HP Victus 15 review: A mediocre gaming laptop at a great price

Budget gaming laptops are in a tough spot. The lack of new entry-level discrete graphics from AMD, Nvidia, or Intel (which has repeatedly delayed its new Arc graphics products) has led to stagnation. Price is often a budget gaming laptop’s most important trait and that’s where the HP Victus 15 excels. This laptop delivers reliable processor performance at a reasonable price. However, the build quality leaves little to be desired and the display is dimmer than we like. That said, if you’re really strapped for cash, the HP Victus 15 may be worth considering.

HP Victus 15 specs and features

The Victus 15 I received for review is an entry-level model that currently appears only available from Best Buy. It equips Intel’s Core i5-12450H processor, an entry-level chip in Intel’s higher-TDP line of mobile hardware. The processor has eight cores, half of which are Performance cores. It’s paired with Nvidia’s aging GTX 1650 discrete graphics. 

• CPU: Intel Core i5-12450H
• Memory: 8GB DDR4-3200
• Graphics/GPU: Nvidia GTX 1650
• Display: 1920×1080 144Hz IPS LCD
• Storage: 512GB solid state drive
• Webcam: 720p
• Connectivity: 1x USB-C with DisplayPort 1.4, 2x USB-A, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm combo audio
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6, Bluetooth 5.2, Gigabit Ethernet
• Biometrics: None
• Battery capacity: 80 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 14.09 x 10.04 x 0.93 inches
• Weight: 5.06
• MSRP: $799.99 (currently $549.99)

The Victus 15 offers several more powerful variants through both retailers and HP’s website. These offer up to an Intel Core i7-12700H processor and up to Nvidia RTX 3050 graphics, along with 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage. Most pre-configured models skew towards entry-level gaming, however.

Design and build quality

The HP Victus is a barebones budget gaming laptop and, as such, it keeps the design as simple as possible. It uses basic, dark gray plastics along both interior and exterior (white and blue are also available through HP.com and, strangely, add five bucks to the price). Most materials have no distinctive feel, texture, or pattern. The display bezel, which is black and has a grippy texture, is the sole exception. 

You won’t find any visible HP branding on the laptop, which I find puzzling. HP has used the Omen sub-brand, which it acquired during its purchase of Voodoo in 2006, for many of its gaming devices. The company also owns HyperX. Using another, unknown sub-brand with its own logo further cheapens the laptop’s look. 

This is a beefy laptop with a weight just above five pounds and a thickness of nearly one inch, but these figures look worse on paper than they feel in reality. The Victus 15 is large, sure, but no more so than dozens of other mid-range 15-inch laptops, such as the Acer Nitro and Asus TUF series. It’s too large for easy use on an airplane, and might feel cramped on a tiny hotel desk, yet remains portable enough for trips across town or to class. 

Unfortunately, the laptop’s heft doesn’t translate to build quality. Lifting the laptop from one side causes the chassis to flex. Grab it from a corner and you’ll hear the internals thunk against exterior panels. The display lid also allows obvious flex when opening or closing the laptop. With that said, I can’t recall any budget gaming laptop that doesn’t have the same issues. 

Keyboard and trackpad

HP packs a large keyboard with numpad in the Victus 15. Its edge-to-edge design makes maximum use of the laptop’s interior. That means most keys are large despite the numpad shoved into the left side. Even the numpad keys are of respectable size, though slightly more narrow. A few right-side keys, such as Shift and Backspace, are a bit small. 

The keyboard feels solid in day-to-day use. Key travel is long, thanks to the laptop’s deep chassis, and the large layout offers space to stretch out. The numpad does mean the keyboard is slightly offset from the touchpad, however, which is annoying. It encourages users to hunch or lean slightly towards their left. 

A keyboard backlight comes standard. That’s good to see, as a backlight remains a bit of a luxury among budget laptops. The backlight offers just one level of brightness, however, so don’t expect any customization. What you see is what you get. 

The touchpad could hardly be more generic. It’s large, but not massive, and has a simple yet responsive surface that feels similar to the surrounding plastic. There’s enough room to use multi-touch gestures and, in my experience, they worked well. It’s not a premium experience, to be sure, but good for an entry-level Windows laptop.

Importantly, the HP Victus 15 avoids flaws or problems that might spoil everyday use. The keyboard and touchpad are unremarkable, but fine, and on par with some more expensive gaming laptops like the Acer Predator Helios 300 or Asus TUF Dash 15. 

Display, audio

HP ships the Victus 15 with several display options, all of which offer 1080p resolution. The barebones model I tested promised a maximum brightness of 250 nits with a maximum refresh rate of 144Hz. 

Image quality isn’t great. 1080p resolution looks sharp on a 15.6-inch display, but the display’s color accuracy and gamut leave a lot to be desired. The Victus 15 I tested can’t handle the entire sRGB color gamut, nevermind DCI-P3 or AdobeRGB. Color accuracy is also lackluster. Contrast rate came in at 1050:1, which is decent but not exceptional. 

Maximum brightness is quoted at 250 nits, as mentioned, and was measured at 253 nits. That’s a low level of brightness easily overwhelmed by bright overhead lighting or a sunlit window. You’ll need some degree of light control for comfortable viewing. 

The 144Hz panel can provide smooth gameplay, but gamers shouldn’t get too excited: it’s more of a marketing tactic than a big advantage. The 144Hz panel used here doesn’t function with Nvidia G-Sync, so frame pacing can be an issue. It’s not especially crisp in motion, either, though better than a 60Hz panel.

Audio is provided by a pair of upward-facing speakers with Bang & Olufsen branding. They provide decent audio and reasonable crisp audio at low to medium volume. Bass is lacking, however, and the sound becomes muddy at higher volumes. A headset or headphones will be far better, but the built-in speakers are ok for casual use. 

