, the laptop computer averaged larger than 30 fps in most of our benchmark titles. In fact, that’s the naked minimal fps for gaming, so that you’ll wish to configure the RTX 3050 Ti to get extra comfy body charges at larger graphics.

Show and audio

There are three show choices for the Victus 15, all non-touch 16:9 Full HD (1,920 x 1,080) IPS. They embrace a 250-nit 60Hz panel, a 250-nit 144Hz panel, and a 300-nit low blue mild panel. My overview unit was outfitted with the 144Hz show, and it appeared OK to me after I powered on the laptop computer and used it throughout my testing. The colours have been muted, however the distinction appeared deep sufficient, and the show didn’t get terribly vivid.

That’s just about what my colorimeter confirmed. Brightness was certainly low at 236 nits, beneath our 300-nit threshold, whereas the distinction was good at 1,150:1, above our most popular 1,000:1. Colours weren’t very vast at simply 65% of sRGB and 49% of AdobeRGB, and accuracy wasn’t nice at a Delta-E of three.04 (2.0 or much less is taken into account the minimal for inventive work). The Victus 16’s show was brighter and had wider and extra correct colours, and solely the Samsung Galaxy Ebook Odyssey‘s show was worse.

These outcomes aren’t horrible for a laptop computer that’s $800 or much less, however they turn into much less palatable as you method $1,000. The show is okay for productiveness work and gaming, primarily because of the excessive distinction, however creators will discover it missing.

Two downward-firing audio system present the audio, placing out loads of quantity with only a trace of distortion on the high finish. Mids and clears have been excessive, however there was zero bass, that means you’ll wish to put on some headphones for intense gaming and binging classes.

Keyboard, touchpad, and webcam

There’s no per-key RGB lighting with the Victus 15, as HP is seemingly reserving that for its Omen gaming lineup. As a substitute, there’s only a single, somewhat vivid backlight setting. There’s loads of spacing, and the keys with their gamer-oriented font are giant sufficient. I discovered the switches to be ligh, with a pleasant click on on the backside, which ought to work properly for players even when it’s not a mechanical keyboard. Total, the keyboard felt very like the one on the Victus 16, which shouldn’t be a shock.

The touchpad was giant and had a floor that supplied a contact of resistance. It was responsive and dependable for Home windows 11’s complement of multi-touch gestures, and the clicks have been stable and assured with out being too loud.

The webcam is a 720p model, and it carried out about in addition to the everyday laptop computer webcam. That’s, it was OK with good lighting however misplaced particulars in low mild.

The Victus 15 doesn’t help Home windows 11 Good day passwordless login. There aren’t any fingerprint reader or infrared digital camera choices, which is disappointing.

Battery life

My overview unit packed in simply 52.5 watt-hours of battery, which isn’t quite a bit for a 15-inch laptop computer with a discrete GPU. When you order a higher-end mannequin by way of HP’s CTO system, you will get a 70 watt-hour battery. I wasn’t anticipating a lot in the best way of battery life.

Unsurprisingly, the Victus 15 didn’t do effectively. It managed simply 4.25 hours in our web-browsing check that cycles by means of a collection of in style and demanding web sites, and it solely managed 5 hours in our video check that loops a neighborhood Full HD Avengers trailer. Within the PCMark 10 Functions check that’s the perfect measure of productiveness battery life, it couldn’t fairly make it to 5 hours. The typical laptop computer in our database no less than doubles these outcomes.

The Victus 15 carried out equally to many of the gaming laptops in our comparability group. Solely the Samsung Galaxy Ebook Odyssey and the Razer Blade 14 with its AMD Ryzen 9 5900HX had meaningfully longer battery life.

Our take

Score the HP Victus 15 is difficult given its big selection of configurations. The $600 configuration (on sale from $870) with an AMD Ryzen 5 5600H and a GTX 1650 gives plenty of worth and can doubtless present related efficiency to my overview unit. Talking of that, the configuration I reviewed justifies its $800 worth, however barely.

In the long run, the Victus 15 carried out effectively sufficient and is constructed solidly sufficient to make it a stable new entry within the finances gaming area. You’ll simply wish to examine the out there choices earlier than making your selection.

Are there any options?

The most effective different to the Victus 15 is the Victus 16. It’s slightly bigger, nevertheless it will also be configured with a a lot quicker GPU, and its show is barely higher. For simply $100 extra, you will get a configuration with an AMD Ryzen 5 6600H and RTX 3050 that’s most likely quicker than my overview unit.

There aren’t many different gaming laptops below $1,000 which have made the swap to Intel Twelfth-gen CPUs. One which has is the Acer Nitro 5, which has a extra aggressive gaming design and related configuration for a few hundred {dollars} extra.

The Lenovo IdeaPad Gaming 3 is one other different, providing a equally conservative design and related parts for only a bit more cash than the Victus 15. You’ll wish to search for the latest AMD Ryzen 6000 fashions.

How lengthy will it final?

Regardless of slightly bending within the lid and flexing within the keyboard deck, the Victus 15 is a well-built finances gaming machine. It ought to nonetheless final for years of laborious gaming. The one-year guarantee stays as disappointing as ever.

Must you purchase it?

Sure. The Victus 15 is an efficient worth so long as you make your choice fastidiously from amongst HP’s complicated buying choices.

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