Intro

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt USD-140757951 ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. The HP Omen 15T is one of the most configurable laptops on the market, with prices ranging from $900 to well over $4000 if you opt for the RTX 2080 Super Max-Q and all the upgrades. Here are a list of most of the configuration options. The configuration I'm reviewing today attempts to strike a middle ground, and it does a pretty good job of it. Let's take a look at some benchmarks.

PRO: RTX 2060 Provides Great 1080P Gaming Performance in Most Games

As it stands with an RTX 2060, you can play nearly all current games at max settings at 60 FPS--but know that in some games you'll probably want to turn down the settings, for example in a competitive shooter like Battlefield V where you'd probably want to prioritize frame rate over graphics settings. Another example would be Red Dead Redemption 2, which requires a very powerful GPU to run max settings.

In very well optimized shooters like CS:GO and Valorant, you should expect well above 200 FPS on average at max settings. Obviously, this will vary a lot from game to game depending on how well optimized they are, but it’s good to know that you’ll be able to take advantage of the 300 hz display in some titles at least.

PRO: Solid GPU Performance for the Money and Size

While the Omen 15T isn't the very best bang for the buck out there, the RTX 2060 config provides solid performance for its size, and more importantly, if you buy it, you'll be fully capable of playing most modern titles at high settings smoothly. There are very few games that you'll feel the machine is underpowered.

The only downside of the RTX 2060 config is that you're paying a premium price over the GTX 1660 TI for only slightly more performance. Do you really want RTX in games that badly? I'd guess that most people on a budget simply don't care enough about RTX—which is why I would recommend configuring this machine with a 1660 TI if you can.

MIXED: Decent CPU Performance for the Money, Only Average for the Weight

The i7-10750H is a solid processor for gaming, but when it comes to productivity tasks like rendering and video editing its subpar performance compared to the 8 core AMD and Intel CPU's out there leaves much to be desired. If you value CPU performance and you're on a budget, I'd recommend looking at the Omen 15z, which is an alternative build to this machine that features AMD's Ryzen 8 core CPU and provides more CPU performance for the money. It also has a different chassis and keyboard without a numpad.

If you're not on a budget and want the most CPU power, I recommend the Intel i7-10875H or the i9-10980HK processors since they will provide slightly more performance than the AMD processors—but I would be concerned with severe CPU throttling as even the six core i7-10750H struggles to remain cool in this chassis.

CON: HP Gave the Omen 15T Funky Power Limits

I have two HP Omen 15T's on hand, and both of them have fully locked down power limits and neither one can be undervolted--but here's the thing, they have different power limits when rendering with the CPU only. If you look at my handbrake render power limits and temps, I get noticeably faster performance and much higher temps on one machine because it seemingly has infinite power limits, but on the other machine, it quickly throttles to 45W. This results in a massive difference in performance, and I'm not sure which power limit HP intended to be used on machine. This difference is also visible in the Cinebench R20 graph you can see above.

I also want to point out while under a dual CPU/GPU load the laptops have very similar performance. You only really see the performance difference when the CPU is under load, and the GPU is not.

As you can see in the above graphs, the temperature are almost identical between the two laptops, despite one having liquid metal applied. This shows that the bottleneck on dispersing heat on this laptop is not limited by the default CPU paste, but rather the heat pipes and fans ability to dissipate heat.

PRO: 300 hz Display is Great or Competitive Players, But Slightly Below Average in Color and Brightness

The 300 hz display will work well on this laptop with competitive shooters like Valorant, Fortnight, and CS:GO--but don't expect more than 100 FPS in most modern titles unless they are designed to run at very high frame rates on mid-tier machines.

Sadly, the display's actual stats were lower than expect. At 91% sRGB, 73% AdobeRBG, and 273 nits at the brightness measurement--it might have a high refresh rate but it's not an especially colorful or bright display. It’s about average for 300 hz displays, but I really wish manufacturer’s would move towards higher brightness and color gamut 144 hz displays, instead of 300 hz refresh rates as color and brightness make the gaming experience noticeably better—especially when many games will never reach above 144 hz on the hardware in laptops.

