I have been using the HP Omen Mindframe Headset for about 2.5 weeks in a mix between office work, music, movies, and games. The biggest feature of this headset is its cooling ear cups. Every headset needs some sort of hook or gimmick to set itself apart, so I wondered how useful it was. To access the functionality of the headset, you will need to download the Omen Command Center from the Windows store.
Build Quality
The Mindframe headset has a nice looking build quality to it. The earcup shells are sturdy, and robust. The earcup material is a breathable cloth feels comfortable on the ears. The boom mic is one of the better flip down mics I have dealt with. The flip down movement has a nice resistance and a click at the end of its travel. The boom can be curved closer to your mouth to find that optimum placement – I found that the boom did a good job retaining its curved position. The cable is 6.5’ long and has a fully braided outer sleeve. Its connection feels solid, so I’m not worried about it getting kinked and losing connection. The LED ring around the outside of the earcups is perfectly blended into the frame, and looks extra RGB-gamery. The inner suspended headband is really nice and does of great job of distributing the weight of the Mindframe across the top of your head.
The only aspect of the build quality I have a problem with is the outer headband. It is far too floppy. The cooling earcups are the heaviest earcups I have come across, and the outer band just feels too soft and pliable. For the price range the Mindframe occupies, I would have expected a sturdier plastic or aluminum band. As a mechanical engineer, I understand that this band is flexible to avoid breaking under strain. If the plastic is too stiff, then it will crack under normal strain. At this point I would have opted for an aluminum support band inlaid into the plastic. This would have taken some of the floppiness out, while promoting the perception of a stronger band. You can tell people that what you have designed has been tested to withstand anything that you throw it, but if they perceive it to be weak you will have a hard time convincing them.
Comfort
The Mindframes are very comfortable. The ear cups are made out of a breathable cloth that feels plenty comfortable on my ears. The suspension headband design does a nice just spreading the load on my head. Even with the added weight of the cooling components. It took about 2-3 hours before I started to feel a hot spot on top of my head. That’s longer than I would have figured because these are some pretty weighty headphones. I have 3 other sets of headphones – HyperX Cloud Core, HyperX Cloud Alpha, and Plantronics Rig 800HD. I would rank the Mindframe’s last in my personal collection, but only by a little bit. I think if the suspension band was a bit wider it would help with the comfort. Regardless, my other 3 headsets are very comfortable, and the Mindframe is just behind it. Once you add the cooling in, the Mindframe gains an area of comfort the others can’t compete with, which is certainly worth something. I hate dealing with hot sweaty ears, so this aspect appealed to me. I think it certainly narrows the comfort gap between my headsets.
Cooling
First of all, this is not just a gimmick, The HP Frostcap really works. Exceedingly well. I found that my ears would actually be cold if I had it set up on high. The cooling has 4 settings – High, Med, Low, and Off. The cooling comes by way of a thermoelectric process called the Peltier Effect. The aluminum cold plate located inside the ear cup transfers the heat away from your ears and passes it to the headset frame. So as your ears cool off, the frame will warm up a noticeable amount. I have found this feature to be really useful when I am jumping onto my computer after going for a run. Feels great to cool down like that. I assume it will be equally nice in the summertime, but It’s December so I have awhile before I can confirm that. Overall the cooling is awesome, and if you deal with hot or sweaty ears it’s definitely a useful feature.
I had 2 issues with the cooling though. The first is that the headset has no onboard memory to remember the settings. Therefore, if you take the headset, and plug it into a new computer the cooling defaults to high and requires you to download the Omen Command Center on the new computer before you can adjust the cooling/lighting. This is both annoying, and silly to have to deal with. You can’t guarantee that you can download the software on every computer you wish to game on (i.e. gaming café’s). The second issue being the added weight of the cooling apparatus. These are by far the heaviest headsets I own, and I would attribute the bulk of that added weight to the cooling system. I don’t think there is any way around this, so it may be a necessary evil if you want the cooling.
Sound
The Mindframe’s are locked into 7.1 channel, and as of now there is no way to change that. You can use Windows Sonic to adjust the EQ’s or get the Dolby Atmos app for headsets. Either way you can improve your listening experience with one of these options. However, since it is locked to 7.1 I have to break the sound quality out into the use cases.
5.1/7.1 mixed audio for movies
5.1/7.1 mixed audio for games
Any stereo sound
For listening to 5.1/7.1 audio for movies, I feel like the Mindframe’s did a pretty decent job giving me good sound reproduction. Dialogue was nice and clear, and the virtual surround sound didn’t sound too bad. The amount of bass in the headphones was adequate and not overblown. Mids and highs were good as well. When I enabled my Atmos app, I did notice an overall improvement in the sound reproduction for the virtual surround.
For listening to 5.1/7.1 audio for games, I again thought the Mindframes did a good job. Game sounds were nicely rendered – gunfire sounded sharp, and explosions deep. The virtual surround sounded great, and you could differentiate where the noises were coming from. Again, with Atmos enabled, the mixing sounded improved, but not as drastic as with the movies/TV.
For stereo sound, whether it was chats, music, youtube, etc the sound quality took a hit. That forced virtual 7.1 makes the sound come through as hollow. Chats were mostly OK, but a true stereo headset just sounded better. Music was also impacted and didn’t sound the best. It did sound better than my cheap earbuds but compared to a stereo headset it was subpar. It would be amazing if I could just toggle the sound mixing between stereo and multichannel depending on my current use case. This part of the Omen Command Center feels under realized, as they could likely implement this sort of control of EQ’s in their software.
The mic sound is perfectly acceptable. I have only used it for Skype calls, and other web applications at work. I have done a few recordings for, and the playback sounds just fine as well. Overall, the mic does a good job of filtering out the background noise and just picking up my voice.
Other Areas/Features
There really aren’t too many other features to come with these headsets. They have a volume control knob on the backside of the right earcup. This controls the system volume of your computer. I am not a fan of its placement since every time I put them/take them off I accidentally move the scroll wheel. That’s only a small issue, and I’m sure with more use I will train myself to stop moving the volume knob each time.
The only other feature I can think of is the LED effects. Each earcup has an LED ring on the outside of the earcup frame. You can make the color solid, rotate through colors, or have it match the sounds being produced. The LED’s serve no purpose other than looking cool, which they accomplish
Conclusion
Overall, if you remove the cooling aspect of the Mindframe’s from the equation, they are an average set of headphones. For music and non 5.1/7.1 mixed sources, a set of regular stereo headphones would serve you better. For gaming and watching movies (5.1/7.1) the Mindframe sounds above average. The mixing is pretty good and the virtual surround is nice. You do need to take into account the usefulness of the Frost Cap though when looking at these because it is such a cool (no pun intended) feature. I deal with sweaty ears with both of my HyperX’s, and warm ears with my Rig’s. With the Mindframe’s I am kept nice and cool. One of the last things you want to do while playing is pull an ear cup off to let you ear breathe a bit.
I liked these headsets quite a bit, but for now they are not 100% my daily drivers. I keep my HyperX Cores at my desk for music playback, while the Mindframe’s handle the rest of the audio tasks. If HP were to implement an EQ into the Omen Command Center, and allow toggling the virtual surround on/off I think these would be a total homerun. As of right now, the software and audio control let them down.
