CES 2024 | HP Omen Transcend 16 marks Intel 14th gen Raptor Lake-HX Refresh debut, drops mini-LED for QHD+ 240 Hz OLED

HP introduced the Omen Transcend 16 last year superseding the popular Omen 16 line. This year, at CES 2024, the Omen Transcend 16 gets sees several hardware changes and while possibly inheriting some of the gripes we've noticed with last year's offering.

The first major change we see this year is the lack of a mini-LED panel option. Instead, HP has chosen to equip the Transcend 16 with an OLED panel as the top-end offering. Buyers get to choose between QHD+ OLED and IPS panels along with an FHD+ IPS option. The QHD+ OLED supports 48-240 Hz variable refresh rate with a 0.2 ms response time. The panel is rated for 400 nits brightness in SDR mode and up to 500 nits in HDR.

On the CPU side, the Omen Transcend 16 gets a bump to Intel 14th gen Raptor Lake-HX Refresh processors including the Core i7-14700HX and the Core i9-14900HX. These are supported with a choice of Nvidia GeForce RTX 4050, RTX 4060, and RTX 4070 Laptop GPUs. The Transcend 16 can be configured with up to 32 GB of DDR5-5600 RAM and up to a 2 TB NVMe PCIe Gen4 SSD. It looks like HP is once again providing just a single SSD slot with no scope for further expansion.

Unlike the Omen Transcend 14, the Transcend 16 offers two Thunderbolt 4 ports but both the USB Type-A ports are limited to 5 Gbps. A HDMI 2.1-out, Gigabit LAN, and a combo audio jack complete the port selection.

In addition to Gigabit LAN, the Omen Transcend 16 also features optional Intel Wi-Fi 7 BE200 networking with Bluetooth 5.4. A 97 WHr battery powers the innards and is rated to last 10.5 hours during FHD video playback.

The HP Omen Transcend 16 will be available in Shadow Black and Ceramic White options on January 10 at HP.com starting from US$1,899.99.

Buy the HP Omen 16 with Ryzen 7 7940HS and RTX 4070 on Best Buy