As a new brand new processor and graphics cards just came out of the corner, some devices have to take a quick REFRESHing bath. However, others may need some redesign work as well. This is the case with the HP Omen 17 (2019) and its new Intel 9th Gen and NVIDIA RTX-equipped body.
This monster of a laptop also comes with a customizable RGB keyboard that features mappable keys on its left. Additionally, there is a 144Hz Full HD panel for grab, but we don’t really know a lot of details as of the moment of writing this review since HP is being pretty secretive about this laptop. Nevertheless, it is clearly going to be on the premium side of the gaming market, so we won’t be easy on it for sure!
You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-omen-17-2019/
Contents
Specs Sheet
What’s in the box?
Its packaging includes a 230W power brick, some paperwork and the laptop itself.
Design and construction
HP Omen 17 (2019) is neither one of the thinnest, nor the lightest laptops out there. However, it features a plastic and aluminum building material combo and looks aggressive – exactly as a gaming device should look like, some would argue. Interestingly, the design takes the best of both its predecessor and the version before that and more importantly – it has thin bezels, which result in an overall more tight package.
Speaking of the screen, you can easily open the lid with a single hand. This reveals a weird looking hinge assembly. It looks like HP has tried to implement the design from the 2018 Omen while enhancing its structural strength. This resulted in a laptop that looks more like the 2017 model from the back and the 2018 model from the front.
Anyways, let’s take a look at that keyboard. It has a beautiful layout (sadly, with tiny arrow keys). It has a long enough key travel, while the strokes are very tactile. Additionally, you can see a set of six programmable keys, which can be mapped for anything – set of skills or potions in a game, commands in the browser like open new tab or window and more. On top of that HP has put a quad-zone RGB backlight. Usually, when they zone the backlight, manufacturers put three zones, but HP decided to isolate the WASD keys in a different color scheme.
In terms of the touchpad, it is of a regular size and features dedicated buttons. We found it to be very accurate and responsive, while the keys themselves are clicky but quiet and not too stiff.
This laptop has rather sizeable back feet, which helps with the ventilation of the device. In fact, its bottom plate has a huge air intake grill, from where you can see the enormous fans, while the exhausted heat is blown away from the back and from the right side of the laptop
Ports
Contrary to the 2018 HP Omens where the I/O was predominantly on the back, this laptop has all of its ports on the sides. Actually, most of them are on the left – where you’ll see the charging plug, an RJ-45 and HDMI 2.0 connectors, followed by a Mini DisplayPort and two USB Type-A 3.1s, a USB Type-C Thunderbolt port and two Audio jacks. On the other side, there is just a USB Type-A 3.1 (Gen. 1) and an SD card reader.
Disassembly and upgrade options
As soon as you remove all ten Phillips-head screws drivers the back edge of the bottom plates slightly lifts up. This is a perfect spot to insert your… plastic pry tool and pop the thing open. Just now we are able to see the true scale of the cooling system on this laptop.
There are two plates covering the CPU and the GPU. Additionally, they are sharing two heat pipes, while the GPU and its VRMs and memory modules are sharing another bulky heat pipe. However, we were astonished by the size of these fans. Honestly, they are roughly the size of fans found on a desktop GPU blower type cooler. This not only provides an enormous amount of airflow, but it ensures the quiet work of the entire system.
As far as memory is concerned, there are two RAM DIMMs, supporting up to 64GB of DDR4 memory. Just beneath it, you can see the two M.2 PCIe x4 slots, that not only support RAID 0, but also the Optane H10 technology.
Just beneath that, held by four Phillips head screws, is the 70Wh battery unit. On its left is where you can find the SATA slot.
Display quality
Our configuration of HP Omen 17 (2019) is equipped with a 144Hz Full HD IPS screen, model number CMN175D. Its diagonal is 17.3″ (43.94 cm), and the resolution – 1920 х 1080. Additionally, the screen ratio is 16:9, the pixel density – 127 ppi, their pitch – 0.1995 x 0.1995 mm. The screen can be considered Retina when viewed from at least 69 cm (from this distance, the average human eye can’t see the individual pixels).
Its viewing angles are comfortable. We have provided images at 45 degrees to evaluate quality.
