HP’s HyperX Omen 15: A Gaming Laptop with a Price Tag to Match

The HP HyperX Omen 15 is the latest addition to HP’s line of gaming laptops, but it’s not quite the budget-friendly option that its predecessor, the HP Victus 15, was. The Omen 15 starts at $1,200, which is a far cry from the $800 that made the Victus 15 so appealing.

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Despite the higher price tag, the Omen 15 does offer some nice upgrades over the Victus 15. Its RTX 5050 Laptop GPU can play the latest games, albeit on low-ish settings, and its 16:10 aspect ratio display with higher refresh rate is a nice touch. The 1080p webcam is also a welcome addition, making it a little better for non-gaming stuff.

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But what about the gaming performance? In our tests, the Omen 15 was able to play games at its 1920 x 1200 native resolution with decent frame rates. For example, Control was able to run at a smooth 70 to 80fps on High preset while using DLSS, and Cyberpunk 2077 was able to run on the Ultra preset with DLSS set to Quality and get 60 to 70fps.

Source: platform.theverge.com

However, newer games were a more Medium to Low affair. For example, Helldivers 2 ran comfortably at just above 60fps on its Medium preset with DLSS set to Quality, but Battlefield 6 was lower, down in the 50fps range while running Medium preset with DLSS cranked to Performance. Halo: Campaign Evolved, on the other hand, defaulted to its Very Low preset, where it looked like a potato.

The fans kicked up to a decent volume while playing games, but they weren’t obnoxiously loud, and the chassis stayed reasonably cool. The hottest point, a small spot under the chassis, rose to 113 degrees Fahrenheit / 45 Celsius, but the main areas that normally make contact with your hands or lap didn’t get too warm.

So what about the rest of the laptop? The trackpad has a responsive mechanical click, but if you pick up the laptop by either of its front corners, the chassis flexes and causes an accidental click. The keyboard has decent enough tactility when typing, but even though I know gamers love a number pad, it makes this 15-inch laptop feel cramped. The speakers are a little muddy-sounding, especially for music.

The ports are also a bit of a letdown. There’s only one USB-C port, and it’s not even Thunderbolt. The other ports are USB-A, HDMI 2.1, and gigabit ethernet, which is great, but the lack of a Thunderbolt port is a bit of a disappointment.

Aside from its gaming performance, the Omen 15’s other strength is its screen. The 1920 x 1200 IPS panel isn’t particularly special, but at 400 nits it’s decently bright and it has nice contrast and colors. It’s good for games, and fine for productivity work and light content creation.

But what about the storage? The Omen 15 comes with a 512GB NVMe M.2 drive, which fills up quickly when games like Battlefield 6 take up 142GB. There’s a second M.2 slot for another drive, just as there’s a second RAM slot, which is great for future upgrades.

So is the Omen 15 worth the price tag? It’s a decent gaming laptop, but it’s not the value the Victus 15 used to be. But neither is anything else. Absent a really good sale, you’re going to pay over $1,000 for anything with the RTX 5050, and usually a lot more. But buying into even the bottom rung of the 50-series gets you all of Nvidia’s latest features, like Multi Frame Gen and whatever DLSS 5 eventually shapes up to be.

Ultimately, the Omen 15 is an okay value at $1,200 for getting into laptop gaming. But if you want to save money, you might want to consider last-gen 40-series or AMD GPUs, or even an older laptop with a lower price tag.