The Spectre range of HP’s laptops has always been a favourite of mine.

Slim, elite in presentation and sized just right.

But I get that they aren’t for everyone, you can get the same amount of spec at a lower cost with other models.

Now, however, HP has released their HP Spectre x360 – and a Spectre model at a modest price tag. A laptop / tablet hybrid with a 360 degree hinge, you can flip the laptop over and wield Windows on a touch screen.

At 14 inches with a FHD screen @ 1920 x 1080 resolution, the Spectre was surprisingly heavier than I expected. It doesn’t have the gold and black finishing that past models have had, it’s more, well… main stream looking.

Under the hood the specs are more than adequate.

A 1TB SSD coupled with 32GB RAM and Intel ultra 7 processor. But there’s no dedicated graphics card here, instead you get an onboard Intel ARC.

While having a beefier graphics card is a must for Triple AAA games, the ARC can hold it’s own, to a point.

The likes of Forza 7, God of War and Borderlands 3 played fine, although the Spectre x360 did heat up on Forza 7. To be fair, the HP Spectre x360 is not aimed to be for gaming.

If you’re a content creator, the HP Spectre x360 is a definite.

This particular model reviewed has both the memory capacity and processing power to render out even heavy weight videos and images.

And being that it is slim and smaller, you can do this on the go.

External ports are minimal, you’ll get a USB-A that is covered and USB-C. Battery wise the HP Spectre x360 is legendary.

Up to 6 hours of game time, and just with general day to day to use you’ll easily get over 12 hours from a full charge.

The HP Spectre x360 is a powerhouse. It’s good to go whenever you are, has the added bonus of tablet functionality and is ready to be creative as your ideas flow.

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Small, light and ready to play with the big boys.

The HP Omen Transcend 14 laptop has the goods to play almost any PC titles. Almost.
To get straight into it, you’ve got a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4060 graphics card with on-board 6GB, Intel Ultra 7 155H processors clocking in at 3.80 GHz and 16GB RAM.

However, HP Omen skimped on the storage. A 512GB SSD is not going to store a lot of your Steam, GOG or Epic games library, and this is of course a drive shared with Windows 11.

For Xbox Cloud gaming you’ll be fine.

The 14 inch OLED screen is bright and vivid enough with a resolution of 2880 x 1800 and refresh of 120Hz, but it is not a touch screen. I found this to be unusual given most current laptops are.

Forza 7 ran very well, but during on track high speed moments the HP Omen Transcend 14 laptop started to lag.

Toning down the game settings didn’t help much.

Star Wars: Jedi Survivor faired a lot better as did Diablo Immortal. Gameplay on both titles was smooth.

The HP Omen Transcend 14 laptop doesn’t have great audio.

The downward facing dual speakers deliver crisp and clear  but without any oomph. So if you’re considering one of these to get you into PC gaming I’d recommend some decent PC speakers or gaming headphones.

Not the same can be said with the keyboard however. This is magic.

Soft to touch and beautifully RGB lit, you can game on this keyboard for hours comfortably.

External ports are there, and pleadingly you have a few options. Two USB-A, 3.5mm audio, HDMI conveniently positioned at the back. HP Omen have also adopted USB-C charging.

There’s also a single Thunderbolt USB-C port, but it seemed to be under powered.

A USB-C external drive will work, although not at top speeds. It most definitely does not power and external screen via Thunderbolt / USB-C. I tried.

Battery wise, it’s purported you’ll get around 8 hours (non-gaming of course), but should include media streaming and some light content creation. I was only able to get around 3.5 hours. This is standard for most laptops, but a far cry from the 8 hours.

The HP Omen Transcend 14 laptop is a mixed bag.

It’s got the graphical prowess, mixed with enough RAM for most games, but it falls short in storage and audio.

I’d recommend the HP Omen Transcend 14 laptop as a good starter for those keen on playing PC games, or someone that tends to play games that don’t have a massive data footprint, unless you opt for a high speed external drive, or of course cloud game.

