HP, the hugely popular PC and laptop manufacturer (alongside monitors and other peripherals), is jumping into the subscription space. It appears to be targeting gamers amid the current RAM and storage crisis, driven in part by AI demand, so if you aren't particularly set on owning your hardware, HP has you covered.
I didn't even know this existed until Linus Tech Tips and our sister site PC Gamer covered it. The HP OMEN Gaming Subscription is essentially a way to rent a gaming laptop at different spec levels and, unsurprisingly, very different price points.
HP is offering different laptop tiers and optional gear at a monthly fixed fee, requiring a soft credit check and even a 30-day money-back trial if anyone is genuinely interested.
After that first 30 days, however, you are locked in for a minimum of 12 months before you can walk away without penalty.
The service also appears to be available only in the US for now. Here are all the tiers I can see available, but you check the official HP website yourself:
Expand to see the full list ↴
Tier name | Laptop | Monthly price | CPU | GPU | RAM | Storage | Display |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Everyday gaming with great performance | Victus 15" | $49.99 per month | AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS (up to 5.1 GHz max boost clock, 16 MB L3 cache, 8 cores, 16 threads) | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4050 Laptop GPU (6 GB GDDR6 dedicated) | 16 GB DDR5-5600 MT/s (2 x 8 GB) | 1 TB PCIe Gen4 NVME M.2 SSD | 15.6" diagonal FHD display, 144 Hz, IPS, micro-edge, anti-glare, 300 nits, 62.5% sRGB |
Cool and quiet performance | OMEN 16" | $69.99 per month | AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (up to 5.0 GHz max boost clock, 16 MB L3 cache, 8 cores, 16 threads) | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Generation Laptop GPU (8 GB GDDR6 dedicated) | 16 GB DDR5-5600 MT/s (2 x 8 GB) | 1 TB PCIe Gen4 NVME M.2 SSD | 16" diagonal 2K display, 165 Hz, 16:9 (1920 x 1200), 60-165 Hz, 3 ms response time, IPS, micro-edge, anti-glare, Low Blue Light, 400 nits, 100% sRGB |
Immersive gaming experiences | OMEN 17" | $79.99 per month | AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 (up to 5.0 GHz max boost clock, 16 MB L3 cache, 8 cores, 16 threads) | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5060 Generation Laptop GPU (8 GB GDDR6 dedicated) | 32 GB DDR5-5600 MT/s (2 x 16 GB) | 1 TB PCIe Gen4 NVME Performance M.2 SSD | 17.3" diagonal QHD (2560 x 1440), 48-240 Hz, 3 ms response time, IPS, micro-edge, anti-glare, Low Blue Light, 300 nits, 100% sRGB |
High-end gaming with no compromises | OMEN MAX 16" | $129.99 per month | Intel Core Ultra 9 275HX (up to 5.4 GHz with Intel Turbo Boost Technology, 36 MB L3 cache, 24 cores, 24 threads) | NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop GPU (16 GB GDDR7 dedicated) | 32 GB DDR5-5600 MT/s (2 x 16 GB) | 1 TB PCIe Gen4 NVME Performance M.2 SSD | 16" diagonal WQXGA (2560 x 1600), 60-240 Hz, 3 ms response time, IPS, micro-edge, anti-glare, Low Blue Light, 500 nits, 100% sRGB |
Of course, that's not all. You can also rent accessories and monitors, ranging from $4.99 a month for a mouse, $7.99 for a headset, $3.99 for a USB-C hub, $5.99 for a monitor, $9.99 for a higher-tier monitor, and $7.99 for a microphone.
It does raise the question of who this is really for. Services like PayPal, Klarna, and other buy now, pay later options already exist, so who genuinely wants to use equipment they will never own?
That said, I wouldn't personally recommend those services either. Waiting, saving, and paying outright still make the most financial sense long term, but obviously, it depends on whether you can manage it.
Alongside the OMEN gaming subscription, HP also lets you upgrade your device every year. That means you could stay on relatively current hardware, and you also get 24/7 customer support included. What you do not get, at any point, is ownership of the device, no matter how long you keep paying.
If you fail to return your laptop or accessories, HP can charge up to $3,299 for its highest-tier laptop. That figure is roughly in line with what you would pay to buy it outright.
The traditional upgrade cycle keeps most gamers perpetually one step behind. But with access to a new laptop every year, your OMEN Gaming Subscription breaks that cycle completely, ensuring your hardware evolves as rapidly as the latest games do.
HP
Where it becomes more concerning is the cancellation fee. If you do not cancel within the first 30 days, you are locked in, and on the highest-tier laptop, you would face a $1,429.89 cancellation fee in the second month, with that amount gradually decreasing each month thereafter.
For context, the $129.99 RTX 5080 tier would cost roughly the same as buying the laptop outright after around 16 to 18 months at current sale pricing, except in this case, you still have nothing to show for it at the end.
As someone who loves Xbox Game Pass, I feel like renting hardware is just a step too far, and possibly a sign of things to come as more and more companies seem hellbent on you not actually owning anything, with even Jeff Bezos believing you won't own hardware and rather rent it in the future.
Would you ever subscribe to a gaming laptop instead of buying one outright? Let us know your thoughts in the comments and make sure to take part in our poll below:
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