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00:00This is the first dual-screened or double-screened gaming laptop that we've seen on the market.
00:08We've seen other devices out there like the ZenBook Pros and MacBook Pros that sometimes have double screens,
00:14but this is the first one that was geared specifically for gaming.
00:17This is the HP Omen X 2S, and it has a little 6-inch screen right above the keyboard.
00:22They've added some functionality to the screen design specifically for gaming, we'll get into that later,
00:27but it's also one of the first laptops out there that ran liquid metal instead of regular thermal paste on the heatsink.
00:33Now this device is relatively thin, it's 20 millimeters at the thinnest and I think 21 at the thickest.
00:39It is a very thin device, but they've packed this thing with some very powerful hardware.
00:43It's running the RTX 2080 Max-Q as well as a 9th Gen Intel CPU.
00:48This thing can play games, but I'm going to focus this video on the two main features that I'm most interested in.
00:53First, the functionality of that little screen, like is that thing a gimmick or is it actually useful?
00:58As well as the thermal performance of this device given the liquid metal that it's running.
01:02So the secondary screen is a 6-inch IPS panel.
01:06It's positioned right above the keyboard and it's in a better position up here instead of the lowered position
01:11like we've seen on some of the older ZenBook Pros.
01:13In terms of its functionality, there's a lot of stuff that HP puts on their website to showcase how people could use this.
01:19Personally, I found it limited as to what I would actually want to do with it.
01:23For one, the screen is not super big, right?
01:25You do have a relatively small area to work with, but you can put stuff like Spotify or a secondary website
01:31or some kind of reference material down there.
01:33That works.
01:34You also have the option of running like a really small game on there.
01:37So you can get stuff like Dota Underlords, keep it running on there, your graphics card can handle it
01:42and you can leave your main screen for your work or whatever else you're doing.
01:45There is one feature on the screen that I'd never seen on any other kind of dual screen laptop before
01:50and I think it's because this is a gaming laptop, they've implemented this feature.
01:54So it allows you to take a portion of the main screen, zoom it up and put it into the mini display.
02:00So as an example, you can take the map of your main display, put it down there.
02:04You can put your cooldown indicators so it's more visually obvious.
02:07You can even put your targeting reticle and make it this zoomed up version of whatever you're looking at on the main screen down there.
02:14So it's slightly easier to snipe in certain games.
02:16The idea of it is cool.
02:18Like when you first see it for the first time, it's like, hey, that is very different.
02:21It's almost cheating.
02:22But the actual benefits of this are debatable.
02:25I found that when I brought the minimap from games onto the screen, it looked cool, right?
02:29To have this larger version of the minimap to refer to.
02:32But now your eye is looking further away than it normally does to access that information.
02:37And the same thing applies for cooldown management and sniping
02:40because now you're looking at the bottom screen to snipe and then back up to the main screen to kind of monitor what you're doing again.
02:46It's a little disorienting to be looking up and then down and then back up to do something that could have been done just by looking straight at the screen the whole time.
02:54The thing that I would say that kind of ruins this secondary zoom feature for me
02:59is that when game developers make their games and they develop their UIs for regular screens,
03:05they've built the UI and they've positioned stuff around the screen in a very optimal way for the player to just have one screen.
03:12And no matter what element of the UI I moved into that bottom screen, it never felt overly useful.
03:17You do have the option of running Discord or Twitch or running some secondary reference material of your game in that bottom screen.
03:23And in those circumstances, it is more useful.
03:26But for using the actual gameplay UI and putting it down there, I just found it a little lackluster.
03:32Okay, let's talk about performance.
03:34This device uses liquid metal instead of regular thermal paste on the heatsink.
03:38And in doing so, I think they've achieved a very thin machine.
03:43This is 20 millimeters thick and I really think that's the main reason why they chose the liquid metal instead of the regular paste.
03:50Because the thermal performance of this device is not all that great.
03:54If they had made this device thicker, we probably would have seen better temperatures.
03:58But because the device is thin and because it's running that secondary screen on the top, it depends on this bottom area to cool the system properly.
04:05So they've added a pretty big grill here.
04:07It's quite open, but it's not enough.
04:09I really would have liked to have seen lower temperatures.
04:11It doesn't throttle when you're playing lighter games, but it does throttle when you're benchmarking or you're playing heavier titles.
04:16Now, the product that they're using is this stuff.
04:18It's Conductonaut from Thermal Grizzly.
04:20I've used it before.
04:21It's liquid metal.
04:22And the company, Thermal Grizzly, makes some really good thermal interface materials.
04:27And I think these two products, like Cryonaut and Conductonaut, are some of the best stuff you can get.
04:32But I'm surprised at how warm the temperatures are.
04:34Like, Conductonaut, the liquid metal stuff that they're using in here, can get some really good temperatures.
04:39But the Omen is kind of mediocre on thermals.
04:42Okay, let's get back to the rest of the device.
04:45The keyboard has been shifted down because of this secondary screen.
04:49And it's actually a pretty good keyboard.
04:50I like how it feels and the keys are individually lit.
04:53But I don't love the positioning.
04:55They include a wrist rest that you can butt up to the bottom of it.
04:58And it makes it a more comfortable typing experience.
05:01But it isn't necessary.
05:02I didn't find it uncomfortable to type without the wrist rest.
05:05The trackpad's also on the right.
05:06It uses Windows Precision Drivers.
05:08And it also has these external buttons.
05:10So, here's the thing.
05:11At this point in the review, I've talked about the two kind of main features of this laptop.
05:16The thermal performance in light of the liquid metal, as well as the secondary screen.
05:22Both of those features are what HP used to differentiate this product from basically everything else out there.
05:29And I think it was a good attempt on their part in terms of what they were trying to do.
05:33They were trying to achieve something that no one else is doing on the market right now.
05:36And in that regard, it's commendable.
05:38Because they're trying to make something that is new, that is innovative.
05:42The problem is that these features don't make it a better product to me.
05:46It makes it a different product.
05:47Like, this is distinctly different from basically everyone else out there making gaming laptops.
05:52But it doesn't make it better.
05:53And that's where I'm a little bit disappointed.
05:56So, when they first announced this thing.
05:57When they announced the secondary screen and they announced that they were running liquid metal in this thing.
06:01I was very excited.
06:02Because I knew the potential of liquid metal.
06:04And I've seen what a secondary screen can do if it's implemented properly.
06:09Maybe I've been spoiled by a wide double screen from Asus.
06:12And maybe I've been spoiled by devices that have significantly better temperatures running liquid metal.
06:17But this device feels like a bit of a miss.
06:19It's not to say that it's a bad laptop.
06:21But considering what this thing costs and what it had the potential to do because of all its cool features.
06:27I feel like they didn't live up to the HP Omen name.
06:30See, in 2019, there are so many good thin and light gaming laptops.
06:34Like, they're super competitive with one another in terms of pricing, in terms of performance.
06:38And this device has the same thing as everybody else.
06:41It's running the same 144Hz panel.
06:43It's running the same kind of port configuration.
06:45And the performance is pretty good.
06:47But the features that distinguish this thing from the rest.
06:50Just, they don't feel like they're worth it.
06:52Okay, hope you guys enjoyed this video.
06:54Thumbs if you liked it.
06:55Subs if you loved it.
06:56See you guys next time.