HP Omen Vector Wireless Gaming Mouse Review: Battery Life Champ

Desk space is precious. That’s why incorporating wireless peripherals, like the best wireless keyboards and mice, can help free up your mind, letting you focus on whatever brought you to your desk in the first place. But when it comes to the best gaming mouse specifically, it doesn’t matter if it works cable-free if you constantly have to plug it in for a long time to charge anyway. 

The HP Omen Vector announced today attempts to be the best wireless mouse for gamers by keeping  players cable-free for longer with a battery that it claims lasts up to 180 hours and uses fast USB-C charging. There may not be much else exciting going on here, even at the $99.99 price tag, but the Omen Vector is a well-designed option.

HP Omen Vector Specs

Design and Comfort of HP Omen Vector

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The Omen Vector manages to feel solid in your hand without being heavy. If you want something super light that flings across your mouse pad as if it were ice, this isn’t quite it. But while comfortably filling out the hand’s grip, the Omen Vector almost seems hollow and is surprisingly easy to push around for something packing a rechargeable battery. 

HP’s wireless mouse is 5.05 x 2.94 x 1.65 inches and weighs 3.68 ounces. That’s lighter than it looks, but the Omen Vector is a little hefty compared to other wireless gaming mice around this price range. 

For example, the Logitech G703 Lightspeed is 3.40 ounces, not counting the optional 10g weight and smaller than the Omen Vector in all dimensions except its height (4.9 x 2.8 x 1.7 inches). The Omen Vector is also longer and wider than the similarly priced Roccat Kain 200 Aimo (4.88 x 2.56 x 1.69 inches), even though the Roccat’s slightly heavier at 3.70 ounces 

But in both texture and shape, the Omen Vector reminds me a lot of the Razer Mamba Wireless (4.95 x 2.75 x 1.70 inches, 3.74 ounces). They both are built so lightly you’d almost think that they’re empty on the inside, have shameless curves in the hump and thumb area and scalloped left and right click buttons providing spots for the fingers to rest. Both mice, as well as many Razer gaming mice, have a very subtly textured plastic chassis that first seems surprisingly mundane for the price.

After a few hours of using the HP Omen Vector, I came to appreciate the plastic chassis, which proved to have just enough resistance to prevent slipping, especially with a palm grip. Those grooves in the left and right click buttons also help with gripping, although they may be a bit shallow for some claw grippers, especially if you have smaller hands or tend to get sweaty there. HP designed the mouse for right-handed palm and claw grippers. 

The rubber that makes up the side grips is so hard though that you’d easily mistake it for plastic. They don’t seem like they’ll erode away very easily and didn’t get moist during intense gaming. HP was also attentive enough to have the crystalline design here match the design on the scroll wheel. The tradeoff is these side grips aren’t as luxuriously soft as some other rubber, more gel-like grips. 

Speaking of the scroll wheel, it’s sturdy and doesn’t wobble but makes a loud, raggedy noise when moving. Each notch in the tactile wheel’s movements results in an audible sound, but when you scroll up especially, the sound has more of a plastic rattle to it. This won’t bother everyone (my friend didn’t mind), but it annoyed me and made the mouse seem cheaper than it is. 

The DPI button’s font also leaves something to be desired. But at least the button’s raised enough where I didn’t find myself accidentally activating it -- even during gaming.

The mouse does up the ante though with some tasteful RGB. The two individually-controllable zones (see more in the Features and Software section) are the scroll wheel and diamond-shaped Omen logo. HP's software offers a variety of customization options, including having the diamond logo’s RGB automatically shut off when the mouse is moving, which is likely when your hand would be covering the RGB there anyway. It’s an obvious feature that I wish was more common, especially since it should help save battery life. That diamond logo also sits atop a stealthy “Omen” logo for a cool and complete look. That’s all topped with magnetic storage in the rear (south of that logo) for the Omen-inscripted dongle.

Should you choose to go wired though, including while charging the mouse, the Omen Vector comes with a braided USB-C cable that’ will keep the mouse operating at a 1ms report rate. This won’t be the case if you use a different cable, according to HP.

Gaming Performance of HP Omen Vector

With the mouse's 2.4 GHz wireless dongle, I never experienced any obvious lag or input issues, even when using the mouse alongside a wireless keyboard and wireless headset.

HP’s Omen Vector uses a PixArt PAW3335 sensor with a sensitivity range of 100 - 16,000 CPI, a max velocity of 450 inches per second (IPS) and can handle up to 40G of acceleration. This is comparable to sensor specs for other gaming mice in this price range. There are mice, such as the pricer Razer Basilisk Ultimate with beefier specs, including CPI up to 20,000. But for most gamers, this should do, and I had no tracking issues across multiple titles with the Omen Vector’s lowest or highest CPI settings.

The mouse’s CPI button has 4 settings to toggle through out of the box But if you download the Omen Command Center software, you can program up to eight or under four. This is great if you only use a couple of CPI settings when you play anyway. CPI is adjustable in increments of 100, so some will miss the ability to put in an exact value or even adjust by 50 (more in the Features and Software section).

