At a Glance: HP Omen 17 Review

HP’s Omen 17 is one of the company’s most powerful gaming laptops. The Omen 17 combines a large 17.3-inch display with Nvidia’s powerful RTX graphics cards and an optional G-Sync display to create a highly competitive gaming notebook. But its secondary features may make it a less-than-ideal solution for some.

Design and Configuration

The entry level Omen 17 system comes equipped with an Intel Core i7-9750H processor and a GTX 1650 graphics card, giving it solid performance for 1080p gaming all for $1,049.00. Our sister site, PCMag, received a higher-tier model of the Omen 17 with the Intel Core i7-9750H processor and a faster RTX 2070 graphics card. This model also came with 16GB of RAM and a 144Hz 1080p G-Sync enabled display for $1,629.

The HP Omen 17 comes with an RGB LED-backlit keyboard. It lacks per-key lighting control, but instead, the lights are split into four zones that can be changed independently. The system is rather thick, measuring 1.6-inch thick at its widest point, and the notebook’s exterior is constructed out of a mixture of aluminum and plastic. The Omen 17 is also heavy at around 8.33 pounds, give or take a little depending on the configuration.

Benchmarks and Hardware Tests

PCMag tested the Omen 17 against several other similarly priced systems with various different hardware configurations. This is helpful as it gives you a solid idea of what you can get for your buck. Starting things off with a few processor tests, the HP Omen 17 doesn’t really stand out in the crowd.

The Razer Blade Pro 17 with its compact form factor is the slowest system in the lineup, but the systems all hang fairly close to each other as most use the same processor. It’s notable, however, that HP’s Omen 17 never manages to pull ahead in these tests, and the Acer Predator Helios 700 and Digital Storm Avon are persistently ahead by a small margin.

In graphics tests, the Omen 17 performs better and manages to pull ahead of the competition in some cases. The results are mixed, however, and the Omen doesn’t really pull a definitive win.

PCMag also tested the Omen 17’s battery and cooling. The battery managed to last for just over three hours in a video playback test, which actually isn’t terrible for a gaming system. It pulls far ahead of the competing Acer and MSI products but doesn’t come close to matching the Digital Storm Avon or Razer Blade Pro 17.

As for the thermal tests, the Omen 17 appears to have a rather capable thermal solution that was able to keep the exterior temps below 100 degrees as read by a FLIR One Pro thermal camera. The PCMag reviewer noted that the fans were on the loud side and never seemed to turn off, which may be bothersome to users.

Conclusion

In general, the HP Omen 17 appears to perform reasonably well with solid competitive performance, but it’s also a loud, heavy and large system that’s sure to be difficult to take with you. Although the same can be said about many gaming laptops, I always struggle to understand why you would buy such an enormous laptop that’s too large for you to easily travel with it. I’d recommend against the system in general, as I firmly believe it’s better to buy a desktop if you are getting a system that’s not for travel. There are also several gaming laptops that are easier to take with you when you travel for around the same price and offer similar performance.

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