HP Omen 15 (5XXX series) Gaming Notebook

Just received my shipping information. It has shipped earlier today and will arrive one week from now. Finally, after such a delay! I can't wait.

 

Congrats, pizzasogood!

A new review showed up on Amazon from a buyer. Says that it gets really hot, fans are loud and mentions the screen flickering. Has me a little concerned.

Amazon.com: Calvin's review of HP OMEN 15-5010nr Gaming Notebook with Bea...

 

congrats pizza !@
reviews are trickling in

www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3hQ31Z9cTA


Everyone please set an reminder alarm of 21 days from receiving the device to decide if you want to return it

 

Great review by MobileTechReview!

Thanks for posting it.

 

no worries ......... i still hjavent revceived a ship date but im ok with waiting since it gives me more time.........only reason i pulled the trigger was the 25% deal
i think i may end up returning as i order the top specs which may be overkill

the 512ssd i think is a great investment but 4g v ram and 16g ram is overkill and really the gpu will be a bottleneck before the vram and ram

any others have any thought on whether to go 4vram and 16g ram

i looked online and people are pretty dividved on whether the vram above 2g is necessary

 

I rarely ever find a use case for needing more than 8gb of RAM.
The only time I ever found myself needing more ram is when I'm running virtual machines but short of that, it's not necessary.

 

Funny how that MobileTechReview mentioned everything I was thinking and what led me to give HP another chance:

1) Alienware 13 is going to be bottle-necked by the dual core processor.
2) Razer 13 : screen is small and it's more expensive
3) Acer screens aren't great

For me I wished I could have got the 512gb ssd, but other than that I'm happy with the 2gb/8gb. The 512gb still wouldn't have held all my music, travel pictures, and games anyway so I'll just get another 2tb USB3 drive.

EDIT: oh yea, and:

4) QHD screens don't make sense for current laptop video cards

 

I like having 16GB or more of ram so I can leave things like Chrome open while gaming. As far as the 4GB VRAM, I do agree that it is useless for this card. I think that at $225 for both upgrades (with the coupon) it isn't a very bad choice.

I am surprised that Lisa measured 78% aRGB gamut. Why is this panel not an option on the Zbook 15 G2, HP? Now I am worried that if I go look at one I will likely impulse buy it

 

personally, love the design... it's does not look like a toy

been lugging 17" laptops but time to shed some weight.

 

16g ram? how many chrome tabs are we talking about ? all streaming video?

dont get me wrong i ordered it but in truth i have 8g and rarely do i ever run out of memory and factor in the ssd instead of a normal hard drive and its hard to argue with needing 16g......
one thing tho is that @ 225 you are not paying that much but with the low fixability prob better to put that towards your next future labtop purchase

 

Thank you.

And thanks for the review. Absolutely great review.

I say keep it unless you're looking to saving some money. I would go for more RAM over vRAM, but alas, my machine has the 4GB of vRAM and 8GB of RAM due to an upgrading error, but still saved a bunch of money with the 25% coupon. Both options for specs upgrades somewhat unnecessary if you aren't a typically a heavy user.

Yeah! The review was really good. The lighting and video qualities were amazing and gave me the opportunity to be able to touch it before actually seeing one physically. She covered every aspect I would have wanted to know about.

Also, there's a sale going on now on b&h photo that I would highly recommend you taking advantage of and that's of a 2TB WD My Passport Ultra you can get for $59.99US.

The design is something I'm really excited for. It looks like a solid quality laptop.

I only once had about 45 or so tabs open along with Photoshop and a ton of photos open on that application that took up not quite 80% of my memory, so unless you're going to be doing those sorts of tasks with auto-CAD and/or Photoshop and/or video editing, you'll be good with 8GB of RAM. And thanks to the M.2 SSD, you'll be utilizing less RAM than you would be your conventional HDD to boot.

