I don’t usually opt for white tech, mostly because I have the nasty tendency to stick my expensive stuff where it’s dustiest. But HP’s new Omen Transcend 14 and 16 gaming laptop might push me over the edge. Its bright-as-hell rainbow LED keyboard does something for me against that pearly white scheme, but ignore the book’s cover and look under the hood. The thin, 14-inch gaming PC seems loaded with a fair bit of depth.
You can’t talk about the new Omen Transcend without first talking about its small silhouette. It’s just under 18mm tall, or 0.7 inches, like the slim 2023 Omen Transcend 16. The overall footprint is still notable, as it’s only a little bigger than your average MacBook Air. Otherwise, the Transcend 14’s 3-pound, 12-by-9-inch frame is even more portable than its bigger brother for gaming on the go. There’s one HDMI 2.1 port, two sets of USB Type-A and Type-C, and a headphone jack.
The 14-inch model has gone through a pretty heavy facelift compared to the 16. Instead of the highlighted WASD keys, the keyboard is now a single strip awash with LEDs.
The Transcend 14 is the smaller version of the Transcend 16, but despite the size difference, the new Omen is stacked with either an Intel Core Ultra 7 or 9 CPU, maxing out at 5.1 GHz with 16 cores and 22 threads. For a GPU, it’s keeping up pace with a Nvidia GeForce 4000 level card up to an 8GB 4070. You also have the choice of 32 or 16 GB of LPDDR5x RAM. As a plus, it now supports WiFi 7 (which is still awaiting certification from the Wi-Fi Alliance) and Bluetooth 5.4 at the time of writing.
The screen isn’t a slouch, though don’t expect top-of-the-line. The 14-inch, 2.8K OLED display goes from 48 to 120 Hz with a .2 ms pixel response time. It’s hard to say how that might compare to other small gaming laptops since we still don’t know how much the Transcend 14 costs (the Transcend 16 starts at $US1,700 MSRP). Still, it’s a fine screen for most typical gaming needs, especially with the variable refresh rate.
The PC maker promises you’ll be able to game longer on the latest Omen compared to its past PCs. HP said you’ll get up to 11 and a half hours of battery life, though that number was tested with the MobileMark 25 benchmarking tool. The lifespan will probably dip with more intensive games while running all the keyboard LEDs, and the fans are going at full blast, but it’s still a strong promise for overall longevity. Past Transcend 16s promised just under eight hours, which could get cut down to six or as low as three depending on activity.
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