HP Omen 25 with FreeSync is £50 off at £199
The HP Omen 25 isn't the newest gaming monitor on the market. It’s not the biggest, the boldest or the techiest. But it is a seriously stylish gaming screen with a good feature set for under £200. Like all Omen products, the HP Omen 25 gaming monitor simply looks expensive. But unlike a lot of gaming peripherals it has a grown up and sophisticated feel, rather than that adolescent styling we've seen from others. It also ticks a lot of the really important boxes for serious PC gamers.
- The HP Omen 25 144Hz gaming monitor is available now from AO for £199
For starters, there’s the all-important high refresh rate, in this case 144Hz. That’s paired with a 24.5-inch panel size and 1080p or Full HD resolution. In other words, you’re looking at 1,920 by 1,080 pixels. Not a huge amount by modern standards for productivity, you say? Yup, but for gaming it’s the perfect fit for this class of monitor, especially for those on a budget, or with a less insanely priced graphics card.
That’s because more pixels means higher loads on your graphics subsystem. 2,560 by 1,440 pixels is nice in theory. But you need a very powerful GPU to drive that resolution beyond 100Hz. But even a mid-range 3D board will be able to take full advantage of the HP Omen 25’s 144Hz refresh in a lot of games.
What’s more, now that Nvidia is supporting FreeSync adaptive refresh, you’ll be able to use that feature with both Nvidia and AMD graphics cards. What else is there to know? Inevitably, the HP Omen 25 gaming monitor uses a TN LCD panel. That means really fast pixel response and low input lag, both big bonuses for gaming. Colour accuracy, viewing angle and contrast aren’t as good as, say, an IPS panel. But then a 144Hz IPS monitor is going to cost you a whole lot more cash than this monitor.
Specifications
| Panel Size | 24.5" |
| Panel Type | TN |
| Resolution | 1920x1080 |
| Refresh Rate | 144Hz |
| Response Rate | 1ms G2G |
| Contrast | 1,000:1 |
| Brightness | 400cd/m2 |
| Inputs | 2x HDMI 1.4, 1x DisplayPort 1.2 |
| Other | Freesync, USB 3.0 Hub, Headphone Jack |
Gaming Style on the Cheap
Premium gaming peripherals usually don’t come cheap. But this is a pretty attractive price for something that looks as classy as the HP Omen 25 gaming monitor. It’s not the best all-round PC screen for the money. But if gaming is a serious priority and you have a budget around the £200 mark, this slick gaming monitor should certainly be on your shortlist.
