Among a sea of “desktop replacements,” most gaming laptops chase the same checklist: big GPU, bigger cooling, and a screen that tries to keep up. The HP Omen Max 16 actually feels different. It’s a brute-force machine built around a genuinely great OLED, the fastest mobile silicon you can buy right now, and I/O that treats you like an adult. It also stumbles on the basics—plastic build, keyboard feel, speaker quality, and battery life—so the question isn’t “Is it powerful?” but “Are the trade-offs worth it?”
The Omen Max 16 is the flagship of HP’s gaming laptops in 2025 and I tested the RTX 5090 variant paired with Intel’s Core Ultra 9 275HX, 64GB DDR5, and a 2TB Gen4 NVMe. This particular configuration will set you back an eye-watering $6,999 putting it in the same premium category as the likes of the Asus Zephyrus G16 and Razer Blade 16.
In games, it’s every bit the portable sledgehammer. Cyberpunk 2077 at max settings with full ray tracing is the showpiece: DLSS 4 frame generation keeps motion silky while Night City’s neon stacks and reflections look properly cinematic at well over 150fps. Call of Duty: Black Ops 6 leans into responsiveness—at 240Hz, input feels taut, and NVIDIA Reflex clips that last bit of latency so aiming is as immediate as it gets on a laptop.
Hollow Knight: Silksong is an OLED love letter: inky blacks, hand-painted colour, no motion blur, just pure brushstroke crispness. Assassin’s Creed Shadows thrives on HDR; moonlit rooftops and warm lanterns look painterly, and the 16:10 aspect ratio gives the HUD room to breathe. Across those games, the combo of raw GPU grunt and the OLED’s instant response makes your experience an absolute joy.
Outside games, the Omen Max 16 behaves like a mobile workstation. The 24 cores on that Intel Core Ultra 9 chew through compiles and exports, while Intel’s NPU quietly takes on background inference and noise reduction so the 5090 stays busy with frames or renders. With 64GB RAM on two upgradeable slots, you can stack multiple Chrome tabs, 4K Davinci Resolve timelines, and Steam updates without the slightest hint of stress.
The 16-inch OLED is the star of the show. It’s a 2560×1600 panel that spans 48–240Hz with a 0.2ms response, 100% DCI-P3, and HDR 500. Blacks are abyssal, highlights pop without crushing detail, and text stays tack-sharp thanks to the 1600p density. Variable refresh keeps animations smooth even when frame rates dip, and the low blue light tuning makes late sessions less punishing. I can’t speak for you but once you’ve gone OLED, anything else feels pedestrian and this is the kind of display you expect from a $7000 laptop.
Aesthetically, the Omen Max 16 looks restrained in that grown-up gamer way but as I said, falls short of premium feel like the competition. Unlike them, the Omen Max 16 isn’t milled from a single piece of metal but uses a combination of plastics and metal that feels decidedly not what a $7000 laptop should. The Shadow Black variant which I have is understated but the gorgeous Ceramic White variant is the one you really want. White gaming laptops are as rare as Unicorns.
Still, there’s no noticeable compromises to structural integrity – the lid has a firm hinge with controlled wobble, and the deck is spacious and there is no flex to it. The glass touchpad is a little on the smaller side bit it tracks cleanly and presses are clicky. At 2.68kg, it’s undeniably chunky, and the cooling vents telegraph its intentions: this is a performance-first design. I/O is excellent—two 40Gbps Thunderbolt/USB-C with power delivery and DP 1.4, two 10Gbps USB-A, HDMI 2.1 capable of 8K60, RJ‑45 Ethernet, a combo audio jack, and Wi‑Fi 7 or 6E. It’s the kind of port selection that lets you dock, edit, and game without dongle bingo.
The HP Omen Max 16 includes a built-in webcam that supports Windows Hello facial recognition, allowing for quick and secure login without the need for passwords. And to protect your privacy, the laptop is equipped with a physical privacy shield for the webcam. This manual shutter lets you cover the camera lens when not in use, ensuring peace of mind against unauthorized access or accidental video exposure.
But, even with all the RGB, it’s not all rainbows and sunshine. The keyboard isn’t the best — keys feel somewhat mushy and the caps look somewhat cheap looking. The switches feel a bit mushy—serviceable, but not the crisp, confident snap you want for long writing sessions or precise WASD strafing. I also really wish it didn’t have a numpad as that shoves the main typing area left and messes with muscle memory.
Furthermore, the gorgeous OLED experience is let down by lackluster sounding speakers: they get loud, but they’re thin and sibilant at higher volumes, and the stereo image smears. And when the laptop is running games, even 70% volume just isn’t enough to hear well above fan noise. Best to use headphones or external speakers if you want audio that matches the visuals.
Battery life is the other clear compromise. My PCMark 10 battery tests came in just under three hours which is, well, bad. Even the Alienware 18 managed at least four hours. That’s the reality of a high-refresh OLED driving an RTX 5090 and a big CPU. You can limp through email on a 100W USB‑C power bank, but gaming and rendering demand the chunky AC adapter, and you’ll be reaching for it often. This isn’t a café warrior; it’s a plug-in powerhouse.
Thermals and noise are within expectations for the spec. Under max settings in games, temps averaged 75°C, which is solid given the hardware, and fan noise is loud but not shrill. You’ll hear it, but it doesn’t pierce; think steady whoosh rather than dental drill. More importantly, clocks stay high, performance remains stable and the keyboard doesn’t get hot to the touch.
Pricing in Australia reflects the flagship spec. Expect A$5,999–A$6,999 depending on configuration and retailer, with the RTX 5090 model squarely at the top end. It’s not cheap, but it’s aimed at buyers who want uncompromised performance and a genuinely stunning display and are willing to trade aesthetics, battery life and acoustics to get it.
Verdict
The Omen Max 16 is a desktop in disguise, built around a phenomenal OLED and top-tier silicon. It flies when plugged in, feels responsive in everything from Cyberpunk to CoD, and doubles as a serious creative rig. You’ll forgive the fans and the battery because the frames are high(and look stunning on that display) but you’ll grit your teeth at the design, keyboard and speakers because they’re mid in an otherwise great package.
And therein lies the crux of the matter. This is a really stiff category HP is playing in and some of these gaffs can quickly dissuade buyers who expect absolutely no compromise when they spend this much. Asus’s Zephyrus G16 and Razer’s Blade 16 come in at the same price but offer far better design and build. HP isn’t bad by any means but at $7000, are you willing to settle for not bad?
HP Australia kindly loaned the Omen Max 16 to PowerUp for the purpose of this review.