Webcam, microphone, biometrics

The HP Victus 15 sticks to a 720p webcam with a dual-array microphone. It performs about as well (or as poorly) as expected. Video quality is fuzzy and audio quality is hollow. However, the Victus 15 doesn’t perform any worse than other laptops with a similar webcam and microphone arrangement, and most mid-range gaming laptops won’t provide an upgrade in these areas. 

Biometrics are absent. That’s to be expected at this price. 

Connectivity

The HP Victus 15 is thick, but that doesn’t mean it has lots of connectivity. Instead, the Victus 15 sticks to a rather slim selection of ports. 

This includes two USB-A ports and one USB-C port. The USB-C port has DisplayPort alternate mode for connection with an external display but unfortunately lacks USB Power Delivery, meaning a USB-C power brick won’t charge the laptop. You’ll have to use the included 200 watt power adapter. An HDMI 2.1 port provides the laptop’s only dedicated video-out.

Network connectivity is solid, with Gigabit Ethernet, Wi-Fi 6, and Bluetooth 5.2 supported. It would be nice to see Wi-Fi 6E (and some upgraded models of Victus 15 have it), but its absence is easy to excuse at this price. Wi-Fi 6E routers remain expensive, so it’s doubtful that gamers considering the Victus 15 have a Wi-Fi 6E router.

Performance

The HP Victus 15 has an Intel Core i5-12450H processor with a total of eight cores, split eveningly between Performance and Efficient cores. The Performance cores support hyper-threading (for a total of 12 threads). It’s paired with Nvidia’s GTX 1650 graphics, 8GB of DDR4 3200MHz RAM, and a 512GB PCIe solid state drive. 

PCMark 10 turns in a respectable score of 5,551. This is the fourth lowest of the laptops used for comparison, but also not far behind the Acer Nitro 5 and Asus Vivobook X16 OLED, a pair of laptops that each had an as-tested MSRP above $1,000. The Victus 15 is punching above its weight here. 

The Victus 15 looks less impressive in Cinebench R15, as its limited core count puts the laptop at a major disadvantage compared to other Intel 12th-gen Core laptops, as well as AMD’s top hardware. Still, this score is a long way from bad and impressive for a budget laptop. Older budget laptops with Intel 11th-gen Core i5 or AMD Ryzen 3000/4000 series processors fall behind the Core i5-12450H. 

Handbrake turns in a good result for the Victus 15, which scores better than both the AMD Ryzen 5900HX and Core i7-11800H in older laptops. This benchmark has proven favorable to Intel’s 12th-gen Core, as it appears to make excellent use of many cores, and that gives the Victus 15 a win here.

Now, let’s dig into the laptop’s graphics.

The 3DMark Time Spy turns in a result of 3,392, which is to be expected. Unlike the Core i5-12450H, which is new, the GTX 1650 is a tried-and-true GPU used in entry-level notebooks for the past few years. It’s much less capable than most recent RTX 3050 hardware.

Shadow of the Tomb Raider is a great judge of how a gaming laptop will perform in cross platform games released during PlayStation 4/Xbox One console generation. At 1080p and Highest settings, it achieves an average of 43 frames per second, which is enough for enjoyable gameplay but not close to the 60 frames per second most PC gamers prefer. Those who want a smoother experience will need to turn down the details.

Metro Exodus is even more demanding, particularly at the Extreme settings PC World uses for this test, and it hurts the Victus 15’s performance. The laptop achieved a mere 14 frames per second at 1080p and Extreme detail, which is not playable. This isn’t a surprising result, however, as even the RTX 3050 Ti struggles in this benchmark. 

The HP Victus 15’s game performance highlights the limitations of budget gaming laptops sold in 2022. Nvidia, which continues to dominate the market for discrete GPUs in Windows laptops, did not release an entry-tier discrete option for the RTX 30 or 20 series, leaving the GTX 1650/1660 to struggle on. And struggle it does. 60 FPS gameplay is not possible if you want a high level of graphical fidelity, even in games that are now several years old.

Given this reality, however, the Victus 15 performs as well as can be hoped. Gamers can buy this laptop knowing it will play any PC game available today (aside from those with mandatory ray tracing), though those who want to play at 60 FPS will have to stick to medium or low settings in most new titles. 

Battery life

The HP Victus 15 I reviewed had a 52 watt-hour battery. Shoppers should note that high-end configurations lists a larger, 70 watt-hour battery. That would, of course, provide better results than the entry-level machine.

Battery life comes in at roughly four and a half hours. That might not sound like much, and it isn’t—but it’s also not bad for a budget gaming laptop, as some models do worse. The HP Victus 15 needs frequent top-offs and isn’t a good companion for frequent fliers, but students who just need a laptop to last through a lecture should be ok. 

Conclusion

The HP Victus 15 is not a great gaming laptop. It’s unattractive, flimsy, and has a lackluster display. And, most important of all, game performance is merely adequate. Most titles are playable at 30 FPS, but reaching 60 FPS will often require significant cuts to visual fidelity. 

It’s saved by the price. The Victus 15 I reviewed carries an MSRP of $799, which is already inexpensive, and is currently reduced to $549.99. That’s an absolute rock bottom price for a laptop with discrete graphics. And, despite its flaws, the Victus 15 offers a good keyboard, pleasant touchpad, and solid processor performance. 

That makes the HP Victus 15 an easy recommendation for budget PC gaming. It’s not ideal, but it’s a deal at this price. Just keep in mind that it’s value, not features, that gives the Victus 15 its edge—and that edge will be dulled the moment a competitor drops its own price to compete.