HP Omen 16 Review (i7-11800H, GeForce RTX 3060)

On May 20, HP updated its Omen lineup with the new 2021 models covering the Omen 16 and Omen 17. The 2021 model now comes with more powerful configurations and standout aspects.

Today, our main purpose is to review the HP Omen 16. We have a lot to discuss, starting with the design and appearance, including keyboards, ports, display, hardware testing, battery life, and reviews.

Specifications

Design

HP Omen 16 (2021) comes with many optimized adjustments. This gaming laptop continues to feature the simple design concept (from the previous generation). At first glance, the overall appearance of the laptop seems unchanged, but a closer look reveals many changes.

One significant difference between the old and new models is the display size. The screen of the HP Omen 16 has been upgraded from 15.6 inches to 16.1 inches, with a 6.6% increase in viewing area, improving the visual experience while keeping the body size close to 15.6 inches.

The back of the HP Omen 16 retains the appearance design of its predecessor. The Omen logo sits in the center, and its gradient design allows for different visual effects when viewed from all angles. Not only that, but the matte coating process gives the back of the laptop a cute and delicate feel.

The HP Omen 16 features a novel cloud screen design that conceals the hinge, allowing for a smaller gap between the screen and the keyboard surface while maintaining heat dissipation behind the hinge. This makes the laptop more compact; the weight is kept at 2.3 kg, making it light and thin, and ensuring good portability.

Display

The display has been upgraded to a 16.1-inch high-definition IPS panel with an optional 2K (resolution) and 165Hz(refresh rate gaming screen. The screen ratio is 16:9, which is the most popular right now.

Whether it’s for gaming or text editing, it produces a huge three-sided display. The narrow bezel design has an excellent aesthetic effect. Additionally, the screen’s fast refresh rate offers a smoother visual experience. With RTX 3000 series graphics cards, gamers can enjoy a smooth gaming experience in high resolutions.

The new HP Omen 16 also features DC dimming, which eliminates the PWM dimming flicker issue. At the same time, the e-sports screen model has received the German Rheinland Eyesafe blue light eye protection certification, ensuring that 29% of the blue light can be filtered without causing color shift on the screen, effectively protecting the vision health of players.

Keyboard

The keyboard of the HP Omen 16 also appears very simple and elegant. Thanks to the white backlight and 26 non-shock keys, players will enjoy a better gaming experience. At the same time, the key spacing is appropriate. Each key can be pinpointed while typing, which is helpful for our daily activities.

This keyboard has a key travel of more than 1 mm and good key feedback. There is also an HP Game Control Center on the top of this keyboard keypad (Omen Gaming Hub) shortcut keys, allowing you to access the program with just one key press.

This notebook has a 19% larger trackpad area than the previous generation, and it feels great on the surface. It improves placement and enables multi-finger gestures, custom shortcut gestures, and other features to make everyday use more convenient.

Ports

Most of the ports in this gaming notebook are located on the left side of the body. It was helpful to be able to use the mouse on the right side in various ways when we were connecting multiple devices.

There are two USB 3.2 Gen 2 ports on the right side of the body, and on the left side, there are charging ports, an RJ45 network cable port, a USB 3.2 Gen 2 port, a miniDP port, an HDMI port, a Thunderbolt 4 port, a 3.5mm audio jack, and an SD card reader.

SSD & RAM

It’s worth noting that this laptop comes with the latest PCIe 4.0 SSD. Almost all games can be loaded within seconds, and the system runs much faster. After testing, the sequential read speed of the SSD is up to 6614.5MB/S. This speed is twice as fast as the fastest PCIe 3.0 Gen3x4 SSD currently available on the market, and its overall performance is excellent.
CrystalDisk Mark 6.0.2 scores
Sequential Read Q32T1: 6615MB/S
Sequential Write Q32T1: 5020MB/S
Random Read 4KiB Q32T1: 2268MB/S
Random Write 4KiB Q32T1: 2100MB/S

The notebook supports DDR4 memory with a maximum clock speed of 3200 MHz, which appears to be sufficient for a gaming laptop.

CPU & GPU

The HP Omen 16 is powered by an Intel Core i7-11800H CPU, which features a 10nm process and Tiger Lake core architecture. The cache is 24 MB, and the TDP is 45 W.

The gaming laptop comes with the latest NVIDIA RTX 3060 graphics. The graphics card uses the latest Ampere architecture based on an 8nm process.

Battery Life

The new Omen 16 comes with a six-cell, 83Wh Li-ion polymer battery that delivers up to nine hours of battery life, but depending on how you use the laptop. A 200W smart AC adapter is also included in the laptop box.

