Gaming or creator notebook? The new and slim HP OMEN Transcend 16-u0095ng wants to meet both demands. With Intel Core i9-13900HX, GeForce RTX 4070 and 32 GB RAM, it has a convincing configuration, while the 240 Hz mini-LED display with 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage and enormous brightness also wants to impress content creators. The perfect hybrid or mediocre in all aspects? Our HP OMEN Transcend 16-u0095ng review clarifies that.
Technical data
| Processor | Intel Core i9-13900HX (24 cores, 1.6 – 5.4 GHz) |
| Graphics performance | Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 (8 GB GDDR6 VRAM); 130 W TDP |
| Display | 16 inch; MiniLED; QHD; 240 Hz |
| Storage | 1 TB SSD (NVMe PCIe 4.0) installed |
| Memory | 32 GB DDR5 RAM (2x 16 GB DDR5-5600 SO-DIMM) |
| Keyboard | Full size with RGB lighting |
| Operating System | Windows 11 Home |
| Connectivity | Wi-Fi 6E; Bluetooth 5.3; Gigabit LAN |
| Dimensions (W x D x H) | 356.5 mm x 269 mm x 19.9 mm |
| Weight | 2.17 kg (without power supply) |
| Price | € 3,586.76 * |
HP OMEN Transcend 16-u0095ng review: design and build
- Sleek, sleek design
- Good workmanship
- right u susceptible to fingerprints
The HP OMEN Transcend 16-u0095ng continues the manufacturer’s design language that we last saw in the Omen 17, which passed through our review course in April 2023. HP also relies on a simple, black design for this model, whose RGB lighting only extends to the keyboard.
In direct comparison to the 17 incher, this notebook is much more compact with dimensions of 366 mm x 269.2 mm x 19.9 mm and weighs a good bit less with 2,173 grams.
The eye-catching Omen logo on the display lid has given way to simpler lettering in this case, however, while the notebook tapers somewhat wedge-shaped towards the front. Generous slots, which extend over almost the entire back and both sides of the laptop, ensure effective cooling.
You can also see the generously sized speakers on the sides, which were once again tuned by Bang & Olufsen and support DTS:X Ultra.
The power supply is a bit smaller than in the case of the Omen 17 and has a charging capacity of 280 watts (compared to 300 watts). However, the power supply is no lightweight with 841 grams.
The chassis is relatively resistant to fingerprints in this model, which I find very pleasant. In general, the build quality is on a high level, although the notebook has the same problem as the Omen 17:
Due to the thin display lid, the screen bounces comparatively strongly when you bump into the table or the notebook. Otherwise, the magnesium-aluminum case makes a robust and high-quality impression.
You can access the notebook’s interior with the help of normal Phillips screws. Here, two SO-DIMMs are available for the working memory. Surprisingly, however, the interior only accommodates one M.2 slot.
Features and ports
- High-end CPU from Intel
- fast DDR5 RAM
- Excellent full HD webcam
In terms of equipment, the HP OMEN Transcend 16-u0095ng does not show any weaknesses. Under the hood is the Intel Core i9-13900HX, the latest high-end chip from Intel with 24 cores and clock rates of up to 5.4 GHz – we already know it from the Omen 17, which makes a comparison very exciting.
In addition, there is an NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 laptop GPU with 8 GB GDDR6 VRAM from the upper mid-range of the Ada-Lovelace generation. 32GB of DDR5-5600 RAM in dual-channel mode and a 1 TB PCIe 4.0 SSD round off the equipment skillfully.
Of course, modern standards like Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX211 (2×2) and Bluetooth 5.3 are also on board. The two loudspeakers from Bang & Olufsen achieve an excellent volume and a detailed sound, thanks to which the HP notebook plays right at the top.
On the other hand, the webcam and microphones have an advantage over the 17-incher. HP’s OMEN Transcend 16-u0095ng has a TrueVision camera with 1080p resolution, an IR camera and integrated dual-array microphones that cut a very good figure in video calls.
Biometric login via Windows Hello is also possible, while the camera also has a privacy shutter. Perfect.
Liking the selection of ports in the HP Omen 16
- Connectors at the back and sides
- two times Thunderbolt 4
- no SD card reader
The connectivity of the HP OMEN Transcend 16-u0095ng is also excellent, which the manufacturer distributes not only on the two sides but also on the back. At the back, the ports that are almost always connected in stationary use are located above all:
- 1x power connector
- 1x RJ45 Gigabit LAN
- 1x HDMI 2.1
- 1x USB-A 3.1 Gen1 (up to 5 Gbps)
HP also installs another USB-A port on the right side of the notebook, while two Thunderbolt-4 ports with USB Type-C and 40 Gbps signal rate (USB power, DisplayPort 1.4 and HP Sleep and Charge), as well as a combined 3.5 mm jack port can be found on the left.
The only thing that content creators will really miss is a card reader. It is completely absent. That’s a shame and incomprehensible at the same time, since the Omen 17 even offered a full-sized SD card reader.
