HP Victus 16 (S100) review: A stellar gaming laptop for the price with only one flaw

Sometimes, I come across a piece of tech that's a fantastic deal… even though one flaw keeps it from perfection. The HP Victus 16 is a perfect example.

It looks great on paper with an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS processor and an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, along with a fair budget-friendly starting price. The Victus 16 lived up to and even exceeded my expectations in many ways, but it came up short in one critical area.

Are the Victus 16's strengths enough to make it one of the best gaming laptops or best HP laptops despite its Achilles heel? After using it as my main laptop for a couple of weeks, I can safely say there's a lot to love about it, but one big flaw is hard to overlook (literally).

HP Victus 16: Specs and benchmarks

HP Victus 16 (S100): Price and configurations

The HP Victus 16 is available in a few configurations starting at $1,099. The base model includes an AMD Ryzen 5 8645HS CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. The next configuration up includes the same processor but with an RTX 4050 GPU and 1TB of storage.

Our review configuration costs $1,499, which includes an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS CPU, Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 GPU, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of storage. However, if you are looking to get it for even less, check out our best gaming laptop deals, as it is regularly discounted.

It's also worth noting you can install an additional SSD to increase the storage in the HP Victus 16, so if you can find a great deal on the 512GB SSD model, don't worry; you can upgrade that SSD later.

HP Victus 16 (S100): Design

With a more streamlined, minimal design than other gaming laptops, the HP Victus 16 is a good option for anyone who isn't a fan of all-over RGB. The Victus' sleek, steel-gray plastic chassis won't stand out at school or the office.

The Victus 16 features a full-size keyboard with a number pad and white backlighting. The only thing I don't like about it is the power button placement between the F12 and Delete keys. It's shaped like a regular key as well! It's doubly likely you'll hit the power button by accident. Offsetting it from the main keys would have prevented that.

Like most budget gaming laptops, the Victus 16 is on the bulky side. It measures 14.53 x 10.21 x 0.94 inches and weighs a whopping 5.2 pounds. But again, that's to be expected in this category and matches up with its competitors:

• Dell G16 (7630) (16-inch): 14.05 x 11.37 x 1.01 inches, 6 pounds
• Lenovo Legion Pro 5i (16-inch): 14.3 x 10.3 x 1.1 inches, 5.4 pounds
• Asus TUF Gaming A14 (14-inch): 12.24 x 8.94 x 0.78 inches, 3.2 pounds

HP Victus 16 (S100): Ports

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The HP Victus 16 offers all the ports most gamers need, including:

• 3x USB Type-A 3.0
• 1x USB Type-C 3.0
• 1x HDMI 2.1
• 1x Ethernet port
• 1x 3.5mm headphone jack

That’s plenty of ports for me, but if you find yourself needing more ports, you can always hook up the Victus 16 to one of the best USB Type-C hubs or laptop docking stations.

HP Victus 16 (S100): Battery life

Gaming laptops typically struggle with battery life, so it's rare to find one that can last a whole day without recharging. The HP Victus 16 won't make it through a full day, but its battery life is better than most. In our battery life testing, it lasted 6 hours and 27 minutes while web browsing and 1 hour and 30 minutes while gaming.

The only rival laptop that outscored the Victus in either category was the Asus TUF Gaming A14, which lasted 10 hours and 4 minutes while web browsing but fell behind the Victus while gaming, lasting just over one hour.

HP Victus 16 (S100): Display

Display quality is the HP Victus 16's Achilles' heel. It's a 16.1-inch 1080p panel with a 144Hz refresh rate. On paper, that sounds pretty standard for a gaming laptop. Unfortunately, this display struggles with color quality and brightness.

I immediately noticed the washed-out and low-saturated colors on the desktop when I opened the Victus 16. The contrast is good, but beyond that, it leaves a lot to be desired.

It's especially noticeable in games with rich, vibrant visuals like No Man's Sky, which appeared much less lively on the Victus 16, lacking its usual rainbow of neon hues. The poor color quality isn't as apparent in games with more toned-down visuals, like the moody graphics in Pacific Drive, but even then, little details like pops of color from anomalies aren't as vivid as they should be.

Considering my in-person impressions, I wasn't surprised that the Victus 16 vastly underperformed on our lab display tests. It came in far behind all its rivals on display brightness, sRGB color gamut, and DCI-P3 color gamut.

The Dell G16, Lenovo Legion Pro 5i, and Asus TUF Gaming A14 are all in the same price range as the Victus 16. None of these laptops sport ultra-premium OLED displays, either. So the fact that the Victus 16's display scored far below all of them reinforces its poor quality.

HP Victus 16 (S100): Keyboard and touchpad

The full-size keyboard on the HP Victus 16 is clicky and responsive with a clear, minimal font. The number pad is perfect for gamers who play MMOs or MOBAs, especially those who use macros and keyboard shortcuts.

I enjoyed gaming and typing on the Victus 16's keyboard and found it snappy and responsive. Some may not like the half-size arrow keys, but that didn't bother me. What did bother me was the placement of the power button, which is integrated into the keyboard between the F12 and Delete keys. It's very easy to accidentally press it in this position, and I wish HP had placed it elsewhere.

Power button aside, the keyboard on the Victus 16 looks and feels good overall. On the Monkeytype typing test, I scored 101 words per minute with 99% accuracy, which is just shy of my top score of 105 wpm with 100% accuracy, set on the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7X.

