Lightweight design is one of the current trends in the gaming laptop market.HP has long been praised by users of thin and light gaming laptops through the layout of its OMEN Shadow Elf Slim series.With the arrival of Intel's new Core Ultra processors,higher energy efficiency,new processes,along with NPU,3D packaging,and a series of new features and technologies,have further promoted the development of thin and light gaming laptops.Taking this opportunity,HP has brought the OMEN Shadow Elf 10 family series this year,among which the key product for the thin and light gaming laptop market is the brand new OMEN Shadow Elf 10 Slim 14 AI gaming laptop.So,how does this product,dubbed "AI gaming laptop," perform?

Product Specifications

Operating System: Windows 11 Home (64-bit)

Screen: 14-inch OLED display (2880x1800@120Hz,500 nits)

Processor: Intel Core Ultra 9 185H (16 cores,22 threads,max turbo frequency 5.1GHz)

Memory: 32GB LPDDR5x 7467 dual-channel memory on board

Storage: 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD

Discrete Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 4070 Laptop GPU (8GB GDDR6,65W)

Wireless Card: Intel BE200 Wi-Fi 7

Battery: 71WhDimensions: 313mm × 233.5mm × 17.99mm

Weight: 1.64kg (without power adapter)

Reference price: 13,699 yuan

14-inch ultra-thin body

Although labeled as an "AI gaming laptop," when you hold the OMEN Shadow Elf 10 Slim 14,you would never think it's a gaming laptop.Compared to most other gaming laptops we've seen,this machine is too light,thin,and small,with a thickness of 17.99mm,a weight of 1.64kg,and a 14-inch body,making it feel more like a thin and light laptop in hand.In fact,following the 16-inch Shadow Elf 9 Slim,this is the first time OMEN has turned its attention to a 14-inch model,making the Shadow Elf 10 Slim 14 the first 14-inch laptop in the Shadow Elf Slim family.It is also the lightest AI gaming laptop under HP's umbrella.This product competes with other high-end thin and light gaming laptops in the 14-inch category,such as Alienware x14,ROG Zephyrus 14,and Razer Blade 14.

Like its larger-screen predecessors,the OMEN Shadow Elf 10 Slim 14 is meticulous in its design.The laptop features a full-metal ultra-thin body design,with the A,C,and D faces all made of high-strength aluminum alloy,which not only brings a higher aesthetic appeal but also provides better support and a more robust body structure.Additionally,the laptop offers two color options: Moonlit White and Shadow Black,catering to different users' aesthetic preferences and adapting to various usage scenarios.The Moonlit White version is particularly special,with a pure white body paired with the metallic OMEN logo on the A face,giving a striking impression.The A face also has a special coating that feels warm and smooth like jade,and it does not easily retain fingerprints,making it very user-friendly for those who prefer cleanliness.

The OMEN Shadow Elf 10 Slim 14 features a raised hinge design,which effectively avoids the awkward situation of hot air from the rear exhaust blowing onto the screen and also brings a more attractive rear design to the machine.Moreover,the hinge has a moderate resistance,allowing for one-handed opening and closing,and the screen can be well secured at the appropriate angle.Unlike most other laptops,the rear exhaust grille and interface cover of this machine are both designed in black,making the exhaust grille and rear interfaces seamlessly blend into the black cover,visually providing a better sense of unity and aesthetics.

2.8K OLED high-refresh screen

The OMEN Shadow Elf 10 Slim 14 is equipped with a 14-inch OLED screen.The high resolution of 2880 × 1800 and the 16:10 golden ratio not only make the picture more delicate but also offer a broader field of view.It is worth mentioning that this screen also supports variable refresh rate technology,with a maximum refresh rate of 120Hz,supporting manual adjustment between 48Hz,60Hz,and 120Hz,as well as automatic dynamic adjustment between 60Hz and 120Hz.

