Colorful Hidden Star P16 TA 24 Hands-On: i7-13650HX + RTX4070, Priced at 7199 Yuan

Earlier this month, we reviewed the Colorful Hidden Star P16 gaming laptop. This laptop stands out as one of Colorful’s ultimate cost-effective products. It maintains a youthful and highly recognizable exterior design while demonstrating impressive performance. Moreover, just last month, the larger Colorful Hidden Star P16 TA 24 gaming laptop was officially launched, equipped with “i7-13650HX + 16GB RAM + 512GB storage space + RTX4070,” priced at 7199 yuan (about $995).

Compared to the Colorful Hidden Star P16 tested by us (i7-13620H+RTX 4060), the Hidden Star P16 TA 24 is one size larger and one specification higher in configuration. However, it still maintains the ultimate cost-effectiveness of the Hidden Star series. So, how does this Colorful Rainbow Hidden Star P16 TA 24 perform?

Next, A hands-on experience with this new product.

Design

The Colorful Hidden Star P16 TA 24 gaming laptop maintains the same design as the P15. Its A-side showcases a “Sky Wing” design, crafted from vibrant metallic material, instantly elevating the product’s identity. Additionally, under different lighting angles, the “Sky Wing” displays various gradient colors, achieving a budget-friendly “RGB” effect. Adding to the detail, mech-style lines adorn the A-side.

The Misty White color scheme of the P16 TA 24 captivates with its warm white tone and misty texture. It offers a delicate, skin-friendly feel and strong resistance to stains. Transitioning to the screen, the middle frame features a black design, creating a panda color scheme when paired with the white A-side. As for detail, the front-facing camera sits in the middle of the screen’s frame.

The Hidden Star P16 TA 24 boasts a black-and-white contrasting design. The keyboard area sports a sleek black hue, complemented by the warm white color of the A-side. It features a full-sized RGB backlit keyboard with a built-in numeric keypad. Surrounding the keycaps is a semi-transparent frosted treatment, enhancing its aesthetics. The lighting is customizable through control software.

Below the keyboard, a medium-sized touchpad sits slightly to the left, featuring a smooth surface. There’s extensive black plastic housing, accommodating a dual-core dual-fan and 6-copper-pipe cooling configuration. The Hidden Star P16 TA 24 measures 360mm in width, 259mm in depth, and 25mm in height, weighing 2.35kg for the laptop and around 680g for the power adapter. Being a 16-inch gaming laptop.

The Hidden Star P16 TA 24 utilizes a layout that includes ports on three sides. Starting with the left side, it features a USB 3.2 Gen1 (Type-A) port and a 3.5mm audio jack. Transitioning to the right side, users can find a USB 3.2 Gen2 (Type-A) port alongside a USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C port, which supports PD fast charging. Moving to the back, there’s another USB 3.2 Gen2 Type-C port for video output, a DC power port, an RJ45 port, and an HDMI port.

Display

The Colorful logo sits at the bottom of the screen’s frame. Additionally, intricate texture effects are applied to the bottom frame’s hinge area, enhancing the B-side’s overall three-dimensional appearance. The Colorful Hidden Star P16 TA 24 gaming laptop features a 16-inch 16:10 screen, providing a decent screen-to-body ratio. Specifications include a 2560×1600 resolution, 240Hz refresh rate, 500 nits brightness, and 100% sRGB color gamut coverage.

In terms of configuration, this screen is sufficient to meet the needs of gamers, complementing the RTX 4070 graphics card perfectly with its 240Hz refresh rate. Regarding this screen, Conducted a simple test, with the results showing 96.6% sRGB color gamut coverage and overall satisfactory performance.

Hardware and Performance

In terms of core configuration, the unit obtained by us, the Colorful Hidden Star P16 TA 24, features an i7-13650HX + RTX 4070, equipped with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage.

