HP Omen 17 review: a sign of a good time

HP Omen 15 Gaming Laptop - Reviews TehnObzor

To review the new Omen 15, I chose the top-end configuration: 4-core Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor, 4K UHD display (3840 x 2160), Nvidia GeForce GTX 1060 Max-Q video card, 16 GB DDR4-2400 RAM, SSD 256 GB PCIe and 1 TB hard drive for $1,660 (RUR 95,500).

With new components and design, will this gaming laptop be able to outperform the competition? Let's find out.

⇡#Temperature, clock speeds and noise level

The mobile six-core Intel Core i7-9750H processor is characterized by very optimistic operating parameters. Let the base frequency of the chip be 2.6 GHz; with six cores fully loaded, it is allowed to overclock up to 4 GHz. But this, as we know, is only a theoretical range within which silicon guarantees stable operation. In practice, a jump to the performance limit is only acceptable for a short period of time, when the CPU can reach a power consumption of up to 60 W, but after a few seconds it will inevitably have to return to the safe long-term value of 45 W. Other variables in the equation that control clock speeds are unique to the laptop chassis: temperature conditions and cooling fan speeds.

So in the case of OMEN 17-cb0006ur, the central processor under the load of the LinX stress test rushed to frequencies of 4 GHz, and the core temperature momentarily reached 95 ° C, but after a few minutes of operation the parameters stabilized at 2.4–2.5 GHz and 73 °C. In other words, the chip had to completely deactivate Turbo Boost auto-overclocking and agree to frequency throttling of 100–200 MHz. Almost every system with a six-core Intel processor on board behaves in a similar way, and the main thing you need to pay attention to is how loud the cooling system is and whether the chip is overheating. As you can see, the temperature of the OMEN 17-cb0006ur is in perfect order, and the noise level of 41.4 dBA at a distance of 30 cm from the cooler exhaust grille is quite acceptable.

Note that the Omen Command Center program, which we mentioned earlier, makes it possible to switch the computer to “Performance” mode, and then the stable frequency of the central processor tends to the coveted 4 GHz. But this is a real overclocking, because the CPU power consumption in LinX is kept at 60 W, and most importantly, the cooling system starts at maximum speed and the noise becomes unbearable for constant operation.

Device Features

In addition to the signature Omen logo and Dragon Red badge on the lid, the new Omen 15 stands out with a combination of red and black in its design. Prominent rear vents and a square-edged chassis highlight the notebook's power. It can be seen that the equipment is trying to attract gamers, although even in a work environment it looks appropriate.

As you'd expect from a mid-priced product, the HP Omen 15's body is mostly plastic, but the hinges are solid and the aluminum keyboard panel doesn't flex. There are only problems with the back cover of the screen; its central part bends too easily and spoils the entire impression of the build quality.

Large coolers and heat pipes are used to cool the video card. Large holes are made not easily for beauty, but also to ensure that the system does not overheat during intense loads.

HP makes it easy to open the case and update components - a rare feature in modern laptops. Replacing RAM, SSD or hard drive will significantly extend the life of your gaming machine in the future.

The manufacturer did not rely on lightness and compactness with this laptop, but on the cooling of components and the ease of replacing them.

Software

The overclocking level is adjusted in one of the OMEN Command Center tabs of the utility, which has a separate button on the keyboard. It serves not only for setting up hardware, Command Center is a hub that combines: monitoring system parameters, a network connection manager, which includes simultaneous data transfer via Wi-Fi and a network cable, control of macros and keyboard backlighting.

You can choose from a long list of effects and customize the color of each key individually. In addition, the menu changes the nature of the glow of the logo on the laptop lid, the OMEN inscription, and the power button.

Worth mentioning is the HP Audio Switch utility, which provides access to an advanced equalizer and provides virtual surround sound for headphones.

Connectors and ports

The 2.5 cm thick case accommodates many connectors. Along the left side you'll find a mini-DisplayPort, full-size HDMI, Gigabit Ethernet, USB Type-A, USB Type-C with Thunderbolt 3 support, a headphone jack, and a microphone jack. On the right there are two more USB Type-A ports, an SD card reader and a power connector.

Wireless connections include Bluetooth 4.2 and Wi-Fi with support for 2×2 MU-MIMO. HP Omen Command Center helps you optimize your network for high performance in multiplayer games.

