Gadgetory

hey how's it going guys this is Dave 2d and this is a video on the 2016 HP omen so instead of an internal spec bump like a lot of companies did this year HP did a full redesign in the omen now right off the bat it's a more traditional design instead of that edgy trapezoid shape from last year it's a more standard rounded rectangle the top surface has the soft touch rubber coating on it I like soft touch materials when they're new and this one looks pretty nice it has this diagonal weave pattern on it but if you bang it up or you scratch it the finish doesn't look very good so keep it protected with a case or a sleeve the build quality is okay it's a plastic build last year's omen had a nicer overall finish because I had more metal but this year's version is still decent it just doesn't feel as premium the bottom panel is plastic with some venting grates but there's no soft touch finish on this the screen and the chassis have a bit of flex but it's nothing too bad the hinges are a little tight it's not easily opened with one hand and I think the overall build quality is a step down from last year because it's just not as much metal used in the construction process the good thing is that when you don't use as much metal the overall price comes down so this year's omen starts at $900 opening it up the screen on this model is a 4k IPS panel it's not a touchscreen but it's bright at around 313 it's it has pretty good color accuracy good viewing angles contrast could be better but overall I would consider this to be a pretty good screen now this is the upgraded panel it's an extra $90 I've seen the 1080p screen on the base model and it's so much worse it's really dim it's around 200 nits at max brightness and the color accuracy was surprisingly bad I highly recommend spending the money to upgrade to the 4k panel the webcam is a standard HD webcam it looks okay there is an option to get a real sense 3d camera if you want to use Windows hello the keyboard area has the same diagonal pattern as the lid but instead of that soft touch finish it's just a smooth surface at the top of this are the speakers they have Bang & Olufsen branding again but like most laptop speakers in this price range they don't sound particularly good it's loud and it's nicely but it's not a balanced sound there's a very obvious deficiency in bass even if you use the software adjustments the keyboard and the trackpad are the same ones as the HP Pavilion or at least I think they are they feel very similar the keyboard has red backlighting now it's a decent keyboard relatively short stroke but there's nothing I really dislike about it the keyboard is shifted over to the left again because of the number pad and the up and down arrow keys could be bigger or positioned better but overall the typing experience is enjoyable the trackpad feels small it's wide but it's not roomy from front to back so doing gestures feels a little cramped tracking works fine I didn't notice any skipping or anything the buttons need a bit more force to trigger than I'm used to but yeah nothing I really dislike about the trackpad either when it's closed up it's less than an inch thick so it's a little thinner than your average 15-inch gaming laptop as for ports on this side there's an Ethernet HDMI an SD card slot and one of the two USB 3.0 s the other side has a second USB 3.0 and a USB 2.0 there's also your standard audio jack but there's no Thunderbolt 3 so there's no external GPU option The Omen comes in several graphics card configurations the $900 base model has a gtx 950 M and you can upgrade that for $30 to a gtx 960m the one I have here is the top spec gtx 960 5 M I wouldn't get the 950 M it's an okay card but for an extra $30 that upgrade to the 960 M is so worth it the 960 m will do 60 frames per second for light games even on Ultra settings pretty easily and moderately demanding games will still hit 60 frames per second at medium or high graphics settings I've reviewed a lot of laptops with that card so you can check those out for more details the 965 M is actually a noticeable step-up in performance depending on the game and screen resolution it's rounded 20% improvement in frame rates over the 960 m again this is highly dependent on the game and the graphics setting but it is noticeable boost thermally the 2016 omen runs relatively cool the fans do a good job in keeping the system cool but in terms of fan noise The Omen is slightly louder than the average laptop just by a few decibels but it's more of a reason to put on headphones you're playing games the 7200 rpm hard drive has a pretty average performance you can configure some models to include an SSD and the performance on the factory SSD isn't very good either fortunately it's easy to open up and upgrade them you just remove the screws on the bottom pop off the keyboard and you can see that the RAM is upgradable there's two slots to work with the two storage bays are also upgradable there's two and a half inch SATA Drive and also room for an m2 PCIe stick the battery down here 61.5 watt hour battery takes around two and a half hours to charge up and I'm getting around four hours of battery life with screen at around eighty percent brightness my guess is that the 1080p panel would be closer to five and a half six hours all right the 2016 HP omen soft touch finish build quality is respectable for a plastic build the 4k screen is brights reasonably color accurate and a highly recommended upgrade over the Tandy P option the keyboard is decent backlighting is red and overall an enjoyable typing experience the trackpad could be a little taller and the buttons are harder to press but it's a very usable trackpad inside the sky like i7 and the gtx 960 5m are great performers and they're very well cooled by fans that are a little bit louder than I'd like the RAM and the storage are easily accessible and upgradable and the battery will give you around 4 hours of regular use if you're using the 4k screen now last year's omen was a more premium product it was more expensive it had better build quality and it looked very unique this year's omen it's a little more generic looking the build quality has come down and the price has come down with it which is cool now there's nothing about the omen that it excels at it's kind of very good across the board if you get the 4k screen I think you're getting a little bit better value than the average laptop in this space but yeah if you like the brand or if you like the way that the laptop looks I think it's a good pick up that's the end of this video hope you guys liked it thumbs if you liked it subs if you loved it it's been nice I'll see you guys next time