HP Omen 27U 4k Monitor Review – A First of Many 144hz HDMI 2.1

In the day and age of 4k televisions, we haven’t really seen a full transition to 4k monitors as a standard. That can be for a number of reasons, including cost, need, performance, etc. I, myself, was a 4k hater on the PC monitor side until the Omen 27U showed up.

Overall, 4k seems scary, due to increased load on your GPU when gaming, or even the decreased icon size of the UI. Also, it’s even hard to find 4k with high enough refresh rates to satisfy nitpicky gamers. Now, we see change amongst gaming monitors, and the Omen 27U monitor is one of the few leading the next-gen gaming movement.

Style / Feel / Build / Hardware

The first thing that stands out about the Omen 27U is, well, nothing really, if we’re being honest. It looks almost identical to all of the other Omen monitors, which I suppose is bittersweet. We like consistency in the brand, but a little stylization doesn’t hurt from model to model. Nonetheless, we look past that, and we can appreciate the almost borderless bezel of the monitor. Desk space is saved with fewer bezels if you are using multiple monitors, as you can butt them closer together for a cleaner transition from panel to panel. Also, it just looks sleek, especially when the screen is on.

Next, the display screw-on stand is robust and easy to adjust, requiring just a little elbow grease and taking up minimal space. The 27U does not feature portrait mode rotation. The exterior of the 27U features a smooth-to-touch plastic frame with a bit of a glossy look. The Omen logo can be found on the diamond stand base, staying true to the diamond logo.

It seems at this point the diamond shapes aren’t going anywhere, but at least the 27U is weighted properly with a nice center of gravity. I’d like to quickly throw in that the Omen 27U is not VESA mountable, so for those looking for a minimal desktop, it looks like this one is going on the stand. One can also appreciate the simple touch of adding a wire management snake hole on the neck.

Looking a bit deeper into the monitor, the back features I/O ports that include Aux 3.5mm, 2 HDMIs (one port being HDMI 2.1), one display port, a desk lock, 2 USBs, and one USB-C intended for PC connection features such as the RGB on the monitor. Yes, the Omen 27U features RGB on the underside of the panel, leaving an underglow of your choice on the diamond Omen logo, and a diamond-shaped rear LED.

The underglow is one of my favorite features of this panel by far, opening up the door to beautiful customization, and highlighting some of my favorite plush toys on my desk. On the other hand, the rear led light is cool, and I can see what Omen was going for, but unfortunately, it just needs to be brighter.

If your monitor doesn’t sit up against a wall closely, the rear light barely presents itself. Moving forward, the Omen 27U is a misnomer of gaming displays, as it features speakers. If you are fatigued from your headset, kick back and take advantage of such a rare display feature. I can say that the speakers do not get very loud at all, so it’s barely a backup plan.

I did find the speakers hugely helpful when sitting down with clients, as I film a lot of videos. They allowed me to save space on my desk, whilst filling us in simultaneously rather than taking turns passing a headset.

Lastly, we close the hardware talk with the power and menu button knob. Once again, I find myself weirded out about the placement of the buttons. You have to awkwardly reach under or around the monitor to reach the power, and it’s even harder if you have stubby fingers or a monitor on the right side of the 27U.

It just seems like their design format leaves them in this weird final placement for these buttons. Overall, the button and knob feel responsive and the screen menu is easy to use, even though it’s easier to configure using Omen’s Gaming Hub software. The monitor also turns on and off relatively fast, which is always a benefit. 

Performance / Hands on Use / Features / User Experience / Analysis / Etc.

The Omen 27U performs just as well as the display looks. Generally speaking, most people are going to have trouble running a clean 144hz on any 4k monitor due to the load that 4k puts on your machine. That being said, the sharpness and beauty of this display shine through maintaining about 90fps-144fps on AAA games, like Apex Legends for example.

Regardless of framerate, there was no sign of screen tearing in sight due to the built-in sync support, and it stays consistent throughout your game time. Adding on to this, other than the small decrease in frames per second integrity, there is no other identifiable hindrance from using 4k with your machine.

That being said, I’d like to clarify that this Omen 27U review is conducted on PC’s with 3070 cards and above. Also, we tested the monitor by itself, and with two sister monitors with 1080p resolution and above, and there was a gain of about 5 frames on the dips when gaming. It wasn’t enough for me to turn off your 3-screen monitor setup, so stay bright nerds.