Keyboard and touchpad
- Good keyboard with pleasant pressure points
- Large, convincing trackpad
- customizable RGB lighting
The HP OMEN Transcend 16 relies on a chiclet keyboard that comes without a number pad. The macro keys that we saw in the 17-incher are missing on the left side. In return, there are two additional keys for the Omen Hub and calculator on the right.
HP uses a chiclet keyboard, which neither stands out positively nor negatively. The typing feel and feedback are quite pleasant and precise, and the spacing between the keys is large enough.
The semi-transparent WASD keys are particularly striking, which are of course especially eye-catching with activated RGB lighting. I don’t really like the look, but that’s certainly a matter of taste.
On the other hand, I really like the trackpad, which is very generous with a size of 13.5 cm x 8.6 cm (width x height) and thus offers more than enough room for swiping gestures. The gliding properties are also pleasing
Strong and bright MiniLED display in the HP Omen 16
- QHD resolution with 240 Hz
- Very bright MiniLED display
- Excellent color space coverage
While the display of the Omen 17 was still a big point of criticism in our test, the HP OMEN Transcend 16-u0095ng consistently eliminates this flaw. The manufacturer relies on a 16-inch MiniLED display with a resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 pixels in 16:10 format and a refresh rate of 240 Hz.
The display also scores with a quite low response time of 7 milliseconds and achieves an impressive peak brightness of 1,180 nits (according to the manufacturer). The color space coverage also leaves nothing to be desired: With 100 percent DCI-P3 coverage, the screen is also suitable for color-critical work.
Gamers, on the other hand, will be pleased with NVIDIA G-Sync support, while a DC dimming technology reduces flickering and Eyesafe certification by TÜV reduces blue light to counteract eye fatigue.
The display of the HP OMEN Transcend 16-u0095ng reminds us in many parts of the MiniLED panel that we have already seen in the ASUS ROG Zephyrus M16 (our review). Whereas the ROG Nebula HDR display from ASUS shines a bit brighter and has a lower response time.
However, this should not diminish the impression of the HP notebook: It is definitely one of the best notebook displays par excellence and an absolute pleasure. No matter if in games, streaming, image and video editing or normal office tasks.
Practical test of the HP Omen 16
- Faltering WLAN connection; very high speed
- Aggressive automatic fan control; very good cooling
- Practical companion app
The HP Omen 16 is equipped with Windows 11 Home and sets an expectedly fast pace in practice. One of the first things I noticed, however, is the fluctuating connection strength in WLAN mode.
While my normal notebook has a full connection strength about one meter away from the router, the HP laptop fluctuated constantly despite a shorter distance. However, this does not affect the WLAN speed: The laptop reached the maximum of what my line is capable of during downloads and speed tests.
The fans are also quite aggressive. Although they are usually particularly quiet in idle mode, they repeatedly increase to up to 36 dB(A) when surfing the Internet.
On the other hand, the fans take a comparatively long time to turn up to full speed. While most of the notebooks I tested already turned up the volume in the Cinebench R23 tests, the volume of the HP model remained quite moderate at 40 dB(A).
In gaming mode, the volume increases significantly to up to 50 dB(A), and we even measured up to 55 dB(A) with maximum fan settings.
I really like the notebook’s cooling performance in any case. Even under permanent load, the case only heats up minimally and the entire keyboard area remains comparatively cool. The warm exhaust air is thus effectively blown out of the case at the back.
A practical companion software is the Omen Hub, which comes in a tidy and clear design. Within the app, it is possible to monitor the system components or adjust the keyboard’s RGB lighting, for example.
However, the functions also go far beyond the basics. For example, the CPU can be undervolted, while we can also set our own fan curve if desired or switch between three different performance modes of the notebook – for example, to save battery or to access the maximum potential. It is also possible to set whether the Omen 16 should constantly rely on the dedicated GPU or intelligently switch between internal and dedicated graphics solution depending on the application.
Benchmark: Productivity, System, SSD and Gaming
The HP OMEN Transcend 16-u0095ng naturally had to prove itself in a wide variety of benchmark tests during the test. I measured the productivity and system performance with PCMark 10 and Cinebench R23. PCMark 10 simulates different workflows that include word processing, web browsing and spreadsheets when running the benchmark. Cinebench, on the other hand, measures the speed of the CPU cores individually as well as in multi-core mode.
3DMark, F1 22 including ray tracing or Shadow of the Tomb Raider were used for the gaming tests. I ran all benchmarks three times, and the results shown mark the average value in each case.
SSD benchmark: AS SSD
Our test model is equipped with a Western Digital PC SN810-NVMe-SSD along with a size of 1 TB, which achieves excellent speeds. The PCIe Gen4 SSD achieves around 5,500 MB/s read and 3,100 MB/s write in the test and is thus on par with the Samsung SSD in the ROG Zephyrus M16.
In terms of 4K values and access time, the installed SSD lags a bit behind the competition, but still achieves excellent values that are more than sufficient for demanding games and workflows. This is also reflected in the overall score of 5,361 points. It’s nice to see that HP hasn’t skimped here.
