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These are boundary blurring days in tech. Forget about it's a gaming laptop, it's a multimedia laptop or it's an Ultrabook. It's for work, it's for play... some machines truly are for all these things and it only took technology a decade or two to catch up with our desire for a thin and light laptop that can do most anything a powerful desktop can do. All that goodness still comes at a price though--these 15" Ultrabooks with the brains of an Alienware are pricey (though often not as pricey as some Alienware laptops). The middle configuration HP Omen 15 is $1,599 though you may find a $100 discount here and there online. The MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 2QE model we look at here is $1,899 with fairly maxed out specs.
The HP Omen 15 and the MSI GS60 Ghost Pro are two takes on the convergent laptop that's slim and stately enough to take to work but can handle Battlefield 4. Some of you aren't all that into gaming, and you simply want the most horsepower to edit 1080p or 4K video, or crunch huge spreadsheets or compile code at light speed. These will do that job too--no need to buy a 1.5" thick 9 lb. monster.
Display
Both laptops have 1080p IPS (the MSI technically is PLS) 15.6" displays with nearly full sRGB color gamut coverage, good contrast and wide viewing angles. For those who need higher resolution (not particularly recommended for gaming but potentially useful for photo editing and 4K video editing), MSI also offers 3K (IGZO) and 4K display options. The 1080p panel is matte while the higher resolution displays are gloss. The GS60 Ghost Pro is not available with a touch screen, which is fine if you spend your day in the desktop environment but not so fun if you use the Metro Live Tile section of Windows 8.1.
The HP Omen 15 has a gloss touch screen. Really glossy--which can be annoying when it comes to glare. But gloss does import a sense of contrast and it's hard to avoid with a touch panel. It has 309 nits of brightness vs. 344 nits for the Ghost Pro. Both figures are good but you'll notice the MSI's higher brightness even more because it doesn't have to combat glare.
Winner: that depends; if you want a touch screen the HP Omen 15 is the clear winner. If you want non-glare or higher resolution panel options then the MSI GS60 Ghost Pro wins.
Performance
Both laptops run on the same powerful Intel Core i7-4710HQ quad core CPU clocked at 2.5 GHz with Turbo Boost to 3.5 GHz. Both are available with 8 or 16 gigs of RAM. HP's RAM is soldered on, while the MSI has two RAM slots. They're on equal footing in terms of CPU and max RAM. If you want 16 gigs I suggest you order the machine (either one) that way. You can't upgrade the HP Omen later and the MSI GS60 is a bear to take apart to access the RAM slots.
Winner: tie.
Graphics
The MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 2QE-064 model we're using for this comparison has the new high end NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970M with 6 GB DDR5 VRAM (some configs have less VRAM and that' s fine because 6 gigs is currently serious overkill). The HP Omen 15 runs on an upper middle class graphics card, the GTX 860M with 2 or 4 GB DDR5 VRAM. They're both using NVIDIA's new Maxwell architecture for lower power consumption and heat plus faster performance. The MSI wipes the floor with the HP Omen in synthetic benchmarks and in games. But wait: both cards are so powerful that they can run the latest, hardest PC games at 1080p and 45 fps with settings sufficient to make the games look stunning. The HP Omen 15 runs most recent demanding games like Battlefield 4, Dragon Age Inquisition, Tomb Raider and Far Cry 4 with a mix of medium and high settings. The MSI GS60 runs them at high and ultra settings. I think most folks would enjoy either PC today with today's games. But in terms of graphics prowess, PC gaming laptops often age badly and falter in two years for those with high expectations who play graphically demanding games on high settings. The MSI GS60 is much more future proof and should still be a very viable gaming rig in two years.
Winner: MSI GS60 Ghost Pro.
Benchmark Comparisons:
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HP Omen 15 |
MSI GS60 Ghost Pro 2QE |
| PCMark 7 |
5843 |
6006 |
| PCMark 8 Home |
3494 |
3929 |
| 3DMark 11 |
P5081, X1645 |
P9112, X3224 |
| 3DMark FireStrike 1080p |
3761 |
6508 |
Design and Upgradability
The 4.2 lb. MSI Ghost Pro was a stunner when it came out, as gaming notebooks go. Its slim black brushed aluminum chassis is classy and sleek. It has ports on the side like a normal laptop. But the 4.68 lb. HP Omen 15 is in that rare class of industrial design that just makes you say "wow". It's unique, has exceptional build quality and it's stately enough to take to work. All the Omen's ports are on the back: tidy but inconvenient.
The HP Omen 15 has an M.2 SSD slot, a socketed wireless card... and that's it. Pretty sparse for a gaming rig, but this is also a powerhouse do it all on the road sort of machine, where Ultrabook levels of upgradability are OK. The MSI GS60 has a 2.5" drive bay, two M.2 slots (mSATA protocol), two RAM slots and a socketed wireless card. Sweet!
Winner: HP Omen 15 for design and style, MSI GS60 Ghost Pro for upgradability.
There are quite a few more points to cover, so watch our HP Omen 15 vs. MSI GS60 Ghost Pro Comparison Smackdown video:
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