Products
HP OMEN MAX 16 (2025)
Dell Alienware 18 Area-51 (2025)
early access
Tested using Methodology v0.9
Updated Oct 10, 2025 04:17 PM
SEE PRICE
BestBuy.com
Tested using Methodology v0.9
Updated Nov 06, 2025 05:51 PM
This review is in Early access
SEE PRICE
BestBuy.com
Size
16"
Operating System
Windows 11
Size
"
Operating System
Our Verdict
HP OMEN MAX 16 (2025)
Dell Alienware 18 Area-51 (2025)
Full comparison details regarding individual product score sets can be found in the section below
0
Variants
- OMEN MAX 16 (16-ah0097nr) (Shadow Black - 2.5k/IPS/Ultra 9 275HX/RTX 5080/32GB/1TB)
- OMEN MAX 16 (16-ah0070ca) (Shadow Black - 2.5k/IPS/Ultra 9 275HX/RTX 5080/32GB/1TB)
- OMEN MAX 16 (16-ah0033dx) (Shadow Black - 2.5k/IPS/Ultra 9 275HX/RTX 5080/32GB/1TB)
- OMEN MAX 16 (16-ah0043dx) (Shadow Black - 2.5k/OLED/Ultra 9 275HX/RTX 5080/32GB/2TB)
- OMEN MAX 16 (16-ah0050ca) (Shadow Black - 2.5k/OLED/Ultra 9 275HX/RTX 5080/64GB/2TB)
- OMEN MAX 16 (16-ah0060ca) (Shadow Black - 2.5k/OLED/Ultra 9 275HX/RTX 5090/64GB/2TB)
- OMEN MAX 16 (16-ah0000ca) (Shadow Black - 2k/IPS/Ultra 7 255HX/RTX 5060/16GB/1TB)
- OMEN MAX 16 (16-ah0020ca) (Shadow Black - 2k/IPS/Ultra 7 255HX/RTX 5070/32GB/1TB)
- Alienware 18 Area-51 (LAA18250-9444BLU-PUS) (Liquid Teal - 2.5K/300Hz/Ultra 9 275HX/RTX 5070Ti/32GB/2TB)
- Alienware 18 Area-51 (LAA18250) (Liquid Teal - 2.5K/300Hz/Ultra 9 275HX/RTX 5080/32GB/1TB)
- Alienware 18 Area-51 (LAA18250-9420BLU-PUS) (Liquid Teal - 2.5K/300Hz/Ultra 9 275HX/RTX 5080/32GB/2TB)
- Alienware 18 Area-51 (LAA18250-9383BLU-PUS) (Liquid Teal - 2.5K/300Hz/Ultra 9 275HX/RTX 5090/64GB/2TB)
Main Differences for
General Productivity
General Productivity
Threshold
General Productivity
6.7
Full Comparison
Design
Style
Style Photo
Form Factor
Traditional (Clamshell)
Build Quality
8.5
Build Quality Photo
Hinge
9.1
Hinge Photo
Range
140°
°
Stability
Good
One Finger Lift
Yes
Portability
4.6
Dimensions Photo
Size
16"
"
Thickness
1.3" (3.3 cm)
" ( cm)
Width
14.0" (35.6 cm)
" ( cm)
Depth
10.6" (26.9 cm)
" ( cm)
Volume
192.8 in³ (3,160.2 cm³)
in³ ( cm³)
Weight
6.0 lbs (2.7 kg)
lbs ( kg)
Charger Size
33.3 in³ (546.5 cm³)
in³ ( cm³)
Charger Weight
1.8 lbs (0.8 kg)
lbs ( kg)
Serviceability
8.1
Internals Photo
Ease Of Access
7.0
RAM Slots
2
Storage Slots
2
Replaceable Battery
Yes
Replaceable Wireless Adapter
Yes
In The Box
In The Box Photo
Display
Screen Specs
Display Photo
Resolution
2560 x 1600
Aspect Ratio
16:10
Pixel Density
188 PPI
PPI
Panel Type
IPS
Touch Screen
No
Screen-To-Body Ratio
82%
%
Refresh Rate
9.6
Motion Blur
Refresh Rate
240 Hz
Hz
Variable Refresh Rate
G-SYNC
Contrast
7.3
Contrast Photo
Native Contrast
1,329 : 1
: 1
Brightness
8.8
Maximum Brightness
536 cd/m²
cd/m²
Minimum Brightness
20 cd/m²
cd/m²
Reflections
7.5
Reflections Photo Off
Reflections Photo Max
Screen Finish
Matte
Total Reflections
5.03%
%
Indirect Reflections
3.99%
%
Calculated Direct Reflections
1.04%
%
Black Uniformity
6.7
Black Uniformity Photo
Uniformity (Std. Dev.)
