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Specs
CPU: AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (12 cores)
RAM: 32 GB DDR5 SDRAM
GPU: Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080
Storage: 1 TB SSD
Show: 16-inch IPS HDR
Weight: 5.38 lbs (2.44 kg)
Dimensions (in): 14.07 x 10.59 x 1
Dimensions (mm): 357.5 x 269 x 25.4)
The HP Omen Max 16 is final yr’s follow-up to 2023’s Omen, packing in additional highly effective components to show this machine into a real heavyweight. It truly is heavy, tipping the pre-fight scales at 5.4 kilos (2.4 kilograms), whereas the value has additionally climbed just a few bands, now coming in at round $2,500 because of the inclusion of an Nvidia GeForce RTX 50 collection GPU. However do these modifications pack a large enough punch to knock out its opponents?
Whereas it has some quirks, the Omen Max total affords premium efficiency and excels in duties that give its high-end parts a exercise. Specifically, the machine is constructed for gaming and may deal with the most recent AAA titles with ease — with its lightning-fast display screen serving to aggressive gamers acquire an edge. Meaning it is also primed to deal with photograph and video enhancing, and will doubtlessly be a helpful fixture in your desk at house.
HP Omen Max 16 (2025): Design
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The HP Omen Max 16 leans right into a typical “gamer” aesthetic, with RGB lighting beneath and the keyboard glowing vibrantly in a spread of colours. The software program helps you to customise colours, patterns and transitions, which is a neat contact — although it is most likely anticipated at this value level. The machine’s appears are more likely to be divisive, nonetheless, and it is positively not a “skilled” machine — but when lights and colours are your factor, the general design is neat if unremarkable.
The format and appears have been tweaked for the reason that 2023 mannequin, increasing the keyboard to incorporate a quantity pad and including extra lighting. The keys are all backlit and look glorious in dimly lit rooms, though the touchpad is not lit and is positioned barely left-of-center, which might make reaching for it a bit awkward at first.
The matte black provides a classy, understated end to the chassis, and the Omen brand on the skin and “016” written on the within are sufficiently subtle to not disrupt the looks. The display screen has some flex, which is a bit disconcerting and provides to a barely less-than-premium really feel to the Omen Max 16. Additionally it is straightforward to go away fingerprints and marks across the case, because of the colour and materials — however these are straightforward to wipe away.
We discovered the lights and total aesthetic struck steadiness between enjoyable and understated, with the RGB lighting tasteful and never too excessive. They’ll, nonetheless, be deactivated in case you discover them extra garish than interesting.
HP Omen Max 16 (2025): Show
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The show is usually good on the Omen Max 16, partly because of its 400-nit brightness that we verified in testing with a show calibrator. This isn’t market-leading however continues to be brighter than common, making it clear even in well-lit rooms. The 97.4% protection of the sRGB gamut can also be completely acceptable for many use instances. Extra testing rendered 71.8% and 76.7% protection of the Adobe and DCI P3 spectra, respectively; the outcomes aren’t unhealthy, and simply shy of what you want for skilled utilization — however as of late, you have a tendency to search out many laptops with shows that may hit above 90%.
For a non-OLED display screen, and to an informal eye, the colours usually pack a punch, aside from a barely washed-out black stage, which scored an underwhelming 0.5 nits in our exams. This additionally feeds right into a distinction ratio of 797:1:1, which is comparatively disappointing.
The place this display screen actually excels is its lightning-fast refresh price of 250 Hz — making utilizing it a pleasure. Motion throughout the display screen is fluid and silky, whereas it is usually fast to answer inputs. The machine is first-and-foremost designed with avid gamers in thoughts, so that is evidently what HP has put its efforts into in the case of the display screen — and on this space, it does not disappoint.
HP Omen Max 16 (2025): Keyboard and touchpad
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The keyboard format is sweet total, though the small Enter key and the slender up and down arrows take a little bit of getting used to. In a departure from the 2023 mannequin, the design is gapless, though the keys have sufficient house between them for comfy contact typing. Every keystroke is springy with a satisfying stage of key journey and haptic suggestions, whereas not requiring an excessive amount of effort to push down, placing an ideal steadiness.
