Alienware vs HP Omen

[Sacred]

Hi all,

Just looking for some general advice on the following two machines:

HP Omen 15.6" £1299
Tech Spec:

OMEN Laptop 15-en1000sa
Microprocessor - AMD Ryzen™ 7 5800H (up to 4.4 GHz max boost clock, 16 MB L3 cache, 8 cores, 16 threads)
Memory, standard - 16 GB DDR4-3200 MHz RAM (2 x 8 GB)
Video graphics - NVIDIA® GeForce RTX™ 3070 (8 GB GDDR6 dedicated)
Hard drive - 1 TB PCIe® NVMe™ TLC M.2 SSD
Display - 39.6 cm (15.6") diagonal, QHD (2560 x 1440), 165 Hz, 3 ms response time, IPS, micro-edge, anti-glare, 300 nits, 100% DCI-P3
Wireless connectivity - Intel® Wi-Fi CERTIFIED 6™ AX200 (2x2) and Bluetooth® 5 combo (Supporting Gigabit data rate)
External ports
1 SuperSpeed USB Type-C® 5Gbps signaling rate (DisplayPort™ 1.4, HP Sleep and Charge); 1 SuperSpeed USB Type-A 5Gbps signaling rate (HP Sleep and Charge); 2 SuperSpeed USB Type-A 5Gbps signaling rate; 1 Mini DisplayPort™; 1 HDMI 2.1; 1 RJ-45; 1 AC smart pin; 1 headphone/microphone combo
Minimum dimensions (W x D x H)
35.79 x 23.97 x 2.29 cm
Battery type - 6-cell, 70.9 Wh Li-ion polymer
Webcam - HP Wide Vision 720p HD camera with integrated dual array digital microphones
Audio features - Audio by Bang & Olufsen; DTS:X® Ultra; Dual speakers; HP Audio Boost

Alienware M15 R7 - Ryzen Edition £1269
Tech Spec:

Dell Outlet Alienware m15 R7 Laptop
Intel Core 12th Generation i7-12700H Processor (14 Core, Up to 4.70GHz, 24MB Cache, 45W)
Windows 11 Home
16GB (2X8GB) 4800MHz DDR5 SoDIMM Non-ECC
512GB PCIe M.2 NVMe Class 40 Solid State Drive
15.6 inch FHD (1920 x 1080) 165Hz 3ms ComfortView Plus Non-Touch Display, NVIDIA G-SYNC & Advanced Optimus
HD Camera and Microphone
NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3060 6GB GDDR6
Dark Side of the Moon - LCD Back Cover
Killer Wi-Fi 6 AX1675 802.11ax 2x2 Wireless LAN and Bluetooth 5.2
6-Cell, 86 WHr Lithium Ion Battery
Alienware mSeries per key AlienFX RGB keyboard - UK
No Optical Drive

So the HP Omen comes with a 3070 where as the Alienware only comes with a 3060, other trade offs on the Alienware are the HDD size (1tb vs 512gb) and the screen is only FHD. However the Alienware benefits from a newer processor (i7 12th gen vs Ryzen 5800H) and DDR 5 RAM.

My main question is, is the trade down in tech specs/performance worth the increase in manufacture quality? I'm currently in the process of having to return an MSI Katana that I purchased a couple of weeks ago (similar spec to the Alienware) because the keys keep falling off the keyboard. I want to invest in something that's of a higher build quality to hopefully avoid similar issues in the future. Open to other suggestions around the same price and tech spec.

Thanks to anyone who takes the time to reply

[kalniel]

HP hands down for me - better screen res, GPU and SSD. The CPU difference wouldn't be noticeable, lesser battery life might be but that's not often a primary concern for gaming laptops.

I don't think there's any difference in build quality between the two, but I've not looked into those specific models - you often can't tell until you get your hands on them so make sure you get either from a place with good returns (you could always get both and return the one you liked the least).

[Sacred]

HP hands down for me - better screen res, GPU and SSD. The CPU difference wouldn't be noticeable, lesser battery life might be but that's not often a primary concern for gaming laptops.

I don't think there's any difference in build quality between the two, but I've not looked into those specific models - you often can't tell until you get your hands on them so make sure you get either from a place with good returns (you could always get both and return the one you liked the least).

Thanks for the reply, I believe the HP Omen has a locked upper power draw where as the AW doesn't so I don't know if in real world scenarios they may perform very closely from a GPU perspective. Agreed no chance I'll be gaming without power plugged in just need the flexibility to take the laptop to my partners or to my families when travelling and don't fancy lugging a desktop + monitor.

Do you know if the HP Omen is also a metal chassis or plastic? The Katana from MSI was "ok" certainly not a premium feel laptop but then at £700 which is what I paid for it can't expect much more. I wish I was in a position to drop almost £3k on two laptops to compare but I can only afford one

[Saracen999]

I did recently look at both Dell and HP options (different models), but as I ended up going for Asus, I'm not sure that'll help much. The Asus does have a QHD screen and Ill admit to being impressed, but unless it happens to be the same panel, I'm not sure that helps much either.

Personally, I wouldn't put too much weight on the SSD, because most (though, as I understand it, not all) laptops are relatively easy to either upgrade the SSD or add another. In my case it was a 1TB but I keep most stuff on a NAS anyway so either 512TB or 1TB would do. If planning on lots of gaming though, more SSD on board might be a significant factor .... unless yoy can add/upgrade.

All told, I'm not aware of any huge advantages or gotchas either way, and while there are differences in spec, nothing leaps out as huge. If your usage is specific, then there might be benefits one way or the other, like if gaming is a priority, what res do you want to be gaming at?

Beyond that, what about servicing? Warranty? etc.

Sorry, I know this isn't much help. I went around the houses over it for a while too.

[kalniel]

Some other things to be aware of - looks like the HP is a kind of UK-like keyboard - mostly UK layout, but a little bit of displacement around the enter key perhaps. And the Alienware is refurbished, not new, which I'm sure you knew.

[Sacred]

Some other things to be aware of - looks like the HP is a kind of UK-like keyboard - mostly UK layout, but a little bit of displacement around the enter key perhaps. And the Alienware is refurbished, not new, which I'm sure you knew.

Thankfully the AW is also new unopened (listed at £1450 ish but with 14% off brings it down to the £1250 mark) they've just moved them off the main AW website to be replaced with a newer model hence the price drop to clear remaining dead stock.

Does the TDP difference make much of a real world impact? The Omen is advertised at 100w but on the reviews I've found caps out at 80w, the Alienware despite having the lower spec card has a much better 130w TDP