HP has said OMEN to its prayer that its newest dedicated gaming notebook will take the gaming world by storm, packing performance, portability and style into an internally colourful package - with two videos of the presentations from the Australian launch event embedded at the end of this article for your enjoyment.
The event was held at a new gaming-focused bar called the ‘Spawn Point Bar’ which will officially open in a couple of weeks time - more info on this cool little venue and its proper opening night will be forthcoming within the next two weeks.
HP's OMEN is Powered by Nvidia’s GeForce GTX 860M GPU, a Core i7 processor, Windows 8.1, and offers a 15.6-inch Full HD touch screen ‘optimised for smooth frame rates’ and a 72% colour gamut that HP says ‘shows vivid, rich colours the way games were built to be seen’.
Although all the OMEN models are equipped with a Core i7 processor, the entry-level model comes with a 128GB SSD, along with the option of 256GB or 512GB PCIe SSD drives for an even faster and smoother experiences.
Other choices include 8 or 16GB of RAM and either 2 or 4GB of GDDR5 GPU memory.
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The heat vents were specifically designed to manage thermals, with HP noting that ‘dual fans pull cool air through the bottom of the system, pushing hot air through exhaust fans at the rear of the system—keeping hot air away from the keyboard and the gamer’s hands’. There are even rubber feet on the base of the notebook which were ‘engineered to channel cool air into the dual fan inlets and prevent hot air from recirculating back into the notebook, so the HP OMEN will stay cool even through marathon gaming sessions’.
Weighing 2.28kg with a thickness or thinness of 19.9mm, its chassis is ‘CNC milled from solid aluminium’ and then ‘anodised with a black finish’.
HP has tuned the ‘force profile of the keys’ for what is says is ‘a crisp and precise feel’, along with key spacing and travel being ‘optimised for accurate, fast keystrokes’.
There are six programmable function keys on the keyboard ‘that can be customised to the unique features of whatever game you are playing so the spells, weapons and action you need to win are always in an easy to reach location’, while the backlit keyboard is customisable with seven zones of multi-colour lighting with millions of colour choices - along with the W, A, S and D keys able to have their own colours for easy visual identification and better game playability.
The Beats Audio speakers even have multi-colour lighting that can be customised and set to respond to the audio of games, music, or movies.
The keyboard multi-zone lighting and programmable keys are controlled by HP’s ‘OMEN Control software’. The software also ‘allows gamers to turn off the trackpad or disable the 15.6-inch diagonal touchscreen to suit their gaming needs.’
An optional HP OMEN Gaming Mouse which will cost $69.95 is available from the 17 November 2014, with 8200DPI Laser tracking, with HP noting it has “eight levels of in- game, on-the-fly sensitivity adjustment’, letting you ‘go from pixel-precise targeting to blazing manoeuvres without pausing the action’.
A stylish-looking OMEN Gaming backpack to cart all your gaming gear is also available now at $89.
The 128GB model will arrive in stores on 17 November 2014 for $2199, with the top-end model featuring that 512GB PCIe SSD, 16GB RAM and 4GB GPU RAM will sell for $2999.
HP’s Consumer Category Manager, Jeff Woodhouse said: “Gamers play to win and expect their PCs to do the same. The HP OMEN delivers the power to dominate with a stunning design to give gamers the ultimate gaming experience.”
The OMEN launch presentation was conducted by Jeff Woodhouse and you can see it below. Sadly it was my iPhone ringing during the launch video but I managed to eventually stop its ringing! :-)
The next video below is of me talking to HP Product Specialist Paul Burman, giving some more detail on how the HP OMEN keyboard control software works.
