HP Omen Transcend 16 Review
A missed opportunity
Verdict
The HP Omen Transcend 16 is the brand’s attempt to add a dash of finesse to its gaming range. It largely succeeds, with a great design, pleasing keyboard and relatively low weight, but a high price and low comparative performance is the main hindrance.
Pros
- Great gaming keyboard
- Bright display and matte coating
- Luxury design that’s relatively thin and light
Cons
- Below par graphical performance
- Expensive
- Basic audio
- Unimpressive display
Key Features
- Shadow Black magnesium-aluminium coverUses luxurious-feeling materials with a stealthy look.
- A thin-and-light gaming chassisIt’s lightweight and quite thin for a 16-inch gaming laptop.
- Latest mid-range RTX 40-series graphicsFeatures contemporary specifications for AAA gaming.
Introduction
The HP Omen range has been a strong option in the gaming laptop market for several years now.
The new HP Omen Transcend 16 looks to build on it with some nice finishing touches to broaden its appeal, and potentially even chase the MacBook Pro crowd as well as the gamers, with the option (at least in the USA) to upgrade to a Mini LED screen.
It’s a high bar to shoot for but HP’s take on the formula looks to have gotten its priorities right, even if the £1700/$1699 cost of entry may be too high and the execution may not quite keep pace with key rivals. This is my review.
Design and Keyboard
- High quality feel
- Fairly lightweight
- Great gaming keyboard
Those familiar with the HP Omen range won’t be immediately struck by the look of the Transcend, unless you opt for the striking White colour option. The Black version looks typically Omen, but its materials set it apart.
It has a soft-touch finish, which is a delight to pick up, and the magnesium and aluminium combination reduces the overall weight – making this 16-inch device feel rather portable despite its size. The dimensions come in at 2.17kg and 19.9mm thin. It’s not astonishingly thin and light, but tops many 16-inch competitors in this area.
The stealthy black look means this laptop will fit well into any environment, whether that’s amongst your gamer friends or an office setting.
The keyboard is right up there with the best of them too. It doesn’t fall into the trap of erring on the side of a more productivity-friendly keyboard, a regular issue with laptops that blur the lines of creativity, gaming and a lightweight design. This is a gaming keyboard, offering plenty of travel and a decent amount of feedback.
My main qualm is that the keys could be a tad bigger, to make for a more comfortable typing experience, and this is also hindered by retaining a numpad which moves everything to the left slightly.
The RGB backlighting is wondrously and refreshingly vibrant, with tweaks enabled within HP’s sleek and easy-to-use Omen software. On the trackpad, it’s well-sized but the click offers low-travel, making it feel quite dull.
The Omen Transcend 16 is well-equipped in the ports department, unhindered by its trim dimensions, offering 2 x USB-A 5Gbps, 2 x Thunderbolt 4, 1 x HDMI 2.1, 1 x Ethernet and a headphone jack. It’s a good selection only let down by the lack of an SD or MicroSD card slot.
HP has heavily considered sustainability with the build of this device. The laptop itself uses agricultural waste for its keyboard mechanism, particularly impressive given how it retains strong performance in this area, as well as ocean-bound plastic for the bezel, inner-frame and speaker enclosure. The keycaps and scissor mechanisms use PCR while recycled metal is used in the base and hinge. For the packaging, HP doesn’t mention any sustainable practices in use here and it doesn’t appear to use recyclable materials.
Display and Sound
- Lacklustre FHD IPS panel
- Strong peak brightness
- Decent audio for a gaming machine
A big selling point of the new HP Omen Transcend 16 is the option to equip it with a QHD Mini LED 240Hz display but, unfortunately, my review model features the regular ol’ FHD IPS 165Hz. This is the only version currently on sale in the UK but the US offers wider configuration options, including the Mini LED.
But, focusing on the model I do have to test, it’s a perfectly fine display. The main issue is that this isn’t a cheap device so a FHD IPS 165Hz panel on a laptop that costs more than £1700/$1600 really hurts it as a value proposition. Nevertheless, the display is expectedly speedy and, to the eye, the IPS technology offers acceptable levels of colour and detail. It’ll serve you well for gaming and general use, but you aren’t going to be wowed.
However, our display benchmark testing may leave creators considering the Omen Transcend 16 rather disappointed – scoring 100% DCI-P3 but just 78% Adobe RGB and 78% sRGB. As such, the IPS model isn’t an option for serious creatives. The Mini LED version should offer improvements but that’ll come at an even higher cost than this already pricey machine. What you do get is a strong peak brightness of 486.3 nits accompanied by a matte coating on the display, meaning this is a strong option for those who work in awkward lighting environments.
When it comes to hopes of this laptop being a MacBook Pro competitor, the lacking display is met by audio that isn’t even in the same league as its Apple rival. The sound is fairly detailed but lacks any kind of bass and does start to distort as you take advantage of its, admittedly, high volume. It tops many gaming focused rivals, but falls short of creative competitors. The webcam isn’t anything to write home about either, with acceptable detail if a tad warm in shade – it’ll do for most.
