HP’s Gaming focused series, the Omen, has come a long way. From initially being clunky heat generators, over the years, HP has successively renewed the design of the Omen series each year, almost always making it better than the previous year. First launched in 2017, the HP Omens were powerful machines, but lacked in intuitiveness and design, and had a number of flaws. They did do better in 2018, but compared to other market offerings, the OMENs left much to be desired. While they offered top-of-the-line specs, the design and build was not up to satisfactory standards.
This year the Omen definitely feels more clinical in its implementation, with better fit and finish and all over a united approach to its utility.
With the launch of the new OMEN 15 series in 2020, it is evident that HP has learnt from its previous missteps and implemented all their learnings to make what is actually a fine, fine machine. The Omen 2020s see the biggest generational jump, especially in terms of build and design. This year the Omen definitely feels more clinical in its implementation, with better fit and finish and all over a united approach to its utility.
HP Omen 15 ek-0023TX Specifications
The Omen 15 ek-0023TX features absolute top-of-the-line specs, the best that money can buy today.
CPU: Intel Core i7-10750H @ 2.60Ghz 6-Core, 12-Thread Processor with 5.0Ghz Max Turbo Frequency
RAM: 16GB DDR4 Dual Channel RAM
SSD: Samsung PM981a 1TB nVME SSD
Display: 15.6″ FHD IPS LED Display with GSYNC and 300Hz Refresh Rate, 300 Nits Brightness and HDR support
Discreet Graphics Card: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 Super Max-Q 8GB
Speakers: Bang & Olufsen
Keyboard: RGB LED Backlit Keyboard
Battery: 6 cell, 70.9 Wh
Charger: 200W Charger
The OMEN 15 is also available in Ryzen 7 CPU variants. There are tons of customisable options, which has been something HP has always offered. You can also opt for the OLED screen, but then you’ll miss out on GSYNC and 300Hz Refresh Rate.
Design and Build Quality Initial Impressions
In terms of design, the Omen 15 2020 is a step in the right direction from the Omen 15 2019. HP has ended its erm, toxic relationship with curvy and angular edges and has gone for a straight-ier and right-angular design, which gives the laptop a very sophisticated look, oozing class with understatement. The laptop, sitting on your work desk, will surely look like a sophisticated next-gen machine.
The laptop, sitting on your work desk, will surely look like a sophisticated next-gen machine.
The build quality has improved too. The laptop feels solid, and there is no flexing on the keyboard and touchpad area, something that was an issue with the previous Omens. Even the keyboard layout has been revamped. Thank heavens HP have corrected the size of the arrow keys.
The key switches work well, offering both control and speed and suitable for any kind of task you perform, whether gaming or typing. The keyboard features quad-zone RGB lighting. While it works as intended, there is always going be leakage of light from the key grooves and that is something we aren’t a fan of. Don’t expect dedicated keyboard level RGB lighting here. Still, we like what HP has offered us here, we are only nit-picking. Oh and by the way, this is a full keyboard with a numpad. You also get a dedicated Calculator key and an Omen Command Centre Key.
The HP Omen 15 passed our single-handed lid-open test. Opening the lid with one hand, the chassis of the laptop didn’t budge and was stable. Again, this was something that previous Omens failed at, and we’re glad HP has addressed this issue in particular.
On the backside, the vents are well positioned, meaning that you can use this laptop placed on your thigh while lying down, without you suffocating it for cool air. There are vents even on the right side and the front side. The front side vents can easily be mistaken for speakers, so a good design implementation by HP once again.
Our biggest complaint about the previous gen Omen was the lacklustre touchpad. Well this time, HP has used a different glass for the touchpad that is of higher quality and feels top of the line compared to most Windows laptops. In some ways, the touchpad is closer in smoothness to the Microsoft Surface touchpad, and that is saying a lot, because the Surfaces have a reputation in the touchpad department. It clicks well, offers good friction and resistance and is fairly big in size. Windows gestures work really well, minus a few times when it unnecessarily registers swipes. Having said this, we still haven’t come across a Windows laptop that offers a better touchpad than the Macbooks.
Even though the Omen 15 2020 packs in heavy muscle, the laptop is light and easy to carry around. Unlike the previous Omens, where one always felt like one’s carrying an elephant, the 2020 Omen 15 feels actually pretty reasonable without being overbearing. It’s almost like I’m carrying my Macbook Air, and that says a lot about this laptop. It’s pretty slim too, much slimmer than the previous gen, although, don’t expect Macbook Air level slimness, that would be asking a lot.
On that note, moving on….
HP Omen 15’s Stunning HDR Display with 300Hz Refresh Rate
The biggest improvement in the Omen series, and it’s highlight feature is its FHD 1920 x 1080 display. 15.4″ in size, the display is vibrant and crisp. Bezels around the screen are thin, and this adds to immersion. The screen accuracy is on point, and this will work well with content creators too.
We were thoroughly impressed with the display’s HDR implementation. Watching HDR supported videos on Netflix, YouTube etc. is an absolute delight. 300 nits of brightness means even in daylight conditions the viewability is good and details aren’t missed. Viewing angles of the display are wide, so if you’re watching a movie with friends, you won’t come across those screen shifting problems.
One doesn’t really need to describe the sheer pleasure of gaming with 300Hz GSYNC. A quick session of Call of Duty: Warzone demonstrated the liquid smoothness the display on the Omen 15 has to offer.
Performance
This is the fully loaded Omen 15 with the Core i7 10750H CPU and the GeForce RTX 2070 Super GPU. These are both desktop grade components on a laptop, so one can only imagine the power they carry. HP fitted these components in a small chassis and that is a commendable job in itself.
The laptop has a dedicated “Omen” key that fires up the Omen Command Centre. Here, you can select between two different graphic modes, Hybrid and Discrete. These modes are pretty self explanatory, Hybrid uses the integrated Intel chip while discrete uses the RTX 2070 Super. In Hybrid mode, the battery lasts around 30-40% longer when performing productivity tasks. In discrete mode, general browsing and productivity usage lasts around 3 hours, which is a tad disappointing. But one can always switch to Hybrid mode to get more life if one isn’t gaming. We’ll be doing thorough battery tests and share our results in our full review.
Running Call of Duty: Warzone on Ultra settings and FHD resolution was no problem for the Omen 15. Playing three quick Warzone matches, the game never stuttered and in coalition with GSYNC, ran silky smooth. We will be publishing in-depth performance results in our full review.
Running Call of Duty: Warzone on Ultra settings and FHD resolution was no problem for the Omen 15.
The laptop does get warm, even hot, when performing demanding tasks like playing Call of Duty: Warzone. You won’t fry your lap and thighs the way you would when riding a 1000cc motorbike, but it still gets hot enough when gaming with the laptop placed on lap. The fans get noisy too. We will have to do some long term testing to dig deeper into the cooling and noise performance of the Omen 15.
Conclusion
The HP Omen ek-0023TX is an impressive piece of machinery that makes its claim as a “modern high end laptop” pretty confidently. A very approacable design that is versatile because it doesn’t feel like a generic gaming keyboard and can be carried around with ease. The display is the highlight, offering vibrant colours, HDR, GSYNC and 300Hz support. Performance is superb too, it has to be, coming from the latest gen Intel i7 processors and Nvidia’s GeForce RTX 2070 Super. This laptop fulfils most needs, even desires, from looks of it. Stay tuned for our full-fledged review.
