HP Victus 15.6 i5 Gaming Laptop, 15.6" FHD 1920*1080 144Hz, Intel Core i5-12450H, NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050, 32GB RAM, 1TB SSD, Backlit KB, Touchpad, SD Card Reader, Webcam, HDMI, Wi-Fi 6, W11 H, Blue

5/24/25Just UPDATEing to say: it’s been a month and I’m only more pleased with my purchase. Everything I said initially still applies, it’s zippy, it’s big in terms of hard drive space, it runs the games I want at max settings without lag or chugging. It really is everything I need and so far the only issues I’ve had have been Microsoft/Windows related, not hardware stuff (onedrive… freaking onedrive… ugh -_-).I have some further thoughts now that I’ve had this longer, and though they don’t change my personal review, I think it’s worth commenting on. First, this thing weighs a surprising amount for a laptop its size? My prior laptop was slightly *larger* and definitely weighs less. It doesn’t bother me, I don’t expect it to travel much further than my desk to my bed, my bedroom to the living room or kitchen, and occasionally by car to a friend’s place across town, but if you want to say, toss this into a backpack and haul it from class to class, or even travel with it, keep in mind, it’s kind of hefty.Second, I don’t understand the vendetta laptop makers have against providing usb connections, considering how many things require it. There’s only 2 standard usb ports, (and for me, one is dedicated to my mouse dongle, so effectively 1) and 1 small USB C one. USB hubs are relatively cheap, but it’s still another expense and external device to get and carry when it’s such a predictable need, this will never not annoy me.Third, yeah, the battery isn’t great. Obviously worse for gaming than if you’re just browsing online or working, but for it being a brand new battery on a brand new laptop, I was looking forward to being cord free all day and it definitely falls short of that. Again, for my purposes around the house, not really an issue, but if you’re looking for a college laptop, it’s something to think about. I wouldn’t expect this to last all day without bringing the charger.Fourth, a minor thing but something I’d forgotten about until I’d had this for nearly the whole month, but the keyboard *is* backlit. I feel like there might have been confusion about that, with the specs saying it is, but some reviews (or maybe it was a different laptop?) that said it’s not? It wasn’t on by default when I received it, my old laptop didn’t have a lit keyboard so it wasn’t something I’m used to, and I touchtype just fine, so I honestly just forgot it had been a thing I was looking forward to, but once I finally remembered, it only took me a second to figure out how to turn it on (FN+f4). Once on it stays on until you manually turn it off again.Other than that stuff, my first impressions have held. I love this thing so far and barring catastrophic failure, I’m very happy I bought it and would recommend it to anyone whose needs (and budget) are in line with mine.———-OG review 4/23/25Based on the first couple of hours, I'm very pleased--and writing this review on the laptop in question while I wait for some of the files I like to have downloaded to finish migrating. Arrived quickly, the box was perfect, the laptop looked perfect, the battery was completely dead which concerned me a bit, but it started charging and turned on as soon as I plugged it in. (And I wouldn't normally comment on those aspects, except that it seems like the only versions of this laptop that are available as I write this are from third party sellers with mixed reviews, and I was very hesitant to order such a--for me--big ticket item from a third party.) But like I said, the computer itself looked great, no sign of it being a return or anything, and it started charging and turned on as soon as I plugged it in. I did the setup which predictably took a couple of hours with updating and downloading my main apps and such, no problems. So far it's pleasingly zippy.I loaded Elder Scrolls Online and was able to run around a bit with no lag even in heavily populated areas that made my poor older laptop lag to heck and back, but that's the most intense gaming I really do, so I while I wanted something to ideally last me a while, I'm not exactly a power gamer. For my purposes it looks like this laptop will do everything I wanted, including not immediately be out of date for anything I want to play for at least a couple of years.I was hesitant about getting an HP, I've never had one, I've really only used Acers at home, but my dad has long used HP and as his first-line tech support, I've absolutely loathed every one he's ever owned and tried to talk him out of them every time he's needed a new computer, mostly because of all the bloatware, much of it that I was never able to remove. The first thing I did when I was actually in was take some stuff off and set some stuff I couldn't be bothered to verify the use of to at least not run on setup, time will tell how much it ends up annoying me. Again, at the moment I've only had this laptop a few hours.The screen is nice, the sound is fine, I rarely rely on laptop speakers, most of the time if I care about what I'm listening to I'll be on headphones. Looks like it should run the games I care about with no problem. I couldn't beat the price, which is why I took the chance on the HP. My old Acer still runs everything I care about well enough, but it's too old to update to Win 11 (which I didn't really want anyway... sigh) but Microsoft keeps emailing me about them killing support for 10 in October and with current events exponentially raising prices of everything across the board, especially tech, whatever they try to insist, I've been feeling increasingly panicked about replacing my older laptop ASAP. Which is also why I'm writing this review based on only a few hours of use, something I won't usually do. If you're like me, panic shopping because you know you'll need something in the next year or so and you're terrified prices are going to skyrocket, at least from my initial impression, this is a good investment for simple gaming on a budget. If this thing dies say, thirty-one days from now, the second it's out of the return window, believe me, I will update this review immediately.

