▷HP OMEN X 2S review: a monster with two screens 🥇

I first met HP OMEN X 2S at Gamescom. I found it tamarro, powerful and incredibly tantalizing. The idea of being able to exploit a second screen I was immediately thrilled but I had not yet come to terms with a rather obvious fact: the small 6-inch display is NOT a true second screen. I'll explain. Normally, when we think of a PC with two displays, we have in mind a powerful desktop PC connected to two monitors of at least 24 inches. Here we are faced with a small addition which, in size, is practically equivalent to a smartphone. So what can I do with a touchscreen display built into a laptop? What good can it do me? To find out, I decided to test this OMEN series notebook for a couple of weeks.

It is not as tamarro as it seems

The LEDs, the dual screen, the OMEN logo that lights up and the sticker that reminds you that we have an NVIDIA GeForce RTX - 2080 graphics card on board with Max-Q design in this specific case - should not deceive you. Yes, HP OMEN X 2S is a notebook devoted to gaming but not only. Just turn off the lights that give life to the body and the keyboard to find yourself in front of a notebook that you can easily take to any meeting or business meeting.

The exterior is characterized by a rather clean and elegant body, the frame is in matt aluminum, the build quality is excellent and the weight - 2,46 kg - is not excessive, especially considering the hardware we have on board.

Once the laptop is opened we find two different finishes: the first takes up the external one and we can see it around the keyboard, the touchpad and the 15,6-inch display, while the second is glossy and houses the second screen. Particular the arrangement of the elements present in this HP OMEN X 2S: contrary to what is seen on Asus ZenBook Pro UX580, the second display has been moved close to the primary screen, while the other two elements are unexpectedly close to the torso of the notebook user. The feeling is perhaps a bit strange at first, but then you will get used to it: in fact it is not much different from using a normal keyboard on a desktop PC. We can also do the same for the touchpad which is located on the right and not in the usual central position: if you are right-handed it will be like keeping your right hand on the mouse. And am I left handed? Well, that's a real sore point since being able to use the touchpad will become practically impossible.

In terms of usability and responsiveness, I particularly liked both elements. The keys offer good feedback and a satisfying run, even if you feel the lack of a surface on which to rest your wrist. Of course, in the package you will find a comfortable palm rest, very useful when you are at home, but really uncomfortable to take with you to the office, to the university or during a trip.

The trackpad, on the other hand, is fluid and precise, with two buttons that will give you much more satisfaction than the now popular integrated clickpads.

Finally, I would like to say a few words about the inputs that this OMEN X 2S makes available to users. On the left we have the connector for the power supply - proprietary -, the HDMI, 2 USB, an Ethernet port and the 3,5 mm jack; on the right instead only a USB 3.1 port and a USB Type-C c with Thunderbolt 3. Obviously also the WiFi 6 on board - with the network card which however gave us some stability problems despite the driver updates - and Bluetooth 5.0, to which we connected a pair of headphones and which guaranteed us a stable and clean connection.

Are two displays better than one?

The main screen of this gaming laptop is, as I mentioned earlier, from 15,6 inches, with resolution Full HD and, especially, a refresh rate of 240 Hz. The yield during the game sessions is really excellent in terms of fluidity, but don't expect fireworks when it comes to color rendering. We are in fact facing a 1080p display that covers about 92% of the sRGB color space and 60% of the AdobeRGB one. In short, beautiful but not suitable for those looking for record-breaking color fidelity. What does all this mean? Simple: in my opinion you will find it excellent for playing games, a situation where the speed of movement often matters much more than the visual experience, while you will not be too satisfied if you usually use the laptop for photo editing.

The second display isn't quite what I expected. Even with a quick analysis you will notice that the main characteristics, such as contrast, brightness and color space, are very different from the main one. In fact, it inherits only the resolution from the latter, the rest is really all different.

This obviously does not mean that it is unusable: on the contrary, over time, you will discover new uses that will go to satisfy your need for multitasking, at least in its most basic variants. In fact, what was stated in the introduction remains true: the second display is not like a second monitor. The dimensions limit it very much and will push you to delegate to this component only the simplest tasks such as watching a video or viewing the system data offered by OMEN Command Center.