HP Omen 17 review: a gaming laptop that can replace a PC

HP can currently offer users more than 80 modifications of the Omen family of gaming laptops - for every taste, color and wallet thickness. However, in this review we will be testing the OMEN 17-CB0005UR model, which the company itself considers as a full-fledged replacement for a desktop PC.

And this, in general, is no wonder: “under the hood” of this model:

• Intel Core i7-9750H (Coffee Lake, 14 nm, 6 (12) cores, 2.6—4.5 GHz, 45 W)
• 32 GB LPDDR4-2666 (2×16 GB, 2667 MHz, 19-19-19-43 2T)
• top Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 (GDDR6, 8 GB/256 bit)
• SSD 512GB (Intel Optane) + HDD 1024GB
• and the whole thing is crowned by a 17.3-inch display with an IPS matrix, 1920×1080, 144 Hz, 4.5 ms, 100% sRGB.

The device is delivered in a large cardboard box, more like a suitcase. On the front side there is an image of the laptop itself and the model name, and for details you can refer to one of the sides of the delivery box - there is a detailed explanation there.

The delivery set is traditional: manuals, warranty and power adapter. The device warranty is 12 months (extendable to 3 years upon request). OMEN 17-CB0005UR looks quite remarkable. Primarily due to the conspicuous beveled display panels at the bottom. It seems that the laptop lid seems to float above the keyboard. Actually, for this reason the device seems smaller than it actually is - 402x286x37 mm.

The lid has a stylish diagonally sanded texture, divided into four zones. The logo is located at the top. The device in this configuration weighs 3.31 kg, which is actually not much for a laptop of this class, believe me from experience. In addition, you can always take a simpler configuration - it will be lighter, accordingly. In terms of interfaces, things are like this: on the right side there is a card reader and one USB 3.0 port, on the left there is a power connector, a network port, HDMI and Mini-DisplayPort video outputs, two USB 3.0 ports and one USB 3.1 Gen2 (Type-C), as well as two audio jacks. A bit much for one side, but the main thing is that it is comfortable, and here it is exactly that, so this is just a nitpick.

In addition, the case itself is slightly beveled towards the front, and if you look in profile, you will notice that the front part differs in height from the back - 32 mm and 37 mm, respectively. The lid opens to 135 degrees. It opens quite easily, but while all the mechanisms have not yet undergone the necessary grinding, you have to hold the body with your second hand. It is made of high-quality aluminum alloy, which will not collect all kinds of fingerprints. There are also no complaints about the build quality - the parts fit perfectly.

The keyboard of the OMEN 17-CB0005UR is comfortable, almost full-size. There is a digital keypad, and there are also six additional programmable keys on the left. They can be easily configured in a special application - Omen Command Center. All key aspects of the laptop are configured there. The travel of the keys (1.4 mm) is virtually silent, they are tactilely very pleasant, and the feedback is excellent. There is a touchpad: it has two separate buttons and a standard set of gesture recognition and all that. In our humble opinion, you will use it two and a half times until you connect the mouse, so there’s not much to talk about.

The backlight is three-zone, configured in the aforementioned Omen Command Center. The WASD buttons, as is common in gaming laptops, are additionally highlighted with a white frame. But what special thanks for is the webcam located in the right place. In our age of ultra-thin frames, they don’t stick it anywhere. In addition, the camera is good and is even suitable for broadcasting: the resolution is 1920x1080 pixels, the supported frequency is 30 FPS, and the viewing angle is up to 88 degrees.

As for the display, here, as we have already mentioned, is a 17.3-inch IPS matrix AU Optronics B173HAN04.4 (AUO449D) with a resolution of 1920 × 1080, 144 Hz and support for Nvidia G-Sync. The screen has a good maximum brightness (298 cd/m², you can safely take it with you on a bright sunny day), high matrix speed (4.5 ms) and everything is in order with the color balance. There are two storage devices: SSD and HDD. The SSD is a 512 GB Samsung PM981 solid-state drive (M.2, of course) with a sequential read speed of 3,000 MB/s (write - 1,800 MB/s). It should be noted that the laptop’s processor is enough to unleash its full potential, even when running on battery power. The second drive is a 2.5-inch BarraCuda 1TB hard drive from Seagate. Here we also have very good performance: external data transfer speeds are up to 600 MB/s, maximum read speed is 160 MB/s. A good work machine that is quite comparable to the level of the laptop itself. In addition, do not forget that the OMEN 17-CB0005UR features Intel Optane technology, which further speeds up an already fast system. Forget about long downloads and application launches - everything works instantly.