A very good laptop, but with some limitations.

The post HP Omen Transcend 14 Gaming Laptop Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

HP Victus, a relatively new sub brand from HP, known in PC gaming for their OMEN series of laptops and monitors

A generally lower cost series of gaming laptops that to a point still pack a playable punch.

Looking super sleek in black with minimal branding HP sent over one of their 15.6 inch models to test out.

On first look the HP Victus 15.6″ is stealthy and slim enough, although heavier than I thought it would be.

With the HP Victus you get ports on either side, x1 USB-C, Display, HDMI, Ethernet, x1 USB-A, headphone / mic and of course power.

The AC plug is proprietary, no universal USB-C powering here. The Victus‘ keyboard missed out on RGB lighting, but does have a full size key array, white backlighting and comfy to use.

The HP Victus 15.6″ is ultimately juiced up with AMD.

The review model was equipped with a 512GB SSD, 16GB RAM and powered by a AMD Ryzen 7 processor.

Your graphics has an onboard AMD Radeon RX 6500M, which for most games is sufficient.

As a daily driver, the HP Victus 15.6 inch is more than adequate, whether it’s media / game streaming or content creating it holds up exceedingly well.

Rendering 3D graphics or outputting an 8K video in Premier the Victus cruised along cool and calm.

But it’s gaming where this laptop is slated for by HP.

For the most part it did well.

Cloud gaming on Xbox Pass and games like Fortnite and PUBG had no issues at all, and this was expected as there should be little processing required.

Older but still so playable titles such as Borderlands 3, Witcher: Wild Hunt all ran at full steam with nothing needed to be toned down.

However, God of War, The Last of Us Part 1 and Star Wars: Jedi Survivor did not fare so well.

God of War needed to have nearly all graphic settings toned down and both The Last of Us and Jedi Survivor stuttered along to a frustratingly unplayable session with all settings turned down or off where it was possible.

There was also a heat issue with the latter games. Being a test kit I didn’t want to over-heat the unit, so it was best to exit out once it was established that the titles weren’t playing so well.

The HP Victus does have potential, it’s at a lower price tag than HP’s OMEN series, however there’s definitely room for improvement if you’re wanting an all rounder gaming laptop.

But for lighter, cloud based gaming the Victus has got the goods.

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Small but mighty, the HP Envy series continues this year with a mostly high spec’d HP Envy x360 13 inch 2 in 1 laptop.

Now, I say ‘mostly’ spec’d up, which it is with 16GB RAM and Quad Intel i7 (12th Gen) processors. But there is no dedicated graphics, instead HP have opted to use the onboard Intel Xe chip.

This tiny powerhouse is going to see you right for work and some play and being a 2 in 1 is also perfect for designers and content creators.

The screen can fold backwards in a 180 degree ultimately transforming the HP Envy x360 13, thus becoming a Windows based tablet.

The touchscreen is both intuitive as it is quick in response with real time reaction. I did not experience any lag when using touch.

Going back to using the HP Envy x360 13 as a standard laptop is a satisfying experience.

HP produced a laptop to cover all bases of users. From the heavy multitaskers to the more lighter Window wielders.

Creating content, such as editing high resolution graphics, rendering out 4K or even 8K video was quicker than I expected it to be. On a 15 minute 8K video render, the laptop did heat up a bit though and chomped more battery than I thought it would.

HP have improved their built-in camera raising it to a 5MP IR lens.

They have taken onboard our new way of living in, virtual meetings, chat and video calls. They even built in a virtual ring light app.

Audio output has been given some love, with Bang & Olufsen plus HP Boost 2.0. The HP Envy x360 13 also has a booming dual speaker array, and while the audio from the unit itself is clear and loud you’ll get a better experience with some HD quality headphones.

HP haven’t forgotten us users who are still rocking USB devices.