The i7-13650HX, a high-performance HX processor suitable for gamers, boasts 6 performance cores and 8 efficiency cores, totaling 14 cores and 20 threads. It has a maximum turbo frequency of 4.9GHz and 24MB of L3 cache. The integrated graphics, Xe with 16 EU, complement its gaming prowess.

Moving on to the GPU, the RTX 4070 with 8GB of VRAM and 4608 CUDA cores, based on the NVIDIA Lovelace architecture, significantly enhances gaming performance with features like ray tracing and DLSS 3.5, capable of reaching a maximum power consumption of 140W.

Regarding storage, the Colorful Hidden Star P16 TA 24 provides 16GB of DDR5 RAM and a 512GB SSD. While 512GB might seem insufficient for a gaming laptop, it’s important to consider the price point before criticizing.

To address the storage concerns, the device comes with two M.2 2280 PCIe expansion slots and allows memory expansion up to 64GB.

This presents a cost-effective option, especially with the current affordability of storage. Adding extra memory significantly boosts cost-effectiveness compared to opting for the official larger storage version.

Now, let’s delve into the actual performance of the Colorful Hidden Star P16 TA 24.

Starting with CPU tests, in CPU-Z tests, the i7-13650HX scored 8648.8 in multi-core and 775.2 in single-core performance.

In the R20 benchmark, it achieved scores of 724 in single-threaded and 7874 in multi-threaded performance.

Moving to R23, it scored 1883 in single-core and 20991 in multi-core performance.

As a comparison, the Colorful Hidden Star P15 24 with i7-13620H achieved a single-core score of 1851 and a multi-core score of 16299, showcasing a significant enhancement in multi-core performance with the i7-13650HX. Additionally, in 3D Mark’s CPU Profile test, the Colorful Hidden Star P16 TA 24 attained 1044 in single-threaded performance and 9038 in maximum-threaded performance, marking notable advancements over the Colorful Hidden Star P15.

Moreover, during 3D Mark Time Spy tests, the Colorful Hidden Star P16 TA 24 garnered a comprehensive score of 12251, with the GPU contributing 12098 to the total score. In Time Spy Extreme tests, it secured 5557 for the GPU and a total of 5717, positioning it at a higher tier among 140W RTX 4070 laptops.

Furthermore, we assessed the Colorful Hidden Star P16 TA 24’s overall office performance for everyday tasks using software like PC Mark10.

In PC Mark10, it scored 6832, indicating its suitability for everyday office tasks.

CrossMark tests, it achieved a comprehensive score of 1877, further affirming its office capabilities.

V-Ray BenchMark tests for rendering performance, the CPU scored 13651, while the GPU scored 1277 for CUDA rendering and 1719 for ray tracing.

Regarding battery life, the Colorful Hidden Star P16 TA 24 is equipped with a 53.5Wh battery, providing an average runtime of 4 hours and 6 minutes in PC Mark10 tests, which is acceptable considering its gaming laptop nature.

Overall, the combination of i7-13650HX and RTX 4070 in the Colorful Hidden Star P16 TA 24 excels in both office and entertainment scenarios, presenting no performance shortcomings, especially considering its price point.

Hard Test

After completing the benchmark test, let’s now assess the performance level of the Colorful Hidden Star P16 TA 24 under extreme conditions using the oven.

Firstly, we’ll conduct a single FPU bake using AIDA64

As shown in the figure below, after 10 minutes, the CPU temperature stabilizes at 99℃, with the CPU power consumption steady at around 115W, compared to the initial oven run where it reached 145W.

The Colorful Hidden Star P16 TA 24 truly squeezes out the performance of the i7-13650HX to the maximum.

After conducting a single GPU bake with FurMark’s donut test, we noticed the core temperature stabilizing at 74℃ after 10 minutes. During the test, power consumption stayed constant at 107W. At the beginning of the oven run, GPU power consumption could reach 139W and sustain for a while, showing near-maximum power consumption performance.