The audio system is based on a Realtek audio processor, and was configured by specialists from Bang & Olufsen. And it turned out, it should be noted, well. Two speakers are located at the edges of the bottom panel and the sound is reproduced quite clearly, without any extraneous wheezing or noise. In addition, there is support for HP Audio Boost and DTS:X Ultra technology. The OMEN 17-CB0005UR has three preset operating modes, which you can switch between in the already mentioned Omen Command Center utility: Comfort, Default and Performance. In Comfort mode, the processor produces 3.6 GHz at a temperature of 70 degrees Celsius.

“Default” is 3.7 GHz with an average temperature increase of 5 degrees. Well, in the “Performance” mode, it accelerated to 3.9 GHz with the same temperature indicators.

Which brings us directly to the next point - heating. The OMEN 17-CB0005UR cooling system consists of five heat pipes of various diameters, two radial fans and copper radiators through which the air flow is drawn in from the bottom of the laptop. In the Comfort profile, which we would recommend for constant use, at maximum load temperatures do not rise above 90 degrees Celsius. But in Default and Performance you can see 93 and even 95 degrees. At the same time, there is no discomfort in working with the keyboard. But holding a laptop on your lap is not very pleasant. However, we would not recommend holding the laptop on your lap in any case: this way you block the ventilation holes and interfere with air intake. The consequences, as you might guess, will not take long to arrive.

As for noise, there are no surprises here: noise does not interfere, but if you want a normal gaming experience on a gaming laptop, get a high-quality headset in advance. Believe me, it definitely won’t be superfluous, no matter how “silent” your comrade in arms may be. So, here we come to the most delicious part - the performance of the OMEN 17-CB0005UR in games. And here, of course, everything is predictably excellent: with such “stuffing” this laptop is not afraid of any new products in the gaming industry. As an example, let's take World of Tanks, which many people play.

Here we have a high performance rating on the “ultra” graphics quality. In the canonical test of RTX Shadow of Tomb Raider on “ultra”, our average FPS was 65-67. And in Far Cry New Dawn, with all this, it’s 91-93.

Let's summarize. OMEN 17-CB0005UR is definitely good and will suit those people who are not used to saving on comfort and style. Moreover, with such an impressive “stuffing” by today's standards, it is quite capable of competing with desktop PCs both in games and in video editing or even 3D rendering. And here it would be nice to use the STUDIO drivers in the GeForce Experience application. Experience has shown that video editing on an RTX Studio laptop is 11 times faster than on any other laptop (even with a powerful processor). Additionally, you can work with RED RAW files at 8K resolution without caching or proxying first.

In short, it turns out to be a very powerful workstation, among other things. And you can take all this with you on a trip or even to work. Yes, it cannot be called small and light, but, firstly, it is not the heaviest and most cumbersome option (there are much larger and heavier specimens with much less impressive performance), and, secondly, it is a completely fair ratio of size and weight and quality.

At the time of writing the review, the cost of this model with a 2060 video card starts from 100 thousand rubles on the Yandex.Market service.

Red keyboard

HP's red aesthetic extends to the Omen 15's keyboard, which features Dragon Red backlighting. Most of the keys are black with red lettering, only the WASD buttons have white letters on a red background. The backlight can be turned off, on for all keys, or only for WASD.

The HP Omen 15 keyboard supports up to 26 buttons at once, allowing you to execute multiple commands at once. The full-size arrow keys are located slightly away from the rest. All buttons have good travel and make a pleasant click when pressed.

The smooth touchpad provides precise control. If you're not used to a solid touchpad and two separate buttons, it will be a little strange, although they are convenient and effective.

The HP Omen 15 touchpad does not follow the Microsoft Precision Touchpad protocol, but drivers from Synaptics offer basic multi-touch commands.

For passwordless login via Windows 10 Hello, the laptop uses an infrared camera.

Touchpad and keyboard

After looking at the keyboard, it becomes clear that the impressive dimensions can result in a noticeable advantage of the HP OMEN X compared to other laptops, even if we are talking about similar graphics stations.

Under the lid of the laptop there is a spacious keyboard slightly recessed into the body with an enlarged spacebar, a separate row of programmable keys on the left, a dedicated number pad, not far from which there is a place for a button that activates the laptop control center program. We really don’t know if any of the gamers still use “arrows,” but they are also structurally isolated. "WASD" are highlighted visually and tactilely. The “W” has a distinct tactile mark, the same as the “F” and “J”.

