Hello New Gaming Laptop

Nintendo gaming is good. I have a Switch, and there’s a Switch successor coming soon. But for PC and some PlayStation and Xbox titles, I recently bought a gaming laptop, which doubles as a productivity powerhouse. Yes, I switched from Mac to Windows. It’s time to say, “Goodbye,” to my MacBook Air (M1) and, “Hello,” to my new HP Victus 15 as my main personal computer. Here are some of my first impressions.

I’ve only had the laptop for 2.5 days now, so I’m still getting used to it. Windows did its usual lengthy update process. I got all my apps and accounts up and running, played some Tiny Glade, paid some bills with it…yeah this thing is working out great so far. I’ve just got to rewire my brain from Mac KB shortcuts to Windows. And don’t forget, the close button is top-right, not top-left.

Specs

• Core

• CPU - i5-12450H
• GPU - RTX 3050 4GB
• RAM - 8GB
• SSD - 512GB

• Features

• Display - 15.6”, 144Hz, Full HD, 250 nits
• Keyboard - full size, num pad, backlit
• Webcam - 720p
• Trackpad - non-haptic big rectangle
• Ports
• SD card reader (full-size)
• 3.5mm headphone/mic
• USB-A (2x)
• USB-C (with bolts of thunder, I think)
• HDMI
• RJ-45
• Power

The Victus 15 retails at $879 but was on sale at Best Buy for the too-good-to-pass-up price of $479! Talk about a budget (friendly) gaming laptop. At that price, I could easily afford to add RAM since 8GB IS SAD. And that’s exactly what I did. For an additional $57, I added a 32GB stick of Corsair Vengeance DDR4 3200 RAM. Boom!

Beautiful computer guts! I spy the extra RAM slot. Oh yeah. Missing SSD-2 connector, frown.

Altogether, I got a gaming laptop for $580 (after tax) that has 40GB of RAM plus 4GB of VRAM and a capable ray-tracing GPU paired with a 12th-gen i5. NOT BAD. Not bad at all.

For the record, I’m totally happy with 1080p gaming @ 45-60 FPS (my baseline is the Nintendo Switch, after all, where I’m lucky to get 1080p @ 30 FPS docked). While someone else might bemoan that these specs don’t grant 1440p or 4K gaming at 120 FPS, I’m like, “I can play Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade!” I just get to play many games I didn’t really have access to before, and my eyes still pop out at Full HD content (I’ll probably upgrade my monitor and GPU to 4K when the standard is raised to 8K. I don’t need to live on the bleeding edge).

As a mostly casual gamer and a geek, I’m pretty thrilled to have my own gaming laptop now, running Windows 11. So not only did I switch from iPhone to Android last Fall, I’ve also now switched from Mac to Windows. Fun!

Performance

Uh, yeah, so far so good. It’s fast. Like I said, I don’t expect to play Cyberpunk 2077 at Ultra high settings in 4K. And general computing doesn’t need much more power than a decent Chromebook has. So the 12th-gen i5 (8 cores, 12 logical cores) hovers between 1 and 2 Ghz (battery and plugged in) and can boost to over 4Ghz. And with 40GB of RAM, Chrome tabs are no problem at all.

Display

So far, I’ve mostly used the HP Victus docked to my MSI 32” curved gaming monitor. It’s easier on my eyes to see Full HD content on the big screen, and of course gaming looks great on it too.

The laptop’s display (matte, not glossy) is also 1080p — text is crisp — and does not wash-out (good viewing angles). In my typically dim room, the 250 nits of brightness are just enough, though I think 300 would be better overall.

I’m really happy with the larger Full HD displays so I can see more stuff and see it bigger. A downside of my MacBook Air’s screen was its 13” size and 1440×900 resolution — a bit too small (the MacBook res. goes higher, but 1440×900 was as small as my eyes could tolerate and was the default or recommended setting).

It's a "V." Not an "A."

Keyboard

I like it so far. The backlighting has only two settings: off and on. When on, it’s what I’d call max brightness, which is plenty bright. The lighting is evenly distributed, great. At a low angle, there’s some light-bleed but it doesn’t seem too bad. It comes in white only — no RGB fancy stuff here. That’s okay.

