Hewlett-Packard today announced a smaller and faster gaming laptop, and a bunch of gaming accessories. Chief among the latter is a pair of gaming headphones that feature active earcup cooling technology.
HP says that 46 percent of gamers reckon that comfort is the most important consideration when looking for a new headset. Not surprising when you consider that gaming sessions can last for many hours, and just like their hi-fi counterparts, many gaming headset wearers suffer from pinch and heat.
The Omen Mindframe headset seeks to counter the latter by cramming a thermoelectric device inside each earcup that takes heat away from the acoustic chamber and conducts it outside – something that's claimed to keep a player's head cool even when the onscreen action heats up.
Elsewhere, the headset's self-adjusting suspension headband is reported to create even weight distribution and the faux-leather cushions "offer pillow-like relaxation." DTS Headphone:X and 7.1 virtual surround sound should help gamers hear where the enemy is lurking, while a noise-canceling unidirectional boom microphone mutes when flipped up and unmutes when lowered, with volume adjustment available via the earcup.
And if a player needs to chill out to some music between marathon gaming sessions, the Mindframe headset can be cabled up to a music source via USB.
There's no price tag yet for the Omen by HP Mindframe headset, but you can expect the Omen cans to break cover some time in the second half of this year.
Among the rest of HP's gaming peripherals announced at the HP Gaming Festival in Beijing, China, were a new optical-mechanical keyboard, a 16,000 DPI USB mouse and an all-purpose backpack. And there was also the latest Omen 15 gaming laptop.
The 15.6-inch laptop can manage 4K visuals at up to 60 Hz refresh rate, or 144 Hz when in Full HD mode, with Nvidia G-Sync technology available on certain configurations. Bang & Olufsen audio know-how is given a mobile outing in the stereo speakers, the brains come in 8th Gen Intel Core i5 and i7 processor options and Nvidia's GeForce GTX 1070 Max-Q GPU handles the graphics.
The Omen 15 comes with up to 32 GB of DDR4-2666 RAM and HDD, SSD or hybrid storage options, with expansion and tweaking possible by simply removing screws on the base to get inside. This laptop will go up for sale on July 29 for a starting price of US$979.99.
Source: HP