Hey, how's it going Dave 2d here
So this is a review on the mid 2017 HP Omen so this thing has been redesigned for this year
The old model, the 2016 model that kind of carried over to early 2017
That was a very generic looking laptop. This one
It looks less generic
but I feel like a lot of the design language has been inspired from companies like acer or
Lenovo. This doesn't look super HP to me
But it's a well-built laptop. The paneling is solid, most of it is plastic. The hinge also seems really good despite the location
I mean, I normally don't like seeing hinges close together like this they tend to wear out a little bit faster
But this one feels good, and you can open it with one hand. There's a lot of red on this laptop
It's your classic black and red gaming laptop. The color schemes not my jam, but for some people that do like this color scheme
I think it looks alright. the port selection is pretty solid here. There's an sd
Card slot usb threes, and you also have two display outputs Ethernet and a usb C
But despite this Thunderbolt 3 looking symbol. There's no Thunderbolt 3 action to be had unless you pay for that $20 upgrade
The keyboard is pretty good the keys are a little softer than I'd like but layout is good
Backlighting is red for most of the keyboard
but just a handful of white leds under the wasd keys the trackpad uses of synaptic drivers
I really wish they'd gone with windows precision drivers here the tracking is ok like there's the occasional hiccup
But I didn't have issues with gestures or tapping it also has dedicated buttons for clicking so you might or might not like that
Ok let's talk about the display if you're actually interested in purchasing this thing you should probably pay attention here
So the base model is dim it has poor color accuracy and quite frankly. It sucks. It's one of the worst screens
I've seen on a 15-inch gaming laptop. The 4k panel is good. But unless you're using this laptop exclusively for concentration
I'd skip the screen. It's also, not cheap. The only display that I really like is 120 hertz 1080P panel
It's a $60 upgrade
But it's just so much better than the base panel and games look a lot better when they're being played in 120 Hertz
The default Webcam looks ok you can upgrade for 20 bucks, but even the base model supports windows hello for Speedy logins
The internals of the laptop are pretty easy to access
There's a handful of screws this configuration has a two and a half inch sata drive and an M2 ssd
The ssd is a pm nine six one, so it'll have pretty quick speeds and this configuration has eight gigs of Ram
You can install up to 32 gigs the battery down here is 70 watt hours
Which is a relatively large battery for a gaming laptop, but battery life isn't great
I'm getting around five hours of use with my regular test
Which is kind of weird because this is a bigger battery than the previous generation
But I'm getting very similar numbers in terms of performance. This is running a GTX 1050 ti
And it's getting great performance as expected the 1050 Ti is basically the sweet spot for
Price to performance on gaming laptops. You can play most triple-a titles at 60 frames per second with great image quality
It's only the heavier titles that struggle a little bit now if you want to see more benchmarks for this gPU there's a link in
the video description
There's another configuration of the omen with the GTX 1060 Max-Q, and I guess would be their top-of-the-line model
I've mentioned this in Previous videos
But if you're going to do max Q you got to do it right you got to build the entire laptop from the ground up
With Max Q design in mind if you take a pre-existing Chassis, and you just stick a max cube chip in there
You're not getting the benefits of what Max q can do you're still getting a thick laptop. You're still getting a pretty loud laptop
There's no point now in terms of fan noise on the Ti version
It's actually pretty good unload
It doesn't get too loud
But for whatever reason when it's idling the fans kick in more often than I'd expect even with cool sense of there's also
No, fan control in their software
But thermal performances otherwise really good it
Handles stress tests well and overall the thermal design on the new omen is quite a bit better than the previous generation the
Speakers fire from underneath the laptop, and they actually sound pretty good
They also get really loud obviously sound quality goes to hell when you crank it
But if you need that volume this thing can do it so with the new mid 2017 HP omen?
We're looking at a laptop with a metal keyboard deck, but plastic everywhere else
It has good detailing and build quality it has several screen options
but I highly recommend getting 120 Hertz panel the backlit keyboard is also well laid out and
Comfortable to type on the trackpad has dedicated buttons and synaptic drivers
Which are just okay there's occasional tracking lag inside the i7 and the GTX 1050ti have strong gaming performance
Temperatures are good
But the fan control is a little aggressive and comes on more than I'd like
the two ram slots and the two drive bays are easy to access for upgrades and the
70 watt hour battery although big doesn't give the best battery life now
if I only focus on the merits of the HP omen
I would say that this is a good laptop right it's got good performance
Really good build quality and if you choose the right screen games look good on it
The thing is the pricing is not very good the base model with a GTX 1050
I mean, that's to me the minimum card that you should get on this it's
$1,100 with a pretty poor screen the model with a 1050 Ti and the 120 Hertz panel you're going to break
$1200 so in general this is not a good value for a laptop
I would consider this kind of in the middle of a bunch the thing is HP laptops have usually been really well priced
But not right now competition is too Fierce
If you're looking to get this definitely get the 120 Hertz panel
I think you're still getting okay value at that point, but any of the other options. I wouldn't do it
Okay some to be like this video subs if you loved it. See you guys next time