98 SEPTEMBER 2019 |COMPUTERSHOPPER|ISSUE 379
GAMING
THEOMEN15sits somewherein the middle
groundof moderngaminglaptops. It’s not as
chunkyasthe likes of the Acer Predator
Helios 500, but neitheris it aslim-and-light
stunnerlike the Razer Blade 15 or Asus ROG
Zephyrus SGX701. Instead, it attempts to
combinepower and at least halfwaydecent
portabilitywith aprice that’s lower than the
skinniestgamingclamshells.
At 2.5kg and 25mm thick, it adds some
weight to your bag, but if you’re not
constantlyon the go,it’s adecent
compromise.Wewere more put off by
the power brick, which weighs 670g.BRING OUTTHE COLOUR
It’s astylish laptop,with red highlightsand
Omen’s inkblotlogo inset intoshiny red
chrome,flanked by triangularfacets of
carbonfibre-effect plastic.Open it up and
you’re faced with afour-zone RGB-backlit
keyboardtastefully surroundedwith brushed
aluminium.Couple this with sharp angles and
integrated exhaustsat the rear corners,and
the Omen 15 looks abit like some kind of
miniature1990s Lamborghini.
Our only gripes about the design are the
plastic lid and suspendedhinge mechanism,
both of which feel alittle flimsy.Otherwise,it
makes astriking, yet not tooostentatious,
statement, and mostly feels well made.
From apracticalstandpoint,there’s plenty
to like.There’s an SD card slot on the left, plus
one full-sizeUSB3.1port and both 3.5mm
headphoneand microphonejacks. These are
joined by anotherUSB3.1port on the right,
and aUSB Type-C Thunderbolt3port, one
sleep-and-chargeUSB3.1port, afull-sized
HDMI output,one Mini DisplayPort output
and aGigabit Ethernetsocket on the rear.
All the basics are covered, and then some.
Even the ergonomicshave been done
right. The keyboardhas alight yet positive
click to it that makes it pleasantto type on,
while the RGB backlightingmakes it possible
to highlightdifferentareas of the keyboardin
differentcolours.The touchpadis sensitive
and responsive,even if it’s not particularlybig.
The businessend of this laptop is the
display: a15.6in, 144Hz Full HD IPS panel.
Youcan specifythis machinewith a60Hz, 4K
screen,but when it comes to gaming,we’d
rather enjoythe smoothnessof higher
frame rates over an ultra-highresolution,
especiallyon ascreen of this size.
Technically,this is neitherthe
brightest (290cd/m2)nor the most
colour-accuratescreen we’ve ever
come across, and viewingangles areHPOmen15
★★★★★
£1,499•From store.hp.comVERDICT
Awell-balancedcombinationofpowerand
portabilityatareasonablepricesomewhatlimited. Youdon’t have to move
faroffthe perpendicular(in the horizontal
or verticalplane) forcolours to start shifting
and brightnessto fade.
The 144Hz refresh rate, however,makes
up foreverything.Not every game will fill
out the effective 144fps available,but the
sheer smoothnessand responsivenessof
anythingabove 60fps shows why this
particularspec is worth it.INSIDE STORY
There’s plenty of power on tap,too.Wetested
the top-end Omen 15, which has asix-core
2.2GHzIntel Core i7-8750HCPU and abeefy
8GB Nvidia GTX 1070 GPU. System RAM
amountsto 16GB, and with both a256GB
NVMe SSD and a1TB hard disk, you get high
capacityas well as quick loadingspeeds.It all
costs £1,499,which is alot less than the Blade
15 and Alienwarem15 –two laptops with the
exact same combinationof CPU and GPU.
HP also marketsthe Omen 15 as having an
‘accessdoor’soyou can upgradethe RAM
and storage more easily.What this actually
means is that you have to remove eightscrews and the entire bottom plateofthe
laptop to get at the internals. That’s
stretching the definitionof ‘access’alittle.
Fortunately,you’ll probablynot need to
upgradeanythingif you opt forthis model,
as it easily achieved an average 109fps
runningDirt Showdownat its highestsettings
and native resolution.Metro: Last Light
Redux proved alot trickier,but we could still
get asilky137fps by droppingfrom Very High
quality to High and disablingSSAA. The CPU
is anice and quick, too, pushingthe Omen 15
to 170 overall in our benchmarks.
The rest of the spec is fully up to scratch
as well. The Omen 15’s SSD,for instance,isn’t
quiteasquick forsequentialreads (recorded
at 1,792MB/s)as the Razer Blade 15, but its
writespeeds are pretty impressiveat
1,364MB/s.Either way, you should see zippy
boot times, and games shouldn’t keep you
waitingtoolong to launch.
Sadly,the classic gaminglaptop weakness
of poor battery lifemakes an unwelcome
return here: the Omen 15 lasted adismal
3h 20m in our video playback test. Equally
bothersomeis the fannoise,which becomes
areal racket when the fans ramp up to top
speed under load. The Blade 15 costs a
decent chunk more,but it can last almost
twice as long awayfrom the mains.BARGAINWIN
Luckily,the rest of the Omen 15 is good
enoughthat we’d at least be willing to
attempt to live with these foibles. Instead
of being the worst of both worlds,it’s a
well-judgedcompromisebetweenits
thinnerand brawniergaminglaptop
peers, and with avery fair price attached
too. It’s definitely worth consideringif
you’re not inclinedto payextra forthe Blade
15’s impressivebuild quality and battery life