HP OMEN Transcend 16 (2023) Review with Pros and Cons

When it comes to gaming laptops, HP’s OMEN lineup is quite a popular and well-received name. While HP has already been doing well with its OMEN series, it recently decided to introduce a fresh option in this OMEN lineup, one that can offer a slightly more modern and sleeker approach. I’m referring to the new HP OMEN Transcend 16 (2023), a machine that sports a taller 16:10 screen ratio, a thinner and lighter chassis and is priced at Rs 2,09,000.

But, will reducing the chassis volume and increasing the number of pixels lead to lower performance? What about thermal dissipation? And should you consider this laptop over other offerings at a similar price point? Let’s find out all of that and more in this review.

Design and build

The laptop, as the name suggests, offers a 16-inch screen size, despite its chassis being similar in size to a standard 15.6-inch OMEN gaming laptop. The exteriors appear very subtle with no prominent sharp lines or RGB accents, showcasing only an OMEN logo at the centre of the top lid. The material used in the chassis is magnesium alloy which gives the laptop a sturdy build. Although there’s some notable flex on the top lid, the rest of the laptop feels very strongly built. There’s no sign of keyboard flex, and when opening the lid you’ll notice that it can be opened up to 180 degrees with the hinge being very stable and sturdy. As mentioned earlier, this machine is not extremely thick, measuring just 1.99cm in thickness this chassis feels slimmer than a standard gaming laptop. (Dimensions in mm: LxBxH = 365.50 x 269.00 x 19.90) The combined weight of both the laptop and the power brick goes to 3kg whereas the laptop alone weighs in at 2.1kg. Still heavy you think? Well, wait till I inform you about the specs of this machine.

Coming to the I/O ports, you get a fair assortment. On the left side, there are two Thunderbolt 4.0 Type-C ports with DisplayPort 1.4 support, allowing you to connect additional monitors. Both of these ports also support 100W of PD charging. Additionally, there’s a 3.5mm audio combo jack.

On the right side, we only have a single USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A port.

On the rear, we have more ports which include a DC input that uses the included 230W proprietary charger, a Gigabit ethernet RJ45 port, an HDMI 2.1 port, and lastly one more USB 3.2 gen 1 Type-A port. What felt missing in the I/O department was the inclusion of a fast USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port and more importantly an SD card slot. 

Opening up the laptop was fairly easy, and I just had to use a Phillips head screwdriver to unscrew the bottom panel. Once the panel was removed I got my first look at the massive 97Whr battery.

The expansion slots are somewhat underwhelming. While there are two slots for expanding the RAM, there’s only one preoccupied SSD slot. As a result, individuals looking to expand the internal storage will need to replace the current SSD. (Ram frequency and SSD information will be given in the performance segment.)

Display

The display of this OMEN Transcend is not just impressive for gaming as it offers a superfast refresh rate of 240Hz with 7ms response time, but it’s also excellent for content creation as the screen offers a 100 percent sRGB colour gamut coverage and a 16:10 aspect ratio providing more screen headroom, thus making the use of apps like Adobe Premiere Pro and Adobe Photoshop feel roomier.

The display panel is a 16-inch Quad HD+ (2,560 x 1,600) IPS panel, capable of reaching a maximum brightness of 400 nits. The colour reproduction is excellent, rendering the screen bright and vivid. Moreover, there’s no noticeable backlight bleed, contributing to an overall superior visual experience

Keyboard & Trackpad

The OMEN Transcend 16 offers a tenkeyless, per-key RGB backlit chiclet-style keyboard with 26-key Rollover Anti-Ghosting Key technology, The RGB backlighting is bright enough, and the ‘WASD’ keys have a distinctive translucent design, setting them apart as prominent gaming keys. Furthermore, the RGB presets can be customised via the OMEN GAMING HUB. While the typing experience is great on this keyboard, I surely missed the existence of a fingerprint scanner. The trackpad on the other hand is large in size and offers a superb user experience, with accurate clicks and support for all Windows gestures.

Performance

In terms of specifications, the HP OMEN Transcend 16 packs a solid punch. The laptop is powered by a 13th-gen Intel Core i7 13700HX Processor, equipped with eight performance cores and eight efficiency cores. It’s paired with 16GB of DDR5 RAM in a dual-channel configuration running at the frequency of 4800MHz. The dedicated GPU is a Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 with a max Total Graphics Power (TGP) of 130W. The SSD offered here is an SK Hynix’s 1TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD that delivers fast read and write speeds.

