HP’s new Omen X 2S gaming laptop slaps a tiny second screen on your keyboard

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Forget all your foldable smartphones, the true foldable is the laptop. HP’s Omen X 2S is the latest gaming laptop from the company and comes with a nifty trick. Above the keyboard, there’s a smartphone-sized touch-sensitive display.

That 6-inch, 1080p screen can then be used to show whatever you want. Want chat shown while you’re streaming? Pop chat out, press the dedicated button next to the screen and it’ll appear there. Same goes for any window or even any part of window that you can think of. Want a snippet of your online FPS game’s screen so you can see the map at all times? The second screen lets you pull that off.

You can also use it for boring things, like a numpad, playing YouTube vids, or even making your own macro pad. Think of it as a Nintendo DS screen that you can customize to your heart’s desire. It’s all powered by HP’s software too, so it doesn’t rely on game or software developers to code for its use.

In a marketplace crowded with same-specs, same-screens, same-shape laptops, this really is something different.

Image: HP

You don’t miss out on a dedicated touchpad either, like on Asus’ ZenBook Pro 15, or Razer’s phone-powered prototype from CES 2018. That’s nestled where the numpad usually is when you have a large enough laptop.

HP will sell the Omen X 2S as a pre-configured option with an Nvidia RTX 2080 GPU, Intel i7-9750H HC CPU, 16GB of DDR4 RAM, a 1TB SSD and a 144Hz IPS panel with a 1080p resolution, for the princely sum of $2,700.

You can also spec it out yourself, with options starting at $2,100 with an Nvidia RTX 2070 GPU, the same Intel i7-9750H HC CPU, 16GB of DDR4, a 256GB SSD and the 144Hz display. If your budget stretches to it, you can go up to an Intel i9-9880H CPU, 32GB of DDR4, a 2TB SSD and a blisteringly-fast 240Hz screen with G-Sync, or a 4K screen if you prefer.

HP will start shipping the Omen X 2S in late May, with in-store availability from June.

What do you think? Interested in this gaming laptop from HP? Let us know down below in the comments or carry the discussion over to our Twitter or Facebook.

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Joe Rice-Jones

Maker, meme-r, and unabashed geek with nearly half a decade of blogging experience at KnowTechie, SlashGear and XDA Developers. If it runs on electricity (or even if it doesn't), Joe probably has one around his office somewhere, with particular focus in gadgetry and handheld gaming. Shoot him an email at joe@knowtechie.com.