HP Omen 17 (2023) review: Blockbuster performance

HP Omen 17: minimalist design

Beyond its weight, the HP Omen 17 features a clean and largely minimalist design that is a departure from the standards of the gaming laptop genre. There are no obnoxious fonts on your keys, no flashy logos, and no weird colors. It’s plain and simple, and it works well for the laptop. This version of the Omen has also done away with the obnoxious display bezel of the past. It’s now very slim, and with a square case frame, opening and closing the laptop feels firm and reliable.

There are a few caveats to this design: for example, the matte chassis picks up fingerprints very well and is hard to clean, so you’ll always have some smudges around where your fingers or wrists rest. The addition of the left-sided programmable macro keys also eliminates keyboard alignment, meaning this laptop requires significant adjustment if you’re a touch typist.

The touchpad buttons are also strangely clunky and don’t feel particularly good. This is in direct contrast to the keyboard’s keys, which are all satisfyingly responsive and clicky, and feel fantastic to use.

Despite these quirks, the overall design and build of this laptop feels sleek and understated, with muted tones of ‘gamer’ trappings.

ports

Also worth mentioning in the laptop’s design is the fair inclusion of multimode ports. It’s not overly generous, but it packs just the right amount: It has a handy USB-C Thunderbolt port, three USB-A ports, a now-rare headphone jack, an SD card reader, a Mini DisplayPort, and an HDMI 2.1-compatible port.

That’s the benefit of the aforementioned heavy chassis: there’s plenty of room for big inclusions.

HP Omen 17: Display

One of the brightest lights of the HP Omen 17 is its brilliant QHD (2560 x 1440) display, which is capable of delivering crisp, vivid shadows with fluid motion. Playing through a variety of nifty Steam Next Fest demos: Sea of ​​stars, sticky business and A little tale of stickers – I was struck by the color palette on the screen and how good every game seemed

My experiences were affected by a transition from a mid-range gaming laptop in early 2019, but the upgrade was obvious and significant. The HP Omen 17’s display is very attractive, and I didn’t notice any screen tearing or obvious input lag while playing indie demos and newer AAA video games.

Everything is going smoothly with the HP Omen 17, and the more I used it, the more these features justified its bulk and lack of portability.

HP Omen 17: Gaming performance

However, the Omen 17’s colorful display wouldn’t be nearly as impressive if the laptop’s performance wasn’t topped with incredible confidence. As mentioned, the laptop is massive – and really, that’s because it hides some killer performance under the hood.

Every game I threw at him – Marvel’s Midnight Suns, Forza Horizon 5, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, Far Cry 5, Quantum Break – it was a breeze. Textures loaded smoothly, action was unbelievably fluid, foliage turned into soft dappled light, jungles looked real.

I was especially happy to see Marvel’s Midnight Suns running clean on Ultra, no slowdown. This game is notoriously demanding, and on my home PC, it requires the lowest settings to achieve the game look. On the HP Omen 17, it was great, and I was finally able to see smooth, full animations for my favorite card character moves.

It turns out that the hero models of midnight suns They’re also much more detailed than you could previously see: The HP Omen 17 takes great pride in easily rendering veins, skin pores, and other minute details.

On a budget, the ‘Ultra’ PC setup dances just out of reach: a sneak peek at what’s possible in the upper echelons of the gaming world. The HP Omen 17 brought the Ultra out with a yawn and a simple “what’s next?” SPF tests Shadow of the Tomb Raider delivered a 122FPS average at highest settings (and 128.4 FPS at high settings).

FPS tests on far away 5 – which includes perhaps one of the most relaxed benchmarking cycles in any modern game – delivered a 108.2FPS average on Ultra settings (and 116.8 FPS on High settings). With a 165Hz refresh rate for the laptop screen, this smoothness came through clearly.

In fact, the HP Omen 17 managed to run the smoothest benchmark tests it’s ever run, with no stutters or frame rate drops, even as Lara Croft pushed deeper and deeper into the mountains and jungles of Mexico and Peru. Although the comparative tests included with Shadow of the Tomb Raider and far away 5 now several years old, they are still relevant because they have always pushed modern laptops to their limits. With elegant performance, the HP Omen 17 seems to have graduated from its claims.

The HP Omen 17 passed its tests with flying colors, justifying its evasion of conventional definitions of “portable”. That being said, this performance also it comes with its own caveat, namely thanks to nasty fans (the cooling kind).

fan volume

While playing the latest games, the HP Omen 17 tends to get a bit enthusiastic. The laptop’s fans are extremely responsive, and while that’s great for less demanding gaming or everyday web browsing, the fans will stay quiet when not needed, once you’ve gotten started with a blockbuster game, prepare to be literally impressed

Any game that requires a pinch of power will immediately inspire Omen 17 fans to action, with fan noise equivalent to the sound of whatever game you’re playing through the laptop’s crisp Bang & Olufsen speakers. Because fan volume tends to match in-game audio volume, you’ll be in a war for dominance, having to really crank up the volume on the laptop or use a headset to drive it, preferably a noise canceling run. .

Great performance always comes with downsides, and unfortunately the HP Omen 17 has the familiar problem that comes with many gaming laptops. While graphics power and performance continue to advance with each generation of laptops, that difficult balance between keeping a laptop cool and reasonable fan noise hasn’t changed. quite been reached yet. This isn’t a problem unique to the HP Omen 17, to say the least.

HP Omen 17: Battery life

On a minor note, most of the time you spend with the HP Omen 17 will probably be spent in stationary gaming with the power brick connected, and this is the ideal laptop configuration. It’s the only setup really, as the laptop’s poor battery life will likely deter any more adventurous plans.

Trying to play on battery power, even on its ‘balanced’ power mode, it will only last about 1 hour and 20 minutes, potentially much shorter with the latest AAA adventure games. This is not a long lasting machine and is apparently designed for a one off setup.

Keep this in mind if you plan to walk, because you won’t get very far. But stick with what the HP Omen 17 does best, and you’ll come away very impressed.

HP Omen 17: Overall impressions

It’s completely fine for laptops to stand out only in One thing, as long as they’ve perfected that selling point. The HP Omen 17 takes this approach very seriously, with a strong dedication to high-performance gaming. If that’s all you’re looking for in a gaming laptop, then you’re absolutely done.

With a sharp, gorgeous-looking display and tank-like power that will surpass most modern games with ease, the HP Omen 17 is a blockbuster machine that confidently exceeds expectations.

HP Omen 17 (2023) Gaming Laptop Review
Release Year: 2023
Price: from AU$3429