HP Teases New Omen 15 Laptop, Gaming Gear

With a high screen refresh rate, smaller bezels, and Nvidia's Max-Q graphics technology, HP's Omen 15 laptop is slimming down and getting more powerful.

The souped-up, 15-inch gaming laptop, unveiled on Wednesday, is a minor improvement on the existing HP Omen 15, but it adds a few key features that we've seen spread across the mid-range and high-end laptop market in recent months.

The most notable improvement HP made to the Omen 15's components is swapping out the old seventh-generation Intel Core processors for the newest eighth-gen Coffee Lake models. You can choose from a six-core Core i7-8750H or a four-core Core i5-8300H CPU. Add in an Nvidia GeForce 1070 that uses Max-Q to eke out as much performance as possible while still keeping the system from overheating, a full HD display with a 120Hz refresh rate and G-Sync, and a four-zone RGB keyboard, and you're set up for about as good a gaming experience as you can expect from a laptop.

A configuration with those goodies will be expensive, perhaps upwards of $2,000. HP hasn't announced the full price range yet, but we do know that the base version with a Core i5 and a GTX 1050Ti will go on sale in July for $979.99. All the new Omen 15 configurations will feature a slim border—or bezel—that surrounds the display, which helps keep the system's weight to a manageable 5.4 pounds.

One of the problems with such a thin and light laptop with a powerful GPU like the GTX 1070 is heat dissipation. Even with Max-Q, which is designed to slightly reduce frame rates in order to prevent the laptop from getting too hot, the Omen 15 risks melting down. We're eager to test it at PC Labs, where we've seen several other Max-Q designs, such as the MSI GS63VR 7RG Stealth Pro, that are still too hot to use on your lap for extended gaming sessions.

Cool Your Ears

If you're in the market for a new Omen 15 laptop, perhaps you're also looking to pick up some gaming peripherals as well. You'd be well served by heading straight for the Razer or Logitech aisles, but don't forget that HP makes its own headsets, keyboards, and the like.

The company announced several new gaming peripherals alongside the new Omen 15, including an intriguing Omen Mindframe headset. Two tiny thermoelectric coolers are mounted in each ear cup to keep your ears cool, a novel albeit gimmicky feature that actually works, based on the few minutes HP let me examine a pre-production version of the headset earlier this month.

I could feel the heat exhaust from the exterior of the thermoelectric cooler, while the other side was icy cold to the touch. It's unclear how much of a benefit that will be in real life, but if you tend to overheat while gaming, think of this as Max-Q for your ears.

There's no word on the headset's price, but HP says it will be available some time in the second half of this year.

Other new Omen gaming peripherals include the rather expensive Sequencer Keyboard ($179.99), which combines mechanical key switches with built-in optical sensors to detect key presses, a setup that HP says is 10 times faster than using mechanical switches by themselves. As you'd expect for a keyboard that costs more than $150, there's also per-key RGB backlights and dedicated media keys.

Finally, two new gaming mice are joining the Omen lineup. The Reactor's ($79.99) standout feature is an aluminum USB cable that prevents snagging or kinking, while the budget-friendly Omen Mouse 400 ($39.99) still has mechanical switches to support its buttons and a dedicated DPI adjustment to increase precision while aiming.

The mice and keyboards will be available in July.