HP Omen Max 16 (2025)

Promises so much with its cutting-edge components and gorgeous OLED display, but ultimately disappoints

- RAMI TABARI

PRICE As reviewed, £3,333 (£3,999 inc VAT) from hp.​com

Not much makes me happier than a powerful gaming laptop, and the HP Omen Max 16 is one of the most powerful around. With an Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX CPU and top-of-the-line Nvidia GeForce RTX 5090 graphics, it's an unbeatable specification - and the OLED screen is a treat for the eyes, too.

The design is chunky - that's inevitable for a 16in gaming laptop - but its 2.7kg weight is on the heavy side even compared to its competitors this month. The overall shape is clean and simple, but is decorated with several attention-seeking design features: aside from the lightbar and RGB keys, there's a glossy black Omen logo on the lid, and another “O16” logo below the keyboard, along with text in an alien alphabet that I'm not going to try to decipher.

The bezels on the display are pleasingly thin, with the webcam on top and a much appreciated privacy shutter. HP scatters plenty of connections around the sides, with twin Thunderbolt 4 ports, two USB-A 10Gbits/sec ports, HDMI 2.1, Ethernet and a headphone/microphone jack - not to mention Wi-Fi 7.

But the big attraction is the screen. The OLED panel stunned me with its fever dream of colours, while a native resolution of 2,560 x 1,600 and 240Hz refresh rate means that games will look both sharp and smooth.