Smaller laptops tend to only have one or two USB-C ports. If you prefer to have a desktop setup with an external keyboard and mouse you won’t need to find a USB adaptor, there’s two standard USB (USB-A) slots, couples with a microSD reader and two Thunderbolt 4 (USB-C).

When your day is done and you want to kick back and game for a bit, your options will be limited to the mid  tier.

The Intel Iris Xe graphics chip has surprised me in the past as to what it can handle. The likes of Borderlands 3, Tomb Raider and of course smaller lighter games run perfectly.

Heavy hitters aren’t going to fare so well, or even run at all.

This said, if you’re an Xbox gamer, using the Cloud Gaming service works exceedingly well.

To be fair, HP haven’t produced the Envy x360 13 as a gaming device, you’d need to look at their Omen range for that.

Gaming, of course, will chomp the battery, which for general use can last up to a well impressive 13 hours from a single full charge.

Battery consumption is of course totally reflected on the tasks you perform on the laptop.

Given what HP have put in to this new Envy x360 the pricing seems appropriate at around $3K NZD.

Packing a few punches it’s also shed a few kilos, lighter than I expected it to be at only 1.3kg.

The HP Envy x360 13 is a tiny beast, an all-rounder for creators, thinkers and do’ers who like to future proof their laptop investment and leave room for the heavier side of personal computing.

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HP’s specific PC gaming brand Omen has always trumped up with the goods when it comes to getting you in to the game.

Recently they released their HP Omen 16 gaming laptop, a 16.1 inch kit full of muscle and ready to play.

STG received one of the units to test out and see if it’s up to grade.

Super sleek in black the HP Omen 16 looks the part and Omen have adopted a full RGB lighting array for their keyboard, not the usual static red, customizable via HP’s own Lighting Studio app.

The 16.1 inch screen has a 165hz refresh rate for it’s vivid anti-glare micro-edge display. And micro-edge it is with a slimmed down side bezel.

There’s no 4K, but you will get FHD (1920 x 1080).

Under the hood there’s Intel’s 16th gen i7 processors coupled with 32GB RAM and a generous 1TB SSD.

A NVIDIA GEForce RTX 3070 powers the eye candy.

The best innovation HP have added to their HP Omen 16 laptop is the power cell.

The battery is purported to last a full 9 hours with average use.

After setting up the review model it was time to get some gaming in.

Cranking up the likes of Forza Horizon 5 in all of it’s glory, with no settings dimmed down the HP Omen 16 handled like a well serviced supercar.

While minimal of screen latency is important when you’re on the track, it’s critical and can mean life or death in battle.

Call of Duty Vanguard had me at my optimal. No screen tearing, blips or drag. Infact I think that the gameplay was more fluid than I’ve ever experienced.

But if you want something with detailed colour, Borderlands 3. This totally popped and again was a seamless streamlined play, both in visuals and playthrough.

All games I played on battery. Would the HP Omen 16 actually last the distance they said it would?

Yes and no.

From full charge to near dead, Forza was 4 hours of non-stop tarmac simulation. Borderlands 3 surprisingly lasted the longest at around 5 and a half hours and Call of Duty Vanguard draining the battery in just over 3 hours.

All of those are good innings though.

So if you’re inclined to pack up your laptop and head over to a mates, or play somewhere where there is A/C adaptor you’ll be sweet for a few hours. Excellent for eSports bouts too.

As great as all of this is there was one thing I had a concern over. Build quality.

Moments of utter darkness in games give you that suspenseful even nerve racking moment. Especially in something like one of the later Resident Evils.

The review model I received in to STG had a very noticeable light leak around the edges of the screen.

Darkened areas were ruined by shafts of white light peeking from edges.

Sure, you’re only going to notice this if you’re playing something onscreen that is rendered in low or zero light. If playing something that’s not so dim and foreboding you wont even see it.

The HP Omen 16, like any good gaming laptop has more than enough ports to connect up all of your gear.

Two USB sockets on the right with another on the left side. The left side is where most of your connectors are placed.

