Scared of PC price hikes? HP's latest brainwave is renting you a gaming laptop rather than selling it — but the pricing looks as painful as the RAM crisis

• HP has a new gaming laptop rental scheme (alongside subscriptions for everyday notebooks, too)
• Unfortunately, there's no option to buy the device outright; you can only lease it
• The pricing of the gaming laptops is high, to an off-putting degree in fact – but there could still be mileage in this idea in the future

Don't want to fork over a ton of cash for a heavyweight gaming laptop? The RAM crisis hasn't helped here, of course, but HP has a solution – lease your notebook, business-style, for a monthly subscription fee.

PC Gamer noticed HP's scheme, which has seemingly been around for a while now in the US (and only that country), but has flown rather under the radar, and only jumped to the fore when Linus Tech Tips talked about it on YouTube.

So, the deal is this: you pick a tier of gaming notebook – or a standard laptop, as these models are available from HP too – from entry-level to high-end, and rent it for a monthly fee. That means there's no big outlay to secure yourself a fancy gaming portable.

On top of that, you get a beefy support package: 24/7 live support, in fact, and if the HP expert can't fix your issue, the company will send you a replacement laptop by the next business day. That's a nifty touch, certainly.

Okay, so the catches – are there any? Of course. One of the main snags is that there's no buyout option here. The initial contract gives you the laptop for a rental period of a year, and after that, you can keep it and carry on paying monthly if you want, but there's no point where you'll be able to purchase the device to own it for good. (Even if you spend the equivalent of the total cost of the laptop, or more, eventually).

Really, the idea is that you'll send it back after a year and get a newer model on another year-long plan, meaning you can constantly upgrade your notebook.

That's how a package like this tempts consumers – those who buy a new gaming laptop on a regular basis may find that the financial equation doesn't work out too badly for them. Especially given that if they have any issues with the laptop, they get a replacement sent out straight away.

The trouble is that, certainly for the gaming laptops, the monthly prices are high. Getting the top-end HP Omen Max 16 with an Intel Core Ultra 9 CPU, Nvidia RTX 5080, and 32GB of RAM will run you $130 per month. That's over $1,500 for the year.

Indeed, across all the available models of HP gaming laptops, in the first (compulsory) year of rental, you'll have paid in the order of half the total cost of the notebook. That doesn't sound too clever, now, does it?

There are a couple of other things to note here: you can cancel in the first month at no cost, but afterwards, there's a hefty contract exit penalty. Also, only one laptop can be rented per household in the US.

Analysis: own nothing and game happily? Or maybe not…

HP's gaming laptops are simply too costly to rent for my liking, although the idea could still appeal to those who compulsively upgrade their notebook to the latest hardware on a regular basis. The standard consumer laptops are better value for money, but on the flipside, they're not in need of such regular upgrading as a gaming machine (which somewhat lessens the appeal).

There are other obvious issues here, such as what about accidental damage to the notebook? What's a fair level of wear-and-tear (some of which is inevitable)? If the laptop arrives back at HP in what the company judges to be a poor condition, what happens then, and what kind of extra charges could pop up? (Also, it goes without saying that if you break the laptop outright, you must pay for the device in full).

Furthermore, HP reserves the right to disable the machine remotely, which, to be fair, is a necessary safeguard against people not paying the subscription.

I'm really not convinced of the value proposition here, but I don't object to the idea of offering notebook buyers different options. However, given HP's rental prices for the gaming laptops, if that's your bag, you are better off simply looking at a finance agreement. Another option could be to consider a game streaming service at a much lower monthly price, one you could run on your ailing old laptop (or other devices, including your TV).

Granted, with the pricing of laptops potentially getting jacked up considerably this year, as RAM, storage, and GPU cost pressures come to bear with even greater force on PCs – and gaming laptops more than most (equipped with system RAM plus video RAM) – HP's rental subscriptions may end up looking better value down the line.

It's not surprising to see HP trying this spin with its laptops, given that the firm has been a pioneer with hardware subscription services, for example, with printer ink (Instant Ink).

HP isn't the first PC manufacturer to try rental subscriptions, though, and notably, NZXT does this for desktop gaming rigs with its Flex packages. Those offerings work in much the same way as HP's here, in that you can never buy the hardware outright, and you get dedicated tech support.

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