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HP Omen gaming gear at CES 2019 includes $5K Emperium 65 BFGD monitor [cnet.com]

After a year of waiting, the first Nvidia-partner Big Format Gaming Displays [cnet.com] are ready for prime time. HP [cnet.com] gave us a tour around its version, the Omen X Emperium 65, slated for February for $5,000.

But as with many Nvidia [cnet.com] products, the price seems a little hard to swallow for some. $5,000 may seem a lot compared to a good 65-inch 4K HDR TV (the Vizio P-Series Quantum [cnet.com] is only about $1,500, for example), but the BFGD piles on more capabilities essential for gaming. In fact, the HP goes beyond the initial BFGD spec as laid out by Nvidia. 

In addition to a built-in Nvidia Shield [cnet.com] streaming/gaming system, which lets you play Android and PC games [cnet.com] via GeForce Now [cnet.com], the Emperium comes with a gaming-optimized sound bar [cnet.com] designed to obviate the need for a separate subwoofer and to minimize vibration transferring to the display. 

It also offers a 144Hz refresh rate -- better than the 120Hz available on TVs [cnet.com] like the Vizio [cnet.com] mentioned above -- which is essential to minimize motion artifacts in games, and 4 millisecond gray-to-gray pixel response. 

You can only get that via DisplayPort, however, along with Nividia's G-Sync adaptive frame rate technology, which means your current (or future) console can't use it. Via HDMI [cnet.com], you're limited to 60Hz. So, essentially, you've got to have a computer sitting in your living room to take full advantage.

As expected, the monitor supports a peak brightness of 1,000 nits in HDR mode (750 nits typical) -- it's DisplayHDR 1000 [cnet.com] certified -- and the "greater than 300 zones" of full-array local dimming [cnet.com] is officially 384. It uses a Quantum Dot Advanced MVA panel, basically IPS, which delivers color gamut coverage of 95 percent DCI-P3.

For $5,000, though, you'd think it would incorporate the latest version of HDMI, 2.1 [cnet.com], which is better for gaming. The same goes for the connectivity, 802.11ac wireless (aka Wi-Fi 5 [cnet.com]) rather than 802.11ax (aka Wi-Fi 6) and Gigabit Ethernet rather than 10Gb for better cloud gaming [cnet.com]. While adoption is in the very early stages for all of those, if you're plunking down that much money you'd kind of like it to be future-ready. 

Now playing: Watch this: HP's 65-inch gaming display tops a list of Omen gaming... 1:26

Other Omen news includes an Omen 15 [cnet.com] refresh with updated mobile processor and Nvidia graphics technology options, coming in February (starting at $1,370), plus another update in July with options for a 240Hz 1080p screen and 802.11ax or Gigabit Wi-Fi.

HP also revamped its Omen Obelisk Desktop, giving it a design and feature set to appeal to a more hardcore gamer then previously. It's shipping in March starting at $2,250. International prices weren't available.

HP's Omen X Emperium 65 and more gaming goodies come to CES 2019 22 Photos [cnet.com]

CES 2019 [cnet.com]: See all of CNET's coverage of the year's biggest tech show.

CES schedule [cnet.com]: It's six days of jam-packed events. Here's what to expect.

• News • HP Omen Obelisk gaming desktop is engineered beyond its $849 starting price [cnet.com]

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