HP’s long-running Omen model—launched in 2016—spans every little thing from desktops to screens, nevertheless it’s the most recent Omen Home windows laptop computer that draws our consideration immediately. The voodoo theme and “dragon purple” floor results from yesteryear are all however gone now, however what stays is HP’s dedication to utilizing the Omen model to supply top-shelf gaming performance whereas maintaining costs moderately in examine. (If you need much more worth, HP’s newer Victus line is designed to trim costs even additional, although on the expense of lacking out on bleeding-edge parts.)
Let’s get the apparent out of the way in which: The brand new Omen 16 is not any featherweight that may slip simply into your messenger bag. With a 16.1-inch (non-touch) show and loads of energy beneath the hood, the laptop computer weighs 5.1 kilos and measures 32 millimeters thick, making it one of many beefiest laptops I’ve seen in years—each actually and figuratively.
Powered by a uncommon mixture of an AMD CPU (a 4-GHz Ryzen 9 7940HS) and an Nvidia GPU (a GeForce RTX 4070), you received’t readily discover extra uncooked energy in a transportable elsewhere in the marketplace immediately. Whereas these parts are backed up by a comparatively scant 16 GB of RAM and a smallish 512-GB SSD, these gadgets are no less than simpler to improve for those who want extra reminiscence.
Efficiency is frankly stellar: There was hardly a benchmark I threw on the Omen 16 wherein it didn’t simply trounce the competitors, the only real exception being a just-missed-it rating on the VRMark Orange Room check, the place it barely trailed the excessive bar set by the HP Envy 16 I examined a couple of months in the past. On every little thing else, the system turned in scores anyplace from 2 to 30 p.c larger—and it even shocked me by displaying off battery life simply shy of 8 hours on a full-screen YouTube playback check. I’ve examined gaming rigs in recent times that had been fortunate to hit 2 hours of working time—together with older Omen fashions—in order that’s an actual bonus.
Whereas the Omen can chow down on benchmarks, design isn’t its strongest swimsuit. Most curious is the selection of including a three-column financial institution of keys to the correct of the keyboard, which doesn’t embrace a numeric keypad. The arrow keys and the assorted rubbish keys like Finish and Pause seem over right here, however the Delete key’s relegated to a half-height key above the backspace button.
The larger drawback with this design is that HP needed to shrink down all of the keys on the keyboard to suit every little thing in, although at first, I believed I used to be loopy pondering one thing was amiss. The difficulty nagged at me, and over time, I discovered that touch-typing simply wasn’t going as easily because it ought to, so I measured the keys with digital calipers. Positive sufficient, the Omen’s keys had been 0.3 mm narrower in width (about 2 p.c) than the keys on two different laptops on my desk for the time being. That won’t sound like a lot, however you’d be stunned what a distinction it makes whenever you’re attempting to do sustained typing. It didn’t simply really feel uncomfortable, I additionally made extra errors. On prime of this, bizarrely, the house bar juts out towards the touchpad an additional couple of millimeters past the remainder of the keys. This doesn’t impression productiveness, nevertheless it positive does look bizarre.
The remainder of the machine received’t assist it win any design awards with a chunky, all-black design that’s seemingly centered on maximizing using vents. They’re not simply on either side and the rear of the gadget, however half the whole underside of the laptop computer is dominated by a monstrous air flow grille. And for those who miss the times of real-mounted enlargement ports, the Omen’s has some nostalgia for you right here, too. Two USB-C ports and one USB-A port are on the perimeters of the laptop computer, however you get an extra USB-A port, an HDMI 2.1 jack, and a full-size Ethernet port on the bottom—together with a devoted energy port.
The display screen—at only a 1920 x 1080-pixel decision—is surprisingly dim (which maybe helps out on the battery life entrance), however the Bang & Olufsen audio system do handle to carry out simply positive. The fan can get a bit rowdy beneath load, however even beneath heavy pressure, it by no means will get so loud as to change into insufferable. Contemplating the efficiency it could put out, any added noise is a good trade-off.
Lastly, pricing is one thing of a shifting goal that events will wish to observe intently. This unit’s MSRP (mannequin quantity 16-xf003dx) is $1,850 at Greatest Purchase and $1,810 on HP’s web site for a similar configuration. Greatest Purchase has dipped the value to $1,450 although. I don’t know what the “actual” value of this laptop computer is, however I can say that no matter you do, you need to await a sale earlier than handing over your money.
