With its Omen 17-ck0039nf, HP has achieved a sober, but efficient machine, capable of holding the load against most recent titles, without flinching, but by ventilating. Bulky and heavy, it is a good portable gaming device that becomes very affordable.
Presentation: there are many more, I put it to you anyway?
39.71 cm wide, 26.2 cm deep and an impressive 2.7 cm high, it looks impressive in a backpack, and will certainly be a valuable partner for your sheathing or weightlifting sessions.
It weighs no less than 2.79 Kg. Almost light, finally, given its general measurements, but it must be said that HP has found a little trick to lighten its PC, to accompany it with an external power supply (330 W, all the same) colossal, too.
It measures approximately 15 cm square, for approximately 4 cm thick – yes, it feels like having a Mac mini next to the 17-inch Omen… But the best is yet to come, its weight. Count approximately 1.26 Kg with the required cables. In other words, the HP Omen 17 2021 weighs around 4 Kg. It’s… heavy and second hand laptop price in Bangladesh.
It must be said that the case is solid, well finished, and gives an appreciable impression of durability, with its mixture of quality plastic and aluminium. We will not go so far as to say that it is beautiful, more likely that it is discreet, and sufficiently versatile not to offend your sense of aesthetics. In a world where everything flashes, it’s actually rather pleasant.
Side configuration, HP is also solid. The American giant indeed offers a Core i7-11800H, an 11th generation chip, therefore, which embeds eight hyperthreaded cores, and can push its operating frequency to 4.6 GHz in Turbo Boost. We will come back to it. For RAM, HP didn’t skimp, with 32GB – the processor can handle up to 128GB of RAM, and it’s easy to swap out the SODIMMs, which aren’t soldered on. This promises great scalability.
The graphics part is entrusted to Nvidia, and its excellent GeForce RTX 3070 (with 8 GB of GDDR6). It accompanies all this with a 1TB SSD, a decent base capacity, which gives you time to see, and the NVMe TLC storage in M2 format is extremely fast according to our tests. It’s even the fastest we’ve seen in a gaming laptop in recent times, with around 4.2 GB/s in writing and 5.4 GB/s in reading…
Other very good news in the field, HP has provided a second easily accessible location (under a heat pipe) to add a second storage module. It’s a matter of a few screwdriver strokes, and a helping hand to play the plastic tabs.
Overall, we would like to say that the Omen 17 has the best, but that would be a bit wrong. Why ? Intel has since released its 12th generation Cores , and Nvidia has introduced its RTX 3070 Ti , available on laptops since CES earlier this year. The 17-inch Omen is therefore the best we could expect in 2021… But is it serious? Not necessarily.
When we go around the beast, we see that the Omen offers a wide variety of connectors. There is a Thunderbolt 4/USB 4 type-C port, three SuperSpeed USB type-A ports, in other words USB 3.2 Gen1 (two are on the right of the case and are the only ones to take up residence there), a mini-DisplayPort port, a HDMI 2.1, a Gigabit Ethernet port, and of course the essential mini-jack socket, which combines headphone and microphone input. More surprisingly, there is even an SD card reader on the left side of the device.
Ergonomics: an uneventful offer-
HP has managed to place its ports rather cleverly, so that right-handed gamers are not bothered by connecting the mouse, or a screen output. The same goes for the vents that expel hot air. The one on the right side is narrow enough not to get in the way or burn the player’s hand. It may seem obvious, but not all manufacturers always think about it. Checkout portable gaming monitors.
When we look at the keyboard, we see that the keys have a rather long, soft and discreet stroke. The night owl player will therefore not wake up the household. We appreciate this keyboard, which is rather comfortable and responsive, both for playing and for typing text, like this article. It is obviously backlit, and gives in to the fashion of RGB LEDs since it is possible to customise the backlighting of the keys via the Omen Light Studio. The keyboard is divided into four zones, three large main strips which divide all the keys into vertical zones, and a fourth for the ZQSD keys. Essential quartet that is used to move the character in most games if you neglect the controller, and which stands out visually thanks to this color difference.
By default, the Omen Light Studio provides access to ten effects (wave, static, flashing, colour cycle, etc.). Once again, we would be more in favor of simplicity, which avoids being distracted in the game, but everyone will do as they see fit.
We will bring some downsides to this keyboard and second hand laptop. First of all, we note that with such a footprint, almost as large as a student apartment in Paris, we are almost surprised not to see a dedicated numeric keypad. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing – unless you like messing around with a few Excel spreadsheets between games. Especially since for players, you will have the four traditional directional arrows, well separated from the rest of the keys.
On the other hand, we regret that it is necessary to go through the Function key to access the volume adjustment, for example. This is not necessarily practical for lowering the sound quickly, when you are not playing with headphones. The loudspeakers, stamped Bang & Olufsen, indeed produce a fairly powerful sound, which however lacks a bit of relief and bass.
