HP Victus 15 (2022) Review – An Affordable Gaming PC

Latest arrival in the gaming family at HP, the Victus series is intended for the mid-range. An intermediate offer intended to replace the Pavilion Gaming which has had its day, without overshadowing the precious Omen. On the program, a wide range of configurations and colors, a controlled price and a versatile package that has its strengths and weaknesses. On to the test.

Modern without frills

We all have in mind the green tint of the Pavilion Gaming which was not really unanimous, with the editorial staff as well as with the buyers. To offer more uniformity and stick to current trends, HP has therefore reviewed its copy and redesigned the design of its entry-level gaming PC.

The silhouette of our HP Victus 15 is imposing without being too imposing with 2.3 kg on the scale and 2.35 cm thick and consists mainly of plastic. The design is good However. We are no longer on ill-fitting laptops that creak everywhere at the slightest grip. Here, the surfaces are hard and seem resistant despite some small flexes noticed in the center of the keyboard and the back of the lid under pressure. This is the norm in these prices.

Her color white (Ceramic) has the advantage of changing from gray or black and not marking fingerprints, which is far from being a detail in use. We could almost have talked about a go-anywhere look if HP hadn’t stuck a black chrome “V” logo also prominent on the back. As a result, it is immediately less discreet. Otherwise, the result is visually successful and well put together, consistent with what can be expected at this level.

The connector is well matched and lacks nothing. We find two USB 3.2 ports, one USB Type-C port (Gen1 5 Gbit/s) which supports video streaming (not charging), an HDMI 2.1 output, an Ethernet port (RJ45) and an SD card reader. For wireless connectivity, it has the latest standards: Wifi 6 802.11ax and Bluetooth 5.2. Clarification that there is no Windows Hello biometric login available.

Let’s move on to the keyboard now, which prefers versatility to a gamer orientation. We therefore recover a standard typing, rather typed ultrabook with 1.6cm travel, 15.5×15.2cm keys with 3.6cm spacing and a single white backlight shade. In use, it is comfortable and likely to suit the greatest number. Ditto on the touchpad side (152×80 cm) which does not inspire any reproach. It’s smooth and precise for the extra.

The screen, surrounded by a rather unsightly black frame – again this is the norm – did not receive the same enthusiasm. In question, his low brightness (263 nits) which in fact limits the visibility of the display if the ambient lighting is too bright or outdoors. The colorimetry is also modest with only 60% of sRGB space supported, excluding any image work. It’s a shame, since we are still entitled to a good contrast (1666:1) and to one well calibrated white point (6300K). With 50 to 70 nits more, we would have been much more excited.

The webcam gets the last word, again rather mixed. Details, noise, colors, everything is average and should do the trick for a little occasional video.

Small configuration 100% AMD inside

As usual, HP offers a large number of configurations on board the Victus in 15 and 16 inches, under Intel or AMD CPUs as well as NVIDIA RTX or AMD RDNA2 for the GPU. Our model under test, the HP Victus 15-fb0185nf, is equipped with a 100% AMD CPU/GPU duo with the support of a AMD Ryzen 5 5600H (3.3 GHz, 6 cores) and a graphics card AMD Radeon RX6500M (4 GB dedicated GDDR6), associated with 8 GB of RAM and 512 GB SSD storage. An entry-level proposal (gamer) displayed around 800 to 900 € depending on promotions.

In practice, our various benchmarks confirm our suspicions: the AMD duo is a bit struggling. The gap with the configs opposite is partly explained by the confusion of drivers that persist with AMD. Proof in support, if HP offers a utility “Omen Gaming Hub” supposed to boost performance as on any powerful laptop today, it did not offer only two profiles on our Victus : “Silent” and “Default”. There is also the presence here of 8 GB RAM only where all other PCs in the graphs have 16 GB of RAM.

It is therefore not this precise configuration that we would advise for those looking for a portable PC for gaming, knowing that the Radeon RX 6500M rises in the Victus at the level of an NVIDIA RTX 2050 at most, where the competition generally offers a better placed NVIDIA RTX 3050. For all others productivity tasks however, he’s not doing too badly. It heats reasonably (90°C CPU / 80°C GPU) and ventilates at 50 dBA in a fairly muffled breath when pushed. Few nuisances to deplore therefore.

Its autonomy is worth a very good point on the other hand. Indeed, the 52.5 Whr battery allows it to provide 9h30 of autonomy in everyday use (not in games), which ranks among the best in the cheap gaming PC category. The charger (140x65x22 – 325g) is not very bulky.

Finally, no surprise about the speakers. The volume is good but the sound lacks depth in the absence of nuances in the bass as in the treble. The result is a very flat sound, like on most PCs of this type.

Our opinion on the HP Victus 15 2022 AMD: for tight budgets

On arrival, the HP Victus 15 does not impress more than it disappoints. It’s a good entry-level gaming laptop with a solid chassis with a design that stands out, a comfortable keyboard, generous battery life and plenty of ports. The lackluster screen and performance a little below expectations give it away, however, and HP still has the unfortunate tendency of pre-installing too many parasitic software. Hard.

Currently displayed at 899 euros (early Nov 2022), this HP Victus Gaming 15-fb0185nf in the tested configuration is too expensive to advise. The Intel/NVIDIA versions seem much more worthy of interest to us, unless you absolutely want a white laptop.

The HP Victus Gaming 15 scores 3.5/5

Compare the different available configurations of the HP Victus 15 AMD 2022

Features of the HP Victus 15-fb0185nf