1.520%
%
Out-Of-The-Box Color Accuracy
6.9
White Balance Screencap
Gamma Curve Screencap
Color Screencap
Avg. White Balance dE
4.25
Avg. Gamma
2.2
Avg. Color dE
2.8
Avg. Color Temperature
6,358 K
K
Color Gamut
8.6
Gamut SDR
sRGB xy
99.43%
%
sRGB uv
97.92%
%
Adobe RGB xy
79.75%
%
Adobe RGB uv
89.21%
%
Gamut HDR
DCI-P3 xy
80.86%
%
DCI-P3 uv
84.73%
%
Rec. 2020 xy
58.26%
%
Rec. 2020 uv
62.61%
%
Flicker
10
Flicker Graph
Flicker-Free
Yes
Flicker Frequency
No Flicker
Flicker Active Below
0%
%
Interface
Keyboard
7.7
Keyboard Photo
Typing Quality
7.0
Numpad
Yes
Backlighting
Per-Key RGB
Key Switch Actuation Graph
Operating Force
68 gf
gf
Actuation Force
32 gf
gf
Pre-Travel
1.11 mm
mm
Total Travel
1.61 mm
mm
Touchpad
8.0
Touchpad Photo
Tracking Quality
8.0
Size
15.5 in² (100.0 cm²)
in² ( cm²)
Material
Plastic
Dedicated Buttons
No
Speakers
7.7
Frequency Response Plot
Max Volume
74 dB SPL
dB SPL
Standard Error @ Normal Vol. (65 dB)
5.3 dB
dB
Slope @ Normal Vol. (65 dB)
-0.1
Bass Extension (Low-Frequency Ext.)
236 Hz
Hz
Treble Extension (High-Frequency Ext.)
18 kHz
kHz
Dynamic Range Compression @ Max Vol.
0.6 dB
dB
Webcam & Microphone
7.9
Webcam Video Sample
Video Quality
7.5
Resolution
1080p
Position
Top Center
Privacy Cover
Yes
Face Unlock
Yes
Connectivity
Ports
9.5
Ports Photo
USB-A Ports
2
USB-C Ports
2
Thunderbolt
Thunderbolt 4
USB-C Charging
Yes
USB-C Display Out
Yes
HDMI
2.1
DisplayPort
No
3.5mm Jack
Combo mic/headphone
Card Reader
No
Ethernet
Yes
Proprietary Port
HP AC Adapter Port
Security Lock
No
Wireless Communication
Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi 7 (802.11be)
Bluetooth
5.4
Configuration
CPU
Brand
Intel
Model
Core Ultra 9 275HX
Core Count
24
Thread Count
24
GPU
Brand
NVIDIA
Model
GeForce RTX 5080 Laptop GPU
Dedicated/Integrated
Dedicated
VRAM Size
16 GB
GB
GPU Total Graphics Power (TGP)
175W
W
RAM
Capacity
32 GB
GB
Modules
2
Type
DDR5
Speed
5,600 MHz
MHz
Storage
Advertised Capacity
1,000 GB
GB
Usable Capacity
939 GB
GB
Drive 1
SK Hynix PCB01 HFS001TFM9X187N
Drive 1 Type
SSD
Drive 2
No 2nd Drive
Drive 2 Type
No 2nd Drive
Performance
CPU/RAM Performance
8.5
Cinebench 2024 - Single Core
131 points
points
Cinebench 2024 - Multi Core
1,867 points
points
Geekbench 6 - Single Core
3,008
Geekbench 6 - Multi Core
19,235
Blender - CPU (Avg)
150 samples/min
samples/min
PassMark PT - CPU Mark
59,700
PassMark PT - Memory Mark
3,441
PassMark PT - Memory Mark (Android)
N/A
N/A
Mozilla Kraken
281 ms
ms
Low Tier Graphics
8.6
Geekbench 6 - GPU Compute
180,116
Basemark Web 3.0
2,308
PassMark PT - 2D Mark
1,328
PassMark PT - 2D Mark (Android)
N/A
N/A
PassMark PT - 3D Mark
24,470
PassMark PT - 3D Mark (Android)
N/A
N/A
Novabench 5 - GPU
1,917.0
mprep - Stress My GPU
