HP’s HyperX Omen 15 isn’t quite the budget-friendly gaming laptop its predecessor was

TechCloseTechPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All TechGadgetsCloseGadgetsPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All GadgetsGamingCloseGamingPosts from this topic will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All GamingHP’s HyperX Omen 15 isn’t quite the budget-friendly gaming laptop its predecessor wasBut it’s decent enough for 1080p gaming in our RAMageddon world.If you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.by Antonio G. Di BenedettoCloseAntonio G. Di BenedettoReviewer, LaptopsPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Antonio G. Di BenedettoAug 2, 2026, 2:00 PM UTCLinkShareGiftIf you buy something from a Verge link, Vox Media may earn a commission. See our ethics statement.Tough sell. | Photo: Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The VergeAntonio G. Di BenedettoCloseAntonio G. Di BenedettoPosts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed.FollowFollowSee All by Antonio G. Di Benedetto is a reviewer covering laptops and the occasional gadget. He spent over 15 years in the photography industry before joining The Verge as a deals writer in 2021.The HP HyperX Omen 15, which I first saw at CES, replaces the HP Victus 15, a longtime bestselling budget gaming laptop. The Victus cost just $800, or less when on sale, and was a good entry point to decent laptop gaming.The Omen 15 has nice little upgrades over the Victus. Its RTX 5050 Laptop GPU can play 2026’s latest games, albeit on low-ish settings. But it’s also got a brighter 16:10 aspect ratio display with higher refresh rate, and a 1080p webcam to make it a little better for non-gaming stuff.I’d call it a working-class gaming laptop, but thanks to RAMageddon, the Omen 15 starts at $1,200 — a far cry from the $800 that made its predecessor so appealing. But laptop prices are way up across the board, and if you want current-gen gaming hardware, this is about as cheap as you’re going to find it.6Verge ScoreHyperX Omen 15 (Intel Core 5 210H, RTX 5050)$1199$1199The GoodAffordable-ish gaming performance in a decent to solid packageFine for 1080p / 1200p gaming and light content creation165Hz refresh rate on a fairly bright screenUpgradeable DDR5 RAM and NVMe SSD (with two slots for each)The BadNot as affordable the HP Victus 15 it replacesOnly one of the USB ports is USB-C — and not even ThunderboltNo face or fingerprint unlockingKeyboard, trackpad, and speakers range from okay to bad$1199 at WalmartHow we rate and review productsComponent report cardScreen: CWebcam: CKeyboard: CTrackpad: DPort selection: CSpeakers: CNumber of ugly stickers to remove: 3Our HyperX Omen 15 review unit is a $1,199 configuration sold through Walmart with an eight-core Intel Core 5 210H “Raptor Lake” chip, RTX 5050 discreet GPU, 16GB of DDR5 RAM, and 512GB SSD. There are pricier Omen 15 configs out there with RTX 5070 GPUs and OLED screens, but that’s like spending Acura money on a Honda Civic. On the lower end, HP still has a Victus 15 config with the RTX 5050 for $900, but it has 8GB of RAM — that’s not really tenable, especially for playing the latest games.The good news is that the Omen 15 with an RTX 5050 is pretty serviceable for playing games at its 1920 x 1200 native resolution. Last-gen games like Control can get a smooth 70 to 80fps on High preset while using DLSS. Cyberpunk 2077 can run on the Ultra preset (no ray tracing) with DLSS set to Quality and get 60 to 70fps— sometimes dipping down to 40 while driving with lots of stuff onscreen. Standard frame generation boosts it to 95 to 105fps, and 70s to low 80s in a car. Multi Frame Gen, which you don’t get on last-gen GPUs, can push that ever further if you don’t mind more “fake frames.”Newer games are a more Medium to Low affair. For exa