Performance
- Doesn’t make the most the RTX 4060
- Can get hot and loud
- Below par SSD speeds
When testing laptops with similar specifications, the results are often quite close, with the largest differentiations happening when manufacturers tinker with size and weight. Well, the HP Omen Transcend 16 seems to suffer for its design, with our testing showing its performance lags behind rivals with similar specs to the Intel Core i7-13700HX processor and Nvidia RTX 4060 GPU.
As a productivity machine, this laptop expectedly performs extremely capably. But, that isn’t what the Omen Transcend 16 is made for. As you can see for our testing results, the HP is comfortably outshone by the Razer Blade 14 that dons similar specifications.
The much cheaper Asus TUF Gaming A15 is where the disappointing gaming performance of the Omen Transcend 16 really comes to the fore, with the Asus barely coming up short despite the around £600 price gap.
When stressed, this laptop could also get very hot and produce loud fan noise, potentially explaining the lacking performance with some throttling likely at play.
It performs surprisingly well in our creative PugetBench for Adobe Premiere Pro benchmark test with a 628 score, topping the likes of the Samsung Galaxy Book 3 Ultra (and its stronger RTX 4070 chip) at 492 and just beating the Blade 14 at 597. As such, it is perfectly capable of intensive editing work, but the display lets it down in my review configuration.
The performance of the SSD in the HP Omen Transcend is another area of disappointment given its high price and aims to rival graphically strong rivals with both gaming and creative chops.
The results of my tests were 3542MB/s read and 4944MB/s write. This is well below many key rivals that top 5000MB/s read and write almost across the board. It didn’t noticeably hinder performance, but if you care about best-of-the-best transfer speeds then you should look elsewhere.
Software
- HP Omen gaming hub is sleek, simple and useful
- Some non-gaming focused bloatware is present
HP isn’t shy about including its own software and there is a disappointing amount of bloat when it comes to the non-gaming side of things.
HP Support Assistant, HP Connection Optimizer, HP QuickDrop and MyHP can be largely ignored for more platform agnostic options. McAfee LiveSafe, ExpressVPN and LastPass Premium are all pre-installed too, with the latter two offering free 30-day trials. You also get an Xbox Game Pass 1-month free trial with this device.
But, the HP Omen gaming hub is an extremely useful tool, with the Light Studio, Performance Control, Optimizer and Network Booster all included to help you get the most out of the RGB lighting, performance and network capabilities. It keeps things simple with uncomplicated visuals and menus.
Battery life
- Solid productivity battery life
- Less than 1 hour and a half of gaming
The battery life on offer isn’t half bad for a machine with a dedicated GPU. My testing showed the Omen Transcend 16 to be capable of 6 hours and 3 minutes for a productivity workload. This is more than the 4 hours and 37 minutes of the Razer Blade 16, but falls well shy of the 10 hours and 18 minutes of the Razer Blade 14.
Some of the differences can be explained by the more powerful GPU in the Blade 16, while the Blade 14 has the very same graphics chip as the HP. For gaming, you can expect around 60-90 minutes of gameplay depending on how demanding the title is you’re playing.
The HP Omen Transcend can be recharged speedily with a powerful 230W charger included, getting you back to 100% from 0% in not much more than one hour.
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Should you buy it?
You want a 16-inch gaming laptop that is super portable: The HP Omen Transcend 16 is a strong antidote for those who may fear the damage a large gaming laptop could do to their back.
You want a laptop with strong graphical grunt: The Omen Transcend 16 isn’t a bang-for-your-buck laptop. It performs poorly when compared with smaller or cheaper rivals such as the Asus TUF Gaming A15.
Final Thoughts
The HP Omen Transcend 16 feels like a missed opportunity at this configuration, lacking the Mini LED panel that HP has heavily touted when promoting this device. However, reviewing what’s in front of me, it offers a pleasingly luxurious feel to rival the likes of the Razer Blade 16 and Asus ROG Zephyrus M16 while feeling comparatively light to carry around too.
The high £1700/$1609 price of this laptop is likely to be its main folly. When compared with the excellent £1100/$1199 Asus TUF Gaming A15 it looks positively silly, with the Asus showing comparative performance at the much lower price. Whereas other RTX 4060-sporting devices, like the Razer Blade 14, manage to get a whole lot more graphical grunt from this chip.
Those who care about gaming prowess and good value should look to the TUF Gaming A15 or, if you’ve got a budget closer to the £/$2000 mark, consider the Asus ROG Strix Scar 16 (2023). For a wider selection, have a browse of our Best Gaming Laptop, Best MacBook Alternatives and Best Laptop for Video Editing guides.
How we test
Every laptop we review goes through a series of uniform checks designed to gauge key things, including build quality, performance, screen quality and battery life.
These include formal synthetic benchmarks and scripted tests, plus a series of real-world checks, such as how well it runs popular apps.
We use review machines as our main laptop for at least a week.
We test the performance via both benchmark tests and real-world use.
We test the screen with a colorimeter and real-world use.
We test the battery with a benchmark test and real-world use.
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FAQs
The HP Omen Transcend uses upgraded materials to offer a lighter and more luxurious feel to the Omen. But, the Omen 16 offers higher-end configurations.
No, the HP Omen Transcend 16 does not feature a touch display.
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Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
