HP OMEN Family Expands With Gaming Laptops, VR Backpack PC And Thunderbolt 3 GPU Enclosures
First up is the OMEN X Compact Desktop, which is the company’s latest small form-factor offering. Despite is small stature, the OMEN X can be configured with unlocked Intel Core i7 processors (Kaby Lake) and comes equipped with an overclocked GeForce GTX 1080 GPU to fuel your 4K gaming sessions or virtual reality experiences.
OMEN X
What’s most interesting, however, is the VR Backpack PC accessory for the OMEN X that allows you to take your high-powered gaming PC mobile. This especially comes in handy for “untethered” VR experiences using devices like the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. The OMEN X supports hot-swappable batteries so that you can keep gaming for an extended period of time, and four batteries are included right of the bat with the backpack accessory.
Two battery packs can be installed at a time in the OMEN X, while another two batteries sit on the charger waiting to be swapped out when the time arises. HP also brags that it designed the accessory so that users can swap out batteries without removing the backpack, allowing for uninterrupted play.
If you prefer something a lot more stationary, there’s the OMEN by HP Desktop. The OMEN is available with either a Kaby Lake Core i5/Core i7 processor, and can be configured with up to dual GeForce GTX 1080 Ti GPUs running in SLI. If you prefer AMD power, you can also choose from Ryzen processors and pair two Radeon RX 580 GPUs in Crossfire.
OMEN Desktop
For those that want to overclock their processors to the max, HP offers optional liquid cooling and the OMEN Command Center software to aid in setting processor frequencies. HDD storage is standard, but customers can opt for SSD+HHD hybrid solutions or PCIe SSDs if they wish.
There are also two new gaming notebooks on the menu: the OMEN 15 and OMEN 17. Both notebooks are available with Kaby Lake Core processors, and the OMEN 15 can be configured with up to a GeForce GTX 1060 or Radeon RX 550 GPU. The OMEN 17 ups the stakes with a GeForce GTX 1070 or Radeon RX 580.
OMEN 17
Both laptops come with Dragon-red backlit keyboards with 26-key rollover, and can be equipped with either a 1080p or 4K display. Systems with NVIDIA graphics come with a G-SYNC enabled display, while Radeon systems have FreeSync enabled. HP also touts that the HDD/SSD, and RAM can be easily accessed via a single panel.
Finally, there is the OMEN by HP Accelerator, which is a Thunderbolt 3 enclosure that can be purchased by itself or with an included AMD or NVIDIA graphics processor. Not only can the enclosure accept a graphics card, but it can also serve as external storage, accommodating a 1TB HDD or 256GB SSD. There are also a number of ports available, including four USB 3.0, one USB 3.1 Type-C port and GbE.
OMEN Accelerator
The OMEN X ships in July with a base price of $2,500, while the backpack accessory is priced at $600. The OMEN desktop is available today with a base price of $900. The OMEN 15 and OMEN 17 will be available June 28th priced at $1,000 and $1,100 respectively. Finally, the OMEN Accelerator will ship in August priced from $299.