Such technology is relatively rare in gaming laptops,but as a 14-inch notebook,its usage scenarios may overlap with those of ultrabooks,so having support for variable refresh rate technology can actually enhance its competitiveness and user experience.For instance,setting the refresh rate to 120Hz for a smoother gaming experience and switching to 60Hz or 48Hz when viewing documents can extend the laptop's battery life.Importantly,under the automatic dynamic adjustment setting,the refresh rate changes without the need for manual user adjustments,making it more convenient.

The screen of this machine has also passed the VESA True Black HDR 500 certification,leveraging the characteristics of the OLED panel to provide deep blacks and excellent contrast,delivering outstanding display effects.Moreover,users can play HDR content on this notebook,experiencing the charm of HDR.The screen's color performance is impressive; according to our tests,its sRGB color gamut coverage reaches 99.8%,Adobe RGB coverage is 91.2%,and DCI-P3 coverage is 99.8%,indicating that its screen quality can meet users' daily needs for viewing,office work,and design.

Additionally,the OMEN Shadow Spirit 10 SLIM 14's screen has passed both the German TÜV Rheinland Low Blue Light and Eyesafe dual eye protection certifications,effectively filtering out harmful blue light to the human eye while ensuring color accuracy,preventing eye health damage caused by prolonged use.It is also worth mentioning that the screen exterior of this machine is covered with a layer of robust third-generation Corning Gorilla Glass,which is more resistant to wear and tear and protects the screen from damage.

At the top of the screen,you can see that this machine also features a 1080p TNR camera,paired with hardware noise reduction technology,which significantly reduces noise in camera images in low-light environments,resulting in sharper and clearer images.Furthermore,the camera on this machine supports infrared facial recognition,which,combined with the Windows Hello feature,enables facial recognition login,allowing users to seamlessly transition from opening the notebook to logging into the system,a detail design that is rare in gaming laptop products.

Comprehensive interfaces,comfortable keyboard

Although the OMEN Shadow Spirit 10 Slim 14 has a very slim body,it does not compromise on interface configuration.

This machine is equipped with two USB-A 3.2 Gen2 ports,one HDMI 2.1 port,one 3.5mm audio port,one full-function USB-C 3.2 Gen2 port,and one Thunderbolt 4 port.The full-function USB-C port,Thunderbolt 4 port,and HDMI 2.1 port all support video output,allowing for the connection of multiple external monitors.Moreover,the full-function USB-C port also supports up to 140W PD 3.1 fast charging,making daily use more convenient.It can be seen that this machine is equipped with commonly used interfaces,providing a good external expansion experience.

The keyboard of the OMEN Shadow Spirit 10 Slim 14 is distinctive,featuring a borderless RGB backlit keyboard.With the borderless high-transparency keycap design,it not only reduces friction between the keycaps and the edges but also brings better color rendering effects.From the actual experience,the borderless transparent keycaps of this machine indeed provide more light transmission area compared to other ordinary keycaps,with outstanding color rendering effects.After a large amount of light passes through,the keycaps also have a frosted coating,so there is no glaring brightness,but instead,the light becomes much softer.Additionally,the keyboard of this machine features a four-zone RGB backlight design,allowing users to customize the backlight schemes for different areas in the OMEN Gaming Hub software,creating a personalized lighting effect.From a practical experience standpoint,this machine's keyboard boasts an excellent typing feel,with a longer key travel and a moderately forceful rebound,making it comfortable for both office typing and gaming without easily causing fatigue.

Keener readers may have already noticed the HyperX logo on the left side of the C panel of the OMEN Shadow Elf 10 Slim 14.Indeed,this laptop is equipped with HyperX audio enhancement,featuring a customized sound performance solution that can enhance the user's overall audio experience.The OMEN Shadow Elf 10 Slim 14 also comes with HyperX Speed Connect 2.0,which not only enables fast,low-latency connections but also supports multi-device hot-swapping.