 

Keep in mind that if you did return it you would have to wait for a 25% coupon to make it a $225 difference. With the current 20% coupon that is available its only about a $140 savings over what you paid for the higher end configuration.

 

Dang, I went there so fast... Sale must be over though. Says $99.99.

Thanks anyway!

 

Yup thanks you are right if i return this device it would be a future bet that either or and
1) prices will go down sometime in the future
2) a 25% coupon will be available in the next 4 -6 months

like i said i dont really need a laptop right now so that why im so hesitant

 

Huh. I'll keep my eyes open for more sales and I'll let you know, then!

 

Received mine on Thursday of last week from Amazon. Previously running with a Lenovo Yoga 2 Pro. When you put the two side by side the Lenovo actually seems like a toy (visually).

So far so good. Installed all the programs I frequently use. The screen is very nice. The speakers are the best I've ever heard from a laptop.

If anyone has any questions just ask.

 

Hm wonder why they didnt include an rj45 port on the powerbrick.

 

Short rant on why I pretty much only order from Amazon & Apple. Sometimes I just need a reminder why.

So after I ordered my laptop, I decided to get the backpack since I saw a coupon for accessories. Placed my order a little while after the laptop order on Sunday. Said ready to ship...

As of today, still sits at processing. Contacted their chat yesterday. After ten minutes of waiting for an agent, and fifteen minutes of getting my information and checking she said it would go out yesterday. Nope.

Call in this morning. Short hold time, but then fifteen more minutes of waiting. Sir, I'm not sure what is going on with this order. I'm going to have to contact another department. At that point, I just said let's cancel it. Okay, but we might not be able to. You'll find out in 24 hours. (And of course they had no problem charging my credit card.)

Ug. I get too used to great customer service from Amazon. I mean, c'mon, it's an order for a backpack, not a custom computer. Makes me nervous if I ever have any problems with the HP Omen laptop.

 

Aaaaaand delivery exception on the notebook. Fedex says: "Incorrect Address"

Check my HP order email, has correct address (my work address) and we get stuff here all the time.

Ug. Is this an..... OMEN???

 

Do you game?
Be interested to hear your impressions on how hot/loud it gets.

 

Do you have a FedEx account? If you login to it, you could see the delivery address to see if there's any typo there.

 

Thanks!

I ended up calling Fedex, and gave them the same exact address on the order. They said that's what "the address has been updated to."

Not sure what that means, but the exception is gone now. We'll see if it still makes it today or if that causes it to slip to tomorrow.

 

The shipping label may have been smudged or something in transit, so they were able to get it to your local hub but not determine the exact delivery address. The hub may let you pick it up if it missed going out on the truck today.

 

HP sent it with the 1st address line, which was C/O My Company, and completely omitted the 2nd line which was the street address. Doh! Don't know how Fedex figured it out. Probably because I get so many packages.

Anyway, all I had time to do was open the box. Laptop is still in the plastic, taunting me until tomorrow. All I can say so far is good weight, ethernet adapter looks nice, power brick is big, but not stupid big like some laptops. (Or Xboxes. )

 

Wow. Sounds like a nightmare. Hope you get it all sorted out haha. Bad Omen! lol

 

alright, a little stream of consciousness and first impressions

very good build quality, no flex, solid in the hand
not sure about the hard corners...
very good keyboard, good travel
best trackpad i’ve used on non-apple computer
reasonable bezel on screen (hate huge bezels... i'm looking at you razer 13...)
excellent quality screen, great viewing angles, colors
BUT appears a little grainy (i’m used to a little higher resolution, i think)
very fast
fans audible, but not too loud, pleasant sound (no whine, etc)
(edit; and a good thing because they seem to run quite a bit)
(edit 2; it was installing patches, so not as bad now)
speakers: pretty good, wish there was a little more bass. not really worthy of a logo pointing out their audio quality
lights: the stereo speakers on the side have lights that can pulse in time with music. maybe silly, but i like it
179gb free of 256gb, 13.7gb for restore partition
only big bloatware is mcafee internet security... uninstalled!

in short: best laptop i’ve used other than a macbook pro (and they choose quiet and cool over a decent graphics card, so i might have to dump them if i want to have one computer for everything)

now to figure out a steam game to download to test out the graphics card, heat & fans…

p.s. hp still can’t figure out how to cancel or ship the separate order for the backpack i placed.

