New HP Envy 15 makes for a better gaming laptop than the Omen 15

HP recently launched its 2020 Envy 15 clamshell designed for content creators and high-performance multimedia users. It carries significant upgrades over the previous Envy 15 design including a move to 10th gen Core H CPUs and even a GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q GPU. Though HP isn't outright calling it a gaming laptop, its hardware and performance could easily pass as one.

As the third major laptop to carry the RTX 2060 Max-Q, graphics performance is just 5 to 10 percent shy of a regular mobile RTX 2060 as found on most dedicated gaming laptops in the market including HP's own Omen 15 series. The manufacturer has even integrated vapor chamber cooling for its latest Envy 15 which is a feature largely reserved for high-end gaming laptops or desktop graphics cards. Design-wise, it's significantly smaller and lighter than last year's bulky Omen 15 as well.

The one aspect preventing the Envy 15 from being a full-fledged gaming laptop is its lack of any high refresh rate display options which have become standard on dedicated gaming machines these days. However, users can still configure with OLED for essentially zero ghosting to make the system more viable for fast-paced titles. Certain gaming laptops are already shipping with similar OLED options including the Razer Blade 15 or Dell Alienware m15 series.

See our full review on the 2020 Envy 15 to learn more about the new chassis and its features. HP will be refreshing its Omen 15 series very soon which will introduce a sleeker and more minimalist visual design.