Verdict
The HP Omen Transcend 14 is a spectacularly slender and lightweight gaming laptop computer with a stunning OLED screen . The supremely portable form divisor means that it has its demarcation line in term of gaming might but , for those calculate for a honed balance of public presentation , a quality display and a modest footmark , it ’s tremendously appealing .
Pros
Cons
Key Features
Introduction
Gaming laptops have move the slender - and - light road before , but the young HP Omen Transcend 14 is going full steam ahead like few have before .
Designed for enthusiast gamers and God Almighty , it ’s a compact and slender human dynamo with Intelprocessorsand NvidiaGPUsonboard . It ’s direct to offer slew of performance but in a rather lovely - looking laptop that does n’t have average gaming fauna machine vibes .
Plus , if you ’re scant on place or need something you may lug into the government agency , the Omen Transcend 14 is brag as not direct up much room , stool much of a illegitimate enterprise or putting much strain on your back and shoulders . It ’s part of a recent trend of Windows laptop computer shooting for this hunky-dory Libra , with theAsus ROG Zephyrus G14and Lenovo Legion Slim 5i 14 prersenting a similar proposition . As a concept , it ’s winnings , profits , win . But how does that run out in pattern ?
Design and Keyboard
I thought theAsus ROG Zephyrus G16was a stunning - depend , slimline gaming laptop computer , but the Omen overstep 14 leaves it look somewhat plain . It helps that out trial run sample came in a gorgeous Ceramic White culture , with a smooth pulverisation - coat open , pretty understated logos and no excessive RGB lighting beyond the keyboard . It makes sense as a play laptop computer , but it can also look stylish and professional . That ’s not easy to pull off .
As I mentioned , it ’s compact at just 333 x 233.5 mm , and it ’s only 17.9 mm thick . What ’s more , a slightly hacek - forge visibility and some cagy sculpting on the edges means that it expect and feels even slimmer than it is . At first , this seems to have come at the monetary value of connectivity , with just a single Thunderbolt 4 port and a phone socket on the left - hired man - side and two USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type - A interface on the right . Yet hang around in the svelte sinister panel at the rear , between the vents , you ’ll find a 2nd Thunderbolt 4 port used for charging , plus an HDMI 2.1 video recording out .
There ’s no Ethernet for wired networking , but this would sure as shooting have interfered with those aerodynamic line and the inclusion body of Wi - Fi 7 should soften the C . You believably do n’t have a compatible router yet , but this laptop will stomach it if and when you do .
Initially , I had my doubts about the keyboard . It uses low - profile key that put it somewhere between your stock scissor - switch chiclet keyboard and a membrane gaming keyboard , with just a hint of the clickiness of a mechanical cause . afford meter , though , I ’ve develop to love it . The key are large , with a flat top , and seem to fall down easily beneath your fingertips . The action ’s speedy enough for gaming , with 26 - key fruit rollover and anti - ghosting technical school , but also comfortable enough for long stop of typewrite . It ’s also significantly quieter than most mechanical keyboards . With 4 - zone RGB lighting rather than per - tonality , you do n’t get so much control , but you could still have some fun with recreate effect , or simple set it to your pet hue and light tier .
I ’m also a liberal fan of the Omen Transcend 14 ’s touchpad . It ’s giving at 12.4 by 8 cm , with a smooth , almost shabu - like surface and a adequate click mechanism in the bottom corners . It ’s sore enough for Windows and originative apps , and you could even use it for RPG and scheme gaming if you did n’t have a black eye to hand .
HP is one of the top maker for sustainability at the moment , and claims that the Transcend 14 uses recycled cloth and meets the EPEAT Gold with Climate+ assignment for climate alteration palliation and circular manufacture ( where textile used in end - of - life products can be reuse or recycled to make something new ) . The laptop ship in cardboard packaging with no filthy plastic foams or packing to be find .
Display and Sound
If the Transcend 14 take a crap a bully first impression through its elegant design , it only gets just when you turn it on and see the OLED screen . It ’s not just lustrous , with SDR levels of 398.3 nits , but the colours are exceptionally vivid , make just about everything count great . The 2880 x 1800 resolution work out superbly at this screen sizing , giving you very kinky and detailed text , images and video recording , while demarcation is as salutary as it gets .
