A notebook to rule them ...
Surely you have noticed that the market dedicated to gaming notebooks is growing, despite the prices still difficult to digest for users. The massive presence of these products in shopping malls is far taking the place of Desktop PCs, designed for less mobile users.
Today we will review the HP Omen 15 version 15-dc0024nl, a mid-range notebook entirely dedicated to gaming. The device in question will allow you to run all the latest titles in high details, thanks to an Intel Core i7-8750H CPU and an NVIDIA GTX 1060 video card.
Dimensions (36 x 26,3 x 2,5 cm) and Weight (2,5kg) in full compliance with the standards of the range to which it belongs, also allowing considerable portability of the device.
The notebook is currently sold on Amazon for € 1299.
Aggressive design, but already seen ...
HP Omen 15 comes out of the box with lines to say the least sharp and particularly aggressive, showing the teeth from your first contact with the notebook. On the back of the screen it is impossible not to notice the beautiful Omen logo, adequately surrounded by red oblique lines.
The body of the notebook is composed of both good quality materials and plastic inserts, the latter manage to put us in doubt with respect to the entire quality system.
On the other hand, the main area is of good quality, all in aluminum alloy, able to make the user experience pleasant.
The fully backlit RGB keyboard is a real panacea for night gaming sessions, without forgetting the presence of the "WASD" keys in relief, excellent idea, oriented to the end user, even the touchpad is of good quality and does its duty, logical is the fact that for an optimal gaming experience, the mouse is a must.
Connectivity and ventilation
Moving to observe the rear side of the device we notice at first glance the ventilation grids, large both for design needs and for not overheating the notebook during some sultry days.
On the left side are the headphone and microphone inputs, a USB 3.1 port and a useful slot for SD memory cards. Moving to the opposite side there are only two sockets, the first at the top dedicated to powering the device and a second USB 3.1 port.
Returning to the back, this HP Omen 15, shows us that "in addition to the fans there is more", in fact we can find another USB 3.1 socket, a Kensington Lock connection, a mini Display Port and a Thunderbolt 3 connection, without forget the very useful HDMI and Ethernet connections.
What's inside?
The HP Omen 15 offers you a 15,6 '' Full HD IPS Display at 144 Hz (this means that the monitor is capable of processing up to 144 frames per second), capable of offering you excellent viewing angles and supporting fully NVIDIA's G-Sync technology. This particular feature allows the screen to match the refresh rate with that of the GPU, eliminating the annoying problem of screen tearing.
Going under the body, we find an Intel i7-8750H hexa core, capable of providing a frequency of 2,2 Ghz, almost doubled in Turbo mode. As for the graphics card, the HP Omen 15 notebook mounts the reliable NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 with dedicated 6Gb GDDR 5, also widely used by the competition in similar devices.
In addition, inside the notebook you will find a 1 TB 7200rpm HDD and a 256 Gb Solid State Drive, all enriched with 8Gb of DDR4 RAM memory with a frequency of 2666 MHz.
Pre-installed software
The notebook will arrive with a 10-bit Windows 64 Home OS, the Irish house has well thought of not filling unnecessarily with bloat software that can only take up space. In fact, the programs included are designed only for the needs of the end user. Honorable mention goes to the Omen Command Center, an interesting tool that will allow you to monitor the status of the device, from CPU and GPU temperatures to the use of RAM, without forgetting the possibility of using the "network booster", system that by connecting LAN and Wi-Fi will allow you to surf at the maximum bandwidth.
How not to mention the possibility of changing the colors of the keyboard, the undersigned for patriotism has opted for the tricolor, but you have all four RGB zones available.
Audio compartment
The HP Omen 15 notebook is equipped with an audio system created in collaboration with Bang & Olufsen, a Danish company at the top in the sector. And the audio offered by this notebook is right at the top, to the point that you will not want to wear headphones, which you will be forced to do in case you want to avoid complaints for disturbing the peace. All kidding aside, it is truly a pleasure to listen to in-game music, from the roar of Formula 1 cars to stadium chants in FIFA.
Not just gaming ...
The device we tested showed its potential even in the daily work typical of the editorial team, without ever leaving room for lag or problems of any kind. But the field dedicated to this product is that of gaming, always offering high-level performance in Full HD. The potential offered by the screen matches perfectly with the FPS from Overwatch to Apex, as regards the recent titles, we took care of testing Forza Horizon 4 with Ultra settings and it must be said that it was particularly good, fast and fluid.
Conclusions
HP Omen 15 is a notebook with undoubted quality, especially if you are looking for a mid-range product, able to combine gaming and operation without a hitch. The 144Hz screen and support for NVIDIA G-Sync manage to convince the purchase even with the presence of increasingly fierce competition and not only among other companies, in fact even in HP the device has a fair amount of competition. If, like myself, you are a night owl, all that illumination and "tamarraggine" cannot leave you impassive.
