HP Pavilion Gaming 11th Gen Intel Core i5 15.6″(39.6cm) FHD Gaming Laptop & Alloy Origins (Red) – US Layout

 Was given scrap materials. Noone has still come to pick up this

Looks awesome.very fast.

Wifi signale received very poor

I spent a lot of time researching for a good budget gaming laptop, and finally picked the Victus 16.
I’m happy for taking this decision! Because the Victus turned out to be an allrounder! Not just for gaming and entertainment purposes, but also for full-fledged professional usage!
There was not a single review when I bought it, so I’ll write a detailed review for you guys!

So, if you’re looking for a powerful gaming + professional machine? This is it! Bang for the price!
I got it on Independence Day sale around 68k, trust me… it’s worth it! I’ll try to explain the good things and the bad! Decide for yourself!

Victus 16 (i5 + RTX 3050) – “The Ultimate Gaming and Professional Machine!”

Design – Stunning & Classy!
The Looks are the main highlight of this laptop, the sleek and modern design is the first thing that catches your eye! It has 16.1” big display and comes in a slim chassis compared to all other gaming laptops, making it a great option for professionals who want a laptop that looks great in the office. The lovely navy blue color and matte finish gives it a classy and sophisticated look at this price range. You need not worry about the build – as it’s high-quality plastic so the build is pretty Solid & balanced but laptop is on the Heavier side! so working on a desk is advisable. Even though it has a slim design the Thermals are Excellent! This Cooling system is best among all the other laptops in this segment. The RTX 3060 variant of this laptop has a better cooling but out of budget!
So does the Screen Wobble? Yes, it does but very little! is it a concern? No! It’s not a big issue as others portray, because as soon as you place it on your desk, the so-called wobble disappears, unless you intentionally shake or move the laptop around. The hinge is not promising, time will say.
Overall, Nice build with classy design. Definitely Futuristic!

Display – Good, Big & Smooth!
Keep your expectations low as the Display on the Victus 16 is big, smooth, and definitely good enough for a gaming machine in this price range, it’s ‘just’ good! but not that great! hope you don’t expect a 2k MacBook display at this price range! But for a gaming machine it’s gorgeous! offers a great viewing experience. The colors are vibrant and the images are sharp and I must say about the smoothness of the display, wow! on 144hz Refresh rate – everything feels buttery smooth, from navigating windows with its animations to gaming – its pure bliss! Another Nice thing – I was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the display I got in my unit straight out of the box; I honestly didn’t expect that, way more impressive than I thought. The blacks were pure blacks, no issues such as backlight bleeding or dead pixels. But after a week I noticed some screen flickering happening after I switched to 60hz so I rolled back to 144hz, will update you further on that.
The downsides to the display are the brightness levels max. 250 nits, it’s average! At least 300 or 400 nits will ideally be a sweet spot! It’s not that great for outdoor visibility and it is advisable only for indoor use! But, it’s bright enough for rooms at home or office!
If you are into Graphic Designing & Color Correction and stuff, you should get a secondary monitor, you’ll probably be having one, as this display is not that accurate for professional stuff, it’s definitely something to consider when looking to get this machine for specific uses.
But for Pure “Gaming” – this big vibrant display + high refresh rate – this is beautiful!

Performance – Perfect CPU + GPU – Overall Beast Combination!
I got the RTX 3050 variant of the Victus, it’s a powerhouse, thanks to its combination of a powerful CPU – the i5 11th Gen (11400H) is a 6-core processor that is perfect for multitasking, coding, gaming, editing, rendering, and most professional tasks. It can handle heavy workloads with ease and is more capable of running demanding applications and games smoothly. It just takes 3-5 seconds to boot up (after I removed unnecessary apps and bloatware, and disabled most start-up apps). During my return period – I tested the CPU a lot and pushed it to its limits (like stress test, benchmarking & utilizing the full potential through softwares) and it was smooth as butter and the temperature never crossed 70°c – very Impressive! It’s always around 43°c probably because I live in a hill station but still, if the temperature is your concern, need not worry the thermal management is also great! Even then, there is an option – the fans can be turned to max speed in the Omen Hub, which cools down the laptop instantly (not advisable but, works well). Its 2023, I could have gone for a 12th Gen CPU but there really isn’t a big difference from the 11th Gen, also out of my budget. If you plan to get the Ryzen 5600H version of this same laptop, is also a great choice. Both i5-11400H & Ryzen-5600H perform very similar in day-to-day tasks and real-life usage. I found that Intel was being the sweet spot for almost everything!

