This thin and light gaming laptop review of the HP Omen Transcend 14 is a little different from the rest. Mainly because until now, such laptops were mainly of three kinds. You either had the thin and light laptop with a dedicated GPU but it wasn’t a gaming laptop per se. Or you had the thin and light laptop with a really good iGPU, preferably any AMD APU with a Radeon 780M GPU. Third type of laptops are actual gaming laptops with applicable thermals and specifications.
The last category is pretty rare. Because, a thin and light laptop with full-fledged gaming internals and a gross weight of just 1.6kg is rarely seen, because it is a hard combination to pull off. Notably, the ASUS Zephyrus G14 is one similar product, weighing in at just 1.5kg. And now, with the Omen Transcend 14, HP has tried to do just that. So, have they succeeded? Here’s my answer.
HP Omen Transcend 14 Thin And Light Gaming Laptop Review: Design, Build Quality, Keyboard And I/O
The HP Omen Transcend 14 is a thin and light gaming laptop with compact dimensions, featuring a width of 31.3 cm and a depth of 23.3 cm. Moreover, with just 1.79 cm, the laptop is quite slim. But not slimmer than the 14-inch Alienware gaming laptop which measures just 1.45 cm. The HP Omen 14, however, is also thicker than the ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14, which measures 1.58 cm.
But HP gains ground in terms of weight. The Alienware weighs in at around 1.98 to 2kg. Meanwhile, the HP Omen Transcend 14 is just 1.6kg. Still, it remains 100g heavier than the 2024 ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14, which comes in at around 1.5kg. In short, we can call the HP Omen Transcend 14 a thin and light gaming laptop but it’s not the slimmest, nor the lightest 14-inch computing device on the market.
To achieve a lower gross weight, HP has crafted the A/C/D cover of the device from high-strength aluminium. The A Cover is the top lid with the screen, C Cover includes the keyboard and trackpad area, and D Cover is the bottom with vents and upgrade compartments. I have three main things to say about this design choice.
Firstly, the laptop feels very premium to the touch, secondly, it remains smudge-free during most normal use cases. And thirdly, the top lid feels quite flimsy. The laptop’s deck area is quite strong, on the contrary. However, one good thing is that you can lift up the display with a single hand.
In terms of I/O ports, HP has included a very rich variety of ports. The Omen Transcend 14 features a Thunderbolt 4 with USB Type-C offering a 40Gbps signalling rate, supporting USB Power Delivery, DisplayPort 1.4, and HP Sleep and Charge. Also on the list is another USB Type-C port with a 10Gbps signalling rate, also supporting USB Power Delivery, DisplayPort 1.4, and HP Sleep and Charge; two USB Type-A ports with a 10Gbps signalling rate, one of which supports HP Sleep and Charge; a headphone/microphone combo jack; and one HDMI 2.1 port.
Furthermore, the HP Transcend 14 uses a 4-zone RGB backlit Ceramic White keyboard with 26-key Rollover Anti-Ghosting Key technology. Additionally, it features a lattice-less sky-printing keyboard design, which includes keys that have an opaque top and translucent edges. The key design choice makes the backlight show up in a pastel-colour appearance and it looks one-of-a-kind.
HP hasn’t given us the official key travel figure but it seems to be more than 1.2mm. The keys also have good spring action and a particularly bouncy feel to them. The sound of the keyboard is also very mellow and premium.
HP Omen Transcend 14 Thin And Light Gaming Laptop Review: Screen And Speakers Review
The HP Omen Transcend 14 features an adaptive 2.8K OLED with an option to adjust the refresh rate between 48-120Hz. The laptop also has a super-fast 0.2ms response time. It’s VESA certified with ClearMR 5000 technology. Moreover, it offers uniform luminosity and colour accuracy with 400 nits of SDR brightness and an average Delta E value of 2.8, with wide colour gamut coverage of 100% DCI-P3 and 150% sRGB. The screen also features a Corning Gorilla Glass for protection.
