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HP Omen Transcend 16 review: a slim and proper gaming laptopLean slate
Lean slate
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
Even with therising power of integrated graphics, the prospects of getting high-quality, high-rez gaming capability in a laptop of ultrabook proportions is still years from becoming a feasible reality. Until then, slimmer gaming laptops like the HP Omen Transcend 16 remain the closest approximation of that dream, cramming discrete GPUs – theNvidia Geforce RTX 4060, in this case – into lighter, narrower chassis designs.
The usual catch with such devices, sadly, is an overeagerness to appearaspirational. Which is, to be clear, the nicest thing I can say about a Razer Blade 16 costing £2500 for its own RTX 4060 model. Despite the name, however, the Omen Transcend 16 is much more down to earth – it still offers enough premium trappings to feel like a step up from chunkier laptops, but at its current pricing of £1199 / $1429, it’s a fair trade as well. And it supportsNvidia DLSS 3, dash of futureproofing tech that might just soothe any worries about buying a 2023-spec PC in 2024.
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Not that the Omen Transcend 16 is lacking in modernity otherwise. The slimline bodywork cuts a sharp figure, happily short on unnecessary flourishes (coloured WASD keys notwithstanding) and smartly moving a lot of the ports to the rear edge, where plugged-in cables can’t clutter up your mouse-swishing space. Those connections are high-spec, too, with HDMI 2.1 and two Thunderbolt 4-ready USB-C ports as standard. I would have traded one of the latter for a third full-size USB-A port, admittedly, but two is more than enough for games duty. The webcam also enables face sign-in for Windows, another convenience which always worked quickly and flawlessly on my bespectacled mug.
At 2.2kg, the Omen Transcend 16’s weight is well below average for a 16in gaming notebook. You can go even lower with some 14in and 15.6in models, naturally, but this is a good shoulder-sparing option if you specifically want a larger laptop that still takes an occasional backpack trip. There benefits to the size, to be sure: the chiclet keyboard is comfortably proportioned, as is the (massive) trackpad. The keys won’t singe your fingers, either, as HP’s twin-blower cooler works well enough to keep the internals from broiling the chassis. Expect plenty of fan noise when running games, mind – the speakers can drown it out, but aheadsetmakes for a worthwhile accessory.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
The 1920x1200 display, meanwhile, is excellent. It’s a vibrant, IPS screen that covers 98.4% of the sRGB colour gamut, and its peak brightness and contrast ratio are – at 472cd/m2 and 1255:1, respectively – the highest I’ve personally tested in years. Nvidia G-Sync support and a 165Hz refresh rate also give real gaming credentials that are backed up in normal use, with little to report in the way of ghosting, tearing, or undue blurring. The 1920x1200 resolution is less exciting, being just a hair above boring old Full HD. Or, in other words, not that many pixels to spread across a 16in panel. Still, it looks sharp enough, and at least the resolution isn’t overtaxing that RTX 4060.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
As such, the Omen Transcend 16 can comfortably run games (and individual quality settings) that are simply beyond thoseotheroptions for lightweight PC gaming,: handhelds like theSteam DeckandLenovo Legion Go. It will handleStarfieldon ourrecommended settings, and with some upscaling help from DLSS, it can even get Psycho-qualityray tracingrunning well inCyberpunk 2077: 48fps on average, with everything else on Ultra. Add in DLSS 3 frame generation, and that jumps up to 76fps.
The rest of our usual gaming benchmarks confirm the RTX 4060 as a capable, if rarely outstanding mid-range mobile GPU. It easily beats the laptop-gradeRTX 3070at native resolution, with smooth results like 73fps inTotal War: Three Kingdoms, 92fps inAssassin’s Creed Valhalla, 88fps inForza Horizon 5, and 91fps inHorizon Zero Dawn. Those were all on their Ultra (or highest equivalent) presets, so there’ll usually be no need to drop settings.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
In pure performance terms, then, this is a decent gaming laptop for the money. Though it is less impressive as a multipurpose workstation, a semi-shortcoming owed to its Intel Core i7-13700K processor. It’s fine for games, but lacks multitasking prowess, scoring just 6012 in the Cinebench R20 multicore test. That’s less than half what theAsus ROG Strix Scar 17’s AMD Ryzen 9 7945HX produced, though to the Intel chips’s credit, both scored an identical 714 in the single-core benchmark. See? Fine for games, especially older ones that don’t make extensive use of multithreading.
Image credit:Rock Paper Shotgun
It’s harder, unfortunately, to find the bright side of the Omen Transcend 16’s battery life. HP claims light usage will allow it to keep trekking for nearly eight hours, but under the cosh of running an actual game, that kind of longevity is nowhere to be seen: I got just 53 minutes intoShadow of the Tomb Raiderbefore the full battery ran dry. That was with screen brightness on max, but otherwise on a pretty everyday batch of settings. It’s particularly disappointing to see this degree of draining on a thin-and-light gaming laptop, one that’s surely designed as such for superior portability.
And yet, those won’t always have the lovely build of the Omen Transcend 16, nor the display quality, nor the range of tools for keeping framerates high. Its short-livedness is frustrating, but if you want the general capabilities and svelteness of a Razer Blade without the self-imposed financial ruination, this will certainly do the job.