Next, the viewing angle in terms of sharpness is pretty good, especially on text processing, but you do lose quite a lot of detail in your shadows and blacks when looking at the 27U everywhere but centered. Moving on with some smaller talking points, if you are afraid of 4k due to the over-sharpening and decrease in the size of screen icons, I would not be scared of this monitor.

With Windows, you can increase icon size to a recommended size of 150%, and since you have the pixel density, everything remains sharp and clean looking. You will experience some icon shrinkage in some of your favorite software, such as Adobe in software buttons, but overall the icon size problem is negligible. If anything, everything just looks that much better, especially text and small details.

I don’t think I can go back to 1440p after using the Omen 27U, but maybe it’s just the first 4k monitor placebo speaking. Anyway, this monitor holds up on the brightness and color end as well.

Brightness output is enough to blind you, and that’s just how I like my screens, especially since I edit a lot of photos and videos. Color accuracy, brightness, and HDR are very important, and the 27U looks beautifully saturated, with large dynamic range when you want, and high contrast when you want.

The customization can be done with the monitor’s physical buttons, but Omens Gaming Hub makes it easy to get the best color for you out of the display. I like using the Native preset, but you can fine-tune the contrast and RGB inside the monitor’s hardware.

There is something about the color tone of the Omen displays, coming from using a 25i. The blues and greens seem to explode off of screen, and I can’t get enough of it. The details in your favorite video games just have a more vivid life on the 27U, and I’m sure the brightness is doing a lot of that work too.

Going back to customization, Omen Gaming Hub offers crosshair overlay for any game, specific settings such as edge precision, shadow vision, and response time control, which noticeably change the speed of the display. I can see the changes when you move your mouse cursor quickly around the screen. Keep an eye out for that setting.

The most fun comes from the lighting controls of course, along with Omens fresh Light Studio plugin, which opens the door for more users than just gamers. Light Studio allows you to connect third-party apps with your Omen ecosystem hardware, easily integrating all RGB products you own. I was able to sync my mousepad, Omen 27U backlighting, accent light, and room RGB lighting from Philips HUE all together with Light Studio, and my mind was actually blown by how easy it was.

You basically get a free HDMI sync box from HUE built into your Omen Gaming Hub software, so you can have your whole desk and room lighting respond to the game and video audio, as long as it’s coming from your PC. The sync box is a $230 device sold by HUE to integrate your TV with your room lighting, and now it’s free for PC users. Another loss for television, so you probably should start playing more video games.

I would like to point out a complication I have experienced with the Omen 27U. The display experienced “seemingly” dead pixels. First off make sure, you update your GPU drivers when using the Omen 27U. That will come in handy because at one point I thought the Omen 27U broke in less than 2 weeks. A full vertical green strip of pixels appeared on my left side display, and I was shocked.

Long story short, after unplugging, replugging, restarting, input swapping, wire swapping, AND updating the drivers, I was able to get the line to go away. This is when my heart rate reduced back to normal speed. Do not panic, and update your drivers. UPDATE, a few days later, the green line is back.

I believe it is the provided DisplayPort cable. I plugged in a high-speed HDMI cable to the HDMI 2.1 port, and haven’t looked back. It’s a shame if the monitor broke in less than a month, and also a shame if it’s just the provided cable. Either way, it provided a headache.

Conclusion

The Omen 27U truly brings light to the 4k display arena and the newly coming scene of 144hz 4k displays. There aren’t too many options, and I would say, if it’s in the budget, this monitor can be a contender. There are some negatives to this display, such as the lack of VESA mounting and my pesky green line dilemma, but overall, this monitor kept a smile on my face regardless.

There is no compromise in performance, brightness, color, or contrast. The price is also quite steep for most consumers, but for those spending money on 4k GPUs for gaming, I’d expect another charge to your debit card won’t seem like much of an impact. Also, the small features like the underglow are icing on the cake.

Noisy Pixel is giving the Omen 27U 4k 144hz HDMI2.1 Monitor, a B+.

I wanted to rate this display higher, but with the Display port troubleshooting, lack of speaker volume, underwhelming backlighting, and no VESA mounting, given the price of the unit, the B+ had to stick. I don’t like when selling points don’t follow through too well, and we will see how this compares to future HDMI 2.1 displays.

UPDATE 7-5-22

Monitor is VESA compliant, but you must use a rotating portrait mount, or an aftermarket adapter if your mount does not rotate. In my opinion, it is too many hoops to be concerned with in order to mount it. They should scratch the design and make it a normal square shape, instead of the diamond, but looks like branding wins this game. The learning curve to this was strange when going in blind.