HP Omen 16 (2023) review: A cut-price gaming laptop with noisy fans
A superb display and funky keyboard, let down by poor battery life and the loudest cooling system in the business.
The Omen 16 is a great gaming laptop with jaw-dropping graphics and a snappy Ryzen 7 processor. Its poor battery and excessive fan noise can be overlooked thanks to its reduced price.
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Vivid screen with 165 Hz refresh rate
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Bright, punchy keyboard
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Powerful AMD Ryzen 7 processor
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Weak battery capacity
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Excessive fan noise
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Specifications
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS
RAM: 16 GB DDR5
GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 4060
Storage: 1 TB SSD
Display: 16.1 in (41 cm)
Weight: 5.22 lbs (2.37 kg)
Dimensions (in): 14.5 x 10.2 x 0.9 (W x H x D)
Dimensions (cm): 37 x 25.9 x 2,3 (W x H x D)
The HP Omen 16 is undeniably a gaming laptop. The design and quality of the display all target hardcore players, and its multicolor keyboard is also a dead giveaway. Here we have the 2023 version, with AMD’s Ryzen 7 processor and Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 4060 GPU – a configuration only available in Europe. U.S. customers will only have Intel variants for 16in models.
A newer Omen 16 was announced at CES 2025 recently — the Omen Max 16 — so the lofty price of the old Omen has now been reduced from $1,600 to a more palatable $1,170. Regardless of its price, though, we want to know if it’s any good.
HP Omen 16 (2023) review
HP Omen 16 (2023) review: Design
There have now been a decade's worth of HP Omen laptops, with very little stylistic change across the last few iterations. The 16.1-inch ‘xd0001na’ model we have on review is virtually the same as the 2022 model, save for a new polished Omen logo on the lid instead of the classic VoodooPC diamond. There’s also a large, shiny "16" emblazoned on the bottom half.
Nevertheless, the design is neat and understated, all in black and with a matte finish. It could be more lithe, more petite in places, but then it would no doubt be even more expensive. The all-plastic build is not ideal, but also not that much of an issue — you will leave plenty of finger smears, but they’re easy enough to wipe away with a cloth. There is some slight flex in the lid, though.
The bottom portion of the device is neatly laid out, with 70% of the available real estate taken up by the keyboard. You get a stunning multicolor backlit keyboard, with transparent key covers for W, A, S, and D. In the corners, there’s lots of space for palm rests, though there is an awkward reach to use the trackpad.
Both sides of the device have a wide array of ports, with three USB-A types (one with HP sleep charge) and slots for HDMI 2.1, ethernet and a 35mm headphone jack. Sadly there’s only one USB-C port, which is odd for a modern laptop, but it has Thunderbolt 4 support and also HP sleep charger capabilities.
HP Omen 16 (2023) review: Display
The Omen 16 has a pleasingly smooth and vivid 16.1 in IPS display with a 165Hz refresh rate and a full HD resolution of 1,920 x 1080. The panel is crisp and sharp, and thankfully bright enough for even the murkiest of game worlds.
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While that is true to the naked eye, our benchmarks suggest that the Omen’s display isn’t especially great. With our colorimeter, we recorded a peak brightness of 281 candela per square meter (cd/m2), which is actually quite low. That would suggest you’ll find it harder to see certain parts of the screen if you have a strong source of light in your room, though we didn’t really notice any issues here.
Likewise, its gamut color coverage (a measure of how many colors it can display) was a meager 91.40% — which is lower than one would expect of a modern gaming laptop. The Adobe sRGB score of 70% is more in line with its rivals but we would not recommend this machine for tackling serious Photoshop workloads.
The colors, however, pop off the screen and the refresh rate keeps everything smooth and liquid. This is partly down to the AI optimization that comes from the Ryzen 7 chip and that beefy Nvidia RTX GPU. So on paper it looks middling, but our eyes suggest otherwise.
HP Omen 16 (2023) review: Keyboard and touchpad
The Omen 16 has a multi-zone backlit keyboard that can be customized. The default is three different sections; from left to right you have a portion in red, a middle section in purple, and a final section in light or neon blue. The three transparent keys all turn a funky shade of orange when the lights are on, though. The whole thing looks dramatic in the dark and you can swap the colors around, have one specific color across the whole thing, or have it change shades as you play, which is frankly a little distracting.
Still, there’s a satisfying punch to the keys, which are all nicely sized and responsive. We were able to get up to a good typing speed while hammering out emails and documents. There was also a pleasing ease to the gaming controls, with the W, A, S, and D buttons singled out with transparent key caps — you barely need to look down as you move about in Fortnite.