Cinebench R23 and PCMark 10
In the CPU benchmark Cinebench R 23, the Intel Core i9-13900HX also delivers very good results, although you have to look at this in a somewhat differentiated way. The results of 18,935 points in the multi-core and 2,052 points in the single-core test are undoubtedly excellent, but are only marginally higher than those of the Zephyrus M16, whose i9-13900H (without X) has 10 fewer processing cores (and 12 fewer threads).
A similar result was already seen in the test of the Omen 17 (2023), whereby the Omen 16 is minimally ahead in the multi-core test, but is also not able to utilize the CPU’s full potential.
In the holistic PCMark10 system test, the 13900HX and 13900H are once again on par, but the Omen 16 falls off a bit here in the overall as well as in the partial results. While the Omen 17 and M16 scored more than 7,900 points, the HP notebook is slightly behind with 7,329 total points – which is still a very good score.
This is also, but not only, due to the weaker RTX 4070. The Gigabyte AORUS 15X came to a similar result in our test from May 2023.
| Benchmark | Result |
| Cinebench R23 Multi Core | 18.935 pts |
| Cinebench R23 Single Core | 2,052 pts |
| PCMark 10 total | 7,329 pts. |
| PCMark 10 Essentials | 10,706 pts. |
| PCMark 10 Productivity | 10.225 pts. |
| PCMark 10 Digital Content Creation | 9,730 pts. |
Graphics performance: 3DMark and gaming tests
The results from the system tests translate almost one-to-one to the gaming and 3D tests. Even in CPU-heavy games, the fast processor is not enough to compensate for the RTX 4070’s lower clock speeds and 8 GB of VRAM.
In fact, the tests turn out to be somewhat sobering, as in all results we have to admit defeat to the Gigabyte AORUS 15X, which not only turns out to be more compact, but also has the weaker CPU with 16 GB of RAM and i7-13700HX.
This is also due to the fact that HP limits the power consumption to 130 watts TDP, while the Gigabyte notebook can still allow itself 140 watts.
Nevertheless, the HP notebook positions itself below most of the RTX 4070 Mobile GPUs of the competitors and is only minimally ahead of the best RTX 4060 laptops, which is a bit of a pity.
But don’t worry: The whole thing is by no means as bad as it may sound at first. In fact, the given performance is sufficient to render even demanding games in 1080p with maximum details more than smoothly and the HP Omen 16 is also prepared for QHD gaming if you lower the settings a bit.
However, the GPU already reaches its limits with ray tracing in F1 22 and similar titles even in 1080p, but an average of 69 fps is still a pretty good rate. However, it gets a bit more critical with an average of 42 fps in QHD.
| Benchmark | Result |
| Fire Strike Total | 23,121 pts |
| Time Spy Total | 11,181 pts. |
| Port Royal Total | 6,820 pts. |
| Speed Way Total | 2,765 pts. |
| Solar Bay Total | 47,143 pts. |
| F1 22 (Ultra Preset) – 1080p | 69 fps (average) |
| F1 22 (Ultra Preset) – QHD | 42 fps (Average) |
| Final Fantasy XV (High Quality) – 1080p | 10,246 pts |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Ultra) – 1080p | 158 fps |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider (Ultra) – QHD | 113 fps |
Battery Life of the HP Omen Transcend 16
- Up to 5 hours and 45 minutes of battery life
- Up to 1 hour and 25 minutes when gaming
- Fully recharged in about 70 minutes
HP equips the Omen Trascend 16 with a 97 Wh battery that realizes good runtimes. For a gaming notebook, mind you. In the office benchmark of PCMark 10, it lasted 3 hours and 5 minutes at maximum brightness.
In the gaming test, the notebook naturally runs out of juice much faster. It ends after 1 hour and 25 minutes, which is 30 minutes longer than Asus and 20 minutes longer than the Omen 17.
According to the manufacturer, it should be around 5 hours and 45 minutes in idle mode. Charging is also pleasantly fast, the notebook allows itself around 1 hour and 10 minutes for the charging process from 0 to 100 percent.
HP OMEN Transcend 16-u0095ng review: our conclusion
The HP OMEN Transcend 16-u0095ng leaves a good impression in the test and presents itself as a laptop that you should take a look at. Especially the excellent and fast screen, which is also suitable for color-critical work, stands out positively.
The sleek design and general system performance are also pleasing, while the cooling does an excellent job. The software, which allows fine-tuning down to the last detail, also proves to be practical.
However, the gaming performance is a bit disappointing, falling a bit short of most other gaming notebooks with RTX 4070. Otherwise, the Omen 16 presents itself with a convincing overall package that is still a bit too expensive for what it offers.
HP OMEN Transcend 16-u0095ng
Design & workmanship
Display
Features
Performance
Battery
Value for money
87/100
Plain gaming notebook that scores with an excellent display and a convincing system performance. However, the gaming performance lags a bit behind other RTX 4070 laptops.
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