HP OMEN 15 or 17

[drpower]

Hi guys I'm considering these two laptops, they're almost identical except the 15 has 2TB / 16 GB ram and the 17 has 1TB / 12 GB ram. Both have 128 GB SSD M.2 and 4K IPS.

With HP Canada discount the 17" is only $20 more than the 15" before tax as there is no discount on the 15 only the 17. I have a 42mp camera to edit images for and I work long months away at sea where I am right now, so I want to watch movies on it , I game a fair amount. Witcher 3 and Overwatch. What is your opinion which to get or stay away from both?

CPU Intel Core i7-7700HQ 2.8 GHz
Screen 4K/UHD IPS
Memory 12 GB or 16 GB DDR4
Storage 1 or 2 TB HDD + 128 GB SSD
Graphics Card GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
Video Memory 4 GB GDDR5
CPU Type Intel Core i7 7th Gen
CPU Speed 7700HQ (2.80 GHz)
Number of Cores Quad-core Processor Name Kaby Lake
CPU L3 Cache 6 MB
Resolution 3840 x 2160
Operating Systems
Operating System Windows 10 Home
GPU/VPU NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 Ti
WLAN 802.11ac Wireless LAN
Keyboard Red Dragon Backlit

https/m.newegg.ca/product/index?itemnumber=N82E16834267106

https/m.newegg.ca/product/index?itemnumber=N82E16834267105

 

[wildfire707]

Personally I would skip them.

The Omen's always on laptop fans make me stay away in general. The two models that you link to both have 4k displays and the 1050 ti GPUs, so that is a terrible combination (in my opinion). The 1050 ti is okay for 1080p gaming, but when you up the resolution to 4k the 1070 is the absolute minimum for gaming.

Good luck!

 

[drpower]

How about just for photo editing and watching movies? My friends Macbook Pro looks and operates nicely so I hoped to find that same 4K IPS config in PC version.

 

[Solandri]

I don't think the 4k screen is a problem for gaming - you can just play games at 1920x1080 and the resolution will scale to 3840x2160 perfectly (2x2 screen pixels for every game pixel). The only time you wouldn't be able to do that is if playing a game in windowed mode. There were a few early 4k laptops which wouldn't scale 1080p to fill the screen. But I have to figure they've fixed that by now, especially if they're pairing a 1050Ti with a 4k screen.

From a quick perusal of the reviews, the 17" 4k screen covers over 100% Adobe RGB (178% sRGB), while the 15" 4k screen only covers 96% sRGB. If you know what this means and are comfortable with using color profiles, then go with the 17". If you have no idea what I'm talking about, go with the 15" (unless you want to learn about color spaces and color profiles). If you're clueless about color profiles and use the 17", your color adjustments are going to be all wrong because without a color profile, the screen isn't going to accurately display how your photos will appear on anyone using a sRGB screen (99% of TVs and monitors in use).

http/www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/hp-omen-17
http/www.notebookreview.com/notebookreview/hp-omen-pro-review-sex-appeal-meets-mobile-workstation/

Otherwise the differences are mainly size and weight (and the numeric keypad on the 17").

 

[wildfire707]

Solandri's points are definitely valid, and the HP laptops would do fine for the video editing and movie watching. If you want an excellent gaming system, though, I prefer the Alienware ones. They do cost more, though, as the 4k display upgrade adds $400 US onto the price of the system. But their units only turn on the fan when it needs to be on and the accent colors are from LED lights that you can change or turn off. The 17" 4k systems start at $1700 US with a Geforce GTX 1050 ti, and go up to the Geforce GTX 1070.

http/www.laptopmag.com/reviews/laptops/alienware-17

 

[drpower]

I ended up buying the Asus Zenbook UX501VW because it was discounted but if it hadn't been I would have bought the Omen 15.