It also suffer HDR , with up to 500 nit of luminousness , and while that does n’t put you in demented , retina - searing highlights soil , it ’s good enough for game and television in most sensible conditions . I did n’t watch or represent anything on the Transcend 14 that did n’t take care fantastical , and with 100%sRGBcoverage , 99.9%DCI - P3coverage and 97.1%Adobe RGBcoverage , it has the colour astuteness required for both watching amusement and creating it .
The speech sound is n’t quite as strong , but it ’s not far off . It ’s very spacious for such a compendious laptop , with plenty of high-pitched - end detail and a piffling boom and rumble at the low - destruction . All the same , it get somewhat shrill as you push the volume story up , and loses some mid - range limpidity along the way . This is n’t a disaster , though , as HP has thoughtfully bundle in a HyperX Cloud III wireless headset , giving you a brilliant , burly musical note and first-class surroundings location . I ’m not commonly a fan of bundle gambling peripherals , but these beauties are top - notch .
Performance
We received the Core Ultra 7 155H variation of the Omen Transcend 14 , with 16 GB of DDR5 RAM , a 1TBSSDand an RTX 4060 GPU . Given the size and cool systems you ’ll get in such a slimline laptop , this actually seems like a sensitive spec , as you ’re much more probable to see throttle with the quicker Core Ultra 9 185H and RTX 4070 , though you ’d still see high frame rates in triplex - A games .
With this configuration , you’re able to still expect inviolable performance in productivity and originative apps . It ’s a little behind theAsus Zenbook 14 OLEDandAcer Swift Go 14 in Geekbench and PC Mark 10 , with all three using the same CPU , but well forwards in the Geekbench 6 Compute test and 3-D Mark Time Spy , where the other two have to come down back on their integrated Intel ARC GPUs . The Transcend 14 also pulls ahead in the Cinebench R23 and Blender rendering benchmarks , so if you ’re look for something that can handle 3D modelling and rendering , or more complex TV compositing work , the Omen Transcend 14 is a particularly useful choice .
All the same , gaming public presentation is going to be a bigger draw for most masses . Can something this thin and lighter pull off playable physique pace in the latest AAA games ? Well , the answer ’s yes provided you ’re not bear 60fps at maximum options at native resolution . In Returnal , for exercise , you’re able to have 72fps at 1080p larger-than-life preferences , but that fall to 40fps at QHD , and nearer to 30fps at 2880 x 1800 . With Cyberpunk 2077 , you ’re looking at 49.47fps at 1080p Ultra and just under 30fps at 1440p . Whack on DLSS and you’re able to boost those frame rates to 57.52fps and 47.39 fps , but QHD Ultra at 60fps still is n’t going to fly .
Those who ca n’t live with 30fps might also require to debar ray tracing . RT Ultra configurations saw frame rates sink at 1080p to 21.55 and just 36.14 with DLSS enable , though we could hit nearly 60fps with help from DLSS 3.0 frame generation tech .
With light eSports titles , though , there are opportunities to make the most of the 120Hz refresh rate . I got 119fps in Rainbow Six Extraction at 1080p maximum setting , and 7fps at QHD .
Some will find these frame charge per unit mildly disappointing , and you will get improved play performance by upgrading to the RTX 4070 reading of the Transcend 14 , or by just grease one’s palms a bigger laptop with a faster GPU or else . For example , Lenovo’sLOQ 15iuses an older Core i5 processor and the same RTX 4060 GPU , but outperforms the Transcend 14 across Returnal , Cyberpunk 2077 and Rainbow Six Extraction .
But not everyone ’s a hard-core gamer or obsessed with hitting 60fps on Ultra . Tweak the item configurations down to High or Medium or low the resoluteness to 1080p and games still look fantastic on this laptop and its screen , and you’re able to hit high-pitched firmness of purpose by using DLSS .
What ’s more , the Transcend 14 does n’t make an frightful lot of haphazardness . Even when it ’s working firmly , the fans are more of a susurration than a scream over ambient noise levels . When running productiveness apps , you ’ll barely comment them , and they stay on surprisingly restrained while gaming .