HP Omen Gaming Hub

The gaming laptop also includes the HP Omen Gaming Hub, which has to be mentioned in the review due to its extensive functions.

This software allows you to add your favorite games, apps, and other applications to create a customized desktop wallpaper. You can also earn rewards and content by completing challenge tasks in the game center. We can also monitor the laptop’s operational status in real-time, as well as the utilization rate and heat dissipation of its core components.

It’s worth mentioning that you can activate the violent mode from the performance control page. After activating this feature, the laptop’s performance will be entirely unleashed. Gamers can also adjust the fan speed to achieve the best combination of performance and heat dissipation.

The specific method is as follows: Once the temperature is set to Manual, you can adjust the fan speed using the right arrow on the Performance Control page. When the fan speed is switched to the far right, the same high-performance mode as “Furious Mode” is activated, ensuring that the overall performance of the laptop is optimized. When the fan speed is changed to the far left, the silent mode is activated.

Let the fan run at a low speed to provide consumers with a more pronounced silent effect. If the fan is placed in the center, it will be in balanced mode.

HP Game Control Center (Omen Gaming Hub) also features a CPU voltage reduction function that intelligently lowers core voltages and lowers processor temperatures at a single click, while providing the best energy consumption ratio.

It’s worth noting that the Light Studio in the control center can link multiple peripherals, allowing HP monitors, headsets, keyboards, and mice to synchronize their lighting effects and enabling players to create unique settings.

Benchmark Tests:

We enabled the graphics card’s direct connection mode and the system’s berserk mode for the benchmark test. The operating system is Windows 10 Home, the RTX 30XX graphics card driver is version 462.42, and the room temperature is 29°C.

CINEBENCH: HP Omen 16 scored 226 CB in the Cinebench R15 test and 1868 CB in the Cinebench R20 test, which is a substantial improvement over the previous generation. This gaming notebook’s single-core score in the Cinebench R20 test is 572 CB, while its multi-core score is 4184 CB.

Fritz Chess: The Intel Core i7-11800H received a total score of 25,068, indicating excellent performance and multi-threading capabilities.

7-Zip Test: This CPU’s overall result in the 7-Zip test is 70,325 MIPS, which is excellent. Its multi-threading ability is also incredible.

3DMARK: First, we ran the DX12 benchmark performance test. The TimeSpy scored 8,638 points (the CPU Score is 10,237 points, and the GPU score is 8,409 points). The laptop’s overall performance seems decent.

In the TimeSpy Extreme test, the score is 4,104, with a CPU score of 4,825 points and a GPU score of 3,999 points.

After testing, the laptop’s full scores for the FireStrike, FireStrike Extreme, and FireStrike Ultra items were 18,800, 9,698, and 5,156, respectively, and the full results were pretty good.

Gaming Test:

In the gaming test session, we tested the six most popular games, and their final results are listed below:

Shadow of the Tomb Raider: The average number of fps in Shadow of the Tomb Raider is 107, reaching the standard of a smooth game with the maximum special effects in the game, light chase turned on, and DLSS turned off. This is also one of the few gamebooks that can currently exceed 100 frames per second.

Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey: The final test average number of fps in the game is 68, and the game’s spectacular effects are the best. Among them, the maximum fps count in the game was 125. Overall, this can be said to be a fantastic performance.

Far Cry 5: The final score of Far Cry 5 has an average of 111 fps per second, and the picture quality is excellent. In the current gaming market, this performance is undoubtedly the best.

Zombie World War: We used DX11 rendering in Zombie World War, and the game’s special effects are the highest custom. The finished game’s test fps number is 168, indicating that the performance is excellent and can fulfill the requirements for smooth operation.

Galaxy Ripper: It is a well-received role-playing game. For testing, we use the built-in Benchmark. It can meet the criteria of perfectly smooth-running games, whether it is a processor or a graphics card. The average number of CPU fps is 65, the graphics card’s average number of fps is 205, and the game experience is outstanding.

DOTA2: After our actual test, the player’s perspective game FPS during regular gaming is between 190 and 210, and the game FPS during team battles is between 140 and 160, allowing the 144Hz high-swipe screen to exploit its benefits fully. The experience has been fantastic.

Verdict

This year’s HP Omen 16 is a heavyweight new gaming laptop. It has been upgraded to the new RTX 3000 series gaming graphics cards and the latest 11th-generation Core processors, making it perform exceptionally well.

At the same time, this notebook has a simple appearance, continuing the overall style of the previous generation, but it has been upgraded in many areas, which is more in line with the aesthetics of young users who prefer a simple appearance.

Omen 16 (2021) is already available for pre-order on multiple e-commerce platforms. According to its specifications, the price is likewise very good ($849). It is now the most cost-effective audiophile-grade game book on the market.