When shopping for a budget gaming laptop, you are forced to make sacrifices to keep the price within the reach of your wallet. To begin, you’re likely looking at configurations that top out with an RTX 4050 or RTX 4060 GPU. It will be an all-plastic chassis with one- or four-zone RGB lighting instead of a sleeker, more rigid aluminum enclosure with per-key backlighting. These are concessions worth making to hit a price around the $1,000 mark.Â
The HP Victus 16 forces you to make the above tradeoffs, but it also brings a display with a standard 60Hz refresh rate to the bargaining table. With many budget gaming models supplying faster 144Hz or 165Hz displays, that’s an offer you should reject. Our Victus 16 test system is a fixed configuration that costs $1,450, which is too expensive to be stuck with a slow display.
While HP offers customizable models for the Victus 16 with speedier panels, the prices quickly rise to the point where you exit the budget category and enter the midrange arena where you can rightly expect a better design and more features. With faster displays, higher frame rates and lower prices, Acer’s Predator Helios Neo 16 and Nitro 16 are better bets for budget shoppers looking for an affordable 1080p rig.
HP Victus 16-r0097nr
Price as reviewed | $1,450 |
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Display size/resolution | 16.1-inch, 1,920 x 1,080 pixels, 60Hz |
CPU | Intel Core i7-13700H |
Memory | 16GB 5200MHz DDR5 |
Graphics | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050 GPU @ 120 watts |
Storage | 1TB SSD |
Ports | USB-C 3.1 Gen 1, USB-A 3.1 Gen 1 (x3), HDMI 2.1, Ethernet, combo audio jack |
Networking | Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3 |
Operating system | Windows 11 Home |
Our HP Victus 16 test system (model 16-r0097nr) costs $1,450 and features an Intel Core i7-13700H processor, 16GB of RAM, RTX 4050 graphics and a 1TB SSD. Unlike 16-inch displays with boxier 16:10 aspect ratios that are increasingly common, the Victus 16’s display is a 16.1-inch panel with a widescreen 16:9 ratio that’s a better fit for games. Sadly, the 60Hz refresh rate is a…
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