Which is the Best VR-Ready Laptop from HP?

Virtual reality (VR) has made its ceremonious arrival into the gaming world and it’s here to stay.

If you haven't yet experienced this immersive and transformative gaming environment phenomenon, then you will most likely be doing so in the near future. The technology is not only consistently improving, but it’s also coming in at lower price points.

A VR laptop is fast enough to run virtual reality games or applications, and some laptops are engineered specifically to play VR games. Here are the best HP VR-ready laptops today.

VR headsets for your laptop

The two major options for VR headsets are the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive. These integrated headsets offer unique features - such as microphones, stereo headphones, and handheld input devices - to track your movements, enhance your field of vision, and keep you fully immersed in your VR game.

The Oculus Rift offers striking optics and impressive audio quality, with highly advanced lenses constructed precisely for VR. Thanks to a whip-fast 90 frames per second (fps) refresh rate, a low-latency tracking system, and borderless optical fidelity, you won't experience lag time, pauses, or tears.

The Rift comes with an Oculus Remote and Xbox One™ wireless controller to help you expertly manoeuvre your way through VR games with sensors that understand finger placement. So depending on your game, the control morphs into whichever item you're either holding or moving around.

The HTC Vive is another option for your VR headset. The Vive lets you create a virtual room and accurately tracks your hand and head gestures and movements (no matter how small) to project them into your VR environment.


It has a 1200 x 1200-pixel screen that refreshes at an incredibly fast 90 fps, like the Oculus Rift. The ergonomic Vive controllers provide sensors and an intuitive trigger that displays dynamic controls, in game, that change as needed for precision gaming.

To convey visual information that the human eye can see as “real,” it’s necessary to have a frame rate of at least 60 fps. And with the appropriate VR-ready gaming PC powering it, both Oculus Rift and HTC Vive deliver 90 fps.

Recommended specs

What kind of gaming system do you need to run VR games for either Oculus Rift or HTC Vive? A VR-ready gaming laptop must be powerful enough to deliver two high-quality video feeds to the gaming headset.

It also displays camera angles dynamically depending on where you're moving your head and body in real 3D space, tracks motion controllers, and displays their representations in real-time.

Here are the minimum recommended specs for both Oculus Rift and HTC Vive:

1. Oculus Rift

GRAPHICS CARD

• NVIDIA GTX 1060

• AMD Radeon RX 480

ALTERNATIVE GRAPHICS CARD

• NVIDIA GTX 970

• AMD Radeon R9 290

CPU

• Intel® i5-4590

• AMD Ryzen 5 1500X or greater

MEMORY

• 8GB+ RAM

VIDEO OUTPUT

• Compatible HDMI 1.3 video output

USB PORTS

• Three open USB 3.0 ports

• One USB 2.0 or better port

OPERATING SYSTEM (OS)

• Windows 10

2. HTC Vive

GRAPHICS CARD

• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970

• AMD Radeon R9 290 equivalent or better

CPU

• Intel i5-4590

• AMD FX 8350

MEMORY

• 4GB+ RAM

VIDEO OUTPUT

• HDMI 1.4

• DisplayPort 1.2 or newer

USB PORTS

• One USB 2.0 or better port

OPERATING SYSTEM (OS)

• Windows 7 SP1

• Windows 8.1 or later

• Windows 10

HP VR-ready gaming systems

To create the immersive experience that VR gamers need, it takes a lot of processing power as well as advanced graphics cards. HP® collaborated with Oculus and HTC to make sure that select systems are furnishing the best VR experience with Oculus Rift and HTC Vive certification.

The HP OMEN lineup features VR-ready PC gaming systems that are tuned and tested for the ideal VR experience. Select HP OMEN PC options include powerful HTC Vive hardware along with all of the other hardware needed for a truly winning VR experience.

With 6th Generation Intel Core processors with overclocking capacity, HP OMEN PCs are equipped to address VR demands. In addition, HP OMEN laptops feature up to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 graphics.

1. HP OMEN 15T GAMING LAPTOP

The HP OMEN 15t gaming laptop is a part of the HP OMEN family, one of HP®’s best and most ground-breaking gaming laptop brands. It has an 8th Generation Intel Core i7-8750H processor, which is one of Intel’s fastest processors, along with a 1TB hard drive.

It boasts enough memory for VR gaming and more with 8GB of RAM, in addition to Intel Optane™ memory, which is Intel’s innovative memory upgrade, at 16GB PCIe® NVMe. Intel Optane speeds your system’s performance and responsiveness without sacrificing the storage on your hard drive.

The 15.6-inch diagonal display is anti-glare, micro-edge, and energy-efficient WLED-backlit. And it has full high definition (FHD) at 1080p or optional 4K resolution.

An NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 graphics card, which is an integral member of the high-performing GeForce GTX 10 series, helps ensure that you’re ready for an awesome VR gaming experience.

The HP OMEN 15t is topped off with a zoned backlit keyboard and 26-key rollover that will help speed up your gaming reflexes.

2. HP OMEN 17-INCH GAMING LAPTOP

Larger and more powerful than the HP OMEN 15t, the HP OMEN 17-inch gaming laptop gives you a 6-core Intel Core i7 processor, 16GB of memory, and a 1TB hard drive.