The benchmarks of the laptop were quite impressive too. We consistently saw some remarkable results.

Here’s a list of benchmarks & their respective scores:

• Cinebench R23 Multi Core: 18746
• Cinebench R23 Single Core: 1854
• PCMARK 10: 8138
• PCMARK 10 EXTENDED: 10356
• 3D Mark TimeSpy: 12613
• 3D Mark TimeSpy Extreme: 5825
• 3D Mark Fire Strike: 25713
• 3D Mark Fire Strike Ultra: 6856
• 3D Mark Fire Strike Extreme: 13496

Gaming

Now this is what I was most excited about — the gaming numbers of this rather thin gaming laptop.

The gaming performance of the HP OMEN Transcend 16 was very impressive. There was no instance of any lag or micro stutters. Here’s the result of the gaming benchmarks at graphics set to Extreme, Ray Tracing turned ON, DLSS set to Auto & Resolution: NATIVE.

• Gta5 Avg: 160 Fps
• Rdr2 Avg: 66.7 Fps
• Cyberpunk 2077 Avg: 70 Fps
• Forza Horizon 5 Avg: 91 Fps
• Valorant Avg: 377 Fps

(All games were tested on the Performance Mode, wherein the two cooling fans ran at their max speed yet they didn’t go annoyingly loud.) Settings can easily be dialled down from EXTREME to HIGH to attain framerates in the vicinity of 144+ fps. On the other hand, lighter games like Valorant and CS: GO already give us 300+ fps which is a treat to have on the fast 240Hz panel of OMEN Transcend 16.

Surprisingly the temps were always under control too. While playing Cyberpunk 2077 the GPU temps remained well below 85 degrees Celcius and the CPU was always below 90 degrees Celcius. Additionally, we can also use the HP OMEN app to control the fan speeds and even select performance modes.

Battery

I conducted a battery benchmark using the Video playback benchmark from the PCMark10 battery suite and at 80 percent screen brightness with the Windows mode set to efficiency, the laptop lasted 2 hours and 49 minutes. This result is somewhat underwhelming, especially considering the laptop’s substantial 97 Whr battery capacity. Part of the reason why this was the case was because the laptop doesn’t offer easy access to MUX Switch in the OMEN Gaming Hub app, if only turning off the GPU was as easy as a click of a button, the laptop would have lasted longer. I should mention that the MUX switch can be accessed via BIOS. 

Verdict

There’s no denying that the OMEN Transcend 16 is a solid machine with a lot to offer. However, there are a few minor niggles. For instance, the lid could benefit from increased durability. It would also be convenient to have the MUX switch accessible through the OMEN Gaming Hub software instead of being located solely in the BIOS. Additionally, to provide more storage flexibility, an additional SSD slot would be highly beneficial. Finally, including an SD card slot would be greatly appreciated for productivity tasks.

But let’s find an answer to the most important question i.e. Is this the best laptop around the price of Rs 2 Lakh?
The answer lies in your preferences. If you’re seeking a laptop that’s a bit less bulky and slightly slimmer than other gaming laptops, then the HP OMEN Transcend 16 is an excellent choice. However, if you’re comfortable with a larger chassis, there are some alternatives that offer a bit more affordability.

The first one would be from HP itself, namely the OMEN 16 xf0043AX Gaming Laptop and the second one would be from Acer, namely the Acer Predator Helios Neo 16 Gaming Laptop. Both these laptops offer better gaming performance than the OMEN Transcend 16, all while being considerably lighter on the pocket. Overall, the HP OMEN Transcend 16 is a powerful, portable, and well-balanced laptop. However, it’s worth noting that it comes with a slightly higher price point, and in terms of value for money, it may not stand out as prominently as the competition.

Editor’s rating: 7.5 / 10

Pros

• Amazing Screen with a very fast 240Hz Refresh rate
• Great gaming and overall performance 
• Sturdy build quality
  

Cons

• Not so impressive battery life
• MUX Switch is only accessible via BIOS
• Expensive when compared with competition.