HP’s long-running Omen model—launched in 2016—spans all the things from desktops to screens, but it surely’s the newest Omen Home windows laptop computer that pulls our consideration as we speak. The voodoo theme and “dragon pink” floor results from yesteryear are all however gone now, however what stays is HP’s dedication to utilizing the Omen model to offer top-shelf gaming performance whereas maintaining costs moderately in test. (If you’d like 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 plain 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 underneath 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 available on the market as we speak. Whereas these parts are backed up by a comparatively scant 16 GB of RAM and a smallish 512-GB SSD, these objects are a minimum of simpler to improve if you happen to 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 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 number of months in the past. On all the things else, the system turned in scores anyplace from 2 to 30 p.c greater—and it even shocked me by exhibiting off battery life simply shy of 8 hours on a full-screen YouTube playback check. I’ve examined gaming rigs lately that have 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 proper of the keyboard, which doesn’t embrace a numeric keypad. The arrow keys and the varied 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 all the things in, although at first, I assumed I used to be loopy considering 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 have been 0.3 mm narrower in width (about 2 p.c) than the keys on two different laptops on my desk in the mean time. That won’t sound like a lot, however you’d be stunned what a distinction it makes while you’re attempting to do sustained typing. It didn’t simply really feel uncomfortable, I additionally made extra errors. On high of this, bizarrely, the area bar juts out towards the touchpad an additional couple of millimeters past the remainder of the keys. This doesn’t impression productiveness, but it surely certain 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 targeted on maximizing the usage of vents. They’re not simply on each side and the rear of the system, however half your complete underside of the laptop computer is dominated by a monstrous air flow grille. And if you happen to miss the times of real-mounted growth ports, the Omen’s has some nostalgia for you right here, too. Two USB-C ports and one USB-A port are on the edges of the laptop computer, however you get a further 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 high-quality. The fan can get a bit of rowdy underneath load, however even underneath heavy pressure, it by no means will get so loud as to turn out to be insufferable. Contemplating the efficiency it might put out, any added noise is a good trade-off.
Lastly, pricing is one thing of a shifting goal that events will need to comply with 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” worth of this laptop computer is, however I can say that no matter you do, it is best to anticipate a sale earlier than handing over your money.