You’ll enjoy near-SSD performance without sacrificing your traditional hard drive’s storage thanks to 16GB of Intel Optane memory for storage acceleration. This smart system accelerator learns from your everyday computing. So you can enhance your performance, in turn, with responsiveness, speed, and accuracy.

Excel at VR gaming with a larger surface area and sharp details via a 17.3-inch diagonal FHD IPS anti-glare WLED-backlit display with a 1080 p resolution and NVIDIA G-SYNC™ technology.

The Dragon Red backlit keyboard with highlighted WASD and customizable macros detects your keystrokes to help you avoid frustrating lag and image ghosting. And it happens to look pretty cool, too.

3. HP OMEN 17T GAMING LAPTOP

For more viewing area, check out the HP OMEN 17t gaming laptop. This 17.3-inch FHD display offers a larger screen space as well as a 120 Hz refresh rate to explore, fight, and play without experiencing any image ghosting or lagging during your VR gameplay.

It has an Intel Core i7-8750H processor, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 graphics, a 1TB hard drive, and 8GB of memory.

You can be certain that every one of your keystrokes is registered thanks to a backlit keyboard with customizable macros and 26-key rollover. Bang & Olufsen (B&O) dual speakers and HP Audio Boost help ensure that you’ll enjoy a rich audio experience for your VR gameplay.

All HP OMEN gaming laptops give you Bluetooth wireless and external ports (HDMI, Thunderbolt™, USB, and Mini DisplayPort™) to plug in monitors and gaming peripherals; they’re built for connectivity.

4. HP PAVILION 15T QUAD GAMING LAPTOP

One of the best gaming laptops that is also affordable, the HP Pavilion 15t Quad with 2GB gfx has a responsive 8th Generation Intel Core i5 processor, 8GB of RAM, and a 1TB hard drive.

It features a 15.6-inch, edge-to-edge display with a 144 Hz refresh rate and a 2GB NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 non-integrated graphics card, which means that you can easily swap it out should your future VR gaming needs change.

Enjoy rich and authentic audio with tuning by B&O Play, front-firing speakers, and HP Audio Boost. Play for hours at a time without worrying about being eliminated or losing a life thanks to a 10-hour-plus battery life with the baseline FHD display, and up to 7 hours and 30 minutes with the optional 4K UHD panel.

And fast throughput from WiFi supporting gigabit speeds on select models ensures improved connectivity.

5. HP PAVILION 15T HEXA-CORE GAMING LAPTOP

The HP Pavilion 15t Hexa-Core gaming laptop is designed to help you excel at gaming as well as other tasks. It has a high-performing 6-core Intel Core i7 processor (8750H), a 1TB hard drive, and 8GB of memory.

An NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 with 2GB of discrete graphics helps equip you with the performance you need for your VR gaming experience.

See more of your games on a stunning, edge-to-edge 15.6-inch display, and distinct LED lighting with matching accents are available in either Ultra Violet or Shadow Black with Ghost White.

Enjoy textured, authentic audio with HP Audio Boost, front-firing speakers, and crisp tuning by B&O PLAY. And a battery life of 10-plus hours will keep you playing without worrying about having to charge up.

6. HP PAVILION 15CX GAMING LAPTOP

The HP Pavilion 15cx gaming laptop offers more power in the same footprint as the HP Pavilion 15t Hexa Core.

Stand out during your VR gameplay with this powerful, responsive, and sleek laptop with a Hexa-Core 8th Generation Intel Core i7 processor, 12GB of RAM, and 1TB HDD of storage. And it has 128GB PCIe NVMe M.2 SSD, so lagging during your game won’t be an issue.

Play the latest resource-intensive triple-A (AAA) games with amazing picture quality, thanks to an FHD display, 1080p resolution with a 144 Hz refresh rate, and advanced NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1050 discrete graphics. WiFi gigabit speed on certain models gives you enhanced connectivity with fast throughput.

Get the performance and power that you will need to play from anywhere with the HP OMEN 15-inch gaming laptop. It has an 8th Generation 6-core Intel Core i7-8750H processor with a base clock speed of 2.2 GHz with up to 4.1 GHz with Intel Turbo Boost Technology.

This increases your processor's frequency by tapping into thermal and power headroom to give you the speed you need, when you need it, while enhancing energy efficiency when you don’t.

This gaming laptop delivers desktop-class graphics performance with NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060 dedicated graphics. Its 15.6-inch immersive, narrow-bezel, micro-edge, ultra high definition (4K UHD) display with a 144 Hz refresh rate lets you see details in your PC games.

Quicken your reaction times with the zoned, 26-key backlit keyboard. Enjoy easy upgrades and maintenance with single panel access to 16GB memory, 512GB SSD storage, and 1TB HDD.

And a generous port selection lets you plug in external displays plus your favourite gaming accessories.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Jolene Dobbin is a contributing writer for HP® Tech Takes. Jolene is an East Coast-based writer with experience creating strategic messaging, marketing, and sales content for companies in the high-tech industry.