HP is trying to make a comeback in the gaming laptop scene by announcing the Omen. On the outside, it looks like any other laptop of its kind; aside from the noticeable Hewlett-Packard branding just under the display. The internals are pretty standard issue for a mid-range gaming laptop, and it looks to be a decent first try from the company.
Powering the HP Omen is a fourth generation Intel Core i7-4710HQ and an Nvidia GeForce GTX 860M GPU with either 2GB or 4GB worth of GDDR5 VRAM. This is nothing out of the ordinary, although perhaps a little disappointing considering that gaming laptops featuring the new 900M series GPUs from Nvidia have already hit the streets promising a large graphics boost for the same amount of power consumption.
Featuring 8GB DDR3 RAM (also available with 16GB), the Omen fits a 15.6-inch touch capable full HD display and a 128GB SSD. The SSD is also available in 256GB and 512 PCIe SSD configurations. One questionable decision is the touch capability in the display, which as most gamers know does not add anything to the experience of actually playing games on a laptop. This is not a problem with HP as other OEMs are also guilty of slapping this feature onto their products for no real reason.
Interesting the Omen puts all of its ports on the back on the chassis. This would make for an interesting choice for locating the audiojack to say the least. The official website claims that this is for convenience and keeps wires out of the way while gaming; which is an unusual thing to say about gamers who really wouldn’t notice all those cables sticking out of their gaming rig.
The HP Omen starts at US$1499.99 (RM5,000) and is expected to hit the US this month. There is no news on a Malaysian launch or pricing yet.
[Source: HP]
