HP is introducing a new entry into its PC gaming line with the Omen 16 Slim. As the name indicates, it’s a 16-inch gaming laptop with a “slim” profile — the thinnest portion being 20mm / 0.79 inches. What its product branding doesn’t immediately tell you is that the Omen 16 Slim is aimed at a midrange spec, using an Nvidia RTX 5070 GPU, where the bigger, badder, heavier Omen Max 16 tops out with the RTX 5090.
The Slim is meant to be more portable than its higher-tier siblings. I presume it will also be cheaper — in addition to a lower-spec GPU, it opts for lower-cost extras, like a four-zone RGB keyboard instead of customizable per-key lighting. But HP didn’t have finalized pricing in my brief time checking it out at a recent preview event. At the time, HP reps only disclosed that it’s expected to launch in June.
The Omen 16 Slim features a 16-inch 2560 x 1600 IPS display capable of 240Hz refresh and 3ms response time. It uses Intel Arrow Lake CPUs, starting with a Core Ultra 5 225H and topping out with a Core Ultra 9 285H. As for its GPU, you can go up to Nvidia’s RTX 5070 — which is the bottom end of the current crop of 50-series cards until, as is expected, Nvidia launches new entry-level options. For storage and RAM, the Omen 16 Slim starts at a typical 512GB and 16GB, respectively.
While HP’s new laptop may be slimmer than its other 16-inch offerings, at 0.79 inches and 5.4 pounds, it isn’t the slimmest or lightest around. Razer’s $3,000 Blade 16 for 2025 trimmed some of its fat from previous years and is both 0.20 inches thinner and 0.75 pounds lighter than the Omen 16 Slim. But even if the Slim isn’t the slimmest around, it maintains a decent port selection, with a 10Gbps USB-C with Power Delivery and DisplayPort 1.4, a 10Gbps USB-A, two 5Gbps USB-A ports, ethernet, 3.5mm headphone / mic combo jack, and HDMI 2.1. It’s also got Wi-Fi 6E support.
There really isn’t one thing about the Omen 16 Slim that reaches out and smacks me with excitement, but it seems on paper to have a respectable set of specs and features — especially if the price is right. Hopefully we’ll find out what that price is well ahead of the expected June launch.
Aside from the new 16 Slim, HP’s Omen laptop line will soon see refreshed versions of the Omen 17, Omen Transcend 14, and HP Victus 15. The Omen 17 and Omen Transcend 14 will both be configurable with the RTX 5070, while the Transcend 14 gets Intel’s Arrow Lake and the Omen 17 opts for AMD Strix Point (and is still stuck with a 16:9 screen — yuck). The HP Victus 15 is down in the bargain basement, to be offered in a wide range of configurations as low as the two-generations-old RTX 2050 — though HP’s spec sheet does list it with the option for a “Nvidia GeForce RTX Next Gen Laptop GPU.” Perhaps an RTX 5050 or 5060?
Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge
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