HP Omen 17 2021 Review ( 17-CK0000, i7-11800H, RTX 3080)

In May 2021, HP strengthened its HP Omen gaming laptop series by introducing the 2021 models, Omen 16 and Omen 17. Previously, we reviewed the HP Omen 16; today, we are targeting the HP Omen 17 (2021).

The model we are going to review has a Core i7-11800H processor and an RTX 3080 graphics card. We can say that the 2021 model of the HP Omen 17 can provide significant competition to its competitors in every aspect. Its specifications, appearance, and performance have now been upgraded to a new level compared to last year’s model.

Specifications

Appearance

One of the most important factors is portability. It has prevented the popularity of large-screen gaming laptops among gamers, but we can say that this is also one of the evolutionary points of the HP Omen 17 2021.

The 2021 HP Omen 17 features a hidden hinge design, which means that when the screen is opened, the back of the body does not protrude, making the visual impact of the body more integrated.

In addition, this gaming notebook has a compact body structure design, which reduces the overall volume and thickness by up to 10% (compared to the previous generation). While maintaining flagship performance, the portability is also significantly maintained.

The dimensions of the new HP Omen 17 are 324 × 220 × 17.9 mm, which seems acceptable. However, the body weighs around 2 kg, which should be slightly less, as other competitors are launching lighter gaming laptops.

On the back, there is a blue OMEN logo. It features a matte black design with a high-end appearance. The HP Omen 17 (2021) is available in only one color option, and the company has named it Shadow Black.

Display

This gaming laptop comes with a 17.3-inch LED anti-glare 16:9 display. The screen is designed with narrow bezels on three sides, giving players a larger field of view and a more substantial visual impact.

In addition, the screen boasts a Quad-HD resolution (2560 x 1440) and a 165Hz refresh rate for high-definition gaming. The display also has a 100% sRGB high color gamut, providing higher pixel density for more detailed images.

The display also achieves a 3ms response time, which can effectively avoid stuttering and ghosting. It’s also important to mention that the HP Omen 17 (2021) display not only supports DC dimming but is also Eyesafe Rheinland certified, which effectively filters blue light and reduces eye fatigue.

There is a small webcam on the top bezel of the display. It is an HP Wide Vision 720p HD camera that integrates a dual-array digital microphone.

Keyboard

It features an optical-axis mechanical keyboard for conflict-free operation. Compared to traditional mechanical keyboards, the optical axis mechanical keyboard has a more stable signal and longer service life while maintaining a slim design.

Compared to a traditional keyboard, the optical axis mechanical keyboard can significantly improve complex combo operations in games and typing feel in everyday use.

The keyboard still lacks a keypad, but it’s not a deal-breaker for a gaming laptop. Other notable features include RGB backlighting, shadowed black keyboard areas, NKRO anti-ghosting key technology (which prevents additional keys from being registered once the flip limit is reached), and an optical switch.

Ports

In total, the laptop has nine ports on both sides. On the right side, there are two USB Type-A ports.

On the left side, there is a USB 3.0 Type-A port, an HDMI video port, an RJ45 port, a Mini DisplayPort, a 3.5mm headphone jack, an SD card slot, and a Thunderbolt 4 port.

The Thunderbolt 4 port is the most powerful of them all. Here are some of the key features: high-speed data transfer, fast charging, output to multiple HD displays, and external desktop-class discrete graphics docking stations.

Battery Life, SSD, RAM, and Wi-Fi

We don’t think the battery is an essential factor in a gaming laptop, as most gamers usually prefer to play games while charging. However, it has also made significant breakthroughs in this area. The notebook comes with a 6-cell 83 Wh lithium-ion polymer battery that provides 8.5 hours of battery life while gaming. The company will ship a 200W AC adapter for charging. But users can achieve faster charging through the USB Type-C Thunderbolt 4 port.

The new 11th-generation Intel Core processors support 20 direct-attached PCIe 4.0 lanes, with 16 lanes allocated to the graphics card. In contrast, the remaining four are used by SSDs.

HP Omen 17 (2021) comes with a 1TB Samsung 980 Pro (PM9A1) SSD. It is worth mentioning that it is one of the best SSDs currently available on the market. Tested with CrystalDiskMark, the Omen 17 achieves an excellent performance level with the Samsung PM9A1, reaching read speeds of 6,994.42 MB/s and write speeds of 5,115.58 MB/s.

The laptop comes with dual-channel (2 x 16GB) 32GB DDR4 RAM with a high frequency of 3200MHz. The AIDA64 test results indicate that the RAM has a read speed of 49159 MB/s, a write speed of 46383 MB/s, a copy speed of 47863 MB/s, and a latency of 82.4 ns.

It is equipped with an Intel Wi-Fi 6E AX210 (2×2) card, which uses the M.2 2230 form factor and supports 802.11ac and 802.11ax (Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E) protocols. Additionally, it also supports Bluetooth 5.2.

It is worth mentioning that it also supports MU-MIMO, a technology that allows a Wi-Fi router to communicate with multiple devices at the same time.

Cooling System

This HP Omen laptop comes with an upgraded cooling module for optimal performance. It uses two fans and 83 high-density fan blades, which can effectively increase the ventilation volume. This cooling system maintains the hardware temperature and the surface temperature of the body in a low space, while keeping the noise under reasonable control.

In addition, the OMEN Gaming Hub (software) on the HP Omen 17 (2021) can be your most powerful assistant on the gaming battlefield through powerful performance tuning functions and numerous rich custom settings.

Specifically, gamers can select two different modes, “Balance” and “Berserk”, in the performance control module of the HP Gaming Hub to meet the different needs of gamers.