The maximum measured brightness is relatively high – 355 nits (cd/m2) in the middle of the screen and 343 nits (cd/m2) average across the surface with a maximum deviation of only 5%. The Correlated Color Temperature on a white screen and at maximum brightness is 7250K (average) – colder than the 6500K optimum for sRGB. The average color temperature through the grey scale before profiling is 7150K.
In the illustration below you can see how the display performs from uniformity perspective. The illustration below shows how matters are for operational brightness levels (approximately 140 nits) – in this particular case at 61% Brightness (White level = 143 cd/m2, Black level = 0.095 cd/m2).
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 (a maximum tolerance of 2.0 ). The contrast ratio is very good – 1500:1.
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 in 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 the 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 17 (2019)’s color gamut coverage.
Its display covers 98% of the sRGB/ITU-R BT.709 (web/HDTV standard) in CIE1976, which provides a vibrant and punchy image.
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 17 (2019) 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 = 9 ms – one of the fastest panels on the market.
Health impact – PWM / Blue Light
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 17 (2019)’s display uses PWM only for brightness below 90 nits, which is below the comfortable working level. Not only that but the flickers have a high frequency, which makes the display comfortable for extended periods of use 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.
Conclusions
HP has equipped the Omen 17 (2019) with a very good quality 144Hz Full HD IPS panel. It has comfortable viewing angles, a great contrast ratio, fast reaction time and adequate default settings. Additionally, it covers 98% of sRGB and with the appropriate profile the color it produces become extremely accurate. At the end of the day, this panel is great for both gamers and web designers.
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 17 (2019) configurations with 17.3″ CMN175D (FHD, 1920 × 1080) IPS.
*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
THealth-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.
Sound
HP Omen 17 (2019) has a loud sound with clear low and high tones. However, it has some deviations in the mids.
Drivers
As soon as HP provide any information about the drivers for this device, we are going to post a link.
CPU options
Our unit was equipped with an Intel Core i7-9750H, apart from this we are expecting to see a Core i5-9300H option as well as a Core i9-9880H processor on this device.
Results are from the Cinebench 15 CPU test (the higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Fritz chess benchmark (the higher the score, the better)
Results are from our Photoshop benchmark test (the lower the score, the better)
GPU options
In the GPU department, there is the NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070. We don’t have any information about the rest of the graphics card options, yet.
Results are from the 3DMark: Fire Strike (Graphics) benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Heaven 3.0 benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Heaven 4.0 benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Results are from the Unigine Superposition benchmark (higher the score, the better)
Gaming tests
| Grand Theft Auto V (GTA 5) | Full HD, High (Check settings) | Full HD, Very High (Check settings) | Full HD, MAX (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average | 149 fps | 85 fps | 59 fps |
| Far Cry 5 | Full HD, Normal (Check settings) | Full HD, High (Check settings) | Full HD, Ultra (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average | 115 fps | 107 fps | 105 fps |
| Rise of the Tomb Raider (2016) | Full HD, Medium (Check settings) | Full HD, Very High (Check settings) | Full HD, MAX (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average | 144 fps | 80 fps | 53 fps |
| Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Wildlands | Full HD, High (Check settings) | Full HD, Very High (Check settings) | Full HD, Ultra (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average | 92 fps | 82 fps | 54 fps |
| Shadow of the Tomb Raider (2018) | Full HD, Medium (Check settings) | Full HD, High (Check settings) | Full HD, Highest (Check settings) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Average | 96 fps | 91 fps | 60 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 temperature (base frequency + X); CPU temp.
| Core i7-9750H (45W TDP) | 0:02 – 0:10 sec | 0:15 – 0:30 sec | 10:00 – 15:00 min |
|---|---|---|---|
| HP Omen 17 2019 | 3.44 GHz (B+32%)@ 86°C | 2.74 GHz (B+5%)@ 71°C | 2.67 GHz (B+3%)@ 71°C |
| Core i7-8750H (45W TDP) | 0:02 – 0:10 sec | 0:15 – 0:30 sec | 10:00 – 15:00 min |
| HP Omen 15 2018 | 2.72 GHz (B+24%)@ 77°C | 2.86 GHz (B+30%)@ 82°C | 2.69 GHz (B+22%)@ 85°C |
Since this is the first full review of a Core i7-9750H-equipped laptop we make, we don’t have a database to compare its temperatures to. This is why we chose the yesteryear HP Omen 15, that is equipped with the Core i7-8750H, which is fairly similar to the 9th Gen Core i7. As you can see, the cooling on the Omen 17 2019 is pretty sufficient when we compare it directly to its predecessor. However, in a longer run, the Omen 17 2019 had to push the clock speeds down to just above the 2.60 GHz base. This is obviously meant to give some headroom to the graphics card, which uses a lot of power, hence produces a lot of heat.
