HP Omen Max 16 (2025) Review – A Powerful But Chonky Beast

There’s a growing demand for powerful gaming laptops with 16-inch displays in the market right now. MSI, Asus, and Alienware have been pumping out incredible machines in this category, and the HP Omen Max 16 is here to butt heads with them. Packed with the newest Intel Core Ultra 9 processor and the NVIDIA RTX 5080 graphics, the Omen Max 16 landed on my desk a couple of weeks ago. And after testing it thoroughly, it’s time to discuss whether it’s worth buying this new, premium, and powerful gaming laptop from HP.

Note: This review unit was sent over by NVIDIA. The testing was done internally at Beebom, and the views are our own.

HP Omen Max 16 (2025) Specifications

Design and Build

There’s a good chance that you might mistake the Omen Max 16 as a chunky business laptop, at least until you open the lid. This gaming laptop weighs 2.68 kgs, and over 3.5 kgs if you account for the charger. It isn’t the most portable machine, but power demands that size and weight, so we can manage.

HP Omen Max 16 has a clean and premium aesthetic, with a black aluminum chassis and lid. The matte black A-panel looks clean with the centered OMEN logo, but it attracts fingerprints like Wraith mains attracting third-parties in Apex Legends. The smudges are more prominent on the Shadow Black review unit we have. This can likely be avoided with the Ceramic White color variant. But you could run into a different, more stain-oriented issue on that variant.

Before we flip open the lid, turn your attention to the extended rear (with its fans and ports) that carries the ‘O16’ insignia. We will come back to it in a bit. Now, we can open the lid, which takes minimal effort and can be done using a single finger. The hinges have a solid feel, while the display has minimal flex. It does have flex, though.

On the inside, the keyboard deck is again plastered with the same ‘O16’ logo. Well, seems like HP wants you to remember you are using the Omen Max 16 laptop at all times. That’s not all. It’s the inside that finally reveals that you have a gaming laptop at hand. The pudding keycaps shine bright in RGB colors, and there’s a light bar running along the front lip. More on the keyboard experience later. It looks striking when bouncing off a glass or glossy tabletop, like so.

The keyboard and light bar bring the whole gamer aesthetic together, even if the laptop doesn’t really scream that. So, overall, the HP Omen Max 16 has a muted and dark aesthetic, which is okay at best. I would’ve loved to see more personality on the A-panel, something that Asus does well on their lineups.

Display

As the O16 label already revealed, the HP Omen Max 16 includes a 16-inch display. It is an IPS panel that we have on our review unit, but the more expensive RTX 5090-laden variant packs an impressive OLED panel. Sadly, I couldn’t get my hands on that goodness cus HP doesn’t offer an OLED panel on their $2,500 RTX 5080 laptop, when they should at that price.

Still, the IPS panel on our unit is plenty good. It boasts a WQXGA (2560 x 1600) resolution, 16:10 aspect ratio, and 240Hz refresh rate. The panel also has support for 100% sRGB color space, 3ms response time, and 500 nits of peak brightness.

Overall, the display appeared mostly color-accurate to my eyes, and that’s all I can rely on since I don’t have the color meter at home. I watched the mini series, The Playlist, on Netflix on this laptop over the weekend, and the audio output was decent, too. The volume was loud and crisp, but there’s a definite lack of oomph that you want from a speaker.

As for the brightness, the display was bright enough during my gaming shenanigans indoors in my dimly lit room. Of course, I used headphones in this case. Moreover, the anti-glare coating, paired with the 500 nits of brightness, worked in my favor when working from the cafe near my home.

Furthermore, there are slim bezels on the sides with thicker bezels on the top and bottom. The top features a 1080p IR webcam with a privacy shutter, and it works decently for video calls. It’s no better than any other potato webcam on other Windows laptops. The only upside is that it supports Windows Hello, which enables quick logins using facial recognition.

Performance

A premium design and an excellent display, that’s a great start. However, the belle of the ball has to be the Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX processor and the RTX 5080 graphics card. This is paired with 32 GB of DDR5 RAM and 1TB of PCIe Gen 5 SSD. These are the specs of my review unit, and I know it isn’t the top-of-the-line RTX 5090, but it delivered an immensely fun gaming experience.

You’re reading this review late, but I started testing this laptop when the second Battlefield 6 Open Beta was underway. And what a ride it was. Battlefield 6 was quite optimized in the Beta itself, and the HP Omen Max 16 backed it up pretty nicely. It got somewhere around 140-145 FPS on 2K Ultra settings with DLSS enabled. Coming from Deadlock, it took my eyes some time to adjust to the real-life mil-sim settings, but the destruction was bombastic.

Moving on to more traditional games that we use to test hardware performance, next up, we have Cyberpunk 2077. The game barely runs on just Ultra settings; we all know it. I got a measly 23 FPS while playing at 2K resolution. But we have a saving grace in NVIDIA and its AI technologies.

Turning on DLSS 4 with the Ray Tracing Ultra graphics setting instantly made the FPS jump to 75 FPS on average. It is bumped up to 165 FPS when choosing the Ray Tracing Overdrive option with frame generation, albeit with minor screen tearing (you’d have to be very fussy). The FPS jump with NVIDIA’s DLSS frame generation tech is a common trend you’ll notice below, too. It’s worth using if you have a screen that can make full use of the extra frames to deliver a smoother experience.

