Perfect for End-Game Content/Raiding
Phoenix (Sep 22, 2018)
on Amazon
I was really skeptical about whether I'd like this laptop or not. I had previously (about a year or two ago) purchased an HP gaming laptop. It wasn't an Omen but it was definitely built and billed as a gaming laptop. However, using that laptop, even with my World of Warcraft settings turned all the way down, the computer would frequently freeze up in 25-man raids when there was a ton going on. Nothing like your guild counting on you to heal or tank and you can't do a darn thing and cause everyone to wipe. I started to seriously hate that laptop. So when I saw this HP Omen and I'd heard good things about Omen laptops, I was really darn skeptical as to whether or not it could even handle WoW (which really isn't that resource intensive of a game in general) let alone any other games.I ended up being really impressed by this laptop. Unlike most pre-built laptops, you can easily make upgrades to this if you want to. That's a huge plus in my book. I also experienced no lag issues during raid/mythic content when playing on this machine. Even during raids, my framerate was about 50 to 55fps without a single freezing issue. That's with all settings at 7. At non-raid and non-boss points, the framerate was about 85-90fps. With that being said, WoW in general, again, isn't very resource intensive. If you want to play an extremely resource-intensive game you're going to need to make some upgrades to this. Still, even with making the necessary upgrades you'll be spending a lot less than you would on an Alienware laptop. With that being said, no matter the upgrades you make, this isn't going to have all of the bells and whistles a $3k machine will have, but it will be extremely impressive for a pre-built laptop with some upgrades and the ability to make those upgrades easily. If you don't like the display, you can always dock it into a better display. Personally I'm not very picky and to me the display is good enough for what I need.The keyboard is backlit, which is great. Our guild tends to raid later in the evenings and doesn't end until about 1AM my time so I like to reaid from bed sometimes and need a good laptop (which this is) to do it and I like the fact I can actually see the keys in the dark. My 4 year old sleeps in a part of the master suite that would be lit up if we turned the lights on and I don't want to be disturbing her at one in the morning just so I can see the keyboard while I raid. The backlight makes it very easy for me to see what I need to if I happen to need to (I usually type by touch, but hands get misplaced in high-stress environments so I do need to glance at the keyboard at times).The one thing I will say that while setting this thing up was stupid-level easy, you need to be careful which options you select unless you want a ton of third parties getting a hold of your info. Once set up, startup is superbly fast thanks to a serious lack of bloatware.Overall, for a pre-built machine I think this is great. Really impressive performance. A lot of nice features. Not a lot of bloatware so the system isn't slowed down. Very easy setup. Plus there's the ability to make upgrades if you want/need to, which isn't common with pre-built laptops that are usually designed to be disposable. Highly recommend if you're looking for a quality gaming laptop that doesn't break the bank.
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