Overall, the screen is great for content consumption and creation. In terms of gaming, its 120Hz max refresh rate seems a bit low but most other 14-inch laptops, including non-gaming ones, feature a 120Hz refresh rate display only. The Alienware X14 R2, however, seems to be an exception here thanks to a 1600p 165Hz display.
But the gaming experience remains pleasant on an Omen Transcend 14’s display. The OLED panel accentuates deep blacks and produces vivid scenery, elevating the entire gaming experience.
As for the audio, HP employs dual HyperX-tuned speakers and they sound good. The speaker output is decently loud, and sharp, and has a decent tinge of bass as well. They are downwards facing, as is the case in most gaming laptops, and sound best when kept on a table.
HP Omen Transcend 14 Thin And Light Gaming Laptop Review: Gaming Performance, Battery Life And Benchmarks
When it comes to performance, the HP Omen Transcend 14 leverages the prowess of the Intel Core Ultra 7 155H to deliver a solid gaming experience. Because let’s face the facts, the 14-inch chassis was never going to run absolutely cool while gaming. Although the CPU package temperature does reach 90 degrees celsius in some cases, the surface temperature is very well maintained at around 42 degrees Celsius. Most of the time you will see this laptop maintain around 85 degrees while gaming at high settings.
In terms of power consumption, the laptop consumes around 68W in performance mode. However, the power consumption drops down to 15W when you’re normally using the Omen Transcend 14. However, don’t put the laptop in ECO mode or best power efficiency mode as that renders the device too slow to use. But it tremendously improves battery life.
However, with everything set to max, the battery life takes a huge hit lasting only around 2.5 hours. You can extend the battery backup to around 5.3 hours by putting the laptop in balanced mode. I found the best setting for higher battery life – Integrated graphics turned ON with balanced power mode in Windows and Omen gaming hub, in this way, you can extract about 7.8 hours of battery life. In short, you can extract good battery life, you’d just have to figure out how.
Moving on to the benchmarks, the HP Omen Transcend 14 impressed me in 3d Mark’s TimeSpy and Firestrike. Scoring almost as good as the 115W RTX 4060 powered Lenovo LOQ. In the crystal disk mark SSD speed test, the HP Omen Transcend 14 also delivered good read and write speed as well. Meanwhile, in gaming performance, the laptop echoed a similar conclusion. It is trailing behind the Lenovo LOQ by a small margin. Overall, the HP Omen Transcend 14’s GPU, with its limited 65W TGP, can still manage to deliver solid performance.
Considering that the laptop maintains a moderate temperature even during intense gaming sessions, the combination of an Intel Core Ultra 7 CPU and an RTX 4060 GPU appears to be highly effective.
HP Omen Transcend 14 Thin And Light Gaming Laptop Review: Conclusion
The HP Omen Transcend 14 redefines the delicate balance between sleek design and powerhouse performance in the gaming laptop arena. It successfully carves out a niche for itself by offering a compelling combination of high-end internals wrapped in a portable and aesthetically pleasing package. Despite facing stiff competition, it manages to shine, particularly with its impressive thermal management, vibrant 2.8K OLED display, and robust selection of I/O ports. The old adage, “You can’t have your cake and eat it too,” doesn’t seem to apply here; the HP Omen Transcend 14 proves you can enjoy high-performance gaming on a device that’s also easy on the eyes and light in the backpack. In short, this laptop is a testament to HP’s ability to push the boundaries of what’s possible in the thin and light gaming laptop market.
HP OMEN Transcend Gaming Laptop 14-fb0089TX Key Specs, Price and Launch Date
| Release Date: | |
| Market Status: | Launched |
Key Specifications
operating system (with
Windows 11 Home
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display size (in inches)
14
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processor model name
Intel Core Ultra 7-155H
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Storage drive capacity
1 TB
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Yetnesh Dubey
Yetnesh works as a reviewer with Digit and likes to write about stuff related to hardware. He is also an auto nut and in an alternate reality works as a trucker delivering large boiling equipment across Europe. View Full Profile
