HP Omen 15 (2021, 15-en1000) review – there’s something they are not telling you

Last year was a game-changer for HP’s Omen brand. They went down the road many others have gone in order to improve their appeal to a broader audience. Instead of the highly recognizable Red and Black design, users were treated to a more subtle metal grey finish. Also, the construction was more flat, and the device lost most of its aggressive lines.

We are not sure how this affected HP’s sales, but we certainly loved it. Now, they are continuing this trend with their latest device. In fact, it is now one of three Omen laptops released by the American manufacturer, as they now offer a 16-inch version as well. Either way, today we are reviewing the Omen 15 (2021, 15-en1000), and it has a ton of potential thanks to the Ryzen 5000H CPUs, and the RTX 3000 graphics cards.

Before we start we have to say that we are a bit puzzled by the graphics card choice of HP. One of its main competitors has gone for a 130W TGP version of the RTX 3070 for instance. However, HP has chosen the 100W model. Undoubtedly this will have an impact on performance, and later on, we will see just how big it would be.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-omen-15-15-en0000/

Contents


Specs Sheet

HP OMEN 15 (15-en0000, en1000) - Specs

  • LGD05FE
  • Color accuracy  2.8  1.2
  • HDD/SSD
  • up to 2000GB SSD
  • RAM
  • up to 64GB
  • OS
  • Windows 11 Home, Windows 10 Home, Windows 10 Pro, Windows 11 Pro
  • Battery
  • 70.9Wh, 6-cell, 71Wh, 6-cell, 52.5Wh, 3-cell
  • Body material
  • Plastic / Polycarbonate, Aluminum
  • Dimensions
  • 357.9 x 239.7 x 22.6 mm (14.09" x 9.44" x 0.89")
  • Weight
  • 2.37 kg (5.2 lbs)
  • Ports and connectivity
  • 1x USB Type-A
  • Sleep and Charge
  • 2x USB Type-A
  • 1x USB Type-C
  • DisplayPort, Sleep and Charge
  • HDMI
  • 2.0a
  • Displayport mini
  • Card reader
  • SD
  • Ethernet LAN
  • 10, 100, 1000 Mbit/s
  • Wi-Fi
  • 802.11ax
  • Bluetooth
  • 5.0
  • Audio jack
  • 3.5 Combo Jack
  • Features
  • Fingerprint reader
  • Web camera
  • HD
  • Backlit keyboard
  • Microphone
  • Dual Array Digital Microphone
  • Speakers
  • 2 Speakers, Bang & Olufsen
  • Optical drive

All HP OMEN 15 (15-en0000, en1000) configurations

#CommissionsEarned

What’s in the box?

Inside the package, you will find some paper manuals, as well as a 200W power brick.


Design and construction

Before we dig into the performance metrics, we should talk a bit about what pleases the eye. Once again, we are met by an anodized finish on the chassis and a plastic lid. Weirdly, the lid is extremely bendy – it feels more like cheese than a laptop display cover. On the bright side, the body is structurally sound, weighs 2.37 kg, and has a profile of 22.6mm.

Here, the lid can be opened with a single hand, and the hinges allow for a full flat positioning. The bezels are thin on either side, but the bottom one is substantial. Thankfully, the top one houses an HD Web camera.

Moving to the keyboard, we found the same design as last year. You don’t get a NumberPad, which might upset some people. However, we are pleased to see the large Arrow keys, which will definitely make gaming more comfortable. Also, the key travel is nice, while the feedback is clicky. Ultimately, it can be configured with either a White or 4-zone RGB backlight.

Although the touchpad lacks dedicated buttons, we were satisfied with both the clicking mechanism and the tracking accuracy.

By the way, don’t be fooled by the grill above the keyboard. This is not hiding any speakers but is more like a ventilation cutout. Instead, the speakers are firing towards the desk, as they are located on the bottom panel. There you can also find a huge ventilation grill. Hot air, on the other side, is exhausted through two vents on the back, and one on the right side of the laptop.

Ports

On the left side, there is the charging plug, an RJ-45 connector, a USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) port, an HDMI 2.1 connector, an audio jack, and an SD card slot. Then, on the right, you will find two more USB Type-A 3.2 (Gen. 1) ports, a Mini DisplayPort, and a USB Type-C 3.2 (Gen. 1) port.


Disassembly, upgrade options, and maintenance

To take this notebook apart, you need to undo all 8 Phillips-head screws. Then, pry the bottom panel starting from the front and working your way around the device.