Meanwhile, the fan DIY adjustment option is also added under the switching module mode, allowing players to adjust the fan speed according to their needs.

CPU and GPU

In terms of hardware, the new HP Omen 17 is almost similar to its competitors. It features a combination of an Intel Core i7-11800H processor and an RTX 3080 GPU, which is a must in today’s games.

The 11th Gen Intel Core is based on the Tiger Lake core, which is manufactured on the 10nm SuperFin process. The chip has 8 cores and 16 threads, with a base frequency of 2.3 GHz and a maximum frequency of 4.60 GHz. The total cache size is 24MB.

The RTX 3080 mobile graphics card has been used in the Omen 17 (2021). It uses GA104 cores, including 6144 CUDA units, the second-largest RT Cores, and third-generation Tensor Cores. The GPU has a total memory of 8GB.

The GPU has a 256-bit bus width and is based on an 8nm manufacturing process. The RTX 3080 Mobile GPU has a base frequency of 1,110 MHz and can be overclocked up to 1,750 MHz.

CPU Temperature, Stress Test, Benchmarks

Before starting this test, we turned on the performance control module, switched the Omen 17 (2021) to violent mode, and adjusted the fan speed to maximum.

First, at a room temperature of 26°C, we used an AIDA64 FPU for a processor stress test. The HWiNFO64 qualification shows that after 20 minutes of operation, the power consumption of the Core i7-11800H can be stabilized at 91W, while the complete core frequency is stabilized at 3.9 GHz, and its temperature is 96°C.

With a powerful cooling system, the Omen 17 (2021) can enable the Core i7-11800H processor to run to full turbo frequency under the load of the AVX-512 instruction set. The show release can also reach the first echelon of Omen 17 (2021).

Next, we ran a GPU (RTX 3080 Mobile) stress test with Furmark (app) and monitored it with GPU-Z. It is found that the power consumption of the RTX 3080 Mobile GPU can reach 165W.. At maximum power consumption, the GPU core temperature is 71°C.

Finally, we tested the combination of CPU and GPU with AIDA64 and Furmark applications. At this point, the HP Omen 17 (2021) meets the hardware performance release for the processor and graphics card (i.e., 60W and 140W, respectively), and the performance is also excellent.

It is expected that the HP Omen 17 (2021) will be further optimized with a software upgrade to achieve improved performance. After adjustment, the power consumption of the graphics card can reach 150W.

CPU-Z: When testing the CPU, we used the Version 17 project, which scored 614.5 for single-threading and 5796.4 for multi-threading. We can consider it an excellent score.

Cinebench R20: In this test, the Core i7-11800H on Omen 17 (2021) achieved full turbo frequency release, a single-thread score of 586pts, and a multi-threaded score of up to 5420pts.

Cinebench R23: In the latest R23 version, the Core i7-11800H performed equally well, with a single-thread score of 1519pts and a multi-threaded score of 14070pts.

V-Ray:  To evaluate the rendering capabilities of the processor, we also used the V-Ray Benchmark (version 5.0.20). HP Omen 17 (2021) has a processor rendering score of 10237 vsamples. We can also consider this an excellent performance.

Corona Benchmark: For further testing of the processor’s rendering capabilities, we used Corona 1.3 Benchmark. It is found that the HP Omen 17 (2021) completed the rendering test in just 1 minute and 39 seconds, which is very fast.

GPU Benchmarks:

Time Spy: AT the Time Spy test, which reflects the performance of the DX12 game. In this test, the RTX 3080 in Omen 17 (2021) scored 12,721 points.

Fire Strike: To test graphics performance, we first used Fire Strike in 3DMark to reflect the performance of DX11 games. In this test, the HP Omen 17 got a GPU score of 31,516 points.

Port Royal:  In the Port Royal Ray Tracing performance test, the GPU score was 7,813 points.

DirectX: In the DirectX ray tracing performance test, the average frame number of the HP Omen 17 was 31.15 FPS.

We would like to appreciate the powerful cooling module and the HP OMEN Gaming Hub in our GPU tests, which helped us achieve the best performance from the RTX 3080 Mobile GPU.

We also used PCMark 10 for complete performance testing. The total score is 7,468 points, with scores of 10,501 for common basic functions, 9,417 for productivity, and 11,412 for digital content creation. This performance is considered a high level in the gaming platform.

Gaming Performance:

After testing the theoretical performance, it’s time for gaming tests, which is the main purpose of this gaming laptop. We tested different games, and their performance is listed below.

For the gaming tests, we used 1080p resolution, set the highest special effects, and also turned off the vertical synchronization.

Assassin’s Creed: Hall of Valor:  In this test, the Omen 17 (2021) averaged 83 FPS at its average frame rate, while the lowest frame rate was 37 FPS, which can be considered smooth overall.

Bright Memory: Infinite:  During testing, the RTX ray tracing quality was set to extremely high, while the DLSS quality was set to balanced. The average frame rate of the HP Omen 17 in this game is 90FPS. We also observed slight fluctuations in the overall gameplay.

F1 2020: We did the benchmark test on this game using the built-in benchmark feature. The “Australian” track was selected. The average frame rate of this game was 210FPS on the HP Omen 17.

In the end, we would say that we find no shortcomings in the HP Omen 17 (2021) in terms of gaming. The measured game performance is also in line with expectations, allowing all kinds of gamers to enjoy the ultimate experience.

Verdict:

After a comprehensive analysis of the Omen 17 (2021), we believe that this gaming notebook is a rare product that combines powerful performance, a high-quality large screen, and portability at this price. If you’re looking for higher specifications, it’s best to choose the HP Omen 17 (2021) for the best and smoothest gaming experience.