HP's new Omen 15 gaming laptop promises big performance in a smaller size

On the heels of a reset of the Omen gaming brand and a new gaming desktop, HP announced a complete redesign of its 15.6-inch laptop, the Omen 15. Available today from Best Buy and directly from HP starting at $1,000, the updated design has its smallest footprint yet, but it's filled with the latest components from Intel and AMD. 

The laptop is built around a 15.6-inch display with slim bezels on three sides and a new 180-degree flat hinge design that increases stability, HP said. Display options include UHD resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate or FHD resolution at 300Hz as well as an OLED display. 

There are quite a few other choices you can make with the Omen 15's configuration such as getting it with up to an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 Super with Max-Q design, up to a  10th-gen Intel Core i7 H-series processor or up to an AMD Ryzen 7 H-series processor. Configuring it with up to 32GB DDR4 of RAM and up to 1TB PCIe SSD or dual PCIe SSDs in RAID 0 are also on the table, although HP said its made both memory and storage easy to upgrade post-purchase. 

The Omen 15 is also the industry's first gaming laptop to use an IR thermopile sensor "to optimize thermal efficiencies, maintain steady yet quiet fan acoustic control, and maximize performance from the Dynamic Power feature within the Omen Command Center" app, HP said. The PC maker says the cooling helps push this laptop toward "desktop-level CPU performance," 

HP also updated one of my favorite cheap gaming laptops, too, by giving it a larger screen. The new Pavilion Gaming 16 has nearly the same footprint as last year's 15.6-inch Pavilion Gaming 15 but now has a 16.1-inch full-HD display with 300-nit brightness and up to a 144Hz refresh rate. Though it's aimed at more casual mainstream gamers, you'll be able to get it with better-than-entry-level graphics including an Nvidia GeForce GTX 1660 Ti with Max-Q design or an RTX 2060 with Max-Q, and a choice of a 10th-gen Intel Core i5 or Core i7 processor. A 300 nits IPS-level display deliver rapid refresh rates of up to 144Hz at 1080p

The HP Pavilion Gaming 16 is expected to be available this June via HP.com at a starting price of $799.99.