[Review] HP Victus 15-fa0025nr | Discrete and Powerful Gaming Laptop

As part of a budget-friendly gaming laptop lineup, HP's Victus 15 lineup could be a great solution for those looking for a reasonably priced laptop not only for playing AAA videogames but also for working on everyday tasks with excellent performance.

Today we're going to tackle one of the most promising models within said lineup in this review of the HP Victus 15-fa0025nr. A laptop that has garnered high praise amongst its users as it boasts a powerful 12th-Gen Intel processor, a dedicated NVIDIA GeForce RTX graphics card, an extremely fast M.2 NVMe SSD unit, a very respectable battery life for a gaming rig, as well as an unbeatable price that has managed to make this one of the most appealing gaming laptops to hit the market this year.

Regarding the design, the HP Victus 15-fa0025nr sports a sturdy plastic-made dark grayish chassis with the chrome-plated Victus logo on the lid and avoiding unnecessary accents or jazzy colors, so it can perfectly fit in both gaming and professional environments.

Like other 15-inch gaming laptops, this model weighs just 5.06 pounds allowing you to easily carry it on the go if you need to, while its dual-fan cooling system will prevent the computer from getting too hot when working on demanding tasks, something that users appreciate and is relatively rare on a gaming laptop since these devices tend to run hot due to the demanding graphics and CPU performance.

As for the display, it features a thin-bezel 15.6-inch Full HD screen with a decent 60 Hz refresh rate, definitely not for high-end gaming. Also, it comes with an anti-glare coating and IPS technology, so you'll be able to play, stream and work without reflections or distractions.

However, if you are looking for a 144 Hz 15-inch gaming laptop, then you might take a look at the HP Victus 15-fb0028nr we reviewed earlier since it has a similar price and specifications. You could also opt to use an external gaming monitor such as the competitively priced 24-inch Full HD Asus VG248QG which boasts a high refresh rate above 140 Hz and a low response time to allow for optimum gaming. 

Back to the review at hand, the full-sized keyboard is comfortable enough for gaming as well as your daily computing tasks, and it can be used even in dim environments since it's got a brightly backlit white color. Again, HP has opted to avoid the stereotypical RGB backlighting to make the laptop more discrete. 

On the other hand, the buttonless and good-sized touchpad is very responsive and offers support for multi-gesture technology allowing you to navigate more comfortably through the Windows 11 user interface.

Moving onto the key components, the HP Victus 15-fa0025nr features a 12th-Gen Intel Core i5-12500H processor powered by 12 cores and 16 threads, reaching a turbo frequency of up to 4.50 GHz thanks to Intel's Turbo Boost Max Technology 3.0. There's also 8 GB of DDR4 RAM that you can upgrade up to 32 GB if needed.

Specifically, you can upgrade the RAM on the 15-fa0025nr to a maximum of 64 GB using a couple of DDR4 PC4-25600 3200MHz Non-ECC SODIMM memory modules. We recommend upgrading to 16 GB by getting an additional 8 GB module, or if you're a hardcore user, you could even opt to upgrade to 32 GB through two 16 GB compatible modules of RAM. 

As reported by many of its customers, this laptop delivers great performance when it comes to tasks such as web programming, photo/video editing, and CAD design, as well as lighter day-to-day tasks, including web browsing, spreadsheet editing, and video calling, amongst others.

When it comes to gaming, the mid-tier 4 GB NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3050 graphics card performs way better than any integrated GPU, so you'll be able to play in high definition (Full HD) many recent AAA games such as F1 22, Vampire Bloodhunt, Ghostwire Tokyo, and Tiny Tina's Wonderlands at a very fluid frame rate.

Last but not least, you get a solid 512 GB M.2 NVMe SSD storage, whose quicker loading times will be beneficial to your daily productivity as it substantially speeds up activities such as booting up Windows, opening apps and games, and transferring heavy data.

Connectivity-wise, the 15-fa0025nr features a USB-C 3.0 port, two USB-A 3.0 ports, an RJ-45 connector, an HDMI 2.1 output, an SD card reader - which is rare these days -and an audio jack. There's also a built-in HD webcam for video calls and streaming.

You won't find a Thunderbolt 4 port, but if you need a gaming laptop with it, then you might consider the already reviewed ASUS TUF Dash 15 FX517ZM-AS73, which also supports DisplayPort 1.4 and Power Delivery 3.0 standards.

As for wireless connections, it packs Bluetooth 5.0 and Wi-Fi 6 with up to 3 times faster web browsing speed and up to 75% less latency when compared to its predecessor (Wi-Fi 5). However, this also assumes you have a compatible router. If you don't have a Wi-Fi 6 router, you won't notice any difference.

And if you don't have a clue about the new Wi-Fi standard names, you're not the only one. Nowadays, the previously known Wi-Fi 802.11ax corresponds to Wi-Fi 6, while the Wi-Fi 802.11ac protocol is now known just as Wi-Fi 5. It took a couple of decades, but the Wi-Fi alliance finally decided to make things easier for the consumer. 

Moving onto the battery life of the HP Victus 15-fa0025nr, we've got a 4-cel lithium polymer 70 Wh battery that offers a decent 4-5 hours of video playback with display brightness at 50%, and Windows power saver mode enabled. 

What's more, for a standard mixed usage that doesn't include gaming, you could get up to 6-7 hours worth of juice, that's very appealing when you consider the fact that most gaming laptops will have a rough time offering you much more than 2-3 hours worth of energy. 

In gaming scenarios, however, you can expect roughly 2 hours depending on the game you're playing. And if you need extra battery, you can have it in a flash thanks to its fast charge technology which brings you up to 50% of the battery capacity in just 30 minutes. That's also an exciting feature that is far from common amongst gaming laptops.

Besides its fantastic specifications, the HP Victus 15-fa0025nr reviewed today is a solid solution that will fit perfectly for both productivity and gaming purposes, delivering a performance capable enough of handling most day-to-day workflows fluently, be it for a hardcore user or an average user that mostly works on a picture of cloud-based software and installed programs.

Although it isn't a high-end gaming laptop when compared to more expensive alternatives such as the Acer Nitro 5 AN515-57-79TD, this model boasts a stunning thin-bezel Full HD display, as well as an ergonomic backlit keyboard, an upgradeable RAM memory - up to 64 GB -, and plenty of connectivity options for covering your daily needs. All packed into a sturdy and eye-catching dark grayish chassis that doesn't scream, "I am a gaming laptop."

And if you aren't sure about picking up this gaming laptop, then you can take a look at our selection of the best HP laptops that offers a selection of different HP laptops for different kinds of users to better guide you in the process of getting yourself an HP laptop.

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