What's more noteworthy is that the high-end version of the OMEN Shadow Elf 10 Slim 14 also includes a HyperX Cloud Flight wireless gaming headset (retail price of 879 yuan) and has a wireless headset receiver module built into the motherboard,which,in conjunction with HyperX Speed Connect 2.0 technology,allows the headset to automatically connect to the laptop upon powering up,saving users the hassle of carrying a USB receiver,which is very convenient.

In terms of connectivity,the OMEN Shadow Elf 10 Slim 14 also has a significant upgrade—it comes standard with the Intel BE200 Wi-Fi 7 wireless card,supporting Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4,allowing gamers to experience the charm of the latest wireless technology ahead of the curve.After all,compared to the current mainstream Wi-Fi 6,the many improvements brought by Wi-Fi 7 are quite attractive,including support for the new 320MHz bandwidth (enhanced by increased bandwidth),4K-QAM technology (increased rate),and multi-link operation (enhanced efficiency).

Core Ultra 9 Processor with RTX 4070 Laptop GPU

The OMEN Shadow Elf 10 Slim 14 offers two versions in terms of configuration: the Core Ultra 7 155H and the Core Ultra 9 185H processors,with the Core Ultra 9 185H version being particularly special.The Core Ultra processor is one of Intel's most groundbreaking mobile processors in recent years,bringing a considerable number of new features and technologies,such as upgrading to the Intel 4 process technology,the first use of 3D packaging and discrete module design,the first inclusion of an NPU specifically for AI tasks,and an upgrade to the powerful Arc Iris integrated graphics.

As a new generation of processors,the Core Ultra family includes two versions: the H series (28W) and the U series (15W).Even the popular Core Ultra 7 155H has a base power consumption of only 28W,not the 45W commonly found in gaming laptops.From a power consumption perspective,Core Ultra processors are more suitable for thin and light laptops.However,the Core Ultra 9 185H is an exception; its base power consumption is not 28W but 45W,making it actually a standard H45 series processor,more suitable for use in high-performance gaming laptops.

Specifically,the Core Ultra 9 185H uses the Intel 4 process technology,equipped with 6 performance cores,8 efficiency cores,and 2 low-power efficiency cores,forming a 16-core 22-thread configuration.This processor's maximum turbo frequency reaches 5.1GHz,with 24MB of smart cache,a base power consumption of 45W,and a maximum turbo power consumption of 115W.Additionally,the Core Ultra 9 185H processor also includes an Intel AI Boost NPU with a maximum frequency of 1.4GHz.The Core Ultra 9 185H processor also brings support for high-frequency LPDDR5/x 7467 memory,so the OMEN Shadow Elf 10 Slim 14 comes equipped with 32GB LPDDR5x 7467 dual-channel memory (soldered).According to tests conducted with the AIDA64 software,this machine achieves a memory read speed of 86,550MB/s,a write speed of 75,099MB/s,and a latency of 134.1ns.

In terms of storage,this machine is equipped with a Western Digital SN810 2TB PCIe 4.0 SSD,which,as measured in CrystalDiskMark 8.0.4,has a sequential read speed of 6,983.57MB/s and a sequential write speed of 5,383.32MB/s,meeting the standards of mid-to-high-end PCIe 4.0 SSDs and providing a smooth experience for system operation,large file/game loading,and data copying.

Within the OMEN Gaming Hub software,the system offers three performance modes: Power Saving,Balanced,and Turbo.Let's examine the performance of this machine under the "Turbo Mode."

In CINEBENCH R23,this machine scores 1,836pts in single-threaded and 18,182pts in multi-threaded tests.Comparatively,the processor performance of this machine significantly outperforms models equipped with the Core Ultra 7 155H (1,700pts single-threaded,14,000pts multi-threaded),with a lead of about 8% in single-threaded scores and about 30% in multi-threaded scores.

