HP HyperX Omen 15 review: New-gen gaming at a higher price
The HP HyperX Omen 15 replaces the budget-friendly Victus 15, but its $1,200 starting price is far above its predecessor’s $800. It brings an RTX 5050 GPU, a brighter 16:10 display, and a 1080p webcam, while still cutting corners elsewhere.
HP’s HyperX Omen 15 arrives as the follow-up to the HP Victus 15, a long-running budget gaming laptop bestseller. The Victus sold for around $800, while the Omen 15 starts at $1,200, largely because of the recent surge in memory prices. The new model brings several upgrades, including an RTX 5050 laptop GPU, a brighter 16:10 display with a higher refresh rate, and a 1080p webcam.
The reviewed configuration, sold through Walmart for $1,199, paired an eight-core Intel Core 5 210H processor with an RTX 5050, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and a 512GB SSD. In gaming tests, the machine proved capable at its native 1920x1200 resolution. Control ran at 70–80fps on High with DLSS, and Cyberpunk 2077 reached 60–70fps on Ultra without ray tracing, with frame generation pushing it higher. Newer titles required Medium or Low settings; Battlefield 6 hovered around 50fps on Medium with DLSS set to Performance.
The chassis, however, shows the cost-cutting typical for this price class. The trackpad can click accidentally when the laptop is lifted by a front corner, the keyboard feels cramped due to the number pad, and the speakers sound muddy. Port selection is sparse for a gaming laptop: two USB-A ports, one USB-C, HDMI 2.1, and gigabit Ethernet, with no Thunderbolt support. There is also no biometric login.
The display is a clear strength. The 1920x1200 IPS panel offers 400 nits of brightness, a 165Hz refresh rate, good contrast, and low glare. The 1080p webcam is grainy but acceptable for calls. Battery life topped out at five and a half hours, so the included charger needs to stay nearby.
Storage is another weak point: the 512GB drive fills quickly, especially with games like Battlefield 6 taking up 142GB. Fortunately, the laptop has spare M.2 and RAM slots for future upgrades. HP also sells a Victus 15 with the RTX 5050 for $900, but it comes with only 8GB of RAM, which is not practical for modern gaming. For $100 more, an Omen 16 with an RTX 5060 and a slightly larger screen is available.
Overall, the Omen 15 is a serviceable entry into current-gen laptop gaming, but it is no longer the obvious value its predecessor was. In a market where even entry-level RTX 50-series machines cost over $1,000, it remains one of the cheaper ways to get Nvidia’s latest features, including Multi Frame Gen.
