HP launches ‘VR-ready’ gaming PCs starting at ₹79,990

HP launched its ‘Omen’ portfolio of gaming PCs and peripheral at an event in New Delhi on Wednesday. The PC maker annouced the launch of five variants of laptops, one monitor and other accessories which will be available starting March 15.

Ketan Patel Senior Director, Personal Systems, HP India, unveils the OMEN series of gaming PCs and peripherals. (Saumya Khandelwal/HT Photo)

HP launched its 'Omen' portfolio of gaming PCs and peripheral at an event in New Delhi on Wednesday. The PC maker announced the launch of five variants of laptops, one monitor and other accessories which will be available starting March 15.

Prices for the Windows 10 based laptops and desktops will start at ₹79,990 and will go up to ₹1,69,990. The devices will be sold at participating multi-brand retailers, select HP World stores and leading e-commerce portals.

"Gaming industry in India is almost ₹3,000 crore right now which will become bigger as we move forward. HP has always grown faster than the market, the OMEN portfolio will allow us to do just that," Ketan Patel, Sr. Director, Personal Systems, HP India said.

VR ready systems

HP touts the Omen series of systems as being VR ready specifically the Omen 17 laptop which sports a high end desktop-class Nvidia 1070 graphics processing unit (GPU) and an enthusiast level i7-7700HQ CPU.

Patel said that the device is designed to support HTC Vive VR headset, but HP won't be bundling the headset with their system.

HTC sources have told the Hindustan Times that the Vive will not be available in India at least till the month of May.

HP had shown off their own Windows compatible VR headset in January at CES in Las Vegas but Patel said they have nothing to announce regarding the its availability.

Creating a community

"We want to create an online community for the OMEN brand to engage with and reach out to gamers across the country," Patel said.

Patel said that the company understand the challenges involving gaming PCs, " We will train staff at our retail spaces to ensure better understanding of the OMEN brand. We will work with game developers to ensure compatibility on our systems."