The backlighting on the keys is customizable, with a number of enjoyable presets starting from a pulsing glow to a rippling impact from every keystroke, like a stone dropped in a pool of water. A quantity pad provides extra performance over the earlier Omen Max.
We do, nonetheless, query how sturdy this keyboard is. Throughout testing, a cat determined to strive the keys and managed to prise a number of out — one thing she has not been in a position to do with different keyboards, notably the surprisingly powerful MacBook Air 2022. The keys, that are slim and somewhat flimsy, rapidly click on again into place (not less than on this event), but it surely raises doubts over how a lot informal put on and tear it will probably stand.
The touchpad is massive, clean and responsive. But it surely’s positioned awkwardly and we regularly activate the right-click accidentally; any left clicks require an irritating quantity of leaning over to activate. That is one thing frequent use will repair, as you alter to the machine, but it surely initially feels unnatural.
HP Omen Max 16 (2025): Efficiency and Battery
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Let’s begin with the great — efficiency is superb. The HP Omen Max 16 is constructed with energy in thoughts, particularly in the case of gaming, and it carried out excellently, dealing with the most recent AAA titles, resembling Black Ops 7, with ease on Extremely settings. Our evaluate unit boasted an Nvidia GeForce RTX 5080 GPU paired with an AMD Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 (12 cores) CPU, 32 GB DDR5 SDRAM, and a 1TB SSD. And these principally top-tier parts duly stand and ship.
Some video games put up a battle, nonetheless, with the frames per second (FPS) on “Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II” dropping into the 40s and sometimes even the 30s on most settings (though the sport appears unbelievable).
A propensity to deal with high-end gaming meant we have been excited for what it meant for customers seeking to work with graphics-based duties. The machine excelled when performing different video and photograph enhancing, with its superior efficiency additionally taking part in out throughout benchmark exams — with the GPU registering an eye-watering rating of 181,959 in our OpenCL check with Geekbench 6. This blows the rest we have examined fully out of the ambiance.
The CPU was additionally glorious in benchmarking. It registered a incredible 2,967 for single-core and 15,420 for multi-core efficiency, placing it far forward of the 2023 mannequin and loads of different latest Home windows machines.
One disadvantage of this energy is how noisy the followers are to be able to preserve the machine cool. When pushing the Omen Max to its limits, they run so loudly to blast out scorching air in varied instructions that you will most likely have to put on headphones to listen to any sound. It is sufficient to bother anyone unlucky sufficient to be close to you, not to mention your self.
In the meantime, as everyone knows by now, with nice energy normally comes horrible battery life, and the Omen Max 16 is not any exception. In our customary looped video playback battery check, the Omen Max 16 lasted for simply 7 hours and 31 minutes. The one factor we have ever examined that carried out worse was the 2023 HP Omen 16, which survived for a pitiful 4 hours and 53 minutes. So whereas the 2025 mannequin exhibits an enchancment, it is nonetheless not good when you think about that loads of high-end and premium Home windows machines can final properly above 10 hours. However poor battery efficiency is typical for gaming machines like this.
HP Omen Max 16 (2025): Ports and Options
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The HP Omen Max 16 is sort of chunky — standing 1 inch (25.4 millimeters) tall — however chunkiness means room for loads of ports. The machine due to this fact has house to slot in two USB-A ports, an HDMI 2.1 port, a headphone jack,an Ethernet port and two USB-C ports. They’re laid out logically and are straightforward to achieve.
Function-wise, it comes with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 wi-fi connectivity, and a 1080p webcam that captures you properly sufficient. The machine additionally comes with HP’s Omen Gaming Hub software program, which helps you to higher monitor and handle gaming efficiency.
HP Omen Max 16 (2025): Ought to I purchase it?
The HP Omen Max 16 is basically fairly glorious at dealing with graphics-heavy workloads, resembling video enhancing or gaming. Nonetheless, its display screen is not fairly correct sufficient for many photographers and videographers, and its noise and weight are additionally offputting for these duties if you should be utilizing it out and about — to not point out the lacklustre battery life. Finally, this machine is constructed for avid gamers and gaming, and that’s who it ought to primarily attraction to.
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