HP has announced a new brand of gaming laptops to sit in between its Omen and Pavilion machines. Victus is essentially a sub-brand of Omen, aimed at a younger audience that is just getting into the gaming market – an Omen-lite in a way.
The Victus brand shares much of the Omen DNA, and even part of the logo. The V-shaped design is the lower half of the Omen logo. The name was apparently chosen to represent victory, valor, a daring spirit and the beauty of defeat.
The first machine to wear the Victus badge is the appropriately named, Victus by HP 16. This is predictably a 16.1-inch laptop and comes in both Intel and AMD versions. The Intel model is available in up to 11th gen Intel Core i7 H processor. Details were not given on the AMD model, but presumably one of the Ryzen chips.
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The Victus 16 is compact for a 16-inch machine, fitting into a 15-inch footprint and has a fresh design that makes it stand out from the Omen machines. It comes in three colors: black, blue and white, each with the V logo on the back of the screen and just under the display.
The screen is an IPS display with QHD resolution and 165HZ refresh rate and EyeSafe technology to reduce blue light. The keyboard uses the Omen font and is backlit. It features a spaced out arrow key arrangement, enlarged touchpad and a dedicated number pad. There are NVIDIA RTX 3060 graphics, as well as an AMD Radeon RX5500M for the AMD version. It also features the Omen Gaming Hub for performance control while gaming.
The Victus 16 is on sale in June, priced from $799.99/approx. AU$1,030 (AMD) and $849.99/approx. AU$1,100 (Intel).
In addition to the Victus, HP announced two new Omen laptops and a new gaming monitor. The Omen 16 is the first 16.1-inch Omen laptop but remains close in size to the previous 15-inch version, and still fits in a regular 15-inch laptop sleeve. It features a new floating display, available in up to a 2K resolution, with 165Hz refresh rate and 3ms response time. It also features HP’s Eyesafe proction and flicker free design.
The Omen 16 is available with either 11th gen Intel Core, up to i7-11800H, or AMD Ryzen 9 up to 5900HX. NVIDIA Geforce RTX graphics is available for both versions, up to 3070 8GB. It also features up to 1TB storage, Wi-Fi 6E for reduced latency and up to nine hours battery life.
The Omen 17 is HP’s most powerful gaming laptop and is designed as a desktop replacement. It is 15% lighter and more than 10% thinner than the last generation and features 11th gen Intel Core processors up to i9-11900H. Graphics are available up to NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3080.
Like the Omen 16, it features a floating QHD display with 165Hz refresh rate and Eyesafe protection. Both models feature a new fan design with thinner blades and larger cooling vents to reduce the skin temperature. There’s up to 1TB storage, Thunderbolt 4 connections, Wi-Fi 6E and of course, the Omen gaming hub software.
The Omen 16 and Omen 17 are available from June, priced from $1049.99/approx. AU$1,350 for the Omen 16 AMD, $1149.99/approx. AU$1,480 for the Omen 16 Intel and $1369.99/approx. AU$1,770 for the Omen 17.
The Omen 25i gaming monitor is a revamp of the original Omen 25 with a lot of new features. This 24.5-inch full HD (1920x1080) display features IPC panel tech for both speed and color, delivering 165Hz refresh rate, 1ms response time (plus overdrive) and adaptive sync.
It features the first dynamic crosshair, which is able to change color based on the environment. It has full customization, including shape, color and dynamic color. It alos features a new game remaster mode for improved color and anti-alaising when playing older games. This is among a range of picture modes than can be used to suit the type of game you are playing.
The Omen 25i gaming monitor will be available from July priced $349/approx. AU$450.