 

estimate ship date: Dec 16
actual ship date: Dec 17 from china via fedex.

tracking shows up fine, address shows up fine...

estimate arrival for me, 23rd... so i guess i have my Christmas present.

 

That is fantastic! I'm coming from a Macbook Pro w/ Retina so this is very pleasing to hear.

On another note, there are more reviews out for laptop now:

MaximumPC: HP Omen Review | Maximum PC
CNet: HP Omen review - CNET
MobileTechReview Gaming Demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gn5TB9XtFGg

 

Experienced my first screen flickering. Display had turned off due to inactivity.

Hit the trackpad and the login screen was flickering very noticeably. Going to keep an eye on that.

EDIT: And more. Loaded up Call of Duty Ghosts and very strong flickering. Changed refresh to 40hz in game and it seemed to help, but I'm still very disappointed.

EDIT 2: Changed Windows settings to 40hz also. Seems a little improved, but display feels a little off. Not sure. Will test it again later.

I think this guy might be going back to HP. :-( Was going to open a ticket but my only option is phone support. No thanks.

EDIT 3: Ran HP support assistant and it found a BIOS update, an Intel Graphics update and something else. Installing those and hopefully one of those is the fix. Unfortunately that's about all the time I'll have to mess with it until Monday.

 

Aaaaand more fun. After the BIOS update, it's now saying the included AC adapter is incorrect and can only power the computer at a "reduced performance level."

"The Smart AC Adapter connected will power your computer, but potentially at a reduced performance level. Your computer is designed to vary performance as needed when a smaller capacity Smart AC Adapter is connected. Resource intensive tasks may cause your system not to perform at its highest level with a smaller capacity Smart AC Adapter. Please connect a higher capacity Smart AC Adapter for full performance."

 

These Windows and BIOS updates seem to prove problematic time and again, but luckily they sort themselves out. Hopefully this is the case. Keep us posted, please!

 

It seems to have helped with the flickering. Only had a few minutes to try and then I'm heading out of town.

Any other owners seeing the flickering? If so, did you install the BIOS update?

I really, really hope this is sorted out because it's a beautiful laptop.

EDIT: Nope, still flickering. .

 

Sorry to hear mate
thanks for keeping us in the loop, really helpful


i received an email so i expect my lappie in the next 2 weeks. im 60% sure its going back.......

cheers

 

So the backpack is lost because just like the laptop, HP didn't include the 2nd address line. On the phone with Fedex & HP trying to figure it out.

RMA requested for the HP Omen. That will be enough HP for me.

 

Would you mind looking up the monitor ID before you pack it up? I may have a chance to take a look at one over the weekend, and will try to duplicate the flickering issue on it.

Does a reboot or suspend / resume cycle cause it to stop flickering?

 

Just to be proactive, can you list the step by step process of how to return the omen for a full refund?

 

You would need to call HP customer service to request an RMA number to ship your product back. The number to call is going to depend on your location, so check the website. Or you can contact them over live chat as well and get the return process in motion just the same. You'll have to write the RMA number across the box in clear writing, and then visit your local FedEx to drop the package off with the paid-for return shipping. Very easy and straight forward.

 

Hello guys.
I also got the HP Omen with the 4GB VRAM/16 GB RAM/ 256 GB SSD, and I must say it's a wonderful machine.
Bleclair got me a little worried about the screen flickering, but I've had mine for two days now and there has been no issues. And I pray to God that no issues will appear either.
I did the bios update yesterday (well I don't recall actively updating it, it just installed it upon a boot up) and my pc is fine.
I must say that I'm impressed with this computer and especially when gaming. The fans are extremely good at keeping it cool and I played a whole hour of DOTA at max settings without it becoming even moderately hot.
The fans are loud, but not disturbingly loud.

