HP - Pavilion 16.1" Gaming Laptop - Intel Core i5 - 8GB Memory - NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 Ti - 512GB SSD + 32GB Optane - Shadow Black

This laptop has exceeded my expectations. Firstly getting it for $699.00 instead of its $899.00 usual price made me pull the trigger. I wanted a thinner laptop that could be used to play games on that still provided a great gaming experience. The 1660 ti with maxq works very well in this laptop. It was easy to get the back off of it and upgrade the memory and put an extra 2tb of storage in it. I spent $160.00 to upgrade those 2 items. A 2tb Seagate 2.5inch drive and 16gb of ddr4 G Skill memory in the form of 2 8gb sticks. Out of the box the memory comes with 2 4gb sticks of ddr4 3200 speed. The i5 processor is more than enough to run this laptop without it sounding like a rocket heading into space. Even when the fan does spin up it isn't super annoying. Hp did a great job managing the Temps in this and it shows to be able to play games at high to ultra settings well since the GPS isn't being tanked by rtx settings. The 144 hz screen was another selling point that made me buy this and it is a buttery smooth experience. It's bright and I haven't had to make any adjustments to get a bright vivid picture. The Intel on-board graphics shares itself with the nvidia gpu so out of game its utilizing the Intel graphics. This means that there is limited adjustments in the nvidia control panel and most if not all if your color enhancements have to be made through the Intel graphics program that's pre-installed. I did HDMI out to an external display that ran at 1440p resolution and to my surprise when I did I was able to have the laptop display this same resolution. When connected to an external display the full functionality of the nvidua control panel is displayed and you can adjust the desktop color settings. I felt it was important to mention this as I thought the nvidia control panel was broken. After doing some searches I discovered that it's just the Intel graphics settings on the laptop override the nvidia ones. Start up is quick with the 512gb ssd that came with this unit. I did not see a protected partition that had the OS recovery on it so I would imagine that you would have to do a recovery online should the need arise. I also do not notice much difference with the 32gb of octane memory but maybe it just needs to learn my habits before it does. The wifi card is not a wifi 6 one but it dioes connect well and maintains a strong signal. I find that the laptop lid must be in the open position to get the best signal. The keyboard is easy to both type and game on. Having 2 USB type 3.1 ports and a USB C port allows for plenty of connectivity. This does have a full size SD card slot and the card does go all the way in so it won't catch when this laptop is stored in a sleeve. It fits in a 15.6 inch sleeve which is really nice and the screen has super thin bezels on the sides. It passes the 1 finger test when opening and doesn't flop when being picked up. The Webcam is 1080p and is at the top bezel providing a great Skype experience. The backlit keyboard is well lit and allows the user to to have 3 brightness modes. Full bright, mid bright, and no brightness. Unfortunately the only drawback and gripe I have is it shuts the backllight off after about 20 seconds and you have to either touch the touch pad or press a key on the keyboard to get it back on. There is no way to set it to stay on for any longer length of time. It also will be green forever. This is fine with me as I just need to see the keys while I am in a dark room and green gives a good glow to them. It is a fully plastic unit so don't expect a metal chassis like the Omens have. It doesn't feel cheap though and to get a 16 inch screen that looks this good and comes with a 144hz refresh rate is pretty sweet. This doesn't have gsync but I haven't had any tearing issues. I have played forza horizon 4, Shadow of the Tombraider, Doom Eternal, and the new Medium game. All of these games have run great on this budget gaming laptop. This was an excellent choice and in my opinion the best option out there at this price point. If you can catch it on discount it's an even better deal. This is my honest opinion and I am not being paid by hp or any one else. This is my experience and my opinion. I am very happy I bought this. It's a well put together machine. I highly reccomend this product to anyone looking for an entry level gaming laptop that isn't going to weigh a ton. The included power brick is enough to run this cpu and gpu without power drain. Just buy it and I guarantee you will be glad you did.

Best value for the price on a gabimg laptop.The battery life is small and the fans make a lot of noise since its only on one heatsink the cpu and gpu but it keeps the temperature static below 70!

