HP
Omen 17 - Gaming Power
Big, fast and well-equipped for the money, the HP
Omen 17 is excellent if you don't mind a big machine.
Most laptop companies are focusing on 15.6" and
16" screens these days, but HP's new Omen 17 ($1,850 / £1,499) shows
there's still a lot to like about larger devices. Its 17.3-inch screen is
instantly absorbing, and its 2560 x 1440 resolution gives you more pixels than
regular 1080p panels. Combine the resolution with a 165Hz refresh rate and 3ms
response time and you've got a screen that's well-suited for gaming, despite
the lack of adaptive sync.
The quality level is also impressive. A brightness
level of 375 cd/m² and a black point of 0.31 cd/m² is sufficient, and the
contrast ratio of 1,210:1 provides good depth and vibrancy. A Delta E of 1.83
and a color temperature of 6,424K ensure accurate colors, and the panel renders
94.1 percent of the sRGB gamut, so it can produce virtually any tone that games
demand. The speakers are also reasonable - the bass is weak but loud and the
strong mid-range means games sound impressive.
A large HP screen sits above the high-end internals.
The GeForce RTX 3070 GPU has 5,120 stream processors and 8GB of memory, and has
a generous 130W limit by default, which improves by 10W with Notebook
Performance Mode enabled. Meanwhile, Intel's 8-core i7-11800H is a solid
processor, and there's 16GB of DDR4 memory running at 3200MHz. You also get
decent storage with a 1TB Samsung PM9A1 SSD offering fast read and write speeds
of 7,046MB/s and 5,140MB/s, and there's dual-band 802.11ax Wi-Fi.
The Omen looks like a serious piece of kit with a
matte black finish applied over the aluminum base and plastic lid. This sizable
machine also has good external connectivity options, with one Thunderbolt 4
connector supporting Display Port and charging, along with three USB Type-A
ports. It also has gigabit Ethernet, mini-Display Port and HDMI 2.1, plus an SD
card slot. Users can also remove the base panel to gain access to the SODIMM
and M.2 socket pairs.
That's all well and good, but HP's design isn't
flawless. Its webcam doesn't have a privacy shutter and it doesn't support
Windows Hello, so this device has no biometric login options. Build quality is
mostly good thanks to the aluminum base, but the display flexes a bit too much.
Naturally, the machine is neither tiny nor light; it weighs a substantial
6.12 pounds, measures 27mm in thickness, and spans about 400mm.
Meanwhile, the keyboard has impressive typing thanks
to fast, consistent keys with plenty of travel—good for gaming and not far from
the low-profile mechanical switches you'll find on more expensive laptops. The
keyboard has six macro keys, a button to open the HP Omen Gaming Hub, and
full-sized cursor keys.
Disappointingly, the HP has no numeric keypad, its
RGB LED lighting only extends to four zones, and the power button is located on
the keyboard itself, meaning you can accidentally turn off the computer if you
slip. The hollow-feeling trackpad buttons aren't very good either, but any
serious gamer will use a USB mouse.
The HP Omen 17 takes on our favorite affordable
laptop, the Lenovo Legion 5 Pro. Both cost £1,499 and use an RTX 3070 with the
same performance levels, but the Lenovo machine has an AMD Ryzen 7 5800H CPU
and a 16-inch display with a 16:10 aspect ratio, slightly better image quality
and higher resolution. It also has a numeric keypad, a privacy-protected
webcam, and additional USB connectivity.
The GeForce RTX 3070 can handle smooth gaming at the
Omen 17's native 2560 x 1440 resolution. It delivered a minimum 99th percentile
43fps in Assassin's Creed Valhalla and 37fps in Cyberpunk 2077, while it
averaged 140fps in Doom Eternal. That's enough pace to play single-player games
at solid frame rates, especially if you drop the settings a bit, and casual
games can run at high frame rates even on a 165Hz display.
This GPU will run most ray-traced games with DLSS as
well. If you're willing to play at 1080p, it's even better, with HP averaging
195fps in Doom here and over 60fps elsewhere. The HP machine outpaced the
Lenovo in Assassin's Creed Valhalla and Cyberpunk 2077, and both showed similar
speeds in Metro Exodus and Doom Eternal.
The Intel Omen processor also did a great job in
application benchmarks. In our handbrake and multitasking tests, Lenovo's AMD
chip outperformed, falling behind only in the image editing benchmark. Its
total score of 222,712 easily beat the Lenovo and matched the best results
we've ever seen from the 5800H. Switching to Omen performance mode improved
this overall score to 234,777, with a big gain in multi-threaded tasks but no
noticeable increase in single-core speed.
HP's dimensional chassis helped it perform well in
thermal tests. When gaming at 130W operating mode, noise levels were modest,
the exterior wasn't warm, and a delta T GPU of 50°C was good. Noise and heat
levels remained low in both multi-core and single-core workload tests, and we
have no complaints about the 54°C delta T processor.
In terms of clock speed, the 4.5 GHz single core CPU
benchmark was good, but the 3.3 GHz multi-core speed was average. This problem
was solved in Performance mode, where the chip reached 4.2 GHz without much fan
noise. However, we wouldn't recommend performance mode for gaming - the speed
increase is small and the noise increases significantly.
The HP computer also has a power-down mode that
intelligently reduces CPU power consumption. This mode dropped the Omen's
benchmark result to 205,046 with even less noise, so it's ideal if you're
looking to reduce power consumption and noise levels. However, the Under volt
option seems a bit flawed - it caused the Omen's battery life to drop from five
hours, 41 minutes to less than three hours. Battery life is middling elsewhere
– the HP's best score was over six hours of video playback, but it only lasted
90 minutes of gaming.
Conclusion
The HP machine is a bit of a throwback, but
that's not necessarily a bad thing. It boasts a large, immersive screen, a
robust casing that largely dampens noise, plenty of power, a nice keyboard, and
decent connectivity options. The thinner and lighter Lenovo remains the more
practical choice for most people, especially thanks to the quality 16:10
display. However, if you're happy to have a larger laptop for mostly desktop
gaming and work, the Omen is an excellent choice that offers more performance
for the same price.
+ Fast in games and applications
+ Large, high-quality screen
+ Good thermal performance
+ Satisfying typing and decent connection
options
Cons
– Thicker and heavier than rivals
– Some missing features
– Lid is a bit weak
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Specifications of hp gaming laptop (Omen
17) |
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Memory |
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Graphics |
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Screen |
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Storage |
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Networking |
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Weight |
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Ports |
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Dimensions
(mm) W = 397 x D = 262 x H = 27 (W x D x H) |
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Operating
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Warranty |
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