HP Victus 15-fa0038nf review: our full review – Laptops

The HP Victus 15-fa0038nf wants to eat up entry-level gaming laptops at the end of the year. But are the savings worth it?

They are all well and good, all these overpriced gaming PCs, but when it comes to breaking the piggy bank on your first salary or convincing parents to invest… 2000 euros cannot be invested so easily. This is why the entry level is important and it must be a field on which the competition rages. HP wants to recover its share of the cake with the Victus 15-fa0038nf, a gaming PC that does not necessarily look like much, but whose quality / price ratio is more than attractive on paper. And in fact?

HP Victus 15-fa0038nfTechnical sheet

HP Victus 15-fa0038nfDesign

Spread the word… You’re not going to turn heads with the HP Victus in front of you. But not because it is poorly designed, rather because it avoids the usual frills of basic PC gamers who seek aggression above all. No red, no green, no LED, but a relatively simple black plastic shell.

The material isn’t bad though, and the Victus seems made to last. At the end, it would almost look like a basic desktop computer from 2015/2016 if it didn’t have its back section completely made of heatsinks. This is where we recognize the gamer in him.

On the format side, it is again very agreed. Imagine a 15.6-inch laptop: that’s exactly what the HP Victus is. A format between two, which is easily transportable without being ultra comfortable, and can be used smoothly once at home. But here it is: the computer is a little thick, and its weight of 2.3 kg will be felt in a bag and at arm’s length. Which, for its price category, is not really shocking.

Keyboard and touchpad

Does the HP Victus have a gaming keyboard? Not really. But it’s not a bad keyboard for all that: the keys are well separated and have a pleasant activation distance, but we are in the shackles of a classic notebook keyboard. With one detail that is important: the space bar is light, much too light, and breathes good the ultra-thin switch that we would be afraid to break with a simple glance.

It’s a shame, because without that, it is very pleasant to use. The same goes for the touchpad, of a satisfactory width. Although it is not made of glass, its plastic coating does not catch under the finger and remains comfortable. It’s a “good” laptop configuration, but which relies on a few peripherals to become “gamer”.

connectors

On the left side of the device, you can count on a classic power port, a USB A 3.0 port, a combo jack and a full-size SD port. On the right we have an HDMI 2.1 port, a second USB A 3.0 port, an Ethernet port and a DisplayPort 1.4 compatible USB C port.

Source: Anthony Wonner – Frandroid

Source: Anthony Wonner – Frandroid

Source: Anthony Wonner – Frandroid

The concession was clearly made on the USB A ports, which stopped at USB 3.0 and therefore at 5 Gbit / s of bandwidth, but again: the choice makes sense to contain the price of the machine. In itself, the connectivity of the device is not bad. It is even pleasant to find a full-size SD card reader.

webcam and audio

The 720p webcam does no miracles, of course. You have to contain the costs, and even premium computers can’t convince on this point. The same goes for the audio, which has absolutely no features to stand out other than “helpful for watching YouTube videos”.

HP Victus 15-fa0038nfScreen

The HP Victus is equipped with a 15.6-inch IPS LCD panel in 1920 x 1080 pixel definition, i.e. a ratio of 16:9, supporting a maximum refresh rate of 60.06 Hz. It is protected by a matte coating. to avoid glare from the sun, and is not tactile.

Words cannot be chewed: this slab is despicable. Under our probe and with the DisplayCal software, we find a maximum brightness of only 267 cd / m² for a contrast of 459:1. The Delta E00 is at 11.25, the highest number I’ve ever seen on any device as we’re looking more towards a figure around 1.5. There just isn’t a grayscale or a color that renders naturally on this one.

No wonder then that our measurements reveal only 55.7% coverage of the sRGB space, 38.4% of Adobe sRGB and 39.4% of DCI P3. It’s catastrophic, yes… but the manufacturer does not hide it. Its official technical sheet notes a coverage of 45% of NTSC and a maximum brightness of 250 cd / m². It’s quite simple: it’s THE great sacrifice that HP has chosen to make on its entry-level Victus to ensure that it is financially accessible. We have the impression of using the panel with a permanent yellow filter.

And this sacrifice hurts, far too badly. For 50 euros more, the HP 16-d0426nf equipped with a 144 Hz panel is much better off on this point despite a similar configuration. The choice of HP is therefore hardly excusable for this configuration.

HP Victus 15-fa0038nfSoftware

The software universe of the HP Victus is mainly centered around the Omen software, usual on the manufacturer’s gamer configurations. The latter allows some quick optimizations, like smartphone game modes, by freeing up RAM and optimizing storage space, but is not particularly remarkable. The Victus does not even have the right to a high performance mode, and is content with a default mode or a silent mode. You can simply boost the fan speed.

Unsurprisingly, the entry-level laptop comes with multiple pre-installed advertisements, such as McAfee or ExpressVPN. It will be forgiven, however, at this price.

HP Victus 15-fa0038nfPerformance

The HP Victus is equipped with an Intel Core i5-12450H, the latest generation from Intel, with 8 cores and 12 threads. It is paired with 8 GB of 3200 MHz DDR4 RAM. This very last generation of CPU must on the other hand play with the Nvidia GeForce GTX 1650 with 4 GB of GDDR6, a mid-range GPU from three generations ago. We also have 512 GB of storage thanks to the Western Digital SN810 SSD, in PCIe Gen 4.

On its own, it’s amazing to see a latest generation CPU and SSD with a card that doesn’t support raytracing or DLSS. If you can easily do without the first, the second can work miracles on entry-level configurations to allow ever more fluid sessions.

General benchmarks

No unpleasant surprises on the performance side of the Core i5. Under Cinebench R23, its scores of 8647 in multi-core and 1653 in single-core put it within the expected average for a configuration of this kind. The same goes for its 6282 points on PCMark 10. The best thing is its SSD, which offers the expected performance for a PCIe Gen 4.

It is obviously on the side of video games that the shoe pinches. The GTX 1650 was a very good mid-range card in 2019. Today, with the evolution of modern games, it is simply outdated. That’s not to say you can’t get something out of it these days: Cyberpunk 2077 runs at 23 FPS on low presets, and Red Dead Redemption 2 can average 35 FPS on high settings.

But here it is: this configuration is already running out of steam, and it will only be a matter of months before it becomes totally outdated. But if you plan to only play less demanding games, like Apex Legends which runs at a stable 60 FPS in medium configuration, it can still do the trick.

Cooling and noise

At least the HP Victus isn’t terribly noisy, even when cranking its fans to max, and doesn’t go above 41°C under heavy load. This makes it a relatively acceptable PC for family use.

HP Victus 15-fa0038nfAutonomy

The HP Victus is equipped with a 52.5 Wh battery, and requires a supplied 150W power supply to operate. Its USB-C port is not compatible with PowerDelivery, so you will have to carry your power supply with you to recharge the device. It also supports fast charging to recover 50% in 45 min.

On a classic office use, including web browsing, writing, and some YouTube videos, the autonomy of the computer runs between 6 and 7 hours of use. This is somewhat disappointing compared to a computer like the ROG Zephyrus G14 which has a much more efficient configuration, but remains decent for a PC gamer.

HP Victus 15-fa0038nfPrice and availability

The HP Victus 15-fa0038nf is already available on the market. It is sold at the official price of 849 euros.