JANUARY 2022 PCWorld 51HP to fit in a number
pad on the right-hand
side of the keyboard,
a necessity for left-
handed gamers.
HP has a legacy of
good or even great
keyboards, and the
Victus lives up to that
reputation. I typed
this review on the
Victus keyboard, and I
can safely say I’d be
relatively happy to
use it on a long-term
basis. Just don’t
expect RGB or even
sophisticated
backlighting, as
there’s only a single lighting level.
Otherwise, the keyboard is standard,
though with the function-specific keys to
launch the Windows calculator app as well
as the Omen Gaming Hub described below.
HP boasts that the touchpad is 19 percent
larger than its Pavilion Gaming PCs. While it
feels a little cheaper than the touchpads on
productivity notebooks, the surface is
smooth and the touchpad is essentially
clickable over its entire surface.
I found the HP Victus audio to be slightly
disappointing. The dual speakers certainly put
out enough volume. In fact, I had to turn the
volume down slightly below the maximum for
testing. HP asked Bang & Olufsen to tune its
speakers, as it does with many of its laptops.
The resulting soundscape sounds a bit clunky,
emphasizing the midrange though without
the corresponding highs and lows. To be fair,
using the built-in graphics equalizer within the
B&O Audio Control app certainly helped, but
I was never quite able to find a mix that
sounded quite right.
The Victus 16 also offers noise cancellation
features for either videoconferencing or
simply interacting with Cortana and other
digital assistants. In general, these worked
pretty well, though my home office is usually
free of background noise.The Victus 16’s keyboard is surprisingly comfortable to type on for a gaming
laptop. There are dedicated keys for HP’s Omen Gaming Hub (the diamond)
and the Windows Calculator app.