One of the titles I took the Omen Vector for a spin with was Borderlands 3. All CPI settings tracked well, but I settled at 2,700 CPI. The mouse was responsive, keeping up with my most erratic movements. Comfort carried over to intense moments, where the thumb grip played nicely with me squeezing the mouse tightly for extra control.

The Omen Vector’s left and right click buttons use Omron mechanical switches that provide a solid, tactile feel. However, I’ve felt springier and lighter, meaning I’ve had mice with buttons that are easier to click rapidly and repeatedly, especially with a claw grip. Roccat’s Kain 200 Aimo has some very snappy clicks, for example. The Omen Vector’s precise scroll wheel, meanwhile, made landing on the desired weapon choice the first time easy.

The two side buttons are the smoothest plastic on the mouse. They feel pretty typical, although the forward button is a little easier to actuate since it’s thicker. Neither are all that satisfying to press, but both provide ample travel for accurate presses and are easy to reach without having to readjust the whole hand.

Battery Life of HP Omen Vector

HP claims up to 180 hours of battery life with the Omen Vector if you keep the RGB off and 80 hours with the LEDs on. That’s an impressive figure: Razer’s Mamba Wireless and Roccat’s Kain 200 claim up to 50 hours each. Even the expensive Razer Basilisk Ultimate, our favorite gaming mouse, only claims up to 100 hours and 20 hours with RGB.

Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time with the HP Omen Vector to run its battery up. But after 12 hours using the mouse with RGB at max brightness and speed and power saving mode, which turns off the Omen logo’s RGB when the mouse is moving, the battery meter still read 100% on the accompanying software (it only goes down in 10% increments). Following those 12 hours, I turned power saving mode off. After an additional 43 hours and 40 minutes, the battery meter decreased from 100% to 20%. That’s a total of 60:40 with about 80-89% of the battery draining, putting me on track to hit HP’s 80-hour RGB figure and besting competitors’ estimates for gaming without RGB.

HP also claims its new wireless peripheral is the “world’s fastest charging” gaming mouse, getting enough juice for 1 hour of RGB-free gaming after 30 seconds of charging. That’s partially due to the glory of USB-C (see our list of best USB-C laptop chargers), which charges products faster than the MicroUSB port found in many wireless gaming mice. The Omen Vector also goes into a powered down state after 5 minutes of inactivity.

But what if you need more than 1 hour of use? HP offers the following timeframes for charging up the Omen Vector. All battery life measurements are with RGB off.

Features and Software of HP Omen Vector

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HP’s Omen Command Center is a mixed bag. It takes too long to load, but while it does, it spits out jokes only gamers would get, such as “knocking out side quests” and “finishing raid,” to pass the time. The homepage, meanwhile, looks more like an advertisement, promoting rewards, games and the Omen website before offering up peripheral control. Once you get to the section for controlling the mouse, however, you’ll be pleased with the software’s simple and reliable interface.

The Power menu shows you battery life in 10% increments, although I’d prefer a more specific figure. Here is where you can also turn on Power-saving Mode, which turns off the RGB in the Omen logo when the mouse is in motion.

Omen Command Center lets you control the two RGB zones, including brightness and speed. There are preset themes, but don’t expect any amazing effects here. In fact, the Omen logo almost looks a little blurry because of how shiny the plastic is there. You also get a customization feature, including the ability to enter red, green and blue values.

The software’s where you program the six programmable buttons (left and right click, scroll wheel in, DPI button and the two side buttons) including with macro functions. This worked well, even when the software wasn’t loaded. But the Omen Vector doesn't have any onboard memory. That means it won’t remember your settings if you move from computer to computer on its own. However, If you download the software, make a login, activate cloud sync, and then log into the software on another PC, you can transfer your profiles. You can make profiles for certain games, but they won’t automatically launch with that game. 

The good news is Omen Command Center easily lets you set 1-8 CPI settings to toggle through with the dedicated button. There are also bonus features, like the ability to turn on angle snapping.

Bottom Line

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The HP Omen Vector is a solid wireless mouse. It offers good battery life with fast USB-C charging, a comfortable shape and lightweight build.

But besides impressive battery life, the HP Omen Vector doesn’t bring anything exciting to the table, despite carrying a $99.99 price tag. The mouse feels like many of Razer’s gaming mice and is quite similar in build and specs to the Razer Mamba Wireless. And while they share the same MSRP, you can often find the Mamba Wireless for significantly cheaper. If the two mice were selling at the same price, it'd be a closer race. The Roccat Kain 200 Aimo, meanwhile, can also be found for less money and has more standout left and right clicks. Gamers may also miss some bonus features, like onboard memory. 

But for a good-looking mouse that’s easy on the hands and that you don’t have to worry about charging much or for long, the HP Omen Vector is a worthy option, especially if you only plan on using it with one PC.