Laptop HP VICTUS 16-D1007NE Features

Overview

Powered by an Intel Processor, the Victus by HP 16.1″ Laptop PC handles your gaming needs. With an all-purpose gaming keyboard and fast refresh rate on a high-res display. Power through the heat with a cooling system that prevents overheating. Plus elevate your experience beyond hardware with the OMEN Gaming Hub.

The Victus has an eye-catching full-HD display that shows off crisp visuals and the 144Hz refresh rate gives onscreen action a smooth look and feel. Colors are vibrant (something that's typically subpar on lower-end gaming laptops) and it covers 100% sRGB color space. The screen was sufficiently bright at 300 nits, and I actually found myself occasionally lowering the brightness as games sometimes appeared too bright, though this was rare in my experience.

However, the biggest issue I had with the display is its hinge. It's quite flimsy and loose, which is at odds with the 16-inch laptop's bulky frame. I usually kept the laptop on a stable desk for testing, but even slight bumps or general movement when typing caused the screen to wobble. If you're considering this for use on a commute, it can be quite annoying when trying to focus. With no options to lock or tighten the hinge this is, unfortunately, something that HP Victus owners will have to endure. The sound quality is somewhat disappointing, too. The dual speakers above the keyboard do an adequate job, but if you're in a room with some noise it can be easy for the laptop audio to feel drowned out at medium volume levels. In other words, they're fine for casual use... but you'll want a good headset if you're looking to be immersed in your gaming session.

As far as performance goes, the laptop held its own. I tested the Victus 16 with recent games like Dying Light 2 and Tiny Tina's Wonderlands on medium to high settings, and the visuals and gameplay were smooth without many hitches. Like most PCs, you'll need to make some adjustments to each game's settings to find its performance sweet spot. When peak performance kicks in, though, the Victus also has some decent ventilation, and I didn't notice the cooling fans engaging all that often. With the RTX 3060 GPU, the HP Victus supports games with ray tracing. When enabled, ray tracing improves lighting, shadows, reflections and textures for games and it's impressive that such an affordable gaming laptop utilizes it. However, it was apparent that the laptop's core performance does suffer when activated. With that in mind, I would recommend using this feature sparingly with games that don't require too much out of a laptop.