HP has decided the future of PC gaming might look a lot like leasing a car, rolling out a subscription-style rental program for its Omen and Victus laptops in the middle of a brutal memory shortage. Instead of dropping four figures at once, you pay monthly for the privilege of borrowing your rig, and, before you ask, no, you don’t own it at the end.
The pitch is simple enough: plans reportedly start at around 50 bucks a month for a Victus 15 with a Ryzen 7 8845HS, RTX 4050, 16 GB of RAM, and a 1 TB SSD, a machine that would normally run roughly 950 dollars outright. Do the math, and you’re looking at about 19 months of payments before you’ve effectively paid full retail, except the laptop is still HP’s, not yours. On the high end, there’s an Omen Max 16 with an Intel Core Ultra 9, RTX 5080, 32 GB RAM, and 1 TB SSD for 130 dollars a month: equivalent to about 16 months of payments compared to its 2,110 dollar MSRP.
To “sweeten” the deal, HP is throwing in 24/7 “expert” live support, the option to upgrade to a higher-tier device after a year, and next-business-day replacement if a machine can’t be repaired. In practice, that’s basically warranty-plus, wrapped in subscription branding. The kicker is the fine print: HP is explicit that paying MSRP through this service doesn’t make the device yours, and there’s a hefty cancellation fee if you bail after the first 30 days, scaled by which laptop you rented.
HP is trying to normalize the idea that a high-end Windows machine is something you borrow under constant terms and conditions, not a tool you own, tinker with, and keep alive for a decade. For anyone who likes to hang onto hardware, dual-boot weird OSes, or eventually turn an old laptop into a dedicated emulation box, this model isn’t made for you, if anyone. Instead of rewarding people who care about preservation and long-term use, it trains them to accept returning perfectly good hardware at the end of a contract like they’re handing back a rental car.
Source: Tech4Gamers
