HP Omen 15 (5XXX series) Gaming Notebook

I downloaded it through Steam, it is now available as a exe rather than browser based so it can be forced. Annoying it can't be forced all the time, but I guess as long as it can be done for games then it isn't really an issue.

 

Another reason that could cause jerkyness is the IPS screen. IPS screens have slower response times compared to TN. just a guess though.
Thanks for the update. usually less than 75C is fine. I have an old envy 14 radiance and it hits 80-90 gaming and the fan is like a tornado.

I just bought the lenovo thinkpad yoga 14 (with the 840m). the TPY 14 is great, but im contemplating on returning it and getting an Omen

i have another question in the 2-3 reviews so far they commented on how the omen feels fairly small for a 15.6in. Im a college student so size is important to me. Also Are you overall happy with the laptop? Thanks, trying to get more opinions before i pull the trigger since there is very few reviews of it on the web.

 

How much slower do IPS displays respond comparatively with TN screens?

 

Damn... That coupon code somehow forced my finger to click confirm purchase...

Well, at least the wait game won't be as painfull as my voodoo envy folding desktop/space heater...

Nice to see you here again iMaxxxxxxxx

 

This is good to know, thanks!!!!

(I haven't actually USED an Omen yet so I am flying by the seat of my pants with support question answering.)

 

Good to see you too, Hongy.

 

The jerkyness is more pronounced than the screen I believe. Its more like it stutters when going through a door way into a new area, almost like loading. Probably just the game.

I came from a macbook air 11 so anything else seems huge to me. Don't really use other 15" laptops to compare it with. I would say it is certainly a lot thinner than I expected and the bezel is fairly small. Certainly smaller than some of the laptops we have kicking around at work. Overall, yes I am very happy with it, only a couple of small gripes around the typing position on the keyboard (I cant touch type) and some Windows 8 issues, but that of course is nothing to do with the Omen.

 

Just received my HP Omen yesterday, love it so far!

I originally wanted a replacement for my Alienware M17x R4 (powerful and looks nice but I needed something more portable for work), and was going to get the Asus GX500, but as that never got released and the rest of the competition was lame (MSI looked a bit cheap for the money, and the Razer Blade isn't even in the country), I was overjoyed to see HP come out of the blue with this laptop. I bought it from HP UK direct, making the most of the cyber Monday 15% off, and being the UK there was only one model (860M 4GB, 8GB RAM, 256GB SSD), delivery was speedy, getting here by the Wednesday. So far so good, it has the best specs for this form factor on the market (excluding the MSI GS60/70 with a 970M), the build quality is superb, and I think touches like the keyboard backlighting and chrome hinge are nice touches. I'm not a massive fan of the whole touchpad being a clicker rather than independent buttons, and I find a bit hard typing due to the off center keyboard but I guess i'll get used to that. Benchmarking wise...

Counter Strike Global Offensive which runs flawlessly at 60fps on max settings
Far cry 4 on 1920x1080 with medium settings (no anti aliasing) and I get between 35-45fps depending on the scene

Slightly more could be desired in terms of GPU and it also gets a bit hot, though I haven't measured exactly how much, but it's still quite a feat considering its proportions, I also haven't installed the latest drivers optimized for Far Cry 4 either. I don't suppose anyone knows if you can set the keyboard backlight to automatically fade through the spectrum? Also, I noticed if I go from a black page to white page, the screen takes a while to light up again as it starts off a whitish-grey then to white, not sure if it's an IPS thing or not.

 

I noticed this earlier! Thought I was going mad. Switching between full screen steam which is very dark and some other app I though it looked it looked dimmer, I was on battery at the time so just though the brightness has been dipped. Although thinking about it it doesn't seem to auto adjust the screen based on whether it is plugged in, or ambient light sensor. Anyway, the dimming isn't really a big deal, as I said I was unsure if it was just my eyes adjusting to the change, but interesting someone has said it.

 

Ok HP has another coupon for 25% off the omen HP25NB. so i can get the 128gb ssd configuration for $1124.99 (i can probably get another $50-$100 off haggling with customer service) . so tempting...that would mean i need to return the thinkpad yoga 14.

 

Can anyone show the keyboard lighting customization? Can it change rainbow color? Fade in and out? Breathe? Is the effect similar to what alienware offers (if you have one).

 

My HP dv6t is on its last leg. Narrowed it down to this or the MSI. Waiting on omen reviews. These comments have been very helpful.
Thinking of getting the 512g, 16g config
The touchscreen is putting me off a bit

 

Can someone post temps for CPU and Gpu under load?