There's just one thing - when I plug the charger in, I start experiencing frame drops - what's the correlation between charging and frame drops?

 

@win32asmguy A reboot or shutdown does help for a little while. Hardware ID of the screen is SDC5344.

@dberner Besides waiting about 15 minutes for a chat representative, it was very easy. Go to the link below and it will tell you what you need to do. Just like pizza said, they give you a label for Fedex.

http://store.hp.com/webapp/wcs/stor...2_redirect_ETR&ts=20141219120136_P1PUUPBn33c9

@d30 Glad you're not having the flickering! There was one other guy in this thread with that issue though, so it's not just me.

Sorry to be returning this, but for the amount of money I just can't accept screen flickering. If they figure it out though, I'd definitely purchase another.

 

@bleclair - how do you find out what the hardware ID of the screen is?

 

Right click on My Computer, select Manage, Go to Device Manager, then Monitors, right click on the monitor, click properties, Details tab, then Hardware ID from the pulldown.

@ win32asmguy One of the ways I could almost always get it to flicker is change your initial screen to the Seattle background. Near the top where it's solid blue it would flicker pretty noticeably.

EDIT: Still no word on where the backpack is, and one last bit of fun this morning. I repacked the Omen, which is in a nice box, then it's held by foam in a standard laptop box and then HP also put it in another cardboard box. However, this outer cardboard box is really flimsy. Go to Fedex to drop it off and they said the outer box wasn't acceptable. You mean the one Fedex delivered it in? Silly. Probably just the guy trying to make some money off me, but anyway I just shut up and paid the $13 to have it reboxed.

 

Same hardware ID.

Edit: It could be a manufacturing defect. I hope it doesn't appear over time and with usage.
Since you're saying the cardbox was damaged, couldn't there have been a risk that the computer got bumped and throwed around during the delivery before you received it?
Either way, are you going to try your luck with a new one?

 

I just received my Omen 15 today and after activation, I noticed that the touch screen wasn't working but no signs of screen flickering.
I've been on call with HP Support to resolve this to no avail.

Looks like there's some QA issue with my particular device. I'll update on the resolution.

The hardware ID of my monitor is the same "SDC5344"

 

@ d30 - the laptop box was okay, just the outside was a little bent and mostly because it was cheap thin cardboard. all in all, the other packing was good. no, i won't try another for now until i see other people's experiences. if a 30% coupon or something pops up, maybe i'd try another. ;-)

@ znender - can you check your lcd hardware id?

 

It's the same hardware ID as the one you've posted.

 

Ah that's a shame. It's a wonderful laptop with outstanding cooling.

 

Bingo
i havent even gotten mine yet and im leaning to do the same...............
wouild be different if i absolutrly needed a device

 

Hello guys,

could you answer me on these questions please?
What is really max temp on CPU and GPU by playing some demand games? (use HWiNFO)
What is quality sound of integrated speakers?
Installed GPU is Maxwell or Keppler generation?

Thank you very much.

 

I'm not sure about the rest, but all the models of the 860m on the Omen are Maxwells. A bit different to the newer ones as this one is GM107 and the newers Maxwells (970m and 980m) are GM204.

 

I have an issue - when the laptop is plugged in while gaming I experience frame drops every 4-15 seconds.
I already made sure that battery and plugged-in profiles are set correctly and that NVIDIA settings are as they should be.
The laptop isn't getting hot, it has the best cooling I've ever seen on a laptop.
I even tried lowering the resolution of the game (DOTA 2) without luck. Any protips?

Please note I have no issues on battery.

Edit:

Unplugging while playing makes the fps drop - even on battery. I'm really desperate for a fix