50 PCWorld JANUARY 2022REVIEWS HP VICTUS 16
improved performance. Second, HP offers
Optane storage as a sort of cache for the hard
drive, theoretically increasing storage
performance a bit more.
The Victus includes one 5Gbps USB-C
(with DisplayPort 1.4 and Sleep and Charge
capabilities), an HDMI 2.1 port, and three
USB-A (5Gbps) ports, one of which is
Sleep- and Charge-capable. A “Jaws”-styleGigabit Ethernet port makes an
appearance, too. That allows it to connect
to a pair of 4K displays, one via the USB-C
port and another via the HDMI connection.
That essentially eliminates the need for a
Thunderbolt port.TYPING EXPERIENCE,
AUDIO AND WEBCAM
While you’ll never
mistake the HP Victus for
a productivity PC, the
keyboard doesn’t
disappoint either.
Perhaps to
accommodate the
keypad to the right of the
keyboard, the key width
appears to be perhaps a
millimeter smaller than
that of a productivity
laptop. The pitch, or the
gap between the keys,
appears to be about the
same. The smaller keys
threw off my typing for a
bit, though the springy,
otherwise comfortable
keyboard should be
sufficient for typing a
paper as well as
orchestrating an MMO
raid. The roughly 16:9
The right-hand side of the laptop offers a pair of USB-A ports. display ratio also allowsThe Victus 16 offers a variety of I/O ports, from the Gigabit Ethernet
port on the far left to the HDMI, USB-A, and USB-C ports and the full-size
SD card reader. I noticed that the USB-A port on our review unit didn’t
always detect a USB key after I first inserted it, requiring a bit of jiggling to
establish a connection.mobilism.org