The backlighting lacks an ambient light sensor so it doesn’t dim or undim itself. I actually love this simplicity. If you want/need the backlight to see the keys, just flip the switch. It will stay on at full brightness and not fluctuate on you.

Typing is nice, though I haven’t pecked out enough on it to give a real assessment. Key travel and feel and sound all seem good. I’m not a keyboard guru and have never geeked out about mechanical switches or anything like that. I’m used to low-profile, quiet keys.

Despite the main keys being offset left, I like having a number pad more than I realized (makes sense — I use it at my work PC all the time). It has a dedicated calculator button — love that. It also has a dedicated HP Omen Gaming Hub button, which launches the software to optimize your gaming environment (I’m still trying that out).

A bummer — the multimedia keys don’t get a dedicated row. Instead, they require “FN” plus the corresponding function button. No big deal right? We’ll see if that’s one of those little “devil’s in the details” things that nags me over time.

On top of all that, I also just bought a new external keyboard that I’ll be using most of the time while docked. Oh, by the way, I’m using an Anker 341 dock. It connects all I need through a single USB-C port. Nice.

Also, the keyboard has a “Delete” key, not just “Backspace.” If you know, you know.

Trackpad

It’s not as nice as the MacBook Air’s, but I didn’t expect it to be. It’s a physical switch that depresses (not haptic), requiring clicks from about anywhere 3/4 below the hinged top edge. It responds very well to swipes, taps, and gestures. The overall size is actually good — not small. It will take some getting used to, but it’s certainly not bad or cheap.

Never again will it be so clean.

Design

This thing normally sells for around $800-$900, so it’s in no way a cheap budget Windows laptop (I once bought a cheap budget Windows laptop and learned a valuable lesson in what not to compromise on). It certainly doesn’t feel cheap at all. It’s only “budget” for a gaming rig — GPUs are an expensive added cost over a general laptop.

For an all or mostly plastic build, the Victus is nice and sturdy. The KB deck doesn’t flex. Its “Performance Blue” color is a nice muted dark blue that I like — a non-neutral color, thank you!

It’s kind of big and heavy, but it’s a gaming laptop, so of course — I’m not complaining. It’s not chonky or bulky. While less svelte than my MacBook Air, the Victus is a more muted or tame “gaming” laptop compared to most of its ilk.

Some have complained that the display wobbles too much on its hinge. In my limited use, I’ve not noticed. I saw in a review that HP updated the hinge to make it tighter, and apparently that’s what mine is. I was pleasantly surprised to discover the lid opens with one finger (unlike my family’s Asus TUF laptop).

Also unlike our Asus gaming laptop that burns your right mouse hand with hot air from its right-side vent, the HP Victus kindly expels warm air out the back. Nice. And in my limited use so far, I can concur with reviews I’ve read and watched online that the Victus has very good thermals. Temperatures stay mild and the fans have hardly spun up. For a gaming laptop, it runs cooler than most.

Battery

I’m still testing this out. I don’t expect it to be nearly as good as my M1 MacBook Air of course. But it is definitely better than our Asus TUF F15 gaming laptop. The battery on the Victus 15 is bigger, and it’s rated to last more hours. So far, I’m getting about 3 solid hours of mixed use at 50% battery drain with screen at 90% brightness. So if that translates to about 6 hours on a charge, I’ll be very impressed and super glad.

Speakers

They’re downward firing and get the audio job done. No bass to speak of. But they sound loud, full, and clear enough with highs and mids.

Webcam

It’s 720p, so potato.

Windows

Just a short word here. I like Windows 11. Yeah, I know, Windows is Windows. While macOS is great and I like it, I’ve used every version of Windows since 3.1 circa 1992. So I’m comfy here with Microsoft’s OS. And it lets me do PC gaming, so all’s well.

Wrap-up

Those are my first impressions. I really am liking this new gaming laptop. I trust the HP brand too, by the way. I’ve owned and used several personal and business HP laptops over the years with zero problems.

After a few weeks of gaming and computing, I might have more to blog about. But I’m already planning to fully migrate off my MacBook this weekend so it can become a shared family machine.