A budget gamer for $1,200: HP Victus 15 RTX 5050 laptop review

At a current price of around $1,200, the review model Victus 15-fa2160ng doesn't have it all its own way in a competitive market. Compared to other RTX 5050 laptops, the price is commendable and finds itself on the lower end of the scale. However, for a similar price, there's also the Lenovo LOQ Essential 15, which, according to the spec sheet, aims to turn customer's heads with a better display (100% sRGB). Unlike its Lenovo competitors, the Full HD IPS panel installed in the Victus 15 has to put up with a poor color gamut, which makes content appear rather washed out. To make matters worse, the first RTX 5060 laptops are already being sold at a relatively small premium, with some of them (depending on the application) offering a decent, if not earth-shattering performance boost. 

Basically, buyers will know what to expect in the $1,000 segment. The plastic case and speakers are of average quality, as are the battery capacity and connectivity (no USB 4). However, the upgrade options have turned out to be quite positive. In addition to two M.2 slots, the 15-inch model also includes two SO-DIMM banks. Noise and temperature production under load are also better than a number of competing devices.

The HP Victus 15-fa2160ng can be purchased on various online stores starting at around $1,200.

The Victus 15’s competitors include other affordable gaming notebooks with an RTX 5050 or RTX 5060, such as the Medion Erazer Scout 17 E1, the Lenovo LOQ 15 and HP's own Omen 16, all of which appear in the comparison tables along with the Victus 15, which is powered by the RTX 4050.

One area you shouldn't expect particularly high quality is the case. The 15-inch devices' surfaces are entirely made of plastic and tend to rattle here and there. The build quality, however, is beyond reproach, with all elements of the review device blending seamlessly together. The display's maximum opening angle of around 135° is neither small nor especially large.

At 2.4 kg, the Victus 15 is more or less in line with its 15- and 16-inch counterparts, although the 17-inch Erazer Scout is just under 0.3 kg heavier. The HP laptop's height of almost 2.4 cm (without its feet) is also not out of the ordinary.

Interfaces

The connectivity proves to be somewhat lacking. Buyers will not only have to do without modern USB protocols, but also without a card reader. However, the port distribution is quite well-designed, since they are located at the rear of the sides, and therefore hardly interfere during mouse use.

The installed Realtek Wi-Fi module (RTL8852BE) is somewhat faster than the MediaTek chip found in its predecessor, but it still can't reach truly high speeds. Only the Erazer Scout's performance managed to impress us in our test comparison field.

As with most laptops, the webcam quality is best left unsaid. Both the color accuracy and the image sharpness also leave a lot to be desired.

The laptop comes with a few information booklets and a 200-watt power supply.

The base plate is secured by seven small Phillips screws and several hooks, some of which are very tight. Under the hood, you have access to every component (see photos).

Unfortunately, HP still uses various plastic films for its packaging material.

The warranty in Germany covers 12 months.

The touchpad delivers discreet performance. Its 12.5 x 8 cm surface offers solid gliding characteristics and is mostly responsive. However, the click surfaces tend to rattle - as is the case with numerous other laptops.

Unfortunately, the Victus 15 doesn't boast a vivid display. Unlike some competitors, the 144 Hz panel is weak, particularly in terms of color coverage. While 64% sRGB is slightly better than its predecessor, it's still pretty underwhelming.

While the review configuration's 24 GB of DDR5 RAM is quite respectable, at 512 GB, the SSD could be larger. HP is also using an outdated processor for price reasons.

In the meantime, the Core i5-13420H is a few years old and still manufactured using the outdated 10nm process. The Raptor Lake model contains four performance cores, including Hyper-Threading and eight efficiency cores without HT. This allows a total of 20 threads to be processed simultaneously. In the benchmark test, the Victus 15 ended up at the bottom of the test field, although the predecessor's Core i5-13500H and the Core 5 210H found in the Scout 17 E1 are often only marginally faster. Meanwhile, the Ryzen 7 250 offers more than 30 % additional performance, and the Ryzen 9 8940HX housed in the Omen 16, almost 70 %.

The system's performance is sometimes affected by its rather weak SSD (more on that later). Applications sometimes take a bit longer to launch or load than on comparable devices.