The main news that will please any hardened gamer: the keyboard is mechanical. Understand correctly, mechanics are used in the vast majority of laptops, but they use low-profile mechanisms: “butterfly” or “scissors”.

We don't know how, but HP engineers managed to implement a keyboard with switches similar to Cherry MX Blue in a laptop form factor. These are keys with a long stroke (2.5 mm), a pronounced tactile response and a click when the mechanism is activated. Moreover, the operation occurs in the first third of the stroke. Thanks to this feature, once you get used to it, you can significantly speed up entering commands into the computer.

We would have liked to see a larger touchpad, but the HP OMEN X's touchpad is fairly standard in size. However, you can’t deny its comfort: slightly velvety to the touch, slippery and sensitive. Nothing more is required from this input tool. The keys located next to each other are unusual. Unlike keyboard switches, they are silent, press very softly and almost effortlessly. You don't get used to them right away.

Laptop screen

The Omen 15 offers resolution configurations ranging from Full HD (1920×1080) to 4K UHD—I chose the latter for review. The contrast is as expected at 740:1. 70% of the AdobeRGB color space is covered - slightly below average, but the brightness is excellent - 315 nits.

With a 4K UHD display, the HP Omen 15 is great for gaming, working, and watching videos. There are no problems with the image here.

Display

17.3″ display with 4K resolution or 1080p display with 120Hz refresh rate, both with support for NVIDIA G-SYNC technology. HP's gaming division certainly doesn't like compromises if it offers customers such a complex choice. We are inclined to favor the HP OMEN X with a Full HD screen with an increased refresh rate - such a matrix is ​​optimal for e-sports, where the main thing is performance and image rendering speed, and not pixel density.

Subjective impressions of the HP OMEN X display are very positive. An increased screen refresh rate makes the picture visually smoother. The difference is noticeable from the first minute of working at the computer. NVIDIA G-SYNC synchronizes the image output with the operation of the video card and rids the picture in games of artifacts that vertical synchronization usually struggles with. Moreover, it does this much more efficiently and without loss of performance. After this paragraph, gamers can immediately move on to the section on hardware. They will definitely like the HP OMEN X screen.

For the discerning public looking for not only a gaming PC, but also a workstation, for example for video editing or experimenting with computer graphics, we have prepared a detailed study of the HP OMEN X matrix.

The screen has a white LED backlight and a classic matte finish. Its color gamut is 97% triangle sRGB and 74% AdobeRGB. The gamma curve is almost perfect, the brightness is average. At the maximum level it is about 286 nits.

The luminosity is uniform, but the color uniformity at maximum brightness is disappointing.

Contrast and a slight glow effect are typical for IPS matrices. Like most of the monitors we tested, the HP OMEN X's screen is slightly blue. The white point is shifted.

Color accuracy indicates good calibration and accurate rendering of nuances. The overall rating of the matrix is ​​high, the only thing we can complain about is the color uniformity, and even that differs noticeably from matrix to matrix.

We were curious how calibration would affect the HP OMEN X's picture. The color gamut of the matrix has not changed at all, the luminosity of white has decreased slightly, but the color rendering accuracy has increased even more, approaching the reference values. Thus, if we had any doubts, they have now been completely dispelled. The HP OMEN X has a display with a matrix that is better than many desktop monitors.

Speakers and sound

Two Bang & Olufsen speakers are located directly above the keyboard. They produce powerful sound and muffle the noise of coolers, which is especially useful in games. Only at about 90% volume does the sound begin to distort.

For music and video, the speakers in the Omen 15 are worse due to weak bass, although a special application allows you to customize audio parameters. For those who need really high quality, I advise you to connect headphones.

External aid and ergonomics

HP hesitated for quite a long time to experiment with the appearance of its gaming laptops, but in 2020 the company still had to radically revise the design, so the HP Omen15-ek0000 being reviewed today can be called a completely new device. The HP Omen 15 2020 (15-ek0000) case is a pleasant combination of aluminum and plastic; the appearance has become less aggressive and now vaguely resembles laptops from another manufacturer from China that produces mobile computers under the Legion brand. Many experts remember very well what the 2018-2020 model looked like, then you will see that first of all the design of the hinges has changed. Previously, it seemed that the top cover, which by the way lost its textured surface, was attached to the main unit using two hinges that were recessed into the body; in the new model, the hinges actually protrude from the body, which is clearly visible when looking at the laptop from the back.