Here, HP uses a 70.9Wh battery pack.

In terms of memory, there are two SODIMM slots that support up to 64GB of RAM in total, working in dual-channel mode. Storage-wise, you get two M.2 PCIe x4 slots.

The cooling solution comprises a total of three heat pipes. Two are shared between the CPU and the GPU, while the third one is dedicated to the graphics card. Also, you can see a couple of heat spreaders cooling down the graphics memory and the VRMs.


Display quality

HP Omen 15 (2021, 15-en1000) has a Full HD IPS panel that works at 144Hz and has a model number LGD05FE. Its diagonal is 15.6″ (39.62 cm), and the resolution is 1920 х 1080 pixels. The screen ratio is 16:9, and we are looking at a pixel density of – 142 ppi, and a pitch of 0.18 х 0.18 mm. The screen turns into Retina when viewed at distance equal to or greater than 60cm (24″) (from this distance one’s eye stops differentiating the separate pixels, and it is normal for looking at a laptop).

Its display has excellent viewing angles. We offer images at 45° to evaluate image quality.

The measured maximum brightness of 336 nits in the middle of the screen and 322 nits as an average for the whole area, with a maximum deviation of 8%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen is 6490K – basically matching the sRGB standard of 6500K.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from a uniformity perspective. In other words, the leakage of light from the light source.

Values of dE2000 over 4.0 should not occur, and this parameter is one of the first you should check if you intend to use the laptop for color-sensitive work. The contrast ratio is not bad – 860:1.

To make sure we are on the same page, we would like to give you a little introduction to the sRGB color gamut and the Adobe RGB. To start, there’s the CIE 1976 Uniform Chromaticity Diagram that represents the visible specter of colors by the human eye, giving you a better perception of the color gamut coverage and the color accuracy.

Inside the black triangle, you will see the standard color gamut (sRGB) that is being used by millions of people on HDTV and on the web. As for the Adobe RGB, this is used in professional cameras, monitors, etc for printing. Basically, colors inside the black triangle are used by everyone and this is an essential part of the color quality and color accuracy of a mainstream notebook.

Still, we’ve included other color spaces like the famous DCI-P3 standard used by movie studios, as well as the digital UHD Rec.2020 standard. Rec.2020, however, is still a thing of the future and it’s difficult for today’s displays to cover that well. We’ve also included the so-called Michael Pointer gamut, or Pointer’s gamut, which represents the colors that naturally occur around us every day.

The yellow dotted line shows HP Omen 15 (2021, 15-en1000)’s color gamut coverage.

Its display covers 96% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976.

Our “Design and Gaming” profile delivers optimal color temperature (6500K) at 140 cd/m2 luminance and sRGB gamma mode.

We tested the accuracy of the display with 24 commonly used colors like light and dark human skin, blue sky, green grass, orange, etc. You can check out the results at factory condition and also, with the “Design and Gaming” profile.

Below you can compare the scores of HP Omen 15 (2021, 15-en1000) with the default settings (left), and with the “Gaming and Web design” profile (right).

The next figure shows how well the display is able to reproduce really dark parts of an image, which is essential when watching movies or playing games in low ambient light.

The left side of the image represents the display with stock settings, while the right one is with the “Gaming and Web Design” profile activated. On the horizontal axis, you will find the grayscale, and on the vertical axis – the luminance of the display. On the two graphs below you can easily check for yourself how your display handles the darkest nuances but keep in mind that this also depends on the settings of your current display, the calibration, the viewing angle, and the surrounding light conditions.

Response time (Gaming capabilities)

We test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “black-to-white” and “white-to-black” method from 10% to 90% and vice versa.

We recorded Fall Time + Rise Time = 10 ms.

After that, we test the reaction time of the pixels with the usual “Gray-to-Gray” method from 50% White to 80% White and vice versa between 10% and 90% of the amplitude.


PWM (Screen flickering)

Pulse-width modulation (PWM) is an easy way to control monitor brightness. When you lower the brightness, the light intensity of the backlight is not lowered, but instead turned off and on by the electronics with a frequency indistinguishable to the human eye. In these light impulses, the light/no-light time ratio varies, while brightness remains unchanged, which is harmful to your eyes. You can read more about that in our dedicated article on PWM.

HP Omen 15 (2021, 15-en1000)’s display doesn’t use PMW to control its brightness levels. This makes it comfortable for long working or gaming sessions, without harming your eyes in this aspect.