Real gameplay
| NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2070 | GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 2 min) | GPU frequency/ Core temp (after 30 min) |
|---|---|---|
| HP Omen 17 2019 | 1483 MHz @ 72°C | 1474 MHz @ 74°C |
| ASUS ROG GL704G | 1595 MHz @ 83°C | 1588 MHz @ 83°C |
Interestingly, the HP Omen 17 2019’s GPU is working at a solid 100 MHz below its competitor in the face of ASUS ROG GL704. However, it is also running 10C cooler, which is more important, in our opinion. Especially, when you consider the fact that this laptop was running more on the quiet side. It was never too loud, to be obtrusive.
Gaming comfort
Not only it was relatively quiet, but it was also not too hot on the outside – the maximum temperature we measured was no more than 45C and it was just above the “>” key. We should note that most of the “noise reduction” of this laptop is due to the huge exhaust and intake grills, that let more air pass through the heatsinks at a slower speed.
Verdict
We managed to draw a lot of conclusions about the HP Omen 17 2019. It combines the 9th series of Intel H processors with the most powerful RTX graphics cards from NVIDIA. Not only that, but it is able to do so without being annoyingly loud and very hot – on the surface and outside.
Not only that but, HP Omen 17 2019 also supports Intel H10 Optane drives, which offer extremely high IOPS count in a regular M.2 form factor. Of course, not all of the perks of this laptop are hidden from plain sight – we were very happy with the keyboard. Yes, it is not a mechanical one, but still, it has a relatively long travel and clicky feedback, which is certainly going to be valued in the Gaming world. Additionally, it has a nice RGB backlight and programmable keys on the left side.
By the way, this device can be bought with a 4K 60Hz IPS display, a regular 1080p 60Hz IPS display and a 1080p 144Hz IPS panel (CMN175D), which we were able to test. It was… astonishing – 350 nits maximum brightness, very high contrast ratio, comfortable viewing angles and amusingly, covers 98% of sRGB. This enables it to push for very accurate colors and even with the default settings, it is able to get into an Average dE of 2.0. Additionally, you can make the colors even more accurate, by putting our Gaming and Web design profile – then the dE drops to 0.7. Slightly on the downside, its display uses PWM, although it does so at above 90 nits and the flickering frequency is pretty high – 26 KHz.
On the downside, we would say that after all, this laptop is a little bulky. This makes it difficult to toss around, especially if you are traveling. Additionally, we would be happier if we had a per-key RGB backlight, rather than the four-zone one.
As a matter of fact, there are more Intel 9th Gen-equipped laptops that are coming our way (and not only Intel’s by the way), so we are very curious of where the HP Omen 17 2019 is going to sit. We are also curious what the battery life is going to be, but we would know for sure as soon as we can get our hands on a retail unit.
Pros
- Satisfactory keyboard design
- High contrast, average dE below 2.0 and a good color coverage – 98% of sRGB (CMN175D)
- Doesn’t use aggressive PWM to adjust brightness (CMN175D)
- Rather high maximum brightness (CMN175D)
- Supports Intel H10 Optane and Raid 0
- Relatively cool and quiet during load
Cons
- Still a little heavy
You can check the prices and configurations in our Specs System: https://laptopmedia.com/series/hp-omen-17-2019/
That’s the laptop i want, but still need to wait untill june 1st in China, the time of waiting seems so long to me.
Does the panel have a different name under HWiNFO besides (CMN175D), been trying to get my hands o this panel but the name seems to be wrong, it seems to be chimei brand maybe.
Yes, it is a Chi Mei panel, and it only gave out that name even in device manager. However, since Chi Mei and Innolux have merged a while ago, they are both producing the same panels under different names. We also find it difficult sometimes to find the name equivalent.
do you have the official weight
When can we buy this amazing machine in the US? and I really care about the price