HP stuffed the best gaming desktop perks into the 10-pound Omen X laptop

HP gave its Omen gaming line a big boost before this year's E3 with the launch of new gaming PCs, peripherals, a GPU accelerator, and a VR backpack. While the company wants to provide devices for all kinds of gamers, its newest launch targets enthusiasts who don't want to compromise power when choosing a portable device. The new Omen X laptop is a behemoth gaming notebook, measuring 16.73 x 12.88 x 1.43 inches and weighing 10.69 pounds. All that space is for good reason: the Omen X trades svelte for substance as it features a bunch of perks typically only seen in stationary gaming PCs.

One of the biggest things HP emphasized about the Omen X laptop is its overclocking abilities. The Omen X laptop can be configured how you'd like and you can choose to get it with Intel's 7th gen Core i7-7820HK CPU, which is factory unlocked for overclocking. Gaming enthusiasts (and general PC enthusiast as well) are more likely to experiment with overclocking their devices to get the most performance out of the CPU as possible. However, that would normally be taxing on the entire system and the processor in particular since it produces extra heat.

As such, HP designed the internals of the Omen X laptop differently from those in its previous Omen laptops to better handle the heat produced by overclocking. HP also claims the design reduces thermal throttling that can limit the overclocking affects. The company removed the optical drive and included higher-performance fans that allow for more airflow through the machine than in the existing Omen laptops. With the help of an integrated vapor chamber and bottom vent holes, the internals better move heat away from the important stuff (CPU, GPU) and expel air through the back and sides of the laptop (which also keeps the heat away from you, the user).

You can overclock the higher-end CPU option available for the Omen X laptop, and you can overclock the GPU and RAM as well. Both GPU options, Nvidia GTX 1070 or 1080, come factory overclocked, and the optional DDR4-2800 RAM with Intel XMP can be overclocked too. Most of the time, you have to overclock your PC at the BIOS level, but HP tried to make it easier by adding an overclocking segment to its Omen Command Center. All of the regular features of the Command Center still stand, including network controls to reduce gaming latency, but the additional overclocking segment shows you how your device is performing and what you can do to change that.

There's also the option to customize keyboard lighting and macro keys in the Omen Command Center in order to accompany the Omen X laptop's fully mechanical keyboard. Each key has its own tiny RGB LED light underneath it so you can customize each of them if you wish. There's 2.5mm of key travel, and the keys are built to be noticeably clicky. Much like HP's gaming peripheral keyboards, this one has N-key rollover on each key and no ghosting as well.

As for the specs, the Omen X laptop comes with either an Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU or the unlocked-for-overclocking i7-7820HK CPU. It can have either an FHD or 4K display, both of which on any model are Nvidia G-Sync compatible. The laptop supports up to 32GB of RAM and a slew of storage options including single HDD, single SSD, combination HDD and SSD, and PCIe SSD storage variations. When it comes to ports, the Omen X laptop has three USB 3.0 ports, two Thunderbolt 3 ports, one HDMI 2.0 port with HDR support, one miniDisplay Port, an Ethernet port, a media card reader, a dual audio jack with mic input, and a headset jack.

While the main display on the Omen X laptop doesn't support HDR, it can project HDR content on external displays that do support it. In total, the notebook can connect to three external displays at once, so you can dock the laptop and use it as a stationary device when necessary. You may consider docking the notebook if you want more graphics power as well, since the laptop's GPU is non-upgradeable. HP added a single-access panel to the One X laptop so users can upgrade storage and memory on their own, but as of now, it doesn't allow access to the GPU. But HP obviously wants users to invest in its Omen GPU accelerator, which is designed to provide a boost of graphics power to laptops like this and non-gaming notebooks alike.

One thing that might disappoint some gamers is that the Omen X laptop won't support Intel's 8th generation processors or any AMD processor at launch. HP says it focused on the 7th generation Kaby Lake CPUs for this device, but it's likely that an update down the line may introduce the other CPUs to this device. HP already has AMD processors available for its Omen desktop, and Intel's "Coffee Lake" CPUs are coming soon, so that might be a reason to hold off on this laptop at first. The Omen X laptop will be available in November starting at $1,199.