HP's New Omen 16 Is All About Airflow

HP today announced its newly updated Omen 16 gaming laptop, and while the flagship is getting all sorts of component upgrades the company claims it is extraordinarily focused on airflow.

The new Omen 16 will come in models with both Intel's 12th Gen H series processors or AMD's Ryzen 6000 chips. Designed to compete with the best gaming laptops, the Intel model will go up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 3070 Ti, while the AMD version can use Nvidia's graphics or go for an AMD Advantage configuration with a Radeon RX 6650M.

In this iteration of the laptop, HP has moved several of the ports to the rear of the device, allowing for more airflow out the sides. There are now four points where hot exhausts, which HP claims will make its laptop cooler, quieter and allow it to offer stronger performance. There's a lot to cool, considering it can go up to a 150W TGP with the RTX 3070 Ti.

Moving the ports to the back of the device has become increasingly popular on gaming notebooks. Alienware and Lenovo also do this often, for instance. For those who don't move their laptop around much, it means that certain ports can be plugged in all the time without leaving a mess on the sides of your desk.

The new Omen will come in three colors: black or white on the Intel model, and silver for the AMD version. The Intel versions will also get Thunderbolt 4 ports, but both now get up to 100W of power delivery over USB Type-C. That won't power a laptop while gaming, but it's plenty for trickle charging.

I really like the white color. When I saw it in person, I thought it stood out among the sea of other black notebooks and tech. And while I typically end up buying black or silver notebooks, I think it's a good looking option, especially for those who want some pop off of the RGB backlit keyboard. HP isn't changing the display — it's still 16.1-inches diagonally, with up to a 2560 x 1440 resolution with a 165 Hz refresh rate, as well as optional G-Sync. It's got narrow bezels on three sides, with a bit of a chin on the bottom. HP is offering auto brightness adjustment and blue light-limiting features for long gameplay sessions.

For those looking for a more mainstream gaming experience, HP is also updating its Victus 15. This laptop is cheaper, going up to an  Intel Core i7-12700H or AMD Ryzen 7 5800H on the CPU-side and up to Nvidia GeForce RTX 3050 Ti or AMD Radeon RX 6500M on GPU. Note that the AMD series is using a last-generation part.

The Victus also goes up to 16GB of DDR4 RAM, rather than the latest DDR5 RAM in the Omen. But DDR5 adds a lot to the cost of a notebook for, in my opinion, little return, so I don't mind this so much.

HP is offering the new Victus in white, blue and silver.

Beyond hardware, HP is adding a new feature to the Omen Gaming Hub on its Omen and Victus laptops and desktops: an Optimizer feature that shuts down low-level OS processes you aren't using in order to increase resources you can put towards games. There will also be new lighting effects and a refreshed system vitals section.

The HP Omen 16 is set to launch this summer starting  at $1,199, while the Victus is expected to start at $799.99.