We tested the HP Victus gaming laptop and found that while it was excellent value for the price, it unfortunately wasn’t very reliable. Two separate units continually blue screened on us and made it very hard to do testing. That said here’s what we found!
0:58 – Specs: Equipped with the 12th Gen Intel CPUs, and DDR4 RAM that is upgradeable to 64GB, our unit also came with a 2TB NVMe drive, room for another, and a GTX 1650. So all in, yeah, it’s great bang for your buck especially if you’re gaming on a budget and don’t want to spring for an Alienware or something more premium.
01:53 – Keyboard and Trackpad: Dark key colors, full size, and backlit make this a great keyboard for productivity and gaming alike. The WASD are not highlighted as they are in some other gaming machines but this is ok and frankly not a lot of people like this aesthetic anyway.
The trackpad, while OK, was on the lower end of our favor. It’s big, and overall precise with little ghosting, however, we found the “click” to be very cheap feeling.
02:45 – LCD: 144Hz, 350nits, matter, IPS, FHD, non-touch. All in it’s a colorful panel with decent brightness that you could get away with sitting in a bright lit room or by a window. Outside in direct sunlight may present some problems however. Angles are in are pretty decent as its an IPS display, and while we can confirm that HP used an LCD on the cheaper side of the spectrum, all in its a solid panel, good for gaming, that despite not having any fancy features will do you just find in this laptop.
03:55 – Speakers: Loud, usable, and little distortion, however most people are going to want a set of nice headphones to compliment this laptop. That said, most gamers will already be using a headset anyway so we don’t see this as being a problem or a deal breaker.
04:15 – I/O:USB-C with Display Port 1.4, 2 USB Type A, TRRRS, HDMI, and Gigabit Ethernet. I/O on this computer is respectable and while we couldn’t call it future proof will get you by with no issues over the next few years.
06:25 – Mobility: The HP Victus offers some fairly decent materials especially for its price bracket and competition. In fact, we’d say the plastics on it are better built than the ASUS Tuf F15. It’s thick and heavy so you may not want to travel with it, and battery will be ok for a college class or two, but you will need that charger if you’re going to want to sport around all day with it. Battery life you can expect around 8 hours practically.
07:14 – Features: Dedicated and integrated graphics for better battery life, a webcam (not great), Wifi 6, Bluetooth, and no Windows Hello compatible finger print reader or camera. No HDR on the screen either. All in this laptop does exactly what it advertises but nothing more. It’s not feature rich, but it doesn’t need to be. It has everything necessary to be a decent gaming and productivity machine.
Who is it for? This would be great for college students, or those gaming on a budget. Frankly we can see this computer as a real contender for those wanting something to do some casual to medium gaming on, but are mostly using it for school or office work. You could get away with doing some audio editing on it as well, and maybe even some 4k compressed video editing.
Who is it not for? Real serious gamers that will be in a competition. Your average user looking for a run of the mill laptop. Those wanting something super reliable. Heavy video editors. Non-profits.
Wrap-up: While we are impressed overall with the specs and performance of this machine, we have a tough time recommending it if for anything other than its reliability. That said, if you want to take the gamble and try one out for yourself, you may find that you quite like this computer!
