HP and Asus have gaming laptops that handle the newest games on high settings with a good frame rate, but their products have different philosophies.
HP rebranded its Omen line to look simple and modern in 2020 when the Omen 15 was released. They didn’t just care about their image, though. They cared about the ones on your screen. The graphics in their machines are vivid and never choppy. It’s a solid laptop built primarily for gaming that beautifully handles all kinds of media.
Asus is more versatile. The TUF A15 is a laptop that works as hard as it plays. The processing in this machine would put some desktops to shame, meaning that 3D artists and video game developers will love it. It’s quiet, fast and gets work done without getting in the way. But is it making too many sacrifices to be called a gaming laptop? Where HP focused on just delivering you the best gaming experience, Asus focused on delivering a laptop that could handle almost anything you throw at it.
The Omen 15 is HP’s best gaming laptop. It has a sleek, minimal design and impressive processing thanks to a powerful AMD processor. HP’s Omen 15 laptop comes with Windows 11 and an AMD Ryzen 5, a processor that crunches through games and editing software. If you’re someone who likes to use graphics-intensive programs, having the computing power to run something new without crashing makes life much easier. Its graphics card is the Nvidia RTX 3060, which is good enough to play most recent games on the highest graphics setting for the next half-decade.
It’s processor and graphics card are both high-end enough that you won’t need to worry about crashing in your game. It runs Windows 11, the newest OS from Microsoft that’s streamlined for organization, creativity and optimized for the latest games. Navigating will be simple and look clean even when you’re working on many things at once. It allows cross-platform play, so you can play the same games as your friends who use consoles. The HP Omen 15 is also cheaper.
The issue with this laptop is its relatively small 8 GB of memory. You’ll only be able to run so many tasks before you start to experience performance issues and cause your laptop to heat up. It also lags when it comes to charging, with some customers reporting that it charges slowly or sometimes only charges halfway. The other issue with HP is that they're known for experiencing hardware failure. Luckily, they have built-in customer support, but sometimes customers report receiving defective GPUs in their machine, which means they have to be sent back for replacements or repairs.
Asus’ 2021 flagship gaming laptop, the TUF A15 runs Windows 10 and has immense computing power thanks to its AMD octa-core Ryzen 7 4800H processor. The 4800H is not AMD’s most powerful Ryzen 7 processor, but it is close. It has an Nvidia GeForce 1660 ti graphics card, which is good for light gaming and playing games from last year and older. It’s not just a gaming laptop, though. It has a lot of potential for creative use as well. It’s an amazing tool for video editors and 3D art thanks to its high-speed solid-state drive, eight cores and 4.2 Ghz clock speed.
The best thing about this laptop is its versatility. It’s not just a gaming laptop, it’s a workhorse computer that can tackle any sort of heavy-duty work. It has a lot of memory, so you can tackle all sorts of projects at the same time without losing speed. It’s a fast computer with a graphics card that’s decent enough to play games like Apex Legends at 112 FPS and Battlefield V at 102 FPS. It’s also got a lot of ports that make connecting easy, including an ultra-high-speed charging USB-C, 3 USB and HDMI ports and a headphone jack.
The laptop has such a strong processor, but its graphics card leaves much to be desired in playing newer games, especially ones with ray tracing. It will struggle to play games that come out in the next few years, but it can handle all of the games that have been released until 2021. The design of the laptop itself is also a bit bulky. Weighing 5.10 pounds, it isn’t always an easy carry.
If you want the best gaming laptop, then HP Omen 15 wins over Asus Flagship. The two machines are for two very different kinds of gamers. Some people are more than happy to play their old favorites and the new games, and they should get the Asus. Especially if they work with editing software and do work on their computer often. That’s not everyone.
Buying a laptop for gaming means you need the GPU to handle all the fun new stuff releasing in the coming years. The landscape of video games is always changing, and to keep up with the new titles means always being able to play with others. Older games can be classics and have high replay value, but their fan bases dwindle over the years and eventually become boring. There’s no question between the two for a gaming laptop. The HP Omen 15 is the best.
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Sam Bramlett writes for BestReviews. BestReviews has helped millions of consumers simplify their purchasing decisions, saving them time and money.