PRO: Build Quality is Surprisingly Good

I really like the build quality overall on this machine. It's got surprisingly solid construction. Very minimal flex. Hinge is firm. Metal just about everywhere, except on the inside bezels of the display.

CON: Metal Chassis is Fingerprint Magnet

Sadly, the metal pattern and texture really brings out the fingerprints. Be prepared to clean them off frequently or learn to live with it if you buy this machine.

PRO: Keyboard and Trackpad Are Great

I love the layout of the keyboard with its edited numpad and Home/End buttons. My review units have the red backlighting and all symbols are fully lit and easily readable, but you can get three difference options: 1) Red backlighting, 2) Four zone RGB, or 3) per key RGB backlighting. It's only $10 to get the 4 zone RGB, so I'd recommend that option.

The keyboard feels good, with decent travel and a soft rubbery feel, which most people will enjoy I think, but could bother some.

The trackpad's dedicated buttons work well and tracking is precise and consistent. But it could be larger, and I don't prefer the clickable buttons, but I understand the reasoning since dedicated buttons cuts cost.

PRO: Port Selection is Great, Except No USB-C Power Delivery Charging

The ports on this machine are fantastic—the only thing missing seems to be USB-C power charging. But otherwise this machine has all the best ports available, including Thunderbolt 3 for easy eGPU upgrades in the future.

CON: Don't Love Clamshell Design or Large Bezels

This laptop's design is very functional, but the large top and bottom bezels are a bit dated and feel more like a design I would expect in a laptop from 2018, not 2020. This also means the laptop is going to take up more volume than a laptop with a more compact overall design, but the increased size allows for a full 2.5" hard drive bay, which you don't see very often in the laptops these days.

PRO: Cheap Hard Drive Upgrade

This of course brings me to the fact that this indeed does have a 2.5" hard drive slot, which allows users to more cheaply increase their overall storage capacity for much less money.

CON: Horrible Battery Life Without Nvidia Optimus

Sadly, the battery life is downright terrible since the Omen 15T is running the RTX 2060 the entire time. I have heard that the alternative design of the Omen 15T has better battery life, and I'm wondering if this machine doesn't have Optimus simply because of its 300 hz display. The configurations with the 144hz display might have Optimus, but I'm not sure since I couldn’t find any other users of this machine yet.

CON: Speakers Are Not Loud Enough

Sadly, the speakers just aren't loud enough. They don't carry enough power or clarity. They're slightly below average for a gaming laptop, which is disappointing but to be expected at this price point.

Conclusion: Is the Omen 15T Worth Buying?

Yes, the Omen 15T is a solid choice for the money providing a solid all around package per $$ spent, aside from poor battery life. As far as CPU performance, I don't know what most users should expect for their power limit, and therefore rendering performance, but I would assume the worst and hope for the best (45W performance, low temps, but crappy render performance). Another weakpoint is clearly the speakers, but good speakers are difficult to find at this price point. The last major weakpoint is that the CPU temps can get quite high under dual load, but you can alleviate this if you are willing to sacrifice some performance and power limit throttle the CPU with a lower performance profile.

Overall, the Omen 15T and it's various configurations have a LOT to offer for the money--solid build quality, performance, and price. But if I had $1500, I would probably look at the other configs, including the AMD/GTX 1660 TI variant the Omen 15z since it will provide better CPU/GPU performance for the buck almost for sure (might have better battery life too). Other good laptops to consider in the $1500 price would be the Zephyrus G14, Acer Predator Helios 300, and Legion laptop line ups (I'm sure there is other great options as well, those just seem like standouts in the crowd at the moment).

Link to Acer Nitro 5 at Bestbuy: https://go.magik.ly/ml/zm7a/

Link to Acer Nitro 5 on Amazon: https://amzn.to/31QVZEb

Link to Acer Nitro 5 on Newegg: https://go.magik.ly/ml/zm75/