The trackpad, however, takes some getting used to, especially if you come to it from a smaller touchpad, such as you would find on a MacBook. The number of accidental right clicks we made increased by about 100%. It does have a nice, firm click action, and lots of scope, but if you’re used to using your right hand to click, you really do need to reach right across — it’s quite awkward.
HP Omen 16 (2023) review: Specs, performance, and battery
The Omen 16 is powered by an AMD Ryzen 7 7840HS chip, which is paired with 16 GB of DDR5 RAM and 1 TB of storage. The Ryzen 7 has an up to 5.1 GHz max boost clock, 16 MB L3 cache, eight cores and 16 threads. It is a high-end 4nm processor and one of the best chips on the market for gaming.
The Omen notched up a CrystalDiskMark read score of 6,434.39, which places it as one of the more powerful HP laptops we’ve tested. Only the Spectre x360 14 and the AI-powered OmniBook Ultra 14 scored higher, and only by small margins.
However, while its performance is good, there’s only so much the Omen can take before its fans start to sound like the creaking air con in a cheap Vegas motel. Putting it through Geekbench 6 sounded like a form of laptop torture and its multi-core score of 9,239 isn’t especially good for this price range. Similarly priced HP models, such as the new OmniBook and EliteBook, will give you almost 50% more (14,153 and 14,035 respectively).
How much gaming you can do away from a power outlet is also debatable, due to the Omen’s weak battery. The 165Hz refresh rate, as wonderful as it is, is part of the problem here because you have a power-hungry display hogging what little juice the laptop can hold.
In our looped video test, with the laptop forced to repeatedly play the same 20 minutes of Spider-Man 2, it lasted a pitiful 4 hr, 53 mins. HP claims that it can last up to eight hours, which is true, but if you’re playing something quite big and graphically intense then it won’t get anywhere near that. A few rounds of Fortnite, maybe.
Thankfully, once depleted, the battery only takes an hour or so to reach full charge.
HP Omen 16 (2023) review: Ports and features
The ports are all neatly aligned, with two USB-A ports and slots for HDMI 2.1 and an ethernet connection in easy-to-reach places. It’s always good to have a 35mm headphone jack on a laptop, but that solo USB-C port does cause frustration. Thunderbolt 4 support is what people want — it makes everything easier to connect — so a second port here would be a real boon.
Feature-wise, you have the standard fare of Wi-Fi 6E (802.11ax) and Bluetooth 5.3, plus Windows 11 Home fresh out of the box. There’s a neat clip cover for the webcam. You also get crisp Bang & Olufsen DTS:X Ultra dual speakers, which have a nice hum to them, but these are hard to enjoy when those fans begin whirring.
You also get the Omen Gaming Hub pre-installed. One of the best features here is that you can monitor all your laptop's performance metrics, and it includes a clever booster tool. This looks like the rev counter on a car, but you can use it to max out the machine's performance.
Should you buy the HP Omen 16 (2023)?
Buy it if:
✅ You're a hardcore gamer: Playing games is what this machine was designed to do — and what it's good at
✅ You're on a budget: This laptop looks like much better value for money after its asking price was recently slashed
Don't buy it if:
❌ You like a quiet working environment: The noisy fans on the Omen 16 are a less than welcome distraction
❌ You're on the go a lot: Battery life isn't brilliant, which might rule out playing more graphics-intensive games for long periods
The answer to this has been made a lot simpler thanks to HP’s recent CES 2025 announcements and the more feature-rich Omen Max 16. With this better version coming out soon, HP has slashed the cost of the older model, from $1,600 to $1,170, making it more of a bargain than it was previously. This review would have been more scathing if it stayed at its original price.
For that cut price you get a snappy AMD Ryzen CPU, a powerful GeForce RTX 4060 GPU, a smooth display and an attractive keyboard. You also get poor battery life and loud fans that can be heard no matter what volume your music is playing. They keep the machine cool but their sound is impossible to ignore. Headphones are not included, but they darn well should be!
If this product isn't for you
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The question is whether there is anything better in this new price range. The newer Omen Max is practically double the price so that’s not comparable here. The Omen Transend is also considerably more expensive — both the 14in and 16in models — so price-wise, the Omen 16 is currently HP’s best offer.
Dell’s Alienware x16 R2 machine is roughly comparable, though it has Intel processor options, not AMD, and costs at least $400 more. However, it does benefit from a wider selection of Nvidia RTX GPU configurations (4060, 4070, 4080, and 4090).
If it’s gaming on a budget you want, however, then the Omen 16 is hard to beat right now.
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