What on Earth is HP doing with its gaming laptop branding?

Among HP’s many announcements for CES, its biggest overall change is for its gaming division. HP’s Omen line of gaming laptops, monitors, and desktops are dropping the HP name entirely and instead will henceforth be branded as HyperX. The HP Omen 16 Max laptop becomes the HyperX Omen 16 Max. HP Omen monitors will become HyperX Omen monitors. And even the HP Victus 15’s spiritual successor will be a HyperX Omen 15.

This all strikes me as odd, and all these new computers and monitors with the spelled-out HyperX or shortened Hx logos look a bit low-rent to my eyes. There’s just something about that logo on a computer that seems chintzy.

HyperX was a gaming brand that HP acquired in 2021. At that time, it was well-known and regarded for its gaming headsets, mice, microphones, and keyboards, but it started back in 