In the actual 3D rendering application Blender 2.93.0,this machine completed the image rendering of a BMW 27 car model in just 2 minutes and 25 seconds,which is nearly 34 seconds faster than the Core Ultra 7 155H model.

In the V-Ray processor rendering test,the OMEN Shadow Elf 10 Slim 14 achieved a total score of 12,425,which,when compared to the Core Ultra 7 155H (around 9,400),demonstrates the superior strength of the Core Ultra 9 185H.The results of these various tests indicate that the Core Ultra 9 185H processor is indeed a top-tier presence in the first generation of Core Ultra family,with performance that is far ahead of the Core Ultra 7 155H processor.

Graphically,the high-end version of the OMEN Shadow Elf 10 Slim 14 is equipped with an RTX 4070 Laptop GPU,which is based on the Ada Lovelace architecture,features 4,608 CUDA cores,8GB GDDR6 memory (Samsung chips),a default Boost frequency of 1,230MHz,and a memory bus width of 128bit.

The OMEN Shadow Elf 10 Slim 14 has a very slim body and is not suitable for high-power versions of the RTX graphics card,so this machine uses a 65W power consumption RTX 4070 Laptop GPU.This graphics card also comes with the 4th generation Tensor cores and the 3rd generation RT cores,offering stronger ray tracing performance and support for DLSS 3 technology,as well as AV1 video encoding and decoding,delivering good performance for both gaming and creative design.

It is worth mentioning that OMEN has also listened to user suggestions and added the long-awaited discrete graphics card switch function to this generation of Shadow Elf Slim models.Now,users can switch to the integrated graphics mode through the OMEN Gaming Hub software,completely disabling the discrete graphics card to achieve longer battery life.However,it is slightly regrettable that this machine does not support direct connection to the discrete graphics card.

In the 3DMark Time Spy,this machine achieved a graphics score of 9,727.For a 14-inch slim model,this performance is excellent,and its graphics score has surpassed many models equipped with the 140W full-power version of the RTX 4060 Laptop GPU.Compared to the 65W RTX 4060 Laptop GPU (7,900 points),it also has an approximate lead of about 23%.In the 3DMark Fire Strike benchmark scenario based on DX 11,this machine achieved a graphics card score of 25,419.Such a score is also on par with most RTX 4060 Laptop GPUs with a full power consumption of 140W.It also has an approximate 22% lead over the RTX 4060 Laptop GPU with a 65W power consumption (20,800 points).

Mastering AIGC and AAA Masterpieces

With the powerful GPU support,the OMEN Shadow Elf 10 Slim 14 demonstrates the posture of an all-round notebook,capable of easily handling popular AIGC applications,creative design software,and AAA games.

For video editing,we tested using UL Procyon Video Editing,which calls on the installed Pr software in the notebook to actually edit and render several videos,to assess the overall video creation performance of the machine.In this test,the OMEN Shadow Elf 10 Slim 14 achieved a total score of 5,935,a result that far exceeds models equipped with an RTX 4060 Laptop GPU with a power consumption of 115W.

In addition to video editing,the RTX 4070 Laptop GPU can also drive a multitude of AI applications,allowing users to master AIGC.We tested it briefly with Stable Diffusion,and it was measured that this machine can generate a 512x512 resolution image in Stable Diffusion in just 4.9 seconds,which is very fast.In the newly launched AI image generation test by UL Procyon,under the Stable Diffusion 1.5 test environment,this machine achieved a total score of 1,063,with an overall image generation speed of 5.874 seconds per image.Such performance is slightly weaker than the RTX 4060 Laptop model with a power consumption of 115W,but it is,after all,a 14-inch thin and light gaming notebook,and such performance can meet the needs of most users.