 

Could it be that it needs some burn-in time? I know the quality of IPS screens are quite good and may need some time to burn-in. New HD TN screens need some time to burn in as well. Hopefully that is the case as I'll be getting my Omen soon!

 

I am still skeptical about this having a touch screen as well. I am used to my dv6t's matte IPS display. Hopefully it won't be too much of a problem.

I would recommend taking advantage of the 25% coupon if you can, try it out. I believe you have 21 days to return for a full refund if you don't like it. IMO, the Omen looks a lot better than the MSI. The specs are quite decent as well.

 

Thanks pizza. What config did you get. And what are your thoughts on the screen quality

 

Here are the specs that is included in my Omen:

Product number: K7X33AV
•512GB PCIe Flash Solid State Drive
•Windows 8.1 Pro 64
•4th generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4710HQ Processor + 4GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M Graphics (For 8GB memory)
•15.6-inch diagonal Full HD WLED-backlit Display (1920x1080) Touchscreen
•Onboard 8GB RAM

It is actually shipping on the 10th, so I haven't had a chance to see it in person yet. I also used the 25% coupon and saved almost $500 on my purchase which I'm very happy about lol I'll post my thoughts as soon as I get it.

 

Here is the keyboard config util. You can create different profiles and set the different areas to a fixed colour, you can even change the power button. You can then change the profiles easily with a fn + num key combination. You cannot set any fading, pulsing or any automatic changing of colour. You can set the different areas to any colour using a standard colour picker. Although some of the colours don't seems to be reflected that accurately in the lights, but its pretty good.

 

Thanks pizza. One question about your specs. With the ram being non upgradable why didn't you just go for 16g instead of 8g for future proofing purposes. If you do the final price with coupon is 1500 bones which is slightly higher than I wanted to pay. I wanted to stay sub 1300

 

I think I have to pass on the omen since the display is very glossy. After using several glossy display laptops over the years, it's a total pain to work/gaming with with lighting.

The problem is laptops with anti glar/matte displays on the martlet these day such atrocious color gamut.

 

PIZZA the difference between your set up and the one i s the 4th generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4710HQ Processor + 4GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M Graphics (For 16GB memory) and Onboard 16GB Memory for an additional $225 ( using the 25% discount - .75*300)
My question is the difference in perfromance gain worth it??
Or is it just wasted dough


3C14 Cycle AV
HP OMEN - 15t Quad Touch Select Laptop
Windows 8.1 64
4th generation Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-4710HQ Processor + 4GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 860M Graphics (For 16GB memory)
HP TrueVision Full HD WVA Webcam with Dual Digital Microphone
4-cell 58WHr Lithium-ion Battery
15.6-inch diagonal Full HD WLED-backlit Display (1920x1080) Touchscreen
Backlit Keyboard
Security Software Trial
No Internal DVD or CD Drive
Onboard 16GB Memory
No Additional Office Software
512GB PCIe Flash Solid State Drive
Intel 802.11ac WLAN and Bluetooth(R) [2x2]

 

You're absolutely right about upgrading the RAM. What I actually initially had was a 2GB graphics card. The 4GB upgrade there was due to an error haha So I just stuck with it. But specs-wise, I don't think I have ever encountered or probably very rarely memory usage that required more than 8 and I've done video editing, photo editing, video game playing, and heavy internet browsing. I don't see myself doing a lot of those things at once that may require that much more memory. And the upgrade to 16GB of RAM is quite costly to boot.

Is there a utility you or anyone for that matter would recommend to see my memory usage overtime? I'd like to know if I've ever hit the peak of memory usage lately.

 

My initial thoughts are that the initial performance gains are probably not worth it as 4GB of VRAM are almost unnecessary. It's just nice to know I have a ton of space to move around now in terms of graphics. Again, I didn't know I had opted for the 4GB graphics until much later which is somewhat of a pleasant surprise. I'm just hoping now that I don't regret skipping out on the 16GB of RAM, but thinking about it further, I should be fine.

Well my machine actually came out to $1969.99 before the coupon code. I paid $1600 after tax and fees with the coupon applied.

 

That's sad to hear as my latest dv6t is my first matte display. I agree that the color isn't as accurate as a regular non-matte or glossy display can be, so it'll be interesting how I'll bode going back to a glossy display after being spoiled with one.

I wonder, though, if anybody has tried or heard about outside party anti-glare screen protectors for glossy screens. Are they any good? I'm not sure if I'll actually get one for my Omen but that may be an option worth looking into.