The shape of the body itself has also undergone significant changes; now it has become more streamlined. Also, the surface finish has now become matte and has completely lost its texture. There is now a new accent on the lid of the laptops - a stylized OMEN logo with a diamond in a blue-green gradient. The area of ​​the keyboard block has also changed dramatically, but we will talk about this below. The set of ports has not changed. On the left side of the laptop there are: an RJ-45 connector, an HDMI connector, two USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen.1) ports, one MiniDisplayPort, a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 2) port with support and an audio jack. On the right we found one USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen.1) and an SD card reader.

The laptop turned out to be quite compact. With a thickness of 19.8 mm, the device weighs almost 2.46 kg, which is slightly more than last year’s model. The bottom cover is traditionally easy to remove: by unscrewing eight screws, you get access to the filling - you can upgrade without any extra effort. There are two RAM SODIMM slots inside, both occupied, so the memory operates in dual-channel mode. In terms of storage, there are two M. 2 NVMe slots (one occupied), both of which support PCIe x4 drives as well as Optane drives.

Input Devices

Instead of a full-size keyboard in the new HP Omen15-ek0000 we get a cut-off NumberPad, there are no keys with numbers, only nine function keys like “END”, to be honest, not a big loss, since a real gamer doesn’t really need them. The arrow keys have finally become a normal size, there is a lot of free space around them, now nothing will interfere with the gamer in online battles. What we didn't like was the placement of the power button. We also criticized the previous model for the location of the power button; it was located above the “Escape” key, which often led to unintentional pressing of it. In the new model, HP went even further and placed the power button between the “F12” and “Delete” keys, which accordingly requires getting used to the layout. The Omen 15 laptop we're reviewing has four-zone RGB lighting. The WASD keys get their own profile to customize them. The touchpad still leaves a pleasant impression, the plastic covering is comfortable.

Display and sound

The laptop in question has a 15.6-inch IPS matrix with a resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels and anti-glare coating. The 144 Hz matrix produced by AUO has the following characteristics: the maximum brightness is quite high - 335 nits (cd/m2), its average value is about 315 nits (cd/m2). The contrast is 1260:1, which means that blacks will be displayed close to natural, and not in gray-black tones, as in some budget matrices. In general, the display in our laptop has good contrast, comfortable viewing angles, and the matrix does not flicker at any brightness level. In addition, the display almost completely covers the sRGB color gamut and, most importantly from a gamer's point of view, the pixel response time is very fast at 9 ms, which perfectly matches the refresh rate of the display. If we talk about what kind of displays can be found in laptops of the HP Omen 15 dh1000 series, then in total we counted four types of matrices, all of them are made using IPS technology, have a resolution of 1920x1080 pixels and a scan frequency of 60, 144, 250, 300 Hz.

The audio subsystem from Bang & Olufsen pleases with clear, pleasant sound at a fairly high volume - if we talk about operation in a desktop version. The speakers are down-firing, and without a resonating surface, the audio becomes flat. Unfortunately, the system has somewhat muffled bass, but its quality is more than enough for games.

Processor and performance tests

The seventh generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ processor is the basis of this gaming laptop. It guarantees stable performance from four cores and remains relatively cool during workloads.

The HP Omen 15 performed well in the tests. In the Geekbench 4 single-core mode, it scored 4,448 points, in multi-core mode - 14,926. Only the EVGA SC17 1080 with Core i7-7820HK was faster. This laptop completed the Handbrake test in 461 seconds, ahead of competitors with the Core i7-7700HQ, but behind the Asus ROG Strix GL553VD and EVGA SC17.

Consequently, the Omen 15 processor can handle any task, including demanding games and video editing.

⇡#Performance in resource-intensive applications

We measured performance in the CPU test section and all subsequent tasks in the “Default” mode, rejecting the “Performance” profile as a clear threat to the user’s ears. Most of the devices we chose to compare with the OMEN 17-cb0006ur are based on related models of the popular six-core Intel CPU (Core i7-8750H or i7-9750H), so the relative results of the benchmarks are determined by how high the clock speeds of the chassis of a particular laptop are allows the chip to develop. In addition, the duration of the benchmark plays a role, since the time window for going beyond the stable TDP varies from system to system.