HP also benefit a little extra credit by fitting a degenerate 1 TB SSD . Sequential read / write speeds of 6980.57MB / sec and 4541.31MB / sec are not to be sniffed at , and you wo n’t see much faster without go for a dual - drive , RAID 0 setup , which often seems like overkill for mainstream gambling .
Software
HP nearly always preinstalls a range of system and nosology tools , covering update , troubleshooting , printing and scanning and more , along with a test of McAfee Internet Security . With its Omen play personal computer , however , you also get the Omen Gaming Hub app .
This gives you a centralised games library across your dissimilar gambling services , sweetening for video and audio streaming and an optimise feature to make certain that all your system resource are working to run your secret plan , not run background apps and service . It also has a very effective system and storage cleanup tool . Beyond that , there are the usual options to switch performance profile or take manual restraint of cooling , plus some useful monitoring tools . You do n’t get the full overclocking features you ’ll find on some gaming PCs , but there ’s more than enough here to make the most of your chosen configuration .
Battery Life
There is one area where I ’d hoped for slimly more from the Transcend 14 , and it ’s barrage fire life . you could get close-fitting to five and a one-half hours of light situation user from a single charge , according to the PC Mark 10 Modern Office bench mark , but you ’re not last to keep working hard all day long without plugging in at some point .
As such , it is n’t up there with the gold standard of portable efficiency , the MacBook Pro , but for a compact graphically - herculean Windows laptop , it ’s solid enough . For picture streaming , an minute of Netflix with the cleverness turned up drains the battery by around 16 % .
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Should you buy it?
The HP Omen Transcend 14 can do office piece of work , creative work , everyday computing and gaming , and it ’s pretty good to great at all of it . The design looks arresting and the sieve even well , while I ’ve find it a very likable laptop for daily use . Gamers might want more performance , but there ’s enough here to make the latest blockbuster take care near .
Those who prioritise performance over tone and palpate may be underwhelmed by the HP Omen Transcend 14 . There are other laptops at this price point that will give you high frame rates at high and maximal contingent options , and if the cost is a short more dissonance and volume , so what ?
Final Thoughts
HP Omen Transcend 14 is part of a new class of gaming laptop computer for 2024 . There remain key equivalence to be made with theAsus ROG Zephyrus G14and Lenovo Legion Slim 5i 14 , both of which are being tested by Trusted Reviews with now . For now , I can say that other slimline play laptops I ’ve tested like theAsus ROG Zephyrus G16aren’t as sleek and graceful as this one , and the price tag is astonishingly accessible , at least by premium gambling laptop computer standards .
You ’re making some compromises to get that design . Playable frame rate at aboriginal resolution will be out of the question without dropping configurations down to High or even Medium , even with DLSS turn on and Ray Tracing toned down or move around off . You ’ll get more bang per buck from a conventional gaming laptop computer .
But then laptops like the ROG Zephyrus G16 do n’t look as dependable or palpate as portable and comfortable at the Transcend 14 , and I ’m not indisputable even the new ROG Zephyrus G14 nails down the design to the same extent . The late Alienware M16 R2 take care very promising , but we wo n’t know until we give it the full review article .
Right now , there are laptops that can smash the HP Omen exceed 14 on performance , screen sizing of features – check out ourbest play laptopsguide for those – but as an all - round package it ’s a tough one to compete with , lease alone pulsate .
Trusted Score
How we test
Every laptop computer we critique goes through a serial of unvarying checks design to gauge key things including build timber , performance , screen quality and battery lifespan .
These admit courtly semisynthetic benchmarks and written tests , plus a series of tangible - world assay , such as how well it run pop apps .
FAQs
“ Transcend ” was bring in as a line of HP ’s Omen gambling sub - brand . It was introduced with the Omen Transcend 16 and , now , the young 14 - inch model . The laptops aim to offer a more balanced experience , offer superpower and portability .
Despite being a hearty economic value proposition , this laptop computer may stay out of the budget of many student but , for those who can give it , and necessitate intermediate graphical power alongside portability then it ’s a impregnable choice for the classroom .
Test Data
Full Specs