 

I need a new machine for work + photo processing + gaming (I can conveniently get away with using a gaming laptop for work, since I write CUDA code...), and this one looks appealing.

A few questions:

--Has anyone put Linux on it yet? How is the driver support for the touchpad? The touchscreen? (Proper Linux support is essential for me.)
--How are the built-in speakers?
--It seems like the build quality (as far as durability) is excellent; is that correct?
--How's the fan noise with the GPU on? With it off?
--Has anyone put Windows 7 on it? How's the driver support?

Thanks in advance!

 

Check out this alternative
VN7-591G-75NJ | Laptops - Tech Specs & Reviews - Acer

http://www.notebookcheck.net/Acer-Aspire-V15-Nitro-VN7-591G-77A9-Notebook-Review.128435.0.html
Build quality might be a bit lower but u get matte screen and reviews have been promising

 

I was actually looking at this model for some time along with the Asus ROG G551. The Omen and even the ROG has a few embellishments and subtle features that make it worth it over the Acer.

Now that I think about it, I should have gone with the 16GB RAM! It would have been only $150 more X( What to do... I'd hate to wait another 2-3 weeks for another machine to come in. This is most unfortunate... haha

 

I say do it dude. If u going big might as well do the whole fish........u can keep one while ordering another

Im highly skeptical of Acer but the killer was the problems with the WiFi card. Replaceable I know but I'm not spending 1200+ to have to replace parts.
The Asus has display issues that I hope the omen won't

I actually pulled the trigger on my device. Slightly below 1700 all in. 16g ram 512 ssd 4vram
I wanted to wait til reviews were out but that 25% off coupon really swayed me

 

Too late. Looks like the coupon has expired. I think I'm happy with my setup as is, to be honest.

Looks like you really went all out on yours. I'm almost certain you won't regret it.

The only thing I'm somewhat worried about other than the glossy touchscreen is that I'm really hoping we don't see any issues with the LED lighting as it seems like it's got a very complicated setup for that. There are lights everywhere! The back vents, the speakers, and all the different keyboard zones, so that may pose some issue that I probably shouldn't worry about...

 

Right on pizza. With this amount of money if I'm not happy i m fine with returning it and waiting

 

For those concerned about 8gb of RAM being too little.. I'd like to point out that before 8gb of RAM becomes a bottle neck for gaming, the 860m will. Any game that requires more than 8gb of RAM, should require a 970m minimum. So for a 860m, 8gb is a perfect pair for playing games while doing light multitasking. 16gb will not benefit games in this machine.

 

are there 2 types of displays one with ips and one without the quick ship model shows different it says ips radiant display

 

Any word on the type of fan noise these bad boys are putting out?

 

Thank you for that clarification! It makes me feel more at ease with going with the 8GB of RAM. However, if you plan on doing some heavy photo editing and web browsing and all around multitasking, it may start utilizing more and more of your ram, so keep that in mind. I have very rarely if at all used more than 85% of my 8GB of RAM.

I wasn't aware there were two different options for the display but it would make sense as one quick ship model is an EnergyStar model that doesn't include the dedicated graphics card. That may include an even more power efficient option on the screen.

I'll report on that as soon as I receive mine.

 

During normal use, if you are anywhere with even a slight bit of ambient noise you won't hear it. In perfectly silent settings you will hear a slight whisper, but it will easily be drowned out by any sound playing. If you are gaming, the fans certainly become audible, but I would still rank them as rather quiet, which is surprising as the thermals in this computer are one of its top features. Overall, I would rate it as a rather quiet notebook, but if you spend a fair amount of time working in dead silence you will hear the fans.

 

I just got my omen, configured with the 512 ssd option, 4gb vram, and 16 gb of ram, and figured I would post some information here as reviews are scarce.

In terms of gaming performance, the omen has surprised me. So far I have been able to test 4 games:
Dota 2 on maxed settings ran at an average of 90 fps, with a max of ~110, and never dropping below 70 for any significant period of time.
Arma 3 ran on ultra at ~35-40 fps, which in my opinion is quite good considering arma is a particularly demanding game.
CSGO ran on ultra at 60 fps (i had vsync on) consistently.
Finally, Skyrim ran quite well on ultra settings with a number of visual mods installed (I didn't record the actual fps but to my eye I would say it stayed above 50 for the most part, but that is really speculation)

I am less knowledgeable about screens, but from a layman's point of view the color accuracy is quite good, and besides that it is what you would expect from an ips, 1080p display. The trackpad is large and comfortable. While gimmicky, the lighting on the keys is a lovely plus, and if you don't like colors you can just set it all to white and leave it that way. The overall build quality is a strong point, and the machine simply looks beautiful. That being said, it is CERTAINLY a fingerprint magnet, so neatfreaks beware.

