HP's Omen brand, focused on gaming, has announced a couple of new products for 2023, including the brand-new Omen Transcend 16, which is a true leap forward for the company, with a mini-LED display and a 240Hz refresh rate, plus HDR support. If you prefer the more traditional designs, there's also the new Omen 16, and the more budget-oriented Victus 16 is getting refreshed as well.
The Omen Transcend 16 is HP's first gaming laptop with a 16:10 display
Out of today's announcements, the Omen Transcend 16 is easily the most exciting, being a completely new design for the Omen brand. As you might guess from the name, the Omen Transcend 16 is a 16-inch laptop, but it's the first gaming laptop in HP's laptop to come in a taller 16:10 aspect ratio, something that's become increasingly popular with gaming laptops over the past couple of years. The taller format helps make it more suitable for productivity in addition to gaming, and the rest of the specs are also very impressive.
The panel is using a mini-LED backlight that provides a stunning HDR experience with up to 1,180 nits of brightness and VESA DisplayHDR 1000 certification. On top of that, you also get a super-smooth 240Hz refresh rate, which is ideal for competitive online gaming. Atop the display, there's a 1080p webcam with Windows Hello facial recognition, another first for the Omen brand, and something that's very welcome.
The design is just as impressive, too. HP is using a magnesium frame to help the laptop be lighter, and it comes in at just 2.1 kilograms and under 20mm of thickness. That's fairly impressive for a laptop with up to an Intel Core i9-13900HX processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, as well as a large 97Whr battery. On the visual side, HP has also injected a but more flair into the design, with an RGB keyboard featuring see-through WASD keys.
The Omen Transcend 16 is expected to be available early this spring, starting at $1,669.99.
The Omen 16 also gets a refresh, with a good webcam
If you're not a fan of the new design in the Omen Transcend 16, HP is also refreshing the Omen 16, which is the more traditional version of the laptop. Just like the model above, ti can be configured with up to an Intel Core i9-13900HX, but there's also an AMD version with up to a Ryzen 9 7940HS processor, if you lean more towards team red. For graphics, the Omen 16 comes with up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4080 Laptop GPU, which should be able to push the Quad HD 240Hz display to its maximum refresh rate in a few titles. The specs are rounded out by up to 32GB of RAM and a 2TB PCIe Gen 4 SSD.
One major improvement worth highlighting here is the webcam, which is finally getting upgraded to 1080p resolution for the first time. This one doesn't include Windows Hello support, but it should still provide a quality upgrade compared to previous models.
The Moen 16 (2023) will launch early this spring with a starting price of $1,299.99.
The Victus 16 gets updated for mainstream gamers
The Omen brand may be a bit too expensive for some, so more budget-conscious users can also look to the Victus 16 refresh for 2023. This new version of the laptop is available with up to an Intel core i7-13700HX for the Intel models, or an AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS if you prefer the AMD model. The GPU configurations go up to a Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070, which should provide a significant performance uplift compared to previous models.
This model doesn't have all the bells and whistles of the Omen family, but it does come in three color options, which can be complemented by the single-zone RGB keyboard for some extra personality.
The Victus 16 is also expected to launch in the spring starting at $1,049.99.
New Omen monitors
For the desktop gamers, the Omen brand also has a handful of new monitors being announced to upgrade your current setup. The headliner is the Omen 27k, a high-end 4K monitor with a 144Hz refresh rate and HDMI 2.1 support, enabling the Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 consoles to output at up to 4K and 120Hz, making the display suited to console and PC gamers alike. The display is also the first one in HP's lineup to feature a built-in KVM so you can control multiple connected PCs by connecting your peripherals to the monitor and switching between PCs on the fly. Plus, it covers 95% of DCI-P3, so color reproduction should also be great on this screen.
The rest of the lineup comprises the Omen 24, Omen 27, Omen 27q, Omen 32q, and Omen 32c, all including 165Hz refresh rates, as well as the Omen 27s and Omen 27qs, which go up to 240Hz for even more smoothness. Features across the lineup include HDR support and AMD FreeSync Premium for all models, with some models specifically attaining DisplayHDR 400 certification. Some of the monitors also come with VESA ClearMR 6000, which certifies the clarity of pixels in the image, and some also have integrated 3W speakers.
The entire lineup will be available this spring, with prices ranging from $199.99 for the Omen 24 to $549.99 for the Omen 27k.
Omen Gaming Hub and HyperX connectivity
Finally, HP also introduced some improvements for the Omen Gaming Hub app, which is preinstalled on all the laptops announced today. For staters, there's a new Processor Core Affinity Optimization feature, which HP says can result in up to a 10% improvement in frames per second. A new Eco mode in the app promises up to 20% longer battery life while also resulting in quieter fan operation, so you can more reasonably use the laptops for work when you need to.
Another interesting announcement today is that HP is working to enable more seamless connectivity between its gaming laptops and HyperX peripherals. The new Omen laptops are the first to come with an integrated module low-latency audio pairing when using the HyperX Cloud II Core wireless gaming headset, which is available as a bundle with the laptop. This should enable higher-quality audio and a more reliable connection than Bluetooth without requiring a dongle. Presumably, the ecosystem will be expanded upon over time to enable this seamless wireless connectivity with more devices.