Moving on, we simultaneously ran both of the aforementioned software to simulate maximum pressure, running a 10-minute dual-bake.

At this point, the CPU stabilized at 67W and 86℃, while the GPU stabilized at around 110W and 80℃. Combining a performance of 177W, the performance release is quite impressive.

However, the trade-off here is the fans at full load, resulting in substantial noise.

During the dual bake, We also briefly tested the body temperature performance, as shown in the figure below. During the dual bake, the highest temperature was located around the air outlet areas on both sides, reaching around 44°C. This temperature is considerably lower than expected, indicating the significant role played by the 6 copper pipes and dual fans.

Certainly, it’s important to emphasize that in performance mode with maximum fan speed, the noise becomes hard to ignore. It resembles the high-end position of a household electric fan.

Gaming Test

Finally, let’s move on to the gaming test of the Colorful Hidden Star P16 TA 24.

Here, it’s necessary to mention the system’s built-in and gamer-friendly control center, where you can choose different performance modes including Performance, Entertainment, and Silent, with customizable fan speeds for each mode.

Furthermore, you can choose between discrete and hybrid output modes via the control center. In both the aforementioned GPU test section and the upcoming gaming test section, we utilized the discrete output mode.

Within the control center, you can also set keyboard RGB modes and configure keyboard macros and mouse macros.

Starting with Games, firstly,

we have the classic AAA title, “Red Dead Redemption 2”. At the default 2.5K maximum graphics settings, the Colorful Hidden Star P16 TA 24 achieved an average of 78fps, providing a very smooth gaming experience.
Reducing the graphics to 1080P while keeping other settings at maximum yielded even better performance, reaching 130fps.
Next is the ray tracing masterpiece, “Forza Horizon 5”.
At default 2.5K graphics settings, which is 2560×1660 resolution with other options set to ultra and high ray tracing quality, it easily achieved 89fps.
Setting the resolution to 1080P with other settings unchanged, the frame rate could reach 106fps.
Lastly, we tested the system with the demanding title, “Cyberpunk 2077”.
Starting with the game’s preset at ultra graphics quality, with super ray tracing quality, DLSS quality mode enabled, and DLSS set to generate 3 frames, running the benchmark test yielded an average frame rate of 62.84fps.
Choosing 1080P graphics quality with other settings unchanged, and similarly enabling DLSS 3, the frame rate reached 105fps.
Based on the aforementioned 1080P graphics quality, turning off ray tracing allowed the frame rate to reach 124fps.

In summary, with the i7-13650HX + RTX 4070 configuration, the Colorful Hidden Star P16 TA 24 can easily handle various AAA games smoothly at 2.5K high graphics settings. Even when set to 1080P graphics quality, it can achieve over 100fps in demanding games.

In “Cyberpunk 2077”, the iGame Supreme P16 TA 24 delivers a gaming experience exceeding 60fps at 2.5K ultra graphics quality with ray tracing enabled. This is possible due to the performance of the RTX 4070 and the revolutionary DLSS 3 frame generation technology. When turned on, it can meet the needs of native resolution and high frame for smooth ray tracing.

Verdict

The Hidden Star P15 (i7-13620H + RTX 4060) configuration could make gamers’ dreams of smoothly playing AAA games come true, then the higher-configured Hidden Star P16 TA 24 takes this “dream” to a whole new level.

The Colorful Hidden Star P16 TA 24, particularly in the 7K range, offers a budget-friendly option for enthusiastic gamers. Equipped with the i7-13650HX + RTX4070 configuration, players can stay up-to-date for at least the next two to three years. Additionally, the Hidden Star P16 TA 24 boasts excellent performance and heat dissipation, setting a high standard for gamers’ AAA gaming experience.

Of course, 512GB of storage is naturally insufficient, so it’s necessary to spend extra money to add more storage space. Nevertheless, this flaw doesn’t overshadow its value for money.