The last thing I would like to add is that the cooling in this system is fantastic. Even during long periods of gaming, most of the parts of the computer that you would come into contact with stay within a comfortable level, and I haven't had issues with throttling at all. For the most part the fans haven't even been at full speed and the machine still stayed surprisingly cool. If you have any other questions feel free to ask

 

Just so everyone knows, I am reading your comments and concerns (Good and bad.) and passing them to the design teams.

 

make it with a bigger screen!

 

Any working coupons or are they all dead? (I'm hoping they're all dead... Don't need another laptop.

I'd MUCH rather order from Amazon because of the ease of returns and a certain inherent distrust of HP from past experience, but I'm not paying $1500+ for 8/256/2gb.

EDIT: What kind of SSD is in here? How hard is it to replace SSD & memory? Thank you!

 

I believe the coupons are expired. There may be a $200 coupon that is working a few posts back but can't confirm that at the moment.

I've returned a laptop from HP before without a hitch, so if you were considering a laptop option that amazon isn't offering, HP online store is the best option.

The Omen utilizes a PCIe SSD. Memory will be nearly impossible to replace or upgrade as they're soldered into the mobo.

 

Thanks! Wow, a 512gb SSD is $400 - $500. Ouch! I guess upgrading later is out of the question.

And that's the minimum I'd need to keep my music, travel pictures and have some space for a couple games. Looking at this guy and the Alienware 13. I like the 13 because it has a normal size hard drive, but that screen is a bit too small for me. And you need to get the crazy resolution screen to get touch, and I don't think that res would work well with the 860m. (Plus I think they have ULV processors.) Can't believe they still put the crappy old 1366x768 TN screen on the base model.

I like the Omen because it has a reasonable resolution, screen size & weight. (The Alienware 13 weighs about the same... Crazy!) I keep looking for reviews. Not much out there yet.

 

The one thing I don't like is the programmable key shifting everything to the side . only quibble I have seen in photos

 

This was my only issue, but after now having the laptop for a about a week I am now used to it. I kept hitting the Caps lock key instead of A which was driving me nuts.

I second the thermals mentioned by others, it seems really good at keeping within acceptable levels and no throttling.

 

I'm glad the thread has picked up in terms of following in the last few days. The Omen family is growing despite HP's non-existent marketing of their product.

I really hate HP's page. At least with chrome, it's full of glitches, and the online order status page is a disaster. It gives a 1 word ambiguous status (Processing, whatever that means) and doesn't even show a possible ship date. I don't expect HP to let me know when every little screw is set in place, but i would appreciate at least to know what in the world is going on with the order, (In queue to get built, Being assembled, Testing, etc) This two week wait is driving me insane!!! //end-rant

 

I'm glad to hear it! This is what I want to be heard:

The Omen is my ideal laptop, and I have been waiting for years for this combination.

1. Touchscreen with powerful dGPU. Yes.

I use a touchscreen to quickly test multi-touch mobile apps I develop, but not just that.
- While I'm standing up and roaming around, it's nice to be able to quickly tap something that pops up on the screen, without having to keel down to the touchpad or mouse.
- It's faster to tap big form fields (such as Gmail) even when sitting.
- It makes casually scrolling through articles far more comfortable while sitting cross-legged with the laptop on my lap.
- It makes it easier to pin-and-zoom to quickly show somebody nearby a specific part of a web page, such as a picture.
- It makes it easier for me to over-the-shoulder help guide someone sitting at my computer on how to perform a task. "Click this (tap), then scroll down here (swipe)" and so on.

Thank you for being like the only manufacturer to release a touchscreen laptop with a respectable dGPU.

2. IPS screen.

The Lenovo Y50 either has a garbage TN panel or a crappy pentile 48Hz PLS, but poor color panel. No one else has touchscreen with dGPU, and even among those, a whole lot of them opt for a trashy display.

3. 1080p at 15".

15" is my favorite laptop size, and 1080p is just about ideal for pixel pitch on a 15" screen. We're seeing a trend of super high pixel density 4K screens on 15", and I owned one of those. I have 99 percentile vision (better than 20-20, even at my age), and trust me, using 4K at 100% is uncomfortable. Using Windows's scale settings creates issues with a lot of applications too. And no, changing the resolution the 1080p does not correctly scale 4:1 from 4K to 1080p. It comes out blurrier than native 1080p.