Based on the totality of test data, the OMEN 17-cb0006ur does not stand out from the galaxy of similar devices, and higher performance can only be expected from eight-core processors, and even then only in specific tasks, because they still have cooling requirements and/or power reserves for the CPU core stricter.

Solid State Drive and Hard Drive

The combination of a 256 GB Toshiba PCIe SSD and a 7,200 rpm hard drive provides fast boot times, fast performance and plenty of storage space for games.

The HP Omen 15 SSD read speed in CrystalDiskMark is 1,055 MB/s, write speed is 780 MB/s. In the same test, the Asus ROG Zephyrus achieved a read speed of 2,408 MB/s and a write speed of 1,536 MB/s. The Asus ROG Strix GL553 without an SSD has several times less speed.

In practice, the difference is subtle; the Omen 15 does a good job of running programs that are installed on the SSD. Games on a hard drive take a little longer to load, but those who are dissatisfied can always install an SSD of any size.

⇡#Internal structure and upgrade options

I was unable to remove the plastic cover of the OMEN X 2S. In theory, everything is done very simply: unscrew the six Torx screws and remove the bottom. But in practice, no matter how hard I tried, the bottom cover did not want to come off. It’s a pity, even if in the case of our assembly there is nothing to change in the computer - the system is pumped to the maximum.

The overall OMEN Tempest cooling system, consisting of four heat pipes, aluminum radiators and fairly large copper pads, forming a common massive circuit, is responsible for removing heat from the CPU and GPU, as well as from their power circuit. The cooler design also uses a pair of fans equipped with hydrodynamic bearings. It is known that Thermal Grizzly liquid metal was chosen as the thermal interface in OMEN X 2S - the more interesting it will be to test the device. According to the manufacturer, the thermal conductivity of such a thermal interface is 10 times higher than that of silicone thermal paste.

Two ADATA AO1P32MCST2-BN9S memory modules form an array with a total capacity of 32 GB and operate at an effective frequency of 3200 MHz. There is no support for 2.5-inch drives, as in regular OMEN 15/17 - there are only two M.2 slots. In the case of the test sample, they have terabyte SSDs WD WDC PC SN720 SDAPNTW-1T00-1006 installed.

GeForce GTX 1060 video card in games

Thanks to Nvidia's new Max-Q technology, HP was able to fit the GeForce GTX 1060 graphics card into a relatively compact device body.

In 3DMark Fire Strike, the laptop scored 8,755 points - significantly higher than the Origin EON15-S with GTX 1050 Ti or Asus ROG Strix GL553V with GTX 1050. EVGA SC17 with a full-size GTX 1080 and Asus ROG Zephyrus with GTX 1080 Max-Q received over 14 000 points, but they cost much more.

The HP Omen 15 ran every game I tested at 1080p. The frame rate per second with average detail in Civilization VI was 67 fps, in Battlefield 1 - 101 fps, in For Honor - 87 fps. Systems with a GTX 1050 or 1050 Ti were inferior to this machine not only in tests, but also in practice. At maximum detail, the frame rate in Civilization VI will drop to 59 fps, in Battlefield 1 - to 69 fps, in For Honor - to 63 fps. Only in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided the frame rate dropped to 31 fps - anything less than 30 fps is considered unacceptable.

If you select 1440p resolution, the frame rate in Civilization VI on ultra settings will be 55 fps, in For Honor - 38 fps, in Battlefield 1 - 49 fps, in Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - 29 fps. Overall not bad for a mid-range gaming laptop.

HP's new Omen 15 meets recommended requirements not only for gaming, but also for virtual reality (VR). Its screen supports 4K UHD, however, the hardware is rather weak to run games in this format. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided at high and ultra settings demonstrates 15 fps and 12 fps, respectively, Battlefield 1 at medium and ultra - 34 fps and 26 fps.

Since playing in 4K is bad, when buying the Omen 15, I advise you to save money and choose a build with a standard Full HD screen.

⇡#Testing methodology

It’s logical to test gaming laptops in a large number of popular games. Since the laptop does not have the most powerful graphics card installed, using exclusively maximum or close graphics quality settings does not make much practical sense, so laptops with graphics below the level of the GeForce GTX 1070 are also tested using the “High” automatic image mode. , but without using anti-aliasing in some cases. A complete list of settings is shown in the table below.

