HP OMEN - 34" VA LED Curved QHD 165Hz FreeSync Gaming Monitor with HDR (DisplayPort, HDMI, Audio Jack) - Black

Never thought about the HP OMEN 34”. Till I read the reviews about it. This is a very good monitor. It is 165hz. It is not to big or heavy. I played my Destiny 2 on it a the colors do pop way better than what had before. Not it’s not the OLED curved. An it don’t hit your pockets. I would by this product again. I have not mounted the monitor as of yet but will be doing that this weekend. Will updat picture later.

Love this monitor! The picture quality is great and price for value is excellent. Consistent 165hz refresh with numerous options for saturation and performance. If you’re looking for a great ultra wide gaming monitor, you should definitely add this to your list. I’d love to buy another so my friend could enjoy it!

Before I get into it, here’s a caveat to keep in mind: my old monitor was a Monoprice Zero-G ultrawide (1st gen), that’s about as entry-level into ultrawides as you can get. So nearly anything after that is going to impress me. Here are my impressions to tide you over until rtings tests theirs and releases their findings. PROS: No dead pixels or obvious defects of any kind. A pleasing design with an immersive 1500R curve. Gives off professional vibes. Robust and intuitive OSD, even customizable! Speakers included (did not test as I have an external soundbar/subwoofer, but I understand this is a nice bonus for many as it will save desk space). Awesome “Black Stretch” feature in the OSD, allowing for richer colors, I set mine to medium. G-Sync works just fine (only tested at 120hz, but monitor can be overclocked to 165 per specifications). VESA Adaptive-Sync certification was a new thing I noticed, but was pleased to see it after reading about it. HDR, from what I can tell, looks fantastic in gaming. Not ideal for desktop/productivity, though (stick with SDR). Fortunately Windows has a handy hotkey to swap between the two and I assigned that to a macro key on my keyboard (Win+Alt+B). Keep in mind the caveat I mentioned above, I don’t know how well HDR on this monitor compares with other HDR-capable monitors. I did use the free HDR calibration tool from the Windows Store to optimize it by eye. Tested it in Microsoft Flight Simulator and, WOW! I now realize I’ve been missing out! Overall, after calibrating using the built-in Windows calibration tool for SDR display, I’m very pleased with the deep colors, contrast and surprising brightness of the monitor (it’s rated at 400 nits per specifications). Using a video I found online for monitor testing, I determined it to be roughly right around 350 (mind you, this is the naked eye measurement, but I’ve always considered your eyes to be the best tool to get the picture you want and, hey, everyone’s vision and visual preferences are different). Incredible value as I bought it for $379 at Best Buy considering the features packed into the display. CONS: Lack of ports (just two HDMI, a DP and audio jack). It’s heavy! (Specs say 23 lbs. with stand, so if using a mount, make sure it’s weight rated for the Omen 34c!) Some color/black distortion on the ends of the screen, but that’s par for course with VA panels. It’s a tradeoff I’m willing to live with considering the punchy visuals I get. Needs calibration out of the box, but that should probably be done for any monitor anyway to obtain optimal results for your eyes. A little difficult to mount due to not only its weight, but it’s awkward recessed area where the mounting plate goes, causing me to have to slide in the mount at an awkward angle. This may be more due to the mount I bought than anything else. Included manual is for set-up only with no mention about installing a third-party mount, the more thorough manual has to be downloaded from HP’s support website. Even there I ran into confusion as I thought a bracket was supposed to have been included with the monitor for third-party VESA mounts but there was none to be seen (after contacting HP, I figured out that it was a poorly worded line on their web page that misled me, and others, into thinking there was supposed to be a separate bracket to use). N/A: Response time. I play mostly slow games so this is mostly irrelevant. Also, I saw no noticeable lag between my keyboard/mouse inputs and the Omen. Color accuracy. As I don’t own a colorimeter, I have no way of verifying if the color is as accurate as claimed on the specifications (which is kind of impressive, actually, as they state 99% sRGB and 90% DCI-P3), and I admit it was a driving reason for me to buy this monitor. Summary: All in all, I’m pleased with my purchase. I was prepared to return it in the event that it was not G-Sync compatible (according to a review on Best Buy’s product page), but that proved to be unfounded. I decided to upgrade my monitor because I had enough of VR due to time constraints, motion sickness, and, let’s face it, it can be a hassle to set it up. I also wanted a monitor that would be fun to enjoy my flight simming with as well as preparing for the eventual Starfield release (talk about blacks and contrast! That will be interesting to see!). At the current sale price of $379, you’d be hard pressed to find a better bang for your buck in ultrawide monitors that offers quite a few flexible options to offer you the best picture so long as you’re willing to live with a lack of ports. I’d say I give this one a very solid 88/100 with its terrific colorful display being its greatest strength and the lack of ports its biggest weakness. NOTES: Used built-in OSD diagnostics for detecting pixel anomalies and the Eizo online monitor test for other tests (https://www.eizo.be/monitor-test/). I highly recommend using the Eizo test for quick but pretty thorough testing.