Ethernet, HDMI (only one), USB-C, mini-display, headset / mic and an SD reader.

I reckon ditching the SD card reader and placing in another HDMI would have been ideal.

For those of us that play online, HP have added a Network Booster in to their HP Gaming Hub app which is natively installed on the laptop.

This aims to ensure that your network connection, wireless or connected, does not drop, essentially giving it a front-of-the-line status over and above any other apps.

During my time of online play I never encountered any drops or lag.

To keep things cool and calm during the heat of the moment HP have their own signature ‘Tempest Cooling’ setup. This distributes heat from the device outwards venting through two large fans at the base.

There’s also additional vents at the back.

I never experienced any heat build up but the laptop did get warm with Call of Duty.

While the size of the HP Omen 16 screams out portability, some may want to keep it on a desk. It’s not overly heavy, but it’s not a lightweight either.

Coming in at a solid 2.32kg you’re not really wanting to go too far with it.

Mention of audio needs to be in here too. HP have sound designed by Bang and Olufsen, with DTX thrown in for good measure.

If you game with a high quality headset, you’re absolutely going to notice the difference. If to describe it, either in game or streaming quality media it’s similar to having a 5.1 surround system clasps to your ears.

Good stuff.

In all the HP Omen 16 is an excellent gaming laptop able to perform without a glitch, but is super pricey at just over $5K (NZD).

Still, if you’ve got deep pockets and looking for something to get you ahead of your opponents the HP Omen 16 might just be that weapon of choice.

The post HP Omen 16 Gaming Laptop Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

HP are the legends of personal computing.

From their OMEN gaming series through to a vast array of desktops and laptops, their gear has always been tantamount to both quality and reliability. Their top of the line Spectre laptop range are the equivalent of the ‘Rolls Royce’ of small form factor laptops.

HP NZ sent over one of their newest models, the Spectre x360 13 inch.

From the box the darkened blue with accented line trims of gold reflect that you have in your hands a prime device.

This particular model comes with a HP stylus for screen-to-pen input on the UHD touchscreen. The inclusion of the HP Spectre touch pen or stylus was super handy – but there is no placement for the touch pen to go into the chassis of the laptop.

Another misstep is that the HP touch pen is not rechargeable and requires one AAA battery. I am surprised that it is not magnetized to clip to the side of the laptop and bluetooth / wireless chargeable.

Being the convertible model the screen flips 180 degrees, turning the small laptop in to a Windows 10 tablet.

Having reviewed Microsoft Surfaces in the past, I do have a fascination with Windows being on a tablet-like device, the Spectre x360 when flipped, you are still aware that there is a keyboard on the reverse of the screen – which to me was no different than using any other tablet with a keyboard cover.

Under the hood is where things get mostly good for the HP Spectre x360.

On board is 16GB Ram, coupled with a 8565U Intel i7 set of processors. The GHz is however a wee bit on the low side, coming in at a varying 1.80 to 1.99.

Graphics, well, slightly above mid road with an onboard 4K Intel UHD 620. Capable of upscaling and is 4K Ultra High Definition, so naturally I also wanted to see how this would cope with high end gaming.

But before I get to the games side of things, on the playing field of being a laptop for work or home, the Spectre x360 has enough power, if not more, to be able to see you right for all tasks, including media editing.

Adobe suite, Sony Vegas and more were able to run, even simultaneously, without managing to make the internal fans go in to overdrive or cause any heat issues.

Being that this laptop is very thin and only 13 inches, one would expect a tendency to heat up when running some resource intensive software. Not the case.

Coming back to the gaming side of things – it’s a fair statement to say that a true PC Gamer is not going to invest in a small laptop from the personal computing offerings to compete in their eSports or run a juggernaut of a game.

Nonetheless, if you have a Spectre x360 13 inch for work or home and, well, like to play the odd sneaky game, you most certainly can.