It is also worth mentioning in the field of AI applications that the Core Ultra processor has an integrated NPU,which can help the system handle AI workloads.For example,in the camera settings of the Windows system,Windows Studio Effects driven by the NPU can be enabled,achieving background blurring,automatic framing,and other functions,which are very beneficial for scenarios such as gaming live streaming and video conferencing.Other gaming notebooks equipped with the 14th generation Core H or HX series processors do not support this feature because they lack an NPU.

In actual gaming,we tested with popular games such as "Cyberpunk 2077," "Tomb Raider: Shadow," "Borderlands 3," "The Outer Worlds," and "Overwatch: Return." All games were set to the highest graphics quality,with ray tracing effects and DLSS (or DLSS 3) enabled.

At 1080p resolution,this machine can run smoothly in the tested games.Even when facing "Cyberpunk 2077," with the highest graphics quality and "Ray Tracing: Ultra" settings,with the help of DLSS 3 (automatic),this machine's average frame rate reaches 77.07 fps,and the overall game picture is very smooth.For "Borderlands 3," at 1080p highest graphics quality,this machine's average frame rate reaches 83.94 fps,showing that this machine's graphics performance is very strong.

At 1440p resolution,the OMEN Shadow Elf 10 Slim 14 can also achieve good performance in the aforementioned games.It has an average frame rate of 58.85 fps in "Cyberpunk 2077," 87 fps in "Tomb Raider: Shadow," and 127.14 fps in "Overwatch: Return." It can be seen that the actual gaming performance of the OMEN Shadow Elf 10 Slim 14 is quite impressive,capable of running mainstream AAA games smoothly.Stress Test and Battery Life Evaluation

The OMEN Shadow Spirit 10 Slim 14 features an enhanced Cool Storm cooling technology,with a vapor chamber design inside the chassis and the introduction of Intel's dual-channel turbo cooling technology,which can further enhance the cooling capability.So,how does this machine perform under high loads?

We conducted a dual stress test on this machine at an ambient temperature of 23.5°C using AIDA64 and Furmark software.After 30 minutes of dual stress testing,we observed the highest temperature on the front surface of the machine to be only 43.3°C,located in the middle of the keyboard area,using a FLIR thermal imaging camera.The temperature around the WASD key positions was 28°C,and the temperature at the wrist rest position was around 33.9°C.

After 30 minutes of dual stress testing,this machine was able to maintain an overall performance release level of 90W,with the processor power consumption reaching 50W at a temperature of 90°C,and the dedicated graphics card able to maintain an output of around 40W,with a temperature of 62°C.Additionally,when stress testing the processor alone,we also found that the machine's processor can maintain a performance release level of 65W for an extended period,which is quite impressive.

The OMEN Shadow Spirit 10 Slim 14 is equipped with a 71Wh battery and supports the disabling of the dedicated graphics card as well as dynamic adjustment of the screen refresh rate,all of which contribute to enhancing battery life.So,how does this machine perform in terms of actual battery life?We tested it in "Power Saving Mode," "Best Efficiency," with the dedicated graphics card disabled,at 50% screen brightness,and in flight mode,using PCMark 10's "Modern Office" scenario.The machine achieved a battery life of 7 hours and 25 minutes,which is quite respectable for a gaming laptop with a dedicated graphics card.Moreover,the machine also supports up to 140W PD fast charging,making it convenient to recharge when the battery is depleted.

In conclusion,the OMEN Shadow Spirit 10 Slim 14 is highly competitive in the high-end lightweight gaming laptop market.It is an "all-rounder" that combines lightness,high performance,and long battery life.With a compact 14-inch body,a weight of 1.64kg,a 7-hour battery life,and an attractive appearance,the OMEN Shadow Spirit 10 Slim 14 is fully capable of playing the role of a lightweight laptop.Under such conditions,it also has powerful performance,capable of easily handling AAA games,AI and GC applications,and design creation tasks.If you are looking for a lightweight and portable laptop with high performance,and you hope that the laptop is versatile in all aspects,then the OMEN Shadow Spirit 10 Slim 14 is an excellent choice.