The HP OMEN Transcend 14 might be my dream gaming ultraportable
Super thin and light, an OLED display, and dedicated graphics? What a combo
PC gaming while on the move is going to get a whole lot easier in 2024 – and not just because of the abundance of Steam Deck rivals doing the rounds. New, more efficient Intel and AMD CPUs have let gaming laptop makers dramatically slim down and reduce weight, without compromising on GPU horsepower. The HP OMEN Transcend 14 is the latest – an 18mm thick thin and light with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 doing the graphical heavy lifting.
I don’t think it’s unfair to say HP’s Omen division has flown under many gamers’ radars of late, but the Omen Transcend 14 has a big chance of changing that. This 1.6kg all-metal machine looks like it means business from the outside, in white and black colourways, with subtle branding and a respectable selection of ports.
Open it up, though, and the keyboard makes it clear gaming is on the menu. Each opaque keycap has a slick translucent edge for the underlying RGB illuminations to shine through unobstructed.
The display is arguably the star of the show. It’s a 2.8K resolution, HDR-ready OLED panel with 120Hz variable refresh rate. While other gaming laptops lean on mini-LED tech, I’m stoked to see OLED make the cut here; it’ll mean perfect blacks and epic contrast, with none of the halo effects that are still all too easy to spot when gaming on mini-LED screens.
Other hardware is as no-compromise as it gets in this form factor, with up to Intel Core Ultra 9 CPUs, 32GB of RAM, 2TB of NVMe storage, and an RTX 4070 GPU. There’s 140W USB-C PD charging on board, and HP has even added dedicated 2.4GHz wireless connection for the HyperX Cloud III Wireless Headset, letting you listen latency-free without reaching for a dongle first. HyperX also had a hand in tuning the laptop’s speakers.
The only downside I can see from HP’s press release is the claimed 11.5hrs hours of battery life. Sure, that’s still more than enough to get through a full working day without hunting for a plug socket, but it still trails the extraordinarily long-lasting MacBook Air (M2). Then again, you can’t get your game on in quite the same way on Apple’s ultraportable.
The HP OMEN Transcend 14 is available to pre-order directly from HP now. Prices are set to start from $1600/£1700, with UK early birds qualifying for a free HyperX Cloud Wireless III headset or £100 Steam Gift Card when they shop at Currys.
Tom Morgan-Freelander
Deputy Editor 