Red Dead Redemption 2, my all-time favorite, delivered 90-95 FPS on the Balanced DLSS setting on 2K resolution. The game lurked around 40 FPS in Ultra setting with no DLSS. Doom: The Dark Ages delivered 83 FPS on average with Ultra graphics with Vsync off, no ray tracing. However, the frames were bumped to 120 FPS with Ultra graphics and Ultra performance DLSS settings.

Yeah, I only tested the games on 2K resolution since the RTX 5080 is a powerful graphics card made for 1440p gaming. And I even had the screen to boot, so why bump it down to 1080p? Now, it’s also important to talk about thermals and the rocket engine sound that the fans make when working full-throttle. Using the HP Omen Max 16 2025 in Unleashed mode with demanding games sees the fans go up to 6,000+ RPM, keeping the temps in check. But they are loud, too loud for comfort.

The vapor chamber on the Omen also helps with that, but it’s no respite for users. The keyboard deck felt a little warm at times, and the air vent on the right was working overtime to warm my right hand (mouse hand) in an already overbearing Indian summer. Although the heat dissipation affected me, the gaming experience remained unaffected. During this time, the average CPU and GPU temps were around 92 degrees Celsius and 70 degrees Celsius, respectively.

The laptop is set to Balanced power mode out of the box, and Performance mode is sufficient for daily usage. However, to extract the full performance from the HP Omen Max 16, you will need to move beyond Performance mode. This is where the Unleashed power mode comes into play and is accessible from the Omen Gaming Hub. It lets you tweak the CPU and GPU power usage.

Wondering how the HP Omen Max 16 performs in productivity tasks? Well, we ran all the usual synthetic benchmarks, and here are what the numbers look like after an average of three runs:

These benchmark numbers are top-notch and are in line with some of the best-performing gaming laptops with the same configuration. Check out the screenshots below for reference.

Keyboard and Touchpad

It’s time for the part that left me unsatisfied with the HP Omen Max 16. The laptop brings a full-size keyboard with a number keypad, pudding keycaps, and per-key RGB lighting. The pudding keycaps make the RGB light shine through, giving you that bright gamer energy you need after returning to the lobby off-drop.

Lighting aside, the typing experience on the Omen Max 16 feels lifeless. The pudding keys may have good travel and are soft to the touch, but pressing down on them gives no tactile feedback. It’s not at all fun to write or edit posts on this keyboard. The keyboard still felt good for gaming, which is what this laptop is primarily made for.

Apart from that, there are a ton of keys on the Omen Max 16, so much so that the keyboard feels a little cramped. The tiny up and down arrow keys appear to be fighting for space, with the Copilot key trying to find its way onto the deck. Oh, by the way, the keyboard deck doesn’t have much flex, which is a good thing.

The Omen Gaming Hub also comes in handy here, as you can tune the lighting settings of the RGB keyboard found on the Omen Max 16. It lets you choose the effects, effects speed, and more. The lighting effects can also be changed using the Function and numeric keys.

My experience with the trackpad is quite similar to the keyboard. The Omen Max 16 boasts of its massive size time and again, but the trackpad onboard isn’t as large as I would’ve expected. Also, while all the multitasking and Windows gestures work well, the clicks again aren’t satisfying and there are better touchpads on gaming laptops this pricey out there.

Ports and Connectivity

Putting that aside, there’s a healthy selection of ports on the Omen Max 16. The rear not only houses the ventilation grilles but also a USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, an RJ45 Ethernet port, an HDMI 2.1 output port, and a barrel charging port. And I have a bone to pick with this charging port. It comes loose so easily that it halts the charging and affects your gaming experience, even with minor movements.

The left edge of the laptop includes two USB Type-C ports with PD Charging and DisplayPort 1.4 support and a 3.5mm combo audio jack. The right edge, on the other hand, has a single USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port, and its placement is perfect. Plugging in a wired mouse will be fine and won’t poke your hand.

Battery and Charging

Of course, you all know that most of our time will be spent gaming with the laptop plugged in, but we must test how long it lasts on a single charge. HP Omen Max 16 includes an 83 Whr battery pack, paired with a massive and hefty 330W charging brick with a barrel connector.

In my testing, the Omen Max 16, like most other gaming laptops, doesn’t deliver great battery life. I spent most of my time researching news stories, editing posts, and writing them on this laptop, and it lasted me around 2 hours and 30-40 minutes on average. This is just barely servicable.

Should You Buy the HP Omen Max 16 (2025)?

The HP Omen Max 16 is, without a doubt, a beefy and pricey machine, but still, it’s one of the more premium and powerful gaming laptops in its price bracket. The harmony of Intel’s CPU and Nvidia’s RTX GPU makes sure hardware doesn’t come in the way of your Victory Royales. There is also an excellent and bright display here, which makes gaming and entertainment worth it on this $2,500 gaming laptop.

Still, there are some compromises with the keyboard and trackpad, along with the modest battery life and loud fans, that you will have to live with. However, they are bearable and not a dealbreaker in recommending the HP Omen Max 16. However, the $2,500 price bracket has a ton of similarly-specced and powerful alternatives from MSI and Asus – Vector A18 and Strix G16, respectively.

HP offers SKUs with Ryzen processors and other RTX cards in NVIDIA’s lineup for the Omen Max 16, so you have plenty of options to choose from. So, does this new offering from HP look enticing to you? Would you get this yourself or recommend it to a friend? Let us know in the comments section below.