I recently sold my gaming PC and went for this laptop as a means of being more portable with my gaming and streaming and I am absolutely loving this laptop. The specs are perfect for what I do. The processor is clocked a little lower than I would prefer, but the 10th Gen i5 makes easy work of streaming, browsing, gaming, and anything else you'll be using this laptop for. For graphics, the 1660 Ti is a FANTASTIC piece of hardware to have inside of this laptop. Some games you will have to turn down graphical settings to reach the 100+ FPS to take full advantage of the 144hz panel (MW/Warzone being a prime example). However, for other titles like the Master Chief Collection it easily tears past 150 FPS on the original graphics settings. The only downside for this machine would be the amount of RAM it comes with in the box. 8 GB is plenty for older titles, but if you want to have multiple applications and a game open at the same time, you'll need to upgrade. I recently upgraded to 16 GB but have not tried it out in any games as of writing this review. Overall, I would DEFINITELY recommend this laptop! It's a fantastic first gaming machine and an even better portable alternative to a gaming desktop.

Happy with the laptop, it's a good machine to start PC gaming with and can handle all my daily activities with it as well. The keyboard is nicely laid out along with a dedicated number pad section. While the green keyboard and logo on the lid are not subtle, it doesn't scream "GAMER" loudly when carrying it around in public compared to other laptops. I've signed up for XBox Game Pass and the imagery of latest 'Ori' and Halo Master Chief Collection games are spectacular on this laptop. When not using it for games, it's super quiet, fans are not coming on. I can't speak to battery life as I normally have it plugged in. I purchased my previous Dell Inspiron 15" laptop 5+ years ago and noticed that the physical size of the two laptops are roughly the same. I have attached pictures of the laptops side by side as well as a 2019 silver 15" Inspiron for comparison. The older Dell and this HP shows how much thinner screen bezels are these days. My only complaints are around RAM - - it only comes with 8GB - 2x4GB - Upgrading to 16GB requires completely replacing the existing memory. - Some discrepancies on maximum amount of memory - HP's site says 16GB - 2x8GB, but yet other current HP pavilion laptops accept up to 32GB - 2x16GB. Reading the Questions/Answers on this page show similar conflicting answers by "HP Team members" and customers. Overall, still a good laptop, especially when it's on sale and seeing it beats out other laptops with similar specs.

I've had this laptop for almost 2 years now, and it still runs just as well as it did when I first bought it. I can run all of my favorite demanding games like Fallout 4, AC Valhalla, etc. (so long and there's not too much going on in the tray) and even with the fans on, it's not too noisy. Beautiful, smooth graphics, smooth display and transition, I adore this laptop still. I also use it for work, on a secondary Windows account, and even with both of them signed in and background apps running, I can still get my work done smoothly. The battery life has aged a little, as I mainly have it plugged in, but even when it's not, I still get hours in without having to plug it back up. 10/10 laptop, and definitely well worth the money. I thought by now I would've had to replace it or had it repaired, but I'm nothing but impressed. I can't recommend this enough, for new or seasoned PC gamers.

I got this on sale for like $750 a year ago and it has really impressed me so far. I knew I wouldn’t be maxing out warzone or other demanding new games but I was honestly surprised how well it handles WoW TBCC. Almost all ultra settings and 150% rendering keeps me ~120fps average with many areas locked in at 144hz in tbc classic wow. I also just installed warzone as a test and although I sacrificed a lot of texture and lighting I was able to stay smooth at 115hz with full clip range. I should also add that overclocked or not I never saw above 80*C, also didn’t notice much gain but I can’t be mad. If you understand that this is not a desktop I can’t see how anyone could complain for the price. The screen is honestly one of the best I’ve seen also. Maybe a tiny bit dim in well lit rooms but it’s so vibrant in med-low light that I haven’t even tried calibrating. Buy this or step up and drop 2k+ on something with an RTX 30xx

We were able to snag a great deal on this gaming laptop. I am able to edit videos for a YouTube channel with little to no issues, and my son is able to play all of the PC games he desires with no problem. I will say, I had to return the first PC because it literally crashed the first night we had it. But it was no problem to return to Best Buy and get one that works appropriately. We've now had this one for almost 2 months and it has gotten a TON of use between my son and myself. If you are looking for a gaming computer at a great price, you'd be hard pressed to find another.

I was on a budget and needed to upgrade fast. Luckily I came across this beast and for the price it is a steal. So far its capable of handling anything I throw at it whether it’s music producing, multitasking or gaming. The battery life isn’t too great. I tend to keep it plugged in when producing or gaming but overall for the price, graphics card and upgradeable memory, you really can’t go wrong. It’s a baby HP Omen