HP Omen Laptop 15 it is a gaming notebook very versatile and elegant, which manages to combine the sobriety of the lines with a slightly more tamarro soul - as many like - and jaunty thanks to theRGB lighting which, lately, cannot be missing. We tested the version with Intel Core i7-10750H, Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super video card and 16GB of RAM. Will we have liked it? Let's find out together in the our HP Omen Laptop 15 review!
HP Omen Laptop 15 review: an extremely elegant design
You know, the design is purely subjective, but aesthetically we really liked this HP Omen 15. Going a little against the tide with respect to the fashion that sees increasingly aggressive notebooks, HP instead brings a black body, elegance, in aluminum, which simply encloses the OMEN logo on the upper part. Although the lid is made in a "soft", which therefore does not resist and bends, the laptop as a whole it is robust and solid. Unfortunately, however, as soon as you get your hands on this HP Omen 15 you immediately notice a notable defect: the body, both internal and external, it retains fingerprints a lot.
Its sturdiness is “thanks” also to the considerable weight of this laptop, starting from 2,36 kilograms, making the HP Omen Laptop 15 one of the heaviest laptops. ASUS ROG Zephyrus G14, for example, weighs 1,7 kilograms. The dimensions, on the other hand, are quite compact, considering that it is a 15,7 ”notebook, with reduced bezels and the webcam a 720p inserted on the upper frame.
Touchpad and keyboard
Opening the notebook you immediately notice the keyboard with RGB lighting divided into four zones, customizable through the Omen Light Studio software, with keys of the right size and well detached. The large keys have a price to pay: you'll have to deal with the lack of a numeric keypad. The tactical feedback is great and the frets are just the right softness. At the top we find the usual function keys, with the on and off key located between F12 and Del - the first time you will look for it - and two keys at the top right dedicated to the Omen software and the calculator.
Il touchpad is very large, responds well, is precise and solid. There are no problems in web browsing and in consulting files and documents while, as with all laptops, for more demanding jobs it is recommended to use an external mouse. It supports all Windows 10 manage like three finger taps.
With regard to ports supplied, HP Omen Laptop 15 has everything you need. On the left side we find the power input, an HDMI port, audio jack, an SD card reader, a USB-A port and the ethernet port. On the right side, however, we find a Thunderbolt 3 port, a Mini DisplayPort and two USB type A.
The display
The display is a 15,6 ”fullHD IPS and 144Hz refresh rate, with anti-reflective treatment. Turns out very bright and with good contrast, returning crisp, vivid and very uniform colors. Playing with this laptop was a joy to behold, as was watching movies, TV series and in everyday use. The high refresh rate allows you to have a very smooth experience and the matte finish allows you to limit annoying reflections.
Il sistema audio Bang & Olufsen
HP Omen Laptop 15 is equipped with speaker Bang & Olufsen above the keyboard. The sound is crystal clear and the volume is great, with good equalization between highs, mids and lows, obviously again considering that it is a laptop. From the Omen software it is then possible to improve the performance of the speakers, choosing from some presets - such as Music or Movies - or customizing the settings by hand.
This Omen is equipped with dual-array microphone that behave well during video calls and, again through the software, it is possible to activate the noise-canceling function to reduce background noises such as that of the keyboard.
HP Omen Laptop 15 review: performance
Our model (HP Omen 15-ek0014nl) is equipped with Intel Core i7-10750H processor 6-core, with a 2,6GHz clock rate that goes up to 5GHz with Intel Turbo Boost technology. The GPU, on the other hand, is one Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super with Max-Q GSYNC da 8GB. The whole is accompanied by 16GB RAM e 1TB of PCIe SSD. We found the notebook very powerful and in terms of performance it did not disappoint us at all, both in gaming and video editing. We also did some extreme usage tests, opening dozens of tabs on Google Chrome - a browser known for taking up a lot of RAM - with a few YouTube videos playing during a gaming session, without any slowdown.
During our tests ltemperature has always remained under control, both that of the CPU and that of the GPU, demonstrating an excellent dissipation work by HP. The fans, when they start at maximum, are quite noisy but still below average compared to other laptops and still allow you to keep the body at an "acceptable" temperature. Very often we have had difficulty in being able to touch some parts of the body of other gaming notebooks during long lasting gaming sessions, while with HP Omen Laptop 15 this does not happen.
Autonomy
We have perhaps arrived at the sore point of the review of this HP Omen Laptop 15: autonomy. While gaming notebooks are known to be extremely battery-hungry, this model appears to have below average autonomy, both during gaming and in daily use formed by web browsing and use of multimedia content. If you plan to buy it, you will never have to leave the house without a power supply, but it is a defect that we forgive HP, given the good performance of this notebook.
HP Omen Laptop 15 review: buy it or not
This laptop, on the whole, we really liked it. Despite the weight certainly not "feather" - almost 2,4 kilograms - and an autonomy below average, the performance both in daily use and during heavier work and in gaming are worth the purchase. The notebook is very elegant and solid, equipped with all the ports you could want and the display is really great: vivid colors, crisp images and good brightness. Certainly it is not suitable for everyone, given that it is on sale above 2000 euros, but if you are looking for an elegant, high-performance gaming notebook that does not overheat, HP Omen Laptop 15 is the right choice.
PRO
- Bright and vivid color display
- Excellent performance
- It doesn't get too hot
AGAINST
- Little autonomy
- It weighs more than two kilograms
