We have already seen several of the major laptop brands such as Dell and Acer release this year's gaming models with the updated Nvidia Max-Q GTX 1070 designs plus the impressive 8th-gen I9 CPUs.

Not to be left behind, HP have updated their beast of a gaming laptop, the Omen 15. It is smaller than last years model by  7.4% in width and 4.6% smaller in depth though at 5.56 pounds or 2.52kg it is a bit weightier than the XPS 15 by about 0.7kg.

As usual with gaming laptops, you get plenty of specification options and the Omen 15 will include:

  • Intel Core i7-8750H (six cores running at 2.2GHz with 4.1GHz TurboBoost)
  •  Nvidia GTX options going from the GTX 1050 to the GTX 1070 with MAX-Q Design
  •  8GB or 16GB of DDR4-2666MHz RAM
  • Dual storage setup (128GB or 512GB SSDs and 1TB hard drive)
  • 15.6-inch IPS 1920 x 1080 screen at 60Hz or 144Hz (or there’s a 4K 60Hz option)
  • 70WHr battery with “up to six hours and 15 minutes” of mixed usage
  • A gaming-oriented keyboard that offers 26-key rollover and four lighting zones on selected models

The pricing for the Omen 15 looks quite competitive with options starting at £879.99 or €999. Availability should be from June

In conjunction with the laptop launch, HP has also announced the HP Sequencer Keyboard which is a mechanical keyboard using industry leading optical-mechanical Blue switch technology that provides a 0.2ms response time. These switches are different than your traditional mechanical options which due to its light bars that register each keystroke faster than a typical mechanical option can while retaining the tactile feel. This new technology comes at a price though and it should be available in July for €179.99 – they didn't quote UK pricing but that works out as £157.82 using today's exchange rate