HP Omen 17 review: This gaming laptop stays cool under pressure

The HP Omen 17 is designed with minimalists in mind — and I’m here for it. It’s nice to sometimes go crazy with per-key RGB lighting and designs that scream "gaming laptop," but the HP Omen 17 elicits sleek simplicity with just enough customization to keep things fun.

Granted, I wish the chassis was aluminum, not plastic, but that would’ve made this big boy even heavier. Plus, thermal management would be trickier. Its hefty weight is a fair trade for all the delicious internals you’ll find inside, capable of tackling triple-A gaming with ease.

Is it the best gaming laptop Mashable has tested so far? Probably not. With its powerful RTX 4070 GPU and incredible thermal design, it’s definitely a solid contender. But there are some aspects I wasn’t enamored with. Read on for all the juicy details. 

HP Omen 17 price and specs 

The HP Omen 17 configuration I tested retails for $1,799 via B&H, though right now, it’s discounted by $300. For that mid-range price, here are the specs you’ll get:

• AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS CPU

• Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 with 8GB of VRAM

• 32GB RAM

• 1TB of SSD storage

• 17.3-inch, 2560 x 1440-pixel display with a 240Hz refresh rate

Or, if you want to downgrade to an RTX 4050 GPU with 6GB of VRAM, but otherwise keep the same specs, there’s a configuration available for $1,599 via Amazon.

HP Omen 17 design

At first glance, the HP Omen 17 looks quite polished, with a chassis that’s all black with an etched ‘Omen’ logo on the lid. 

When I looked closer, however, I discovered the entire chassis is made of black plastic, which makes it feel kinda cheap. But I understand that plastic is better for heat management.

Despite its plastic construction, the hinges are fairly sturdy and the thermal design functions well.

That said, if the chassis was anything other than plastic, like anodized aluminum, it would’ve been even heavier — and this laptop is already pretty dang heavy, starting at 6.5 pounds.

The internal speaker design and one-zone, RGB-backlit keyboard are the only things that scream ‘gaming laptop,’ which is great if you’re looking for a machine that can double as a work laptop in public and a gaming laptop at home.

Unscrewing the bottom lid reveals swappable RAM sticks and a swappable WLAN module if you need to upgrade down the line. There’s also an extra M2 SSD slot if you wanted to add more storage or experiment with Linux OS.

HP Omen 17 display

The HP Omen 17 comes with a 17.3-inch, 2560 x 1440-pixel IPS display with a 240Hz max refresh rate and a 3ms response time.

I inspected the display by watching the Beetlejuice Beetlejuice trailer on YouTube. Its sharp resolution helped me catch small details, like fine face lines and flyaway hairs, but the colors were a bit muted.

I had a similar experience with the display when playing Helldivers 2. Fighting bugs and bots is an easy feat with crisp resolution and a smooth refresh rate, but I wish the display was just a little bit brighter.

If HP offered an OLED or miniLED display panel (or even just an LED panel with more than 300 nits max brightness), that’d make this display a stunner.

HP Omen 17 ports

The HP Omen 17 has no shortage of ports. You’ll find ports adorning both the left and right sides, as well as along the back edge.

On the left:

• Headset jack

• Gigabit Ethernet port

On the right: 

• USB-A 3.2 Gen 1 port (5 Gbps)

On the back:

• Two USB-A 3.2 Gen 2 ports (10 Gbps)

• USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 port (10 Gbps, DisplayPort 1.4a)

• HDMI 2.1 output port

• DC-in power port

The DC-in power port is conveniently located towards the back edge center, making it easier to maneuver the charging cable (which is extra long, by the way) no matter where your power outlet is. And for connecting wired peripherals, I love that there are three USB-A ports.

HP Omen 17 audio

Laptop speakers generally aren’t great, especially on gaming laptops, but I found the HP Omen 17’s audio setup to be below average.

To test the speakers, I fired up “dancing in the kitchen” by LANY on Spotify. The highs came through tinny and the lows were practically nonexistent, resulting in a complete lack of full-bodied sound. 

I got the same result with Unprocessed’s “Real ft. Polyphia’s Tim Henson & Clay Gober,” a song I test on every set of speakers or headphones I’m reviewing. Bumping up the volume to max made it clear the speakers are very quiet, the icing on a lackluster listening experience.

You’ll definitely want to grab one of the best gaming headsets to pair with the HP Omen 17 if you want immersive, atmospheric sound.

HP Omen 17 keyboard and trackpad

The HP Omen 17’s keyboard isn’t what I’d want in a gaming laptop keyboard. I wouldn’t necessarily call the keys ‘mushy,’ but they’re not as clicky as I’d like them to be (except for the space bar) — and not as satisfying as most other HP keyboards. 

There’s not much travel or responsive feedback with every key press, and the keys are quite small — especially the arrow keys. On a gaming laptop with a full-size keyboard, I’d love to see full-size arrow keys. Trying to call in stratagems on Helldivers 2 missions with those tiny arrow keys was a pain.