This machine is a steal at $630. 32GB RAM, RTX 3050. 1TB SSD and a man is it sleek. The machine is very easy on the eyes with a gorgeous IPS 144 refresh rate monitor. Machine came out of box lightning fast. This setup would easily cost you 850+ no wonder they are almost gone. Don't wait to buy this if youre looking for a mid range gaming laptop with tons of processor power for multitasking and video editing. The sound quality is amazing too. Comes out of box with gamepass ready, windows 11 (not the S version) FULL HD (FHD) many budget models are not 1080p so be careful when you see nice specs and don't realize that hardware is only powering 720p. I'm very happy with this purchase!

This laptop is actually pretty good for a budget laptop!Pros:•Blue color is nice•It'll play Dragon Age Veilguard, Diablo 4, and Baldurs Gate 3. Not on ultra settings but it still looks good and runs well for multiple hours (8+) at a time. Gaming is pretty good.•It doesn't get too hot but I also bought a lap rest with fans to mitigate that.•Sound quality is decent from internal speakers, but I tend to use my headphones.•Screen quality seems good to me, no touch capabilities but who cares.Cons:•Keyboard backlight doesn't change color at all.•Not enough ports for my liking but that can be easily remedied.• Battery life when not plugged in is pretty much non existent. Not really a huge deal for me personally but maybe invest in a spare charger or external battery of some sort.All in all I recommend if you're looking for something on a budget that isn't garbage to play games on. 👍

I am not super knowledgeable on computer stuff, so I had to do a bit of research on what's good regarding them. I will update this review in a month on how I like the computer then. So far, it's SO worth it. Yes, it is a little heavy but I don't plan on carrying it anywhere so that isn't an issue. So far, I only have Minecraft on it and the fan was a bit loud, but it's not unexpected. I can adapt to it especially knowing it's for a good reason. This is meant to be a simple review and not an in depth one. I like the laptop so far. Will update later.Edit. It's been one month. I was hesitant to buy this because of the price and some of the reviews. However, I have great news. I still have it, and it still works great. My Minecraft phase is over and now I've been getting into adobe premiere and After Effects. It runs incredibly well on games and Adobe software. The fan can get loud doing certain things, but that's something I can ignore overtime. The battery isn't the best still, but it's understandable for the product. I have two notes that might help someone because it frustrated me at first. First being the trackpad occasionally not working. It's not that the laptop is broken, you may have just turned off trackpad accessibility. That little image on the F11 button is the trackpad. You can either press that alone or hold ALT while pressing it. My second note is having to hold ALT while using the functionality keys. You can change this in the BIOS settings using a quick yt tutorial. Third, unprompted note, is the keyboard light. That button is F4. Same rule applies to that as the trackpad button. I hope this comment helped someone. (: I am super happy with my purchase. ps again, after carrying it around for a month, yall just too weak sorry lol (kidding)