This is seriously an amazing laptop and if you have done your research you should buy it right away. Having the operating system on the 128GB SSD makes this PC lightning fast when it starts up; no more 2-minute-long waits to use your laptop when you first power it on! This statement as a standalone comment doesn't hold much water, but allow me to qualify it with a longer review. I am a nursing student and for our program we are required to have our laptops with us every single day just about everywhere we go and we are required to have a laptop with at least 8GB of RAM, Core i5 or i7, and a decent enough battery to last 4 hours or so without needing charged. When I began searching for a laptop, the direction most everyone went in my program was with Macbook Pros and Airs. The reasons cited for their choice included Apple’s ease of use, fast startup times, and program boots (I am sure the fact that Macs are trendy had nothing to do with it). When I started considering Macs, I realized I was going to have to lay down a lot of cash to get what I wanted and still meet the nursing programs prerequisites. Furthermore, I have been a Windows user most of my life and I did not want to have to learn a new operating system right before starting an intense program of study, not to mention that many of the apps and programs used in our program don’t run well on Apple products. Thus, what I knew I needed to do was find a laptop that could run as quickly as a Mac but not destroy my wallet. Bonuses in this hunt would include have plenty of space for my photos, videos, and music, the ability to play videogames, and being light enough to carry around all day. Enter the HP Omen 15.6” Laptop. In my quest for a suitable laptop, I learned about Solid State Drives (SSD) or what Apple calls Flash Memory. Having your operating system installed on such a memory source as opposed to a hard disk drive is what gives you ultrafast start up times when turning on the computer or waking it from a sleep or hibernation state. Additionally, installing programs like Word and iTunes on such drives makes boot times and usage incredibly quick. All attractive features for a time-pressed student like myself. The problem with SSD memory is that it is expensive. A Macbook Air with a 128SSD or Flash memory costs upwards of 1000 dollars, and that is all you get with it unless you want to carry around an external drive that costs you an extra 50 dollars. That is what makes this HP Omen so awesome. It has two separate drives--a 128GB SSD that contains the Windows 10 operating system and program files and a 1TB hard disk drive with a 7200rpm read time which is still much faster compared to the 5400rpm drives still found in some laptops. Basically, with this you get the best of both worlds. With the 128GB SSD you will get fast startup times and can install programs like Microsoft Office and iTunes onto it for excellent response time. Then you have the separate 1TB D: drive in which you can install your games and store your music, movies, and pictures without slowing your actual operating system. Whenever you install something, it will give you the choice for where to install the item in question so you can choose whether to place it on the lightning fast but small 128GB SSD C: drive or somewhat slower but massive 1TB D:/ hard disk drive. This flexibility makes this PC the perfect choice for those who want plenty of storage on deck but don’t want to compromise on operating system speed. As for the 8GB of RAM, which is plenty for most, I opted to install an extra 8GB of RAM for a total of 16GB in this machine. Many games today are requiring more RAM to keep them running smooth and as a student I am constantly multitasking with 10+ browser tabs open and the array of Microsoft Office apps open which are situations that having plenty of RAM is nice. The GeForce GTX 960M 4GB graphics card is awesome. It is by no means the top of the line, but I have been playing Doom (2016), Far Cry 3, Battlefield 1, Skyrim, and Shadow of Mordor with no issues whatsoever. The CPU is rated for 2.6Ghz, but by whatever process it is done the HP Omen has been pushing 3GHz plus and as such can run CPU intensive games like Doom. I am not an expert on games and can’t tell you about FPS and so on, but I can certainly say that I have been pleased with the performance. This laptop is light, thin, and way cool looking. I get compliments from people in my program all the time and I can’t help but brush off my shirt and say, “Yeah, it is cool, isn’t it?” Just kidding, but really this thing is a looker. In the way of negatives, the only things I can think of are that the screen may be just a bit too dim in very bright environments and the battery doesn’t last terribly long. By using the power saver power plan, I can get this to last about 3-1/2 to 4 hours, but a little longer would be nice. However, how much battery life can someone expect in such a powerful and versatile laptop? Overall, I would absolutely recommend this laptop. It has been a joy to use and I can’t tell you how nice it is to finally own a PC that I don’t have to sit around waiting 2 minutes whenever I need to restart it or power it on from a turned off state. Thank you so much for reading this essay and happy computing!