Review | HP Omen 15: This gaming notebook keeps it sleek and simple
How does the HP Omen 15 fare against lower-priced alternatives?
Over the last few months, gaming has seen a huge uptick in India, with mobile gamers upgrading to PCs and dedicated consoles. And PC vendors such as Asus, Lenovo and HP are making the most of the opportunity. Asus recently caught everyone’s attention with the Zephyrus G14, a compact, 14-inch screen, gaming notebook. HP is pinning its hopes on the Omen 15, which the company claims is one of the smallest 15-inch gaming notebooks in the market.
Though the Omen 15 is smaller and thinner than its predecessor, and has thinner bezels, it doesn’t feel particularly lighter or smaller than some of its recent counterparts. In fact, at 2.3kg, it weighs more than some of the lighter gaming notebooks. The Omen 15 isn’t flashy, unlike the Zephyrus G14, which had a backlit lid with LED lights on it. But it feels solid and comes with a lustreless matte finish that doesn’t smudge. The edges seem a bit too pointed, however.
Though the shadow black finish has its own charm, the laptop also comes in a mica silver option for users who prefer lighter colours. The front-facing speaker is placed right above the keyboard. Backed by Bang and Olufsen, it sounds loud, crisp and delivers an all-round impressive audio experience.
Moving on to the keyboard—the keys are big enough, with adequate space in between to enable a decent typing experience. They are also RGB backlit, which means you can type or use the keyboard for gaming in the dark. The connectors are spread evenly so cables don’t clutter any one side of the machine. The LAN port, HDMI and audio jack are on the left while the USB Type C and USB type A ports are on the right. The 15.6-inch display looks expansive enough for most tasks, including gaming, which requires a panel big enough to appreciate the beauty and detailing of some of the modern AAA titles. The 1,920x1,080p resolution is standard, but the display stands out with its vivid colours and brightness of 300 nits. It has a 144Hz refresh rate, so the movement of objects in games is much smoother.
The new Omen 15 isn’t tied to a single CPU brand: It comes in both Intel and AMD-based variants. We reviewed the Intel variant running the Core i7 H-series 10th gen processor with Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 1650Ti graphics, 16 GB RAM and 1 TB SSD. This particular model is priced at ₹1,20,999. The variant with the more powerful GeForce RTX 2070 and up to 1 TB SSD costs ₹1,70,999.
As far as performance goes, the laptop handled games like RDR2 and Just Cause 4 on decent graphic settings without any hiccups.
Overall, the Omen15 with Core i7 and GTX 1650Ti is a capable notebook too and can handle many of the latest games well. But if you are looking for something with almost similar specifications at a lower price, you could check out Lenovo’s new Legion 5i. Though it also runs on Intel Core i7 10th gen with Nvidia GTX 1650Ti—and has a 15.6-inch full HD display—it costs a lot less, at ₹99,990. Lenovo has also cut costs by sticking to 8 GB RAM and 256 GB SSD with a 1 TB HDD.
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Business NewsLoungeBusiness Of LifeReview | HP Omen 15: This gaming notebook keeps it sleek and simple
First Published:16 Sep 2020, 10:00 AM IST
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