Gears of War 4 was not only perfectly playable without any lag or graphic glitching, Borderlands 2 and Resident Evil VII all without any graphics settings toned down caused no issue.

So how would something like Forza Horizon 4 play?

Initially the Spectre x360‘s fans became jet engines – however, reducing the graphics on the game stopped the small laptop from stressing and all played as it should, quite smoothly I’ll add.

And Fortnite? Pfff the small beast didn’t even break a sweat.

But this is not a gaming laptop review – if anything it was an exercise to satisfy my own curiosity to see what the HP Spectre x360 was able to handle.

HP have gone all out with their Spectre range, including audio enhancement from Bang and Olufsen.

The onboard dual speakers can belt out your media or music in a deep and richly pleasing experience – via headphones (depending on the quality of the headset) streaming Spotify, watching Netflix and gaming were all top of the class.

HP have not forgotten external ports either. There is one USB 3.0, headphone jack (3.5mm), SD card slot and two USB-C ports (one doubles as the charger connector).

To connect up an external monitor will require a USB-C capable monitor or an HDMI to USB-C adaptor.

Attention to detail on the Spectre x360 cannot be disputed as the ports are evenly and stealthily placed on the sides and corners – even the power button is out of the way being on the left side gem cut corner.

The HP Spectre x360 also comes with a leather carry pouch which really just gives it that high class impression. A deserved impression at that.

The HP Spectre x360 is a small but mighty two in one. Flip it and you have a tablet or use it as a laptop.

Even flip it in to a ‘V’ shape to stand it so that all you have screen on a table or desk and watch media as I did with Netflix or when playing a game using a Bluetooth Xbox One controller.

Battery life is exceptional too.

Sure, a couple of the high end games I tried drained it in less than four hours (that’s still a good run though), but as a laptop for everyday use you can expect a good day to a day and a half’s of use before it completely dies.

Flip it, work it, reverse it – in any position the HP Spectre x360 Convertible is pure decadence with power and this makes it one of my favourite personal computing laptop of 2019.

The post HP Spectre x360 Convertible 13″ Laptop Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Who knew that industry giant HP (Hewlett Packard) made accessories for mobiles…

I sure didn’t until STG was sent a HP Sprocket unit to try out.

HP are synonymous with serious PC peripherals including screens and they also have the Omen PC Gaming franchise and sure, they have made inkjet and commercial sized printers for decades, so following that suit comes the Sprocket – a pocket sized colour sticker printer that will turn your best picture perfect moments in to 2 x 3 inch stickables that you can apply to, well, pretty much anywhere.

The Sprocket is both light weight and about as large as a 5 inch smartphone.

Rechargeable via micro USB the Sprocket connects to your smart device or PC via bluetooth. Then you will need the HP Sprocket App from Google Play or the App Store and within less than a minute you’ll find yourself snapping pics either within the App itself or using existing ones from your phone or social media (Facebook and Instagram), then applying fun filled filters and overlays and printing them off to adorn your Journal, Lunch Box, Bag, Wall, Ceiling and pretty much anything that you like to place a sticker on to.

Also when printing the photo sticker the Sprocket will embed A.R. experiences in to the printed pic for you to experience by scanning the printed sticker and using the sprocket App and your phones camera. Brilliant.

The blank sticker cards come in boxes of 20 sheets (there’s 10 in the devices box) and to load them in is simple. You slide the top off the Sprocket, place them in the inner tray wit the supplied barcode card face down and away you go.

We had alot of fun with the Sprocket during our time with it and found that we managed to gobble through the supplied sticker sheets in no time.

Priced at $250.00 (NZD) it is on the heftier side as far as a mobile accessory goes and you need to factor in the eventual cost of more sticker sheets too.

An extremely fun to have accessory for the Selfie taker or to take away with you on holiday. With Christmas fast approaching the Sprocket is a good contender as a gift for that snap happy friend or family member.

Super simple to setup and even easier to use, you know you want to have a Sprocket in your pocket.

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