GPU – RTX 3050 (4GB VRAM and 75w TDP) – Highlight of this Device!
Can handle all the latest and demanding titles till date with ease! I experienced slight heating during gaming, but the laptops cool’s itself down and does not thermal throttle, which is a good thing.
It’s 2023 and you’re looking for good gaming device with good graphics card, you might be tempted to go for the GTX 1650 as its cheaper, but let me tell you, my people, the RTX 3050 is a far better option at a similar price, offers a lot more bang for your buck. It has better performance, more FPS – which means you’ll be able to play demanding games at higher frames per second smoothly. It also has more CUDA cores, which are like the brains of the graphics card and make it faster and more efficient. It can even handle upcoming games at medium-high settings so overall the RTX 3050 is Future Proof for Indian Gamers! I agree the 4GB VRAM isn’t sufficient enough but considering the price you won’t get 6GB variant here, but it’s okay it handles current and past titles pretty smooth. I get around 80-100+ fps (overall rounded) on most games with medium-high settings and never experienced any lag so far. Also, you don’t get a MUX switch! You don’t necessarily need the MUX switch to get the most out of your GPU, just hook the laptop to an external display via the HDMI port, will do the trick. Overall, The Performance is Outstanding!

RAM and Storage – Fully Upgradable!!! 2 Ram Slots + 2 SSD slots
Out of the box – it comes with 8GB RAM (3200MHz DDR4) in one slot, the other slot is empty (Both Upgradable). I highly recommend you to get another 8GB stick for the empty slot, bringing the total to 16GB for better performance in games and other softwares. Although I feel on Windows 11 the RAM management is very poor, Microsoft has to optimize it or you should definitely get that extra RAM stick. The primary OS runs on a 512GB NVME SSD – it’s pretty fast, no lags. You get another slot to upgrade. Note: SSDs are not meant to be used as storage devices, advisable to keep your storage files on a separate Hardisk. You can get a faster SSD if you wish to upgrade in the future. I just love upgradability!

Keyboard + Trackpad & Connectivity – Fabolous
The typing experience on the full-size keyboard with a numpad was enjoyable and had a satisfying key travel. Overall, I can say it’s as good as the Macbook’s keyboard! Yes, very good! But the backlighting is too bright, also there is no option to dim it, sometimes it’s a distraction.
The Trackpad is large and responsive (nice choice as no other gaming laptop’s offers this!) I really loved the smoothness and the gestures work really well! Impressive!
Connectivity is also great, the Bluetooth and the Intel (Wifi 6E) card gives great reception and stable connection, no drops! (Mentioning this because, I have seen some AMD versions facing wifi issues having poor Realtek cards).

Camera – Meh! Okay! That’s what you get on a Gaming machine for this Price.
Below Standard 720p camera is wide but has adds lot of noise to it! Taking video calls with this feels like 5 years behind! Probably not for streamers. Camera quality is being compromised here and not up to par.
On the other hand, the Audio quality is very impressive, the built-in speakers have superb sound output. Notable point is that it’s Not loud enough for movies or loud music playback but the sound quality is top notch! You can trust me I’m a Music Producer myself! just enable B&O Audio, you can adjust the EQ and customize the sound to your preference. Of course, the Sound is processed, so Music Producers, don’t get frustrated, just “disable” the audio output from B&O, it bypasses processed signals so gives you Raw output! Enjoy!!!

Battery – Average!
The Battery is quite underwhelming as even the big 70whr just lasts for about 4 hours (from 100 to 10 percentage) for casual browsing, video calls, excel and office work. But, if you compare with all the other gaming laptops in this segment, this one is promising and will get you extra hours of juice to finish the day! But don’t expect too much as gaming laptops have less battery life overall! – for causal work it’s fine, but if you plan to game on it, Pls Don’t! (It is not recommended to game on battery power). If you still want more juice then you can lower the display’s refresh rate to 60hz and turning off the keyboard backlighting which can also help extend battery life (keyboard backlight consumes more juice than normal, this needs a fix HP!!!)
But we got more plus – The laptop charges quickly as it comes with a heavy 200w adapter (which adds to the already heavy laptop! If you travel, then Your back will hurt).

Extra Goodies – MS Office 2021 (student & home) comes pre-installed with lifetime license.

Conclusion

Pros:
Fantastic Design in this segment
Good Hardware and build
Solid Performance for price
Display in this segment

Cons:
Battery life is average – since it’s a gaming machine! (Other gaming laptops are much worse).
Camera is below average, could have done better (720p with noise, is pretty outdated).
Heavy (noticeable when you travel a lot).

I would genuinely recommend this laptop which handles both gaming and professional work with ease. It is a great option for someone looking for a reliable, high-performing laptop without breaking the bank. Classy Look + Beast CPU & GPU Package + 2 RAM Slots + 2 SSD Slots + 70whr Battery + Good Built + Good Thermals + Affordable Price!

I was a little sceptic about the seller Appario, but turned out to be a genuine purchase! Received product well and good. Thanks!