Blue light emissions

Installing our Health-Guard profile not only eliminates PWM but also reduces the harmful Blue Light emissions while keeping the colors of the screen perceptually accurate. If you’re not familiar with the Blue light, the TL;DR version is – emissions that negatively affect your eyes, skin, and your whole body. You can find more information about that in our dedicated article on Blue Light.

Buy our profiles

Since our profiles are tailored for each individual display model, this article and its respective profile package are meant for HP Omen 15 (2021, 15-en1000) configurations with 15.6″ 144Hz FHD IPS LGD05FE.

*Should you have problems with downloading the purchased file, try using a different browser to open the link you’ll receive via e-mail. If the download target is a .php file instead of an archive, change the file extension to .zip or contact us at [email protected].

Read more about the profiles HERE.

In addition to receiving efficient and health-friendly profiles, by buying LaptopMedia's products you also support the development of our labs, where we test devices in order to produce the most objective reviews possible.

Office Work

Office Work should be used mostly by users who spend most of the time looking at pieces of text, tables or just surfing. This profile aims to deliver better distinctness and clarity by keeping a flat gamma curve (2.20), native color temperature and perceptually accurate colors.

Design and Gaming

This profile is aimed at designers who work with colors professionally, and for games and movies as well. Design and Gaming takes display panels to their limits, making them as accurate as possible in the sRGB IEC61966-2-1 standard for Web and HDTV, at white point D65.

Health-Guard

Health-Guard eliminates the harmful Pulse-Width Modulation (PWM) and reduces the negative Blue Light which affects our eyes and body. Since it’s custom tailored for every panel, it manages to keep the colors perceptually accurate. Health-Guard simulates paper so the pressure on the eyes is greatly reduced.

Get all 3 profiles with 33% discount


Sound

HP Omen 15 (2021, 15-en1000)’s speakers produce a sound of relatively good quality. Its high tones have some deviations from clarity.


Drivers

All of the drivers and utilities for this notebook can be found here: https://support.hp.com/us-en/drivers/selfservice/omen-15.6-inch-gaming-laptop-pc-15-en1000/2100371351

Battery

Now, we conduct the battery tests with Windows Better performance setting turned on, screen brightness adjusted to 120 nits, and all other programs turned off except for the one we are testing the notebook with. This notebook’s 71Wh battery pack lasts for 11 hours and 7 minutes of Web browsing, and 8 hours and 20 minutes of video playback.

In order to simulate real-life conditions, we used our own script for automatic web browsing through over 70 websites.


CPU options

Currently, this device is offered with either the Ryzen 5 5600H or the Ryzen 7 5800H.

HP OMEN 15 (15-en0000, en1000) CPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the CPUs that can be found in the HP OMEN 15 (15-en0000, en1000) models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which HP OMEN 15 (15-en0000, en1000) model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different CPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / CPU.


GPU options

As for the graphics, you can choose from the RTX 3060 and the RTX 3070.

HP OMEN 15 (15-en0000, en1000) GPU variants

Here you can see an approximate comparison between the GPUs that can be found in the HP OMEN 15 (15-en0000, en1000) models on the market. This way you can decide for yourself which HP OMEN 15 (15-en0000, en1000) model is the best bang for your buck.

Note: The chart shows the cheapest different GPU configurations so you should check what the other specifications of these laptops are by clicking on the laptop’s name / GPU.


Gaming tests

Borderlands 3Full HD, V.Low (Check settings)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Badass (Check settings)
Average fps117 fps104 fps86 fps71 fps

rise-of-the-tomb-raider

Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)Full HD, MAX (Check settings)
Average144 fps91 fps63 fps

Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon WildlandsFull HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Very High (Check settings)Full HD, Ultra (Check settings)
Average99 fps87 fps59 fps

Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018)Full HD, Medium (Check settings)Full HD, High (Check settings)Full HD, Highest (Check settings)
Average116 fps111 fps77 fps

Temperatures and comfort

Max CPU load

In this test we use 100% on the CPU cores, monitoring their frequencies and chip temperature. The first column shows a computer’s reaction to a short load (2-10 seconds), the second column simulates a serious task (between 15 and 30 seconds), and the third column is a good indicator of how good the laptop is for long loads such as video rendering.

Average core frequency (base frequency + X); CPU temp.

