HP Omen 15 Review

Back in October 2016, HP launched in the country a couple of Omen laptops – the 15.6-inch Omen 15 and the 17.3-inch Omen 17. HP has recently sent us the former for review so we can find out how it performs and if it’s worthy your budget considering the new gaming machines in the market. Here’s our review of the HP Omen 15.

Design and Construction

The first thing you’ll notice about the HP Omen 15 is its polycarbonate build with a carbon fiber-like finish on the lid. It’s attractive, can resist fingerprints, and feels good to the touch. Etched in the middle is the Omen badge in a red reflective finish.

Looking at the left side we have two USB 3.0 ports, headset port, and Kensington Lock. To the right are the SD card reader, USB 2.0 port, HDMI, and RJ45. Located at the back is the exhaust.

Greeting you once you lift the lid is the 15.6-inch display. Above it are the HD webcam and dual-array digital microphone.

Down below are a couple of hinges with chrome finish, the power button, speaker grill, the illuminated keyboard, and the touchpad. Surrounding all of these is the same carbon fiber-like finish you can find on the exterior of the lid.

Speaking of the keyboard, the keys are painted red on the sides, as well as the letters, numbers, and characters. All of it are illuminated by a red backlighting which is found in some gaming laptops. There’s no brightness level adjustment, just on and off. Still, it was able to provide a nice glow which is bright enough for gaming in the dark.

Keys are well spaced, quiet, and comfortable to type on. It has good tactility as well with decent travel. There’s a dedicated number pad on the right-hand side as well which proves to be very useful for gaming as well as productivity. The palm rest is very spacious while the touchpad is smooth and responsive.

Build-wise, the Omen 15 is large although relatively slim for a gaming laptop. It’s quite hefty so it’s not something you’d like to hand-carry all day but it’s portable enough to be placed in a backpack should you need to travel with it.

Display and Multimedia

The 15.6-inch display has an IPS panel with Full HD resolution. It’s not touch-enabled but the screen has a matte finish to it which resists smudges and fingerprints well. Quality-wise, it can display natural colors, has decent brightness, doesn’t throw a lot of reflection, and has wide viewing angles.

The stereo speakers, on the other hand, are powered by Bang & Olufsen. It’s loud with good quality. That said, we didn’t find the need to resort to an external speaker or headphones when playing games or watching movies on it.

OS, Performance, and Benchmarks

The Omen 15 is running Windows 10 Home 64-bit. It comes pre-installed with software like CyberLink Power Media Player, CyberLink PowerDirector 12, as well as some HP’s own apps like HP CoolSense and HP 3D DriveGuard.

Powering the whole machine is a 6th-gen Intel Core i5-6300HQ CPU clocked at 2.30GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, 16GB RAM, 128GB SSD, and 1TB HDD. The configuration might be old by today’s standards but it can still pack a punch. Performance is smooth throughout and can run the games we have at 30fps at their highest settings. Check the benchmarks below:

Fraps:
* Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes – AVG: 37.483 fps – MIN: 31 – MAX: 44
* Far Cry 4 – AVG: 30.300 fps – MIN: 25 – MAX: 41
* Fallout 4 – AVG: 58.333 fps – MIN: 45 – MAX: 61
* Dying Light – AVG: 22.217 fps – MIN: 19 – MAX: 29

Fire Strike – 3,873
Sky Diver – 11,891
Cloud Gate – 12,958
Ice Storm – 64,267

Like with most gaming laptops, the Omen 15 heats up during gameplay. Heat is mostly felt on the right side centered at the Enter and Number 4 keys. It can be felt on the right palm rest as well. It’s tolerable, but enough to make your palm sweat.

Battery Life

Battery life on the Omen 15 is what we’d consider as decent considering its class. With continuous WiFi browsing with the display set to 50-60% brightness and keyboard backlighting on, we got around 5 hours of use before we had to charge. Gaming depletes the battery in under 2 hours so make sure you’re near a power outlet.

Conclusion

The HP Omen 15 is a sound gaming laptop, for 2016 that is. The specs might be showing its age but still nothing to scoff at as it can run games at its maximum settings in decent framerates and can handle demanding tasks like photo and video editing.

However, since you’d be paying a premium price, we’d suggest going for newer machines like those powered by Intel’s Kaby Lake and NVIDIA’s new GTX 10 Series GPUs. Your money would be better off that route.

The HP Omen 15 comes in in three hardware configurations with prices ranging from Php54,999 for the 8GB RAM/Full HD combination, to Php79,999 with an Ultra HD display and 16GB RAM. Package includes an HP Omen mouse and gaming headset with SteelSeries.

HP Omen 15-AX038TX specs:
15.6-inch IPS Full display
Intel HM170 board
2.3GHz Intel Core i5-6300HQ
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M
16GB RAM
128GB SSD + 1TB HDD internal storage
HD Webcam
BANG&OLUFSEN Stereo Audio
1x USB 2.0
2x USB 3.0
1x HDMI
1x Kensington Lock
3.5mm Audio Combo Jack
SDXC Card reader
Windows 10
61.5 Wh Lithium-Ion battery

Pros:
* Good build and design
* Good performance

Cons:
* Old considering new processors and GPUs
* Pricey