This Review is an in-depth comparison of the 2018 HP Omen 15 and MSI GP63 Leopard 8RE. Both laptops have similar specs and features but there are also a few major differences between them that may be important to you, so today we will be talking about every detail to hopefully make your choice easier.
General Info
| 2018 HP Omen 15 | MSI gp63 Leopard 8RE | |
| Series | Omen 15 | gp63 Leopard |
| Brand | HP | MSI |
| Model Number | 15-dc0106tx | 8RE -442IN |
| Weight | 2.32 kg | 2.2 kg |
| OS | Windows 10 Home | Windows 10 Home |
| Display | 15.6 Inch | 15.6 Inch |
| Type | Laptop | Laptop |
Both laptops are black with red accents but Omen has more angular shapes and sharp corners while the MSI’s edges are rounded. Looking inside we think that Omen looks much cleaner without any red accents on the keyboard or touchpad and the thin bezel display makes it looks even cleaner. The MSI GP63 has one red line on the touchpad and one large sticker on the wrist rest but despite that, the interior looks pretty toned. Leopard has also thicker bezels than Omen. On the outside both laptops kind of scream gamer
So let’s get into the build quality now. The MSI’s top panel is metal but the deck and bottom are made of plastic that feels cheap. On the other hand, Omen has a plastic bottom and a plastic top panel with a nice texture. The deck is made of metal and to be honest, Omen feels much more premium overall. Also, the small detail that is worth mentioning is that GP63 has small rubber feet that don’t prevent it well from sliding.
Display
| 2018 HP Omen 15 | MSI gp63 Leopard 8RE | |
| Display Type | IPS | LED |
| Display Size | 15.6 Inches | 15.6 Inches |
| Display Resolution | 1920 x 1080 Pixels | 1920 x 1080 Pixel |
| Dimensions | 360 x 263 x 25 mm | 380 x 260 x 29 mm |
| Display Touchscreen | No | No |
If it comes to display both laptops have few options available. The Omen that we are reviewing you has a 1080p 144Hz IPS panel with about 9ms response time and G-Sync support. It’s fast enough for gaming and the G-Sync provides additional smoothness for a better gaming experience. You can also buy Omen with 60Hz 1080p or 4K at 60Hz display.
The MSI GP63 has a 1080p 120Hz display with a 3ms response time but unfortunately, the G-Sync is not available here. It has a slower refresh compared to Omen but we wouldn’t consider it as a dealbreaker since, with the GTX 1060, you can’t take full advantage of a high refresh in every game. If it comes to color accuracy Leopard shows slightly higher numbers – it can reproduce 100% of sRGB color gamut, 88% of AdobeRGB, and the brightness is 350 nits. For Omen the sRGB color coverage is 96%, 74% for AdobeRGB, and the brightness is 329 nits.
Specification
| 2018 HP Omen 15 | MSI gp63 Leopard 8RE | |
| Processor Name | Intel Core i7-8750H (8th Gen) | Intel Core i7-8750H (8th Gen) |
| Chipset | Intel | NVIDIA |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 | NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1650 |
| RAM | 16 GB DDR4 | 16 GB DDR4 RAM |
| Storage | 1 TB+128 SSD | 1 TB+256 SSD |
Performance
| 2018 HP Omen 15 | MSI gp63 Leopard 8RE | ||
| Graphic Processor | GeForce | GeForce | |
| Processor | GTX 1660 | GTX 1650 | |
| Graphic Ram | 6 GB | 6 GB |
Multimedia
| 2018 HP Omen 15 | MSI gp63 Leopard 8RE | ||
| Web-cam | Yes | HD Webcam | |
| Speakers | Dual Speakers | Built-in Dual Speakers | |
| Microphone Jack | Yes | Yes | |
| Wireless Lan | 802.11ac | IEEE 802.11ac | |
| Bluetooth | v5.0 | v5.0 | |
| Memory Slots | Yes | Yes | |
| HDMI Port | Yes | Yes |
If we have to compare the speakers we think that Omen is a winner. It has enough bass, the sound is full, mids and highs are just on point and it’s loud enough. On the other hand, Leopard has really big speakers for a 15″ laptop and it can get much louder than Omen but somehow the sound is too flat. we couldn’t hear the bass almost at all. You can equalize the sound in the Nahimic app and it sounds a little bit better but still not better than Omen.
Battery
| 2018 HP Omen 15 | MSI gp63 Leopard 8RE | |
| Battery Cell | 4 Cell | 6 Cell |
| Battery Power Supply | 70 Watts | – |
| Battery Type | Lithium-Ion Polymer | Lithium |
| Battery Life | – | Up to 8 hours |
As for the battery life we managed to use MSI for 3 hours and 40 minutes when browsing the web and doing light productivity work. When the gaming battery died after 50 minutes. When we were testing Omen the same way the battery life reached 4.5 hours for light work and 1.5 hours for gaming.
Which is better!
When it comes to MSI GP63 we think that this is the laptop for those who are sick of overheating devices. It has a great cooling system which is one of the best among 15″ laptops. The display is not the fastest available but it has excellent color reproduction and brightness. It has also a great Steel Series keyboard with long key travel which is very comfortable to type on. Worth mentioning is that it comes with dual-channel RAM so right out of the box it will perform better than Omen. The weak side of this laptop is for sure accessibility. You can’t open the casing to upgrade the device without losing the warranty. It has also cheap build quality, decent design, and weak bass.
On the other hand, we have the HP Omen 15 which is a good choice for those who need some smaller divide than a regular gaming laptop. It offers a much more premium build quality, faster and smoother display with G-Sync, Thunderbolt 3, better battery life, and sound. Omen gives you a better way to upgrade the memory in the future but it may perform slightly slower due to single-channel RAM. For the weak sides of Omen, we can include a lack of control over the fans and the expensive price of the 144Hz model in the US. It’s also slightly louder than Leopard.
MSI GP63 Leopard 8RE