The one slight win for the HP Omen 17’s keyboard is its RGB backlighting, but even that comes with a few catches. There’s no per-key RGB lighting and you have to carry out all changes in the Omen Light Hub, even toggling backlighting on and off. Luckily, there’s a quick-access key for the Omen Gaming Hub — and the Light Hub within features a lot of fun effects and colors to play with.

If you’re pounding out some work, responding to emails, or researching something, the keyboard is perfectly acceptable. But for gaming, it’s disappointing. It’d definitely be worth investing in a separate mechanical keyboard to use with the HP Omen 17. Luckily, this laptop features plenty of USB ports to accommodate a wired option.

Similar to the keyboard, the trackpad is acceptable only for non-gaming tasks. It’s quite large (although there looks to be a lot of wasted space above and below it), satisfying to click, and very responsive to gestures. For gaming, however, you’ll definitely want to invest in a mouse.

HP Omen 17 benchmarks and performance

To refresh you, the HP Omen 17 is equipped with an AMD Ryzen 7 8845HS CPU, a Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 with 8GB of VRAM, and 32GB of RAM. With those specs, this is a fairly powerful gaming rig that can play most AAA games at native resolution with at least 60 frames per second.

For a real-world test, I hopped into multiple level 6 missions in Helldivers 2 and averaged around 70 frames per second, with the Medium graphics preset and native resolution (2560 x 1440) with no upscaling and no framerate limit. I had a wireless mouse connected, and I probably would’ve played better with a different keyboard connected — the HP Omen 17’s arrow keys are tiny.

In our Cyberpunk 2077 benchmark, which tests performance with DLSS off, the presets notched at High, and the resolution set to 1080p, the HP Omen delivered an average of 98.8 frames per second. Turning DLSS on bumped up the average to 128.9 frames per second. (At native resolution, this benchmark returned frame rate averages of 88.6 and 105.4, respectively.)

These results pale slightly in comparison to the Alienware m16 R2 — sporting an Intel Core Ultra 7 155H CPU and the same 4070 GPU — which delivered 98.7 frames per second with DLSS off and 167.9 frames per second with DLSS on.

On 3DMark’s TimeSpy benchmark, which assesses graphical prowess, the Omen 17 earned a score of 12,105, just nearly matching the m16 R2’s score of 12,224. 

These two laptops also had similar scores for Geekbench 6, which tests CPU performance. On Geekbench 6, the Omen 17 delivered a multi-core score of 12,781, while the m16 R2 beat it slightly with a multi-core score of 12,842.

One thing the HP Omen 17 definitely has going for it performance-wise is a stellar thermal design. The keys below my fingers never got too hot to touch, and even the underside was only a little warm after playing an intense Helldivers 2 mission.

HP Omen 17 battery life

Battery life on gaming laptops is notoriously awful — and the HP Omen 17’s battery life lived up to that. The HP Omen 17 lasted a mere 1 hour and 4 minutes in PCMark10’s gaming battery life test.

This is marginally better than the Alienware m16 R2’s battery life of 59 minutes on the same test, but if you’re looking for a gaming laptop with decent battery life, opt for the HP Victus 16 with an RTX 4060 GPU instead, which lasted 1 hour and 56 minutes.

Since most people probably won’t be gaming unplugged, I also ran our video rundown battery test on this laptop, which involves looping a 1080p video at 50% brightness until it shuts down. The HP Omen 17 lasted 8 hours and 13 minutes on this test, making it at least a viable option to get some work done outside the home or not be tethered to an outlet while answering emails or streaming.

HP Omen 17 webcam

The HP Omen 17 features a 1080p webcam, but I would’ve guessed it had a 720p webcam solely by looking at the selfie I took with it.

Whether I was sitting in front of a window for natural light or only using the overhead light, the camera couldn’t quite pick up on my true complexion and majorly blurred the background. 

If you want a webcam that’s so fuzzy, it acts like a built-in blur filter, hiding blemishes and redness, then this just might be the webcam for you. If you’re looking for a sharp, high-res webcam, you probably won’t find it on a gaming laptop. 

Is the HP Omen 17 worth it?

The HP Omen 17 is more than capable of playing AAA titles at high settings with a smooth refresh rate and practically no retained heat, thanks to an impressively effective thermal design.

That said, this isn’t the laptop you should buy if high-quality, loud speakers or a satisfyingly clicky keyboard are important to you. The Alienware m16 R2 we reviewed, which also sports an RTX 4070 GPU, produced quite tinny sound, but its keyboard was a breath of fresh air.

Its minor flaws and low battery life are easy to overlook if you’re the type of gamer who knows they’ll be connecting headphones, a mouse, and other peripherals for a better experience and won’t play unplugged because it often means sacrificing higher frame rates. 

If all you care about is overall performance and you’d prefer a gaming laptop with a minimalist look (and you don’t mind a plastic chassis), I’d say the HP Omen 17 is worth it.