HP Omen X 2S gaming laptop sports a second screen
The spring updates to its enthusiast gaming laptops includes a small second touchscreen display for your stream viewing, chats and music.
HP's Omen X 2S 15 joins the Asus ZenBook Pro 15 in the second-screen club. It has a six-inch 1080p touchscreen above the keyboard. It's there for activities that you probably use your phone for while gaming: watching a stream, chatting, listening to music or monitoring your system stats via the command center. You can also use it to pin and magnify a section of the screen, such as a map.
It looks like the touchscreen, which lies flat on the deck between the hinge and the keyboard, isn't in a great spot for messaging unless you put the laptop on a tilted stand so you won't have to look down to use it. A phone, by comparison, can be placed anywhere and tilted at any angle you want compared to a fixed screen. But it's an interesting idea and definitely a nice touch for running the command center or music controls.
The 2X is slated to ship by the end of May starting at $2,100. That base configuration includes an Intel Core i7-9750H, a 16GB DDR4, a 256GB SSD, an Nvidia GeForce RTX 2070 and a 144Hz 1080p G-Sync IPS display. You'll be able to kit it out with up to an i9-9980H, a 32GB XMP DDR4, a 2TB SSD, an RTX 2080 Max-Q and a 4K or 240Hz 1080p panel.
The HP Omen 17 (pictured) and Omen 15 have a new hinge design to accommodate the overhauled vent layout.
HP is also rolling out refreshed versions of its Omen 15 and Omen 17. The company joins Razer, Asus and others with the option of a 240Hz 1080p screen for all three models, though the 17-inch version won't be available until October.
All the Omens have been upgraded to Wi-Fi 6 (802.11ax) and with an option for Optane H10, Intel's latest version of its disk-acceleration technology that integrates the cache into the SSD.
Plus, they include HP's redesigned cooling system -- the company's branding it as "Omen Tempest" -- which includes the use of Thermal Grizzly Conductonaut (a liquid-metal compound applied on the CPU to significantly improve heat transfer to the heat sink and therefore improve speed), along with improved venting and fans for better airflow.
And, of course, they're skinnier.
The Omen 17 now goes up to an RTX 2080, ninth-gen i9 and 3TB of storage (in a RAID 0 combination of SSD and HDD). Pricing starts at $1,100.
As for the Omen 15, it offers the same processor options as well as up to an RTX 2080 Max-Q; however, the $1,050 base configuration now comes with a GTX 1660 Ti.
The launches also included an expansion of the Pavilion Gaming line and a novel new wireless mouse and mousepad that use Qi charging, the technology used by phones for their wireless charging.