AMD Ryzen 7 5800H (45W TDP)0:02 – 0:10 sec0:15 – 0:30 sec10:00 – 15:00 min
HP Omen 15 (2021, 15-en1000)3.33 GHz (B+4%) @ 78°C3.33 GHz (B+4%) @ 85°C3.42 GHz (B+7%) @ 88°C
ASUS ROG Strix SCAR 15 G5333.43 GHz (B+7%) @ 76°C3.35 GHz (B+5%) @ 80°C3.47 GHz (B+8%) @ 82°C
ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE (GX551)3.93 GHz (B+23%) @ 81°C3.82 GHz (B+19%) @ 86°C3.78 GHz (B+18%) @ 93°C
ASUS TUF A17 (FA706) 20213.42 GHz (B+7%) @ 74°C3.34 GHz (B+4%) @ 78°C3.35 GHz (B+5%) @ 84°C

The Omen 15 (2021, 15-en1000) performs similarly to the TUF A17 (FA706) 2021 in terms of thermal properties.

Real-life gaming

NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3070GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min)GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min)
HP Omen 15 (2021, 15-en1000)1285 MHz @ 70°C @ 80W1288 MHz @ 70°C @ 80W
ASUS ROG Zephyrus Duo 15 SE (GX551)1689 MHz @ 71°C @ 131W1676 MHz @ 72°C @ 129W
ASUS ROG Strix G17 G7131649 MHz @ 83°C @ 130W1646 MHz @ 84°C @ 130W
ASUS TUF A17 (FA706) 20211440 MHz @ 74°C @ 95W1465 MHz @ 77°C @ 95W
ASUS TUF Dash F15 (FX516)1389 MHz @ 69°C @ 84W1377 MHz @ 74°C @ 84W

As you can tell, this notebook’s graphics card runs at a noticeably slower clock speed. Also, the power drawn from the GPU doesn’t really match the one on most of its competitors.

Gaming comfort

Thankfully, the fans are not too loud, while the external temperature reaches about 45°C.


Verdict

Weirdly enough, the graphics driver shows that the RTX 3070 should work at 100W. However, in our tests, it never passed the 80W market, which is a significant difference. Especially considering the 130W TGP of its direct competitors. Don’t get us wrong, you WILL be able to play the latest AAA titles at max settings at 1080p. However, the performance you should expect is more around the ballpark of an RTX 3060 with a 130W TGP.

Also, this model lacks a Thunderbolt connection. This is not the real problem here, because we are used to not seeing such protocols on AMD devices. What is more unimpressive, however, is that the Type-C port only reaches speeds of 5Gbps. At least you get an SD card slot, and dual RAM and storage upgrade possibility.

HP Omen 15 (2021, 15-en1000)’s IPS panel (LGD05FE) has a Full HD resolution and comfortable viewing angles. Its color coverage is good with 96% of the sRGB gamut. Thankfully, the panel doesn’t use PWM for brightness adjustment. On top of that, our Gaming and Web design profile helps it achieve a good color accuracy so that professionals are confident in their work. Last but not least – the 144Hz refresh rate is combined with a fast pixel response time.

Although the built quality is on point for the base, the lid feels as sturdy as a sheet of paper. Yet again, you get a great keyboard and touchpad combo. And the battery life? Well, it is astonishing for a gaming notebook with a high-refresh-rate display. We got 11 hours and 7 minutes of Web browsing, and 8 hours and 20 minutes of video playback.

At the end of the day, if gaming is your only (or main) purpose, it would probably be better to go for an ASUS ROG Strix G15 G513, or an MSI GP66 Leopard. However, its low-key design makes it very appealing to content creators, and the great display will surely make designers happy.

You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-omen-15-15-en0000/

Pros

  • High TGP GPUs
  • Strong aluminum chassis
  • Very good battery life
  • 2x M.2 PCIe slots, 2x RAM SODIMM slots in dual channel, Wi-Fi 6
  • Covers 96% of the sRGB color gamut and has accurate color representation with our Gaming and Web design profile (LGD05FE)
  • Snappy panel with quick response times (LGD05FE)
  • No PWM (LGD05FE)
  • SD card slot on board
  • Great input devices


Cons

  • No Thunderbolt (relatively slow USB Type-C port)
  • Low TGP of the GPUs compared to the competition
  • Bendy lid

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Ali H.S.
Ali H.S.
10 months ago

80W power limit seems like a driver or OGH Power mode problem. Either it’s not set properly or you need to reinstall drivers/OGH.

My 2021 Omen 15 with 3060 100W runs at the advertised wattage and it performs much better than this 3070 on your test, also running at 1700-1900Mhz clock range.

Last edited 10 months ago by Ali H.S.