165,010
High Tier Graphics
8.8
3DMark - Steel Nomad (DX12)
5,362
3DMark - Steel Nomad (Vulkan/Metal)
5,508
Basemark GPU (DX12)
236,540
Basemark GPU (Vulkan/Metal)
224,680
GFXBench - High Level Test (Vulkan/Metal)
16,602 Frames
Frames
Professional 3D (GPU Accelerated)
7.2
Blender - GPU (Avg)
2,296 samples/min
samples/min
Cinebench 2024 - GPU
N/A
N/A
CPU-Intensive Game Performance
8.6
Civilization VII - AI
14.8 s/turn
s/turn
Civilization VII - Graphics (Avg)
314.3 fps
fps
Civilization VII - Graphics (1% Low)
130.2 fps
fps
Total War: Warhammer III (Avg)
140.3 fps
fps
Baldur's Gate 3 (Avg)
81.1 fps
fps
Baldur's Gate 3 (1% Low)
58.6 fps
fps
Previous Methodology Score
9.2
N/A
Previous Methodology Score Converted
8.7
N/A
GPU-Intensive Game Performance
8.3
Cyberpunk 2077 (Avg)
114.9 fps
fps
Cyberpunk 2077 (Min)
98.7 fps
fps
Assassin's Creed Shadows (Avg)
70 fps
fps
Assassin's Creed Shadows (1% Low)
59 fps
fps
GTA V (Avg)
175.8 fps
fps
GTA V (1% Low)
65.0 fps
fps
Black Myth: Wukong (Avg)
53 fps
fps
Black Myth: Wukong (5% Low)
47 fps
fps
Resident Evil 4 (Avg)
139.8 fps
fps
Resident Evil 4 (1% Low)
110.3 fps
fps
Previous Methodology Score
9.4
N/A
Previous Methodology Score Converted
8.0
N/A
Ray Tracing Performance
6.5
Cyberpunk 2077 (Avg)
77.1 fps
fps
Cyberpunk 2077 (Min)
70.0 fps
fps
Assassin's Creed Shadows (Avg)
46 fps
fps
Assassin's Creed Shadows (1% Low)
40 fps
fps
Black Myth: Wukong (Avg)
28 fps
fps
Black Myth: Wukong (5% Low)
24 fps
fps
Storage Drive Performance
9.7
Sequential Write Speed
2,126.0 MB/s
MB/s
Sequential Read Speed
6,041.6 MB/s
MB/s
Random Write Speed
90.8 MB/s
MB/s
Random Read Speed
76.7 MB/s
MB/s
Battery
6.6
Capacity
83 Wh
Wh
Battery Life (Web Browsing)
7.6 hrs
hrs
Battery Life (Video Playback)
6.2 hrs
hrs
Battery Life (Gaming)
2.1 hrs
hrs
Charge Time
2.2 hrs
hrs
Thermals And Noise
6.8
Keyboard Temps Picture
Keyboard Temp While Idle
31 °C (88 °F)
°C ( °F)
Keyboard Temp Under Load
37 °C (98 °F)
°C ( °F)
Fan Noise While Idle
27.5 dBA
dBA
Fan Noise Under Load
59.0 dBA
dBA
Power & Fan Control App
Yes
Performance Over Time
9.0
Performance Over Time Graph
CPU Temp (Cinebench)
100 °C
°C
CPU Perf. Loss (Cinebench)
6% loss
% loss
GPU Temp (Heaven)
62 °C
°C
GPU Perf. Loss (Heaven)
0% loss
% loss
Additional Features And Software
Software
Operating System
Windows 11
Additional Software
Yes
Extra Features
Biometrics
Face Recognition
RGB Illumination
Yes
Touch Pen Support
No Stylus Support
Secondary Display
No
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HP OMEN MAX 16 (2025)
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HP OMEN MAX 16 (2025) vs Dell Alienware 18 Area-51 (2025): Main Discussion
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