What about gaming? Things did not go exactly as hoped. Imagine you're busy playing Overwatch and want to communicate with friends in the meantime. Possible? Absolutely not. In fact, the game window is minimized as soon as you touch the secondary display. The alternative is to disable touch but don't expect to be able to move the mouse cursor to the second screen. A real wasted opportunity.

Fortunately, all is not lost. The second display in fact provides screen mirroring in real time, this means that you can capture a part of the game screen to see it then reproduced on the small 6-inch screen. What is it for? For example, I found it convenient for viewing the Fortnite map.

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Power to sell

But what can I play with this HP OMEN X 2S? Virtually everything! In fact we have on board a 9 GHz Intel Core i9880-2,30H processor, 32 GB of RAM and 1 TB of internal memory, to which, if desired, you can add an Intel Optane memory. To this we must add the aforementioned NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2080 con design Max-Q which brings with it support for NVIDIA G-Sync technology.

Do you want to make some hardware changes or are you planning a future upgrade? No problem: the lower part of this laptop provides a unique access for RAM and hard disk, so as to enhance it in the future if the already substantial hardware of this version is not enough for you.

On balance all this good luck allows you to really do anything: I played Call of Duty: Modern Warfare with maximum settings without seeing no slowdown or loss of framerate, I also tested it with a ton of open software - including good Photoshop and several Google Chrome tabs - and it didn't flinch. I also subjected it to a video editing session with Premiere Pro CC, with an external monitor attached, and even in this case it always gave its best. But pay attention to the noise of the fans, not very high but still not very ideal during the game, and as the temperature rises, often not justified by the workload and always focused especially in the area of the second screen. Fortunately, the position of the keyboard, lower than usual, helps to keep it always cool even when everything else exceeds 50/60 ° C.

Do you want to keep the temperature at bay? You can get a good result by opening OMEN Command Center and changing the Comfort mode. Don't expect radical changes though, you'll just drop a few ranks by sacrificing some power. Conversely, if you are not afraid of high temperatures and want the most out of your notebook, you will have to opt for the High Performance mode, which optimizes performance by distributing the workload on the CPU and GPU.

OMEN Command Center: what do I need it for?

I have already mentioned it twice so now is the time to explain what OMEN Command Center is.

It is a control panel that helps you to better manage the HP OMEN X 2S. The most important and certainly the most useful tab is the first, it is called "Laptop OMEN X”And shows, first of all, the fundamental system data, ie the consumption of processor, video card, RAM and bandwidth. Here you will also find the aforementioned temperatures, so you always know what the state of your computer is.

We also have the "Overclock,” to turbo your RAM which can thus go to 2667 MT / s to 3200 MT / s, while the "Network booster”Allows you to prioritize the applications you really need. Not missing then a section dedicated to the illumination of the keyboard and the OMEN logo, as well as the area it allows you to check performance going from Comfort to Default to get to High performance.

On the other hand, there are very few settings, which define the background, screen brightness and touchscreen behavior.

When mentioned so far it is in the aforementioned "OMEN X Laptop" menu, but in reality we have 3 more. There is "Game Coaching“, Which analyzes your performance in the game to then give you useful suggestions to improve, there is the tab "My games", which collects the titles installed on the PC, and finally we have "Game Stream" which allows you to use OMEN X 2S as a host and then play on another Windows computer or Android smartphone instead.

How long does the OMEN X 2S battery last?

The most unsatisfactory aspect of this monster of power is undoubtedly the autonomy. On average you can stay away from the presence of electricity for a couple of hours, after which you will absolutely have to recharge it. You can reach 3 hours with some sacrifices, for example by giving up the second screen and putting Windows 10 in saving mode.

HP OMEN X 2S review: buy it or not?

Our HP OMEN X 2S review ends here and it is therefore time to draw some conclusions. In short, it is worth the money 3.999,99 € for the variant we tested or € 2.799,99 for the version with Intel Core i7, 144 Hz Full HD screen and 512 GB of memory?

It is very difficult to answer this question. Basic the hardware of this laptop is undoubtedly top notch and the second screen is a good companion for multitasking fans, on the other hand we have obvious limitations: the 6-inch display adds nothing during the game, the battery is not suitable for lovers of mobility and overall temperature and noise they get up really quickly even in the face of average workloads. In short, beautiful, impactful and perfect for those who want to get noticed, but in case of purchase be well aware of its limits.