The Revamped, “Fighter-Jet”-Inspired HP Omen Gaming Laptops


The ever-growing era of virtual reality is upon us, making it more and more crucial that developers of processors, graphics cards, and on-the-go gaming rigs stay on their toes and evolving. HP made it clear that they plan to be a top contender in the gaming and graphics world last week when they announced their upgraded line of Omen gaming PCs and laptops. The newly redesigned Omen laptops, in particular, have evolved nearly to the plane where they can be considered in the same conversation as the beefy, well-built desktop PC. In addition to beefier CPUs and GPUs, the 15- and 17-inch portable gamers are also the first to include Nvidia Max-Q graphics technology; an extremely new feature itself, which promises to boost graphics performance in light and thin laptops.

As you would probably expect, both the 15- and 17-inch models are configurable up to the best processors and graphics cards currently on the market. Each comes with a quad-core seventh-generation Intel Core i7-7700HQ (turbo to 3.8GHz) CPU and between 8GB and 32GB of DDR4 RAM memory, depending on model size and configuration. As for graphics, you’re looking at a lot of different top-tier options. The 15-inch Omen laptop can be configured with a 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon RX 550, a 4GB Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 or 1050i, all the way up to the Max-Q-ready GTX 1060 with 6GB of GDDR5 RAM. According to Nvidia, this Max-Q included technology will allow the GTX 1060 to provide a GTX 1080’s worth of graphics power, with little to no impact on thermals or noise. The Omen 17-inch will include an optical drive, and offers even more solutions for graphics with options including an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1050 with 2GB GDDR5, a GTX 1060 with 6GB GDDR5, GTX 1070 with 8GB GDDR5, or even the AMD Radeon RX 580 with 8GB GDDR5. Keeping with the fully customizable theme inside, display options come in several variants, including 4K, 1080p with G-Sync, or 1080p with FreeSync. And because it’s HP, you know you can count on ports galore with 3 USB Type-A and one USB Type-C with optional Thunderbolt 3, plus an SD card reader, HDMI 2.0 port, mini DisplayPort, and Ethernet.

Both the 15- and the 17-inch Omen laptops now look more gamer-friendly, with red backlit keyboards and what HP describes as “fighter jet and spacecraft-inspired designs.” Plus, HP has confirmed that every model will be VR-certified. Where you’ll start to notice the biggest differences in models is in the options and the price. With an array of storage and video cards to choose from, prices are going to be just as varying. The 15-inch Omen laptop starts at $999 for the base model, and as of today’s date, HP has still not released final pricing for the Max-Q version (although we can assume it will priced higher than the current top-tier model, which retails for $1,599). The Omen 17 starts out at just $1,099, which is actually not bad for a high-powered gaming laptop of this size. But if you want all the added bells and whistles to make it run like a dream, prepare to pay $2,000 or more for the top model. Both Omen laptops go on sale starting June 28.

Topics: Technology News HP Laptop Trends Laptops & Ultrathin Ultrabooks Tech Reviews

Join the conversation!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.