HP's 'fighter-jet' Omen gaming PCs are VR-ready

HP has unveiled its latest Omen desktop and laptop gaming PCs with a refreshed, "fighter-jet"-inspired design and VR-certification, along with an external graphics accelerator that doubles as a storage booster. The most notable of those is the Omen 15, HP's first gaming laptop that meets NVIDIA's new Max-Q specification, which is supposed to be reserved for devices that fit more performance in an Ultrabook-sized package.

Calling such an angular, beefy device "Max-Q" is lol-worthy, but the top-shelf Omen 15 laptop should be a decent performer thanks to an Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU and Max-Q-ready GTX 1060 graphics. That's not at the top-end of NVIDIA's spec, but it also gives the model VR certification -- until now, only the 17-inch Omen had that honor.

As it often does, HP tried to make the 15-inch Omen laptop all things to all gamers. It includes an Intel Core i7-7700HQ CPU, with RAM from 8GB to 16GB, but has graphics choices all over the map. You can opt for a 2GB GDDR5 AMD Radeon RX 550, a 4GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 or 1050Ti, or the aforementioned GTX-1060 with 6GB of GDDR5 RAM. That also makes for quite an array of prices, with the cheapest model at $1,000 and the 1050Ti model at $1,600. Expect the 1060 version to cost more than that (HP didn't say the price). Whatever it is, it'll be a tough sale versus Razer's svelter, subtler Blade laptop.

HP also refreshed its 17-inch Omen laptop with the same black-and-red design, offering a top-end $1,800 model with an Intel Core i7-7700HQ chip, 32GB of DDR4 RAM, NVIDIA GeForce GTX1070 graphics and a 256GB SSD/2TB HDD combo. That model doesn't conform to the Max-Q spec due to its size and configuration (HP didn't reveal the weight). Both the 15- and 17-inch Omen laptops go on sale starting June 28th.

Rounding out the Omen PC line, there's gaming desktop (below) with similar black and red, Lamborghini Countach styling. It's basically a gaming machine for folks who don't want to build their own, so again, you can customize it all the way up to at $3,000 or so configuration, with a quad-core Intel Core i7-7700K CPU and dual NVIDIA 1080Ti graphics cards.

HP also showed off matching 25- and 27-inch monitors, equipped with 1080p AMD FreeSync and QHD NVIDIA G-Sync, respectively, starting at $280 for the 25-inch model. If you must have a keyboard and mouse with the same look (you've come this far, so why not), HP has Omen versions of those too, at $130 and $60 respectively.

Finally, if you're torn between a laptop and a desktop, why not do both? That's the idea with HP's $300 Omen Accelerator (below). It's a 500 watt external case that holds a single desktop graphics card and a 2.5-inch hard drive, while also sporting four USB 3.0, one USB-C and two HDMI slots, an ethernet port and more. You can connect it to either Omen laptop (and others, including the Spectre 13, EliteBook x360 and Envy 27 AIO) via a Thunderbolt 3 connection. That device arrives in August of 2017.