HP Omen Mindframe Review – Headphones that cool your head?

The HP Omen Mindframe have been released recently, and they have pretty unique features that make them stand out from other headphones. These are interesting and very cool headphones (pun intended) but they’re not a good buy. Here’s why.

Pricing & Availability

The HP Omen Mindframe Gaming Headphones cost $199, and you can buy them from Amazon. They haven’t been released in India yet, but we’ll update here when they do.

The price is really high, more than what other companies ask for their flagship headphones. HyperX Cloud Revolver S ($149), Razer Man’OWar Wireless ($169), or SteelSeries Artics 7 Wireless ($149) cost marginally less.

These headphones are not wireless, nor is the sound all that great. So what do these headphones really offer that demands this high price-tag?

FrostCap Technology, Design and Comfort

The defining feature of these headphones is this FrostCap technology that HP packs into them. The Omen Mindframe Headphones have thermoelectric coolers inside each of the earcups, which cool the grill plates present on the inside of these headphones.

So, the interior chambers of these headphones always stay cool while you use them. As a result, your ears won’t get heated up for long periods of usage. The FrostCap tech actually works really well – your ears will stay relatively cool while using these headphones for a long period of time, which is very useful for those long gaming sessions.

But here’s the thing – the usefulness of this feature will be quite subjective depending on the user.

During the scorching heat of Indian Summers, these headphones will be a gift from heaven.

Same goes for countries like Indonesia, Philippines, and Brazil where the climate is often uncomfortably hot. People staying in such countries are going to love this FrostCap tech, but others won’t find this feature very useful.

The design of these headphones is mostly based on plastic. Another disappointment – I don’t expect these headphones to last long and even the headband creaks while flexing it. Not something you’d expect from a pair of $200 Gaming Headphones.

The headphones weigh at 475 grams, while headphones like the HyperX Cloud Alpha weigh much less at 336 grams. Not too much of an issue, but these definitely feel bulky.

The fit & comfort level is very subjective too. Those with large ears could actually get in contact with those aluminium grille plates present inside the earcups which wouldn’t be comfortable at all. But generally, these fit well with plenty of isolation and good pressure levels.

The earcups are rounded and have breathable mesh pads, so as long as they fit, no moisture build-up or listening fatigue should happen.

The headphones also feature RGB Lighting with 16.8 Million colours, with different effects or completely turned off. All this is customizable through the HP Omen Command Centre. The same software is used to control the intensity of the FrostCap cooling technology.

There’s volume control present on one of the earcups of these headphones, but it would have been great if the FrostCap tech was controllable this way too. If you’re going to use these headphones anywhere else, you’ll have to download the OMEN Command Centre software to control this setting again.

Sound Quality, 7.1 Virtual Surround Sound and Microphone

The headphones fall short in all of these.

Starting with the sound quality, the HP Omen Mindframe Headphones sound inferior to many headphones that cost half as much. Don’t get me wrong, they sound pretty decent but nothing of what you’d expect out of $200 headphones.

HyperX’s Cloud Revolver S Headphones (costing $149.99) have Dolby’s 7.1 Surround Sound and that surround sound system works much better than the HP Omen Mindframe headphones. There’s inferior immersion, less distinctive positioning, and it just doesn’t sound good at all.

To make it worse, the 7.1 Virtual Surround Sound in these headphones is not controllable – every other headphones manufacturer has given some way of controlling this, and I really hope HP gives the feature to turn it off in the future through a software update.

The mic quality is decent enough, but again, has lower quality than competing headphones costing less. It sounds good enough, but streamers or content creators cannot rely on them and will have to use an external mic setup.