4. Size.

It is lightweight, and thin. Thank you. I don't care for those SLI porkers.

5. Style.

Black. Minimal. I can take it into the office and maintain a professional tact with my co-workers, and make my supervisor less embarrassed for me to be in meetings with other departments. In any case, rainbow flashy LEDs are ostentatious and downright silly.

6. Tenkeyless keyboard.

Keeps my typing more centered with the screen. Typing on a laptop with a keypad has slowly taken a toll on my neck muscles, because my shoulders are oriented asymmetrically, even if ever so slightly. Moreover, I type numbers a lot, but the horizontal number row is much faster to type on, because they are closer to the letters, and you can also more effectively use two hands.

7. Quiet and cool.

Based on preliminary reports, it runs cool and quiet. I'm seriously not sure how you pulled that off on such a thin device. I'm not entirely banking on that information being accurate, so I guess we'll see.

8. DisplayPort!

Razer Blade, no DP; Y50, no DP, what the heck? They are the only other two thin touchscreen laptops with dGPU. HDMI 1.4 doesn't have the bandwidth to output to a 4K monitor at any refresh rate higher than 30Hz. Fail. It's so backwards to have a 4K 15" display, but to screw the potential of a 28" 4K display. Thank you for not slacking on the video out.

9. Acceptable and suitable dGPU.

Anything worse than the 860m isn't quite worthy of this generation of games, and would also hinder my UE4 game development. Anything much more powerful than the 860m will create an oven in this chassis.

10. Reasonable price.

The price is right. The cost of the Razer Blade and the Asus NX500 are laughable. I mean, I get it, the Asus NX500's build quality is top-notch and is aimed at the metro Mac designer crowd. For me, a laptop's internals depreciate far too fast to be worth the golden chassis.

And I also mean that the price is right against the opposite direction. I'm sick of the $1000-$1200 magical price-point the US market desperately tries to achieve. It stripped the Acer R7 of its dGPU and had the Samsung Ativ Book 8 (Chronos 7) dial back its 8870m to a meager 8770m. Asus put an 845m DDR3 in their n551 (instead of the 860m) for the North America market for presumably the same reason. They all wanted to keep the price hovering near $1000.

As you can see, HP hit the nail on the head with their design choices. So relay that information, because I want the design team to know that it has nothing to do with the laptop itself why I haven't bought it.

I haven't bought it because, *sigh*, HP Boycott Campaign: Home . I can't pull myself to financially support a company that has such a close hand in oppressing people.

I would be more than happy to pay big $$$ for this work of art, but alas, unless someone can give me a compelling reason as to how my money would not be contributing to the oppression of these people, I'll have to take my money somewhere else.

 

Yes, I agree. I hope it isn't too big of an annoyance for me. I emulated how it would be like on my current laptop by inching my home keys a key or two over, and it feels very awkward, unfortunately.

I would recommend just going for the 512GB SSD as it'll provide you with the largest speed for your machine, as well. According to the HP Omen service manual, the 512GB SSD provides 1170 MB/s sequential read, 970 MB/s sequential write, whereas the 256GB SSD provides 750 MB/s seq/read and 600 MB/s of seq/write. The 128GB SSD is slower than that. Obviously under casual and everyday use, the speed difference is quite negligible but that might be something worth considering as well.

If you're looking for a value option, I'd go with the 128GB or 256GB SSD option to keep your apps, games and pictures on, and then buying a portable hard drive for your movies and music. I used to keep a ton of music and movies on my laptop's HDD, but since upgrading to an SSD, they recommend using a HDD for things like movies and music to keep the integrity and life of the SDD, so I bought a 1.5TB WD Passport Ultra for $65 on b&hphoto to store all of my movies and music on. It has been working out perfectly fine for me, so it might be something to consider!

The Omen looks like a solid piece of hardware, definitely. It looks super nice, and the specs are nice.

Haha yeah, the HP website it quite buggy... Mine says Processing as well, but it actually tells me the ship date of December 10. The wait is killing me! Gimme my Omen!

 

Reviews had all but convinced me.

Then a realised it doesn't have a ethernet port.

*sob*

Does this thibg have an official usb to ethernet device? The ones i've used before are always horrid.

 

One comes in the box.

 

They are confirmed for the ones shipping in the US. In Europe and possibly in Australia, they do not come included.

 

As far as I can tell, it's standard USB (not 3.0)?