HP Victus 16 (16-s0000, 2023) review – efficient and powerful thanks to the Zen 4 CPU

Design and construction

The look of the laptop is almost exactly the same as the Intel version. There aren’t many bells and whistles on the outside except for the big glossy “V” logo on the center of the lid. Overall, the design is stealthy and mature, and the “Performance blue” color of our laptop makes its appearance even more neutral. You can also get the laptop in “Mica silver” or “Ceramic white” color. The dimensions are normal for a 16-incher. The profile thickness is 23.9 mm and the weight is 2.32 kg for the machines with the GeForce RTX 3050, while the others are slightly heavier – 2.33 kg.

The lid can’t be opened with a single hand. You can also flex it and it’s wobbly when you release it after changing the angle. However, the situation here isn’t that bad but it’s far from being great. The base is solid with a few exceptions – the zone above the touchpad and around the Arrow keys can be bent a bit. The laptop is entirely made of plastic but it doesn’t feel cheap. The matte finish feels soft to the touch which is nice and it doesn’t attract tons of smudges.

The bottom bezel is huge while the other three are noticeably thinner.

The top bezel houses a Full HD Web camera with a privacy shutter and temporal noise reduction. Some gaming laptops in this price category lack this safety feature.

You can tune some options in the dedicated HP software such as Background effects and Auto frame for the camera or Noise and Echo removal for the speakers and the microphone.

Above the keyboard is placed a long ventilation grill. The board has a full-sized NumberPad with a dedicated Omen key that opens the OMEN Gaming Hub app. Keep in mind that the backlight is optional. There is generous spacing between the keycaps which is good, especially for people with big hands. The key travel is okay while the feedback is clicky which is enough for comfortable usage. The board isn’t noisy during typing.

The size of the touchpad is average and its surface isn’t that smooth. Still, the unit is adequate for normal work.

Flipping the machine upside down reveals two long rubber feet, two speaker cutouts, and a big ventilation grille. The heat is pushed through two vents – the larger one is on the back and the smaller one is on the left of the notebook. The bigger vent is positioned very close to the hinge and some amount of hot air makes its way to the display during heavy loads.

Ports

On the left side, you can spot a LAN, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port with HP Sleep and Charge function, and an Audio combo jack. On the other side, we can see the power connector, an HDMI 2.1, two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports for data transfer and charging, and a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 1) that supports Power Delivery, DisplayPort 1.4, and HP Sleep and Charge functions.

Author: Nikolay Palaozov

Author: eng. Kroum NikolovHead of Engineering at LaptopMedia.com, inventor and innovator with 40+ years of experience in electronics and high technology.

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