3 Reasons to buy the HP OMEN 16 AMD, and 2 reasons you should go for Intel instead

HP recently completed its gaming lineup with the HP OMEN 16 AMD, a laptop that borrows heavily from its Intel siblings in terms of look and feel, but has a completely new chip under the hood. When I first got my hands on this laptop, I was confused as to how do I review it?

I’ve already reviewed the HP OMEN Transcend 16, and it had pretty much all the bells and whistles. However, the Transcend is a completely different story from the other OMEN laptops. The regular OMEN 16 AMD and Intel versions both cost around a lakh rupees less than the Transcend model. Despite that, they’re capable machines with good specifications to keep them going for a long time.

While there are Intel versions of the HP OMEN 16 available at a similar price to the AMD, let me give you 3 reasons to buy the HP OMEN 16 AMD, and 2 reasons why you may want to buy an Intel machine instead.

Reasons to buy HP OMEN 16 AMD

1. The price

At the time of filing this story, the HP OMEN 16 AMD is priced at Rs 1,32,749 on the official HP website. Add an exchange and bank offers to the mix, and you can get it for as low as Rs 1,15,000. Even without the exchange, the specs sheet alone makes it a good laptop for the price.

While there are a lot of options at this point, the HP OMEN 16 AMD stands out because the laptop still comes with NVIDIA RTX4060 graphics. So let’s get to the tech specs now and talk about the second reason to buy this laptop.

2. Specifications

One look at those specifications and you can tell HP wanted this to check the right boxes for casual gamers, and serious users who want a laptop that can handle mixed workloads. Aside from the rather dim 300 nits screen, there’s not much to complain about. You get all the necessary ports, and the core specs are future-proof enough to keep this laptop going for at least five years of heavy usage.

While the specifications make a convincing argument for the OMEN 16 AMD, the laptop itself comes with a clean Windows 11 interface. There were no abrupt hiccups in our usage, and the without any tweaking or fine-tuning the battery or GPU settings, we got roughly six hours of mixed usage out of this machine.

This is so because the AMD 7840HS chip in this laptop is an efficiency performance processor. It can handle multithread performance like video editing or multiple Chrome tabs and heavy games, but being an efficiency chip, it will try to strike a balance between performance and battery life, which is where the rest of the specifications come in.

3. AMD + NVIDIA: This was unexpected

The AMD vs NVIDIA graphics debate is not a new one, and with the ever-evolving graphics, the gaps seems to be closing even faster. While AMD chips are more pocket-friendly, NVIDIA graphics are packing better advanced features like ray tracing and DLSS.

One of the likeable features of the HP OMEN 16 AMD is the NVIDIA RTX 4060. The AMD 7000 series chip on this laptop is more power-efficient and clock higher than it’s Intel equivalent. Similarly, the NVIDIA RTX 40-series graphics can deliver the performance as the RTX 30-series chips but with just 1/3rd the power consumption.

It means with the same battery as the Intel variant, the AMD model can give you some extra juice. In our usage, the OMEN 16 AMD gave about four hours of Farcry 6 before it depleted to 10 percent battery. The Intel model we tested a month ago, gave us about three hours of the same.

The GeForce app also gives you a more granular control over how you want a game to perform. And if you’re a new gamer and don’t want to tinker around much, you can download game ready graphics from the app and let it choose the right settings for you.

Why should you buy an Intel laptop instead?

There are two reasons where the Intel model still has a lead over its AMD sibling. And if you’re a serious user willing to invest in a laptop that costs more than Rs 1,00,000, then these may concern you.

1. Intel has better sustained performance

While AMD has the latest architecture, Intel still packs a punch when it comes to multi-core performance. As you can see in the benchmarks above, the Intel i7 configuration of the HP OMEN 16 outperforms the Ryzen variant. However, this isn’t a fair comparison as the AMD version has an efficiency performance chip, and the Intel variant is out an out performance.

But just for the context of the HP OMEN 16 series, the Intel variant costs about Rs 10,000 more than the AMD model and gets you a more performance-focused chip. However, the same Intel model gets 512GB SSD and RTX 4050 graphics, which is far less than what you get in the AMD machine for a better price. So, if you want a value for money package, the AMD model is for you, but if you’re only looking for a performance chip, you’ll be better off with the Intel variant.

2. Thunderbolt

Intel developed Thunderbolt technology, so any USB-C port that is Thunderbolt compatible can transfer data, video signals, and even reverse charge other laptops. Now, to use all the goodness of a Thunderbolt port, you need an Intel chip. The HP OMEN 16 AMD is packing ports with 10Gbps signaling rate, which is sufficient for most users and even gamers, but if you are in the niche that wants Thunderbolt connectivity, you have to get an Intel machine.

HP OMEN 16 AMD Verdict

The HP OMEN 16 AMD is packing top-tier specifications at a reasonable price. The AMD + NVIDIA combination also gives it a decent battery backup over other competitors. So if you consider the price, specifications, and the way it is put together, then you have a really good laptop at hand.

The Intel model starts at Rs 1,00,699 and gives you 16GB RAM, RTX4050 graphics, and 512GB SSD storage. Now the AMD version starts at Rs 1,09,990 and is packing the same RAM and graphics, but with a 1TB SSD. So, for around Rs 10,000 more, you get twice the storage, which should help in the long run if you wish to store more content on the laptop.

However, if you’re already using Thunderbolt peripherals or plan on using them, you may have to consider an Intel laptop. Intel models also perform slightly better at benchmarks, but you’re unlikely to feel a difference even during heavy gaming.