The touchpad on the Victus 16 is smooth and responsive and is good enough for basic tasks like web browsing. There's a bit of travel when clicking, but not too much, so it still feels snappy. When it comes to gaming, though, you'll want to connect one of the best gaming mice or gaming controllers to get the best experience.

HP Victus 16 (S100): Audio

The speaker quality on the HP Victus 16 isn't bad. It features two speakers on the front corners of the keyboard deck that get plenty loud, but the bass is a bit lackluster.

I noticed this right away while listening to the Hades soundtrack. "Out of Tartarus," one of my favorite tracks, lacked its usual punchiness on the low-end, even though the highs and mids were fine overall. Similarly, "Hunger of the Pine" by Alt J had smooth, piercing highs and good mids, but the bass notes just didn't hit as hard as I'm used to hearing them.

The lackluster bass is less noticeable in games, where in-game ambiance and sound effects are the main focus. The eerie sounds of the Pacific Northwest in Pacific Drive were immersive and well-balanced with my car's engine noise and radio tunes. The radio music could have been a bit punchier on the low end, but it isn't a deal-breaker.

HP Victus 16 (S100): Gaming and graphics

The HP Victus 16 may have a few drawbacks, but it offers great overall gaming performance. Our review configuration is powered by an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 8GB GPU that blazed through every game we threw at it. I played a few of my favorite games on it, as well, and had a great time with all of them, often averaging over 100 frames per second (at 1080p on high settings).

For example, No Man's Sky ran perfectly with an average of 118 fps, quick load times, and zero lag. The Victus 16 had no problem generating and loading in worlds and didn't even get particularly hot until I turned up my FPS cap to 120.

Smaller indie games like Pacific Drive and Death's Door were no sweat for the Victus 16. It ran Death's Door at a speedy 144 fps with quick and snappy movement and no noticeable temperature increases. Pacific Drive averaged 66 fps, much lower than Death's Door or No Man's Sky, but still ran perfectly smooth with short load times between different zones.

The Victus 16 aced our gaming tests, surpassing its rivals on almost every benchmark. For instance, the Victus 16 averaged 98 fps in Assassin's Creed Mirage at Ultra, 1080p, just a couple of points shy of the Lenovo Legion Pro 5i (which fell behind the Victus 16 in other titles like Borderlands 3 and Total War: Warhammer III).

For context, the Legion Pro 5i is also powered by an RTX 4070. The Asus TUF Gaming A14 and Dell G16 (7630) had an RTX 4080 in our review configurations.

HP Victus 16 (S100): Performance and heat

The HP Victus 16 features an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS processor, which performed well overall in my hands-on testing. It handled CPU-heavy games like No Man's Sky without lag or crashing and had no trouble keeping up with everyday tasks like web browsing and word processing. Multi-tasking was a breeze. The Victus 16 could have scored a bit higher on our performance tests, but it was on par with similar laptops across the board. The Lenovo Legion Pro 5i (Intel Core i9-14900HX) was the only competitor that significantly outscored it, coming in at 1,440 higher on the Geekbench 6 benchmark. However, the Legion Pro 5i has a shorter gaming battery life and higher peak temperatures, so there are trade-offs compared to the Victus 16.

For context, the Asus TUF Gaming A14 features an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS (the same chip as the Victus 16), while the Dell G16 (7630) runs on an older Intel Core i7-1365HX.

Speaking of heat, the Victus 16 stayed relatively cool during my hands-on testing. It never grew noticeably warm during basic tasks like web browsing. Of course, it armed up while gaming, especially when plugged in.

The Victus 16 peaked at 109 degrees Fahrenheit in our thermal tests, which is significantly higher than our 95-degree comfort threshold. However, gaming laptops run hot, so that's not unusual.

HP Victus 16 (S100): Webcam

Laptop webcams usually leave me disappointed, so I was surprised that the webcam and mic on the Victus 16 were pretty good. The 1080p camera offers good lighting, contrast, and sharpness, and lacks the graininess of most other laptop webcams. There's a built-in webcam shutter, as well, which is a favorite feature of mine.

The built-in mic sounds surprisingly good. It's not podcast-quality or anything, but it's clear enough for Discord calls and game voice chats. It picked up my voice well without interference from background noise or any distortion or popping.

HP Victus 16 (S100): Software and warranty

The HP Victus 16 includes Windows 11 Home along with the standard suite of Microsoft apps such as the Xbox app, Microsoft Edge, and the Microsoft Store. It also includes HP's OMEN Gaming Hub app, where you can view system performance and settings, set up custom game overlays, shop for games, and more.

The Victus 16 comes with HP's standard one-year warranty, which you can extend through HP Care Pack for an additional cost.

Bottom line

The HP Victus 16 balances an affordable entry-level price with great overall gaming performance, making it a good deal as long as you're willing to sacrifice display quality. The display on the Victus 16 is disappointing enough to be a major drawback to an otherwise solid gaming laptop.

The Victus 16 is a good pick for gamers looking to get one of the best gaming laptops under $1,500. Above-average battery life, a minimalist design, a full-size keyboard, and a surprisingly good webcam are added bonuses that help balance out the disappointing display.

However, if display quality is a top priority for you, the similarly-priced Dell G16 (7630) would be a better fit. Not sure if either one is the right fit? Our best cheap gaming laptops cover the most affordable option with each Nvidia GeForce RTX GPU.