Gaming performance was determined using the well-known FRAPS program. With its help, we get the rendering time of each frame. Then, using the FRAFS Bench Viewer utility, not only the average FPS is calculated, but also the 99th percentile. The use of the 99th percentile instead of the minimum number of frames per second indicators is due to the desire to clear the results from random bursts of performance that were provoked by reasons not directly related to the operation of the main components of the platform.

Processor and memory performance were measured using the following software:

• Sunspider . A benchmark aimed at measuring performance in the JavaScript environment. The test was carried out in the Google Chrome browser.
• Corona 1.3 . Testing rendering speed using the renderer of the same name. The speed of building a standard BTR scene used to measure performance is measured.
• WinRAR 5.40 . Archiving an 11 GB folder with various data in RAR5 format and with the maximum degree of compression.
• Blender 2.76 . Determining the final rendering speed in one of the popular free 3D graphics packages. The duration of building the final model from Blender Cycles Benchmark rev4 is measured.
• x265 HD Benchmark . Testing the speed of video transcoding into the promising H.265/HEVC format.
• CINEBENCH R15 . Measuring the performance of photorealistic 3D rendering in the CINEMA 4D animation package, CPU test.

Display testing is done using the X-Rite i1Display Pro colorimeter and the HCFR app.

The battery life of a laptop is checked in three modes. The first load option - web surfing - involves alternately opening and closing tabs on the sites 3DNews.ru, Computeruniverse.ru and Unsplash.com with an interval of 30 seconds. This test uses the Google Chrome browser with the "Block third-party data and cookies" and "Don't allow sites to store data" options enabled. In the second mode, x265 (HEVC) video is played in a standard Windows 10 player with the repeat function activated. The third type of load is running the Unigine Heaven benchmark at maximum graphics quality settings in full screen mode. In all three cases, the same display brightness was set at 230 cd/m2.

In gaming and other applications, the HP Omen 17 was compared to the following laptops.

Equipment portability

You'll have a hard time carrying around a laptop that's 2.54cm thick and weighs 2.58kg. However, with a battery capacity of 66 watt-hours, it is in any case not suitable for long-term battery life. In Basemark's web page loading test, the HP Omen 15 lasted 2 hours and 11 minutes—beating Asus and EVGA gaming laptops, but slower than Dell and HP mobile workstations with similar processors.

When playing a looped video, the tested gadget was discharged in just 3 hours and 34 minutes - this is normal compared to competitors, although not enough compared to non-gaming laptops that last longer than 10 hours.

⇡#Conclusions

For a fairly low price compared to similar configurations of gaming laptops, we agreed in advance to forgive the HP OMEN 17-cb0006ur a lot, but it turned out that it does not need any concessions. The duet of the six-core Core i7-9750H and full-fledged GeForce RTX 2080 graphics is capable of the utmost performance that is only possible in games on a mobile platform (gamers probably don’t need eight cores, although there is such a version in the OMEN 17 family). But silicon is only the starting point; the main thing is that the updated HP chassis was able to unleash the potential of top-end Intel and NVIDIA chips thanks to an effective cooling system. OMEN 17-cb0006ur did not disappoint in other respects either: 32 GB of RAM is enough not only for games, but also for demanding work applications, there is a fast 512 GB SSD, and the built-in IPS display with a refresh rate of 144 Hz is bright and contrasting. The 3DNews laboratory has already passed through many gaming laptops with similar parameters, but in terms of the combination of qualities and cost of the OMEN 17-cb0006ur it is difficult to choose an equal rival.

If with such data it is possible to find some reason for serious criticism, then it applies to all large-caliber mobile computers without exception. So, even if this is far from the largest and heaviest laptop among its kind, it is still tied to the table both by its dimensions and weight, and by its modest battery life. Well, the price, although low in comparison with analogues, whatever one may say, is very stinging.

Bottom line

The HP Omen 15 is a decent gaming laptop that can handle most games thanks to the GTX 1060 Max Q. At $1,660, the price is justified.

If you want to save money, the Omen 15 model for $1,000 (RUB 57,600) will get you an entry-level discrete GPU, 8 GB of RAM, a 1 TB hard drive and a Full HD display. Gaming performance will drop, but the features will be consistent with the price. Pay $30 (RUB 1,800) more and get the GTX 1050 2 GB configuration, adding $110 (RUB 6,400) for the GTX 1050 4 GB. I recommend any of these options.

A modern processor, the latest graphics card and a variety of connection options for almost any peripheral device will allow the Omen 15 to remain relevant for a long time.

Are there any alternatives?

HP Omen 15 surpasses its competitors, if not in price, then in components. For example, the Origin EON15-S with 8 GB of RAM, a Full HD display and a GTX 1050 Ti is available for $1,360 (RUB 78,300). But the Omen 15 I’m reviewing has twice the amount of RAM, a 4K display and a much better video card - it’s worth paying an extra $300 (RUB 17,300) for that.

Dell Inspiron 15 1700 with 4K display and GTX 1060 Max-Q sells for $1,500 (RUB 86,300). Yes, our Omen is a little more expensive, however, this is justified by its bright and stylish design.

Benefits of HP Omen 15

• Reliable design
• Attractive design
• Good gaming performance
• High image quality

Disadvantages of Omen 15

• Very noisy coolers
• The video card does not support 4K in games

⇡#Appearance and input devices

Unlike its competitors, and the laboratory has tested a lot of gaming models, Omen 17 looks very strict. If it were not for the bold red logo of the HP gaming laptop series on the lid, then this model might not be suspected of having truly gaming hardware - a kind of oversized ultrabook for those who need a system with a large screen. The body of the device itself is entirely made of high-quality plastic. Outwardly it resembles carbon fiber, and to the touch it is soft-touch. It’s nice that the dark gray material turned out to be practical to use: dust and fingerprints are not visible on the surface of the laptop. The internal surface of the laptop is made of glossy plastic.

The Omen 17 is only 33mm thick when closed. “Total” - because there are a lot of 17-inch laptops on sale with a thickness of 40 millimeters or more. The laptop cannot be called heavy either. With its 3.35 kg (excluding power supply), Omen 17 is closer to 15.6-inch models than to its heavier “colleagues”.

The laptop lid opens approximately 130 degrees. The display is attached to the main body using two massive hinges. The rotating mechanism is positioned quite accurately and does not fluctuate during work and play.

There is a removable hatch on the bottom of the laptop for quick access to the RAM. Traditionally, for most models, the cooling system sucks air through this part of the case. In addition to perforations for the cooler, there is a grille on the bottom that covers the sound speakers. Two long rubber feet prevent the Omen 17 from sliding on a flat surface - tested on different surfaces.

There are no connectors on the front or back of the Omen 17. There is nothing at all in front, and at the back there are only air ducts for the cooling system, through which heated air leaves the body. All main ports are located on the sides of the laptop.

So, on the left, the user has access to a USB 3.0 A-type connector and two 3.5 mm mini-jacks for connecting headphones and a microphone. On the right are two more exactly the same USB 3.0 ports, an Ethernet connector, HDMI and mini-DisplayPort video outputs, an SD card reader and a connector for connecting an external power supply. It is noteworthy that even laptops with 17.3-inch screens no longer have optical drives installed.

I already had the courage to compare the Omen 17 with ultrabooks. The input devices in this model are similar to those HIDs that are used in ultra-compact laptops. We are used to the fact that gaming models usually use zonal multi-colored backlighting, highlight the combination of WASD and arrow keys in color, give some buttons an unusual shape, and also use touchpads with buttons. No, Omen 17 uses a strict keyboard with a single-level red backlight. The buttonless Synaptic touchpad is pleasant to the touch, the touchpad recognizes gestures normally, pressing it is accompanied by a distinct and rather loud click.

Considering its size, the Omen 17 is equipped with a fairly compact keyboard. The keys from the functional row F1-F12 are small. They contain laptop control functions; with their help, for example, you can change the screen brightness or sound volume, turn the keyboard backlight on and off. By the way, by default these functions are activated without the Fn modifier; they are paramount. But if you need the F1-F12 keys, then you can’t do without a combination with the Fn button. This scheme of work, in my opinion, is not very suitable for games. Fortunately, you can change the priority of the F1-F12 buttons in the laptop BIOS settings.

Overall, the Omen 17 keyboard is quite comfortable to work and play on. The only thing I didn't like was the tiny up and down arrow keys.

The laptop uses a standard webcam that operates at 720p resolution at 30 Hz. And therefore its video quality is standard, namely in a room with artificial lighting the picture turns out to be noisy and cloudy. It will not be possible to conduct high-quality streams with such a “web”, but it is quite possible to communicate with relatives via Skype.