On the other hand, we can easily deactivate the trackpad via the keyboard, which will avoid unfortunate movements of the mouse when we play, even if this did not happen to us during our gaming sessions.
The trackpad, let’s talk about it quickly. It may happen that you forgot your mouse to play. It’s a good size for desktop use, but a bit too small to be really enjoyable in-game, even when playing a title that doesn’t require too much movement. Its precision is honest, even if that of its click sometimes leaves something to be desired. Really, don’t forget your mouse.
Finally, let’s quickly talk about the Webcam. She’s here, that’s already good news. On the other hand, 720p in 2022 (or even in 2021), it is not possible. The quality is poor, even in broad daylight. It will help out, but don’t expect too much. It also does not make your daily life easier thanks to Windows Hello. No facial recognition in this Omen, nor a fingerprint reader. It is in your interest to have a good memory to remember your password.
Screen: 17.3, 324, 1094, and the additional number, 144
Now let’s go to the screen. The 17.3-inch non-touch IPS LCD panel displays a Full HD definition (1920 x 1080 pixels, therefore) and a refresh rate of 144 Hz. The choice of Full HD is not stupid, and allows the RTX 3070 to be comfortable at all times.
With a brightness measurement of 324 cd/m 2 , and a contrast ratio of 1094:1, the panel is clearly not one of the brightest on the market and the best contrasted, even if its brightness is slightly higher than the average of gaming PCs tested over the past twelve months.
More annoying, especially for those who intended to use it to do some multimedia creation after a frag session, the colorimetric accuracy of this panel is rather poor. With a Delta E2000 measured at 4.49, it is almost 70% worse than the average of its direct competitors.
Our test model also suffers from a few light leaks in the upper corners, but nothing too serious. In use, however, when we play, we rather appreciate the service offered by this screen which brings a beautiful display surface, and a nice fluidity to the action.
Performance: all the way, with ventilation-
The Omen 17 makes space for vents on both sides and a huge area of the lower part of its hull. Not surprising since it is necessary to dissipate the heat produced by the processor (with a TDP which oscillates between 35 and 45 W, there is enough to do) and the graphics card (its TGP can vary according to the choice of the manufacturer from 80 to 125 W). It’s 5.6% warmer than the average gaming PC we’ve tested, and our measurements picked up 56.7°C at its hottest point. Better to avoid putting it on your lap. It will also be better to play with headphones if you push the fans to the limit, so we found a nice 43.3 dB.
Nevertheless, this dissipation effort has positive effects. The performance of the Omen 17 is 11.3% more stable than its competitors. The Core i7 and RTX 3070 couple can therefore give voice.
We decided to compare it to a few of its competitors, like the Dell Alienware x15 r1 , or the Acer Predator Helios 300 . The three machines have many points in common, in particular they all have an RTX 3070, coupled with a Full HD panel – 15.6 inches for the two competitors of the Omen. The Alienware benefits from a Core i9-11900H, more efficient than that embedded in the Omen 17, and associated with 32 GB of RAM. While the Acer is based on a Core i7-10750H (tenth generation therefore), and only has 16 GB of RAM, and only 512 GB of SSD storage.
It is interesting to note that the Alienware is sold for 3,350 euros, the Predator Helios for 1,800 euros, and the Omen 17 for 2,400 euros, officially. Why officially? Because it is possible to find it online at 1,800 euros as well, which makes it a good deal.
Autonomy: better than average, but obviously not crazy-
Let’s end our journey under the Omen flag with the question of autonomy. Unsurprisingly, he is not an endurance beast. However, with 5.5 hours of versatile battery life, it is very slightly (3.6%) more durable than the average gamer laptop we’ve tested over the past twelve months. In video autonomy, on the other hand, the trend is reversed, since it holds a little less than this same competition (3.4% below the average) with only 4 h 30 of video streaming.
As you will have understood, this is not an ultraportable, do not think about staying away from an electrical outlet for too long. Our traditional in-game battery life test, with Left 4 Dead (all the way, of course), where we play until the computer is left for dead, led us to 1h19 of battery life. After that, the party was over… but it’s better than a lot of gaming PCs that have passed through our hands recently.
If you’re wondering why we chose L4D , it’s simply that it’s a game we like, and which doesn’t put too much strain on current machines, which allows it to run even on battery power.
Note- With a brightness measurement of 324 cd/m 2 , and a contrast ratio of 1094:1, the panel is clearly not one of the brightest on the market and the best contrasted, even if its brightness is slightly higher than the average of gaming PCs tested over the past twelve months.
More annoying, especially for those who intended to use it to do some multimedia creation after a frag session, the colorimetric accuracy of this panel is rather poor. With a Delta E2000 measured at 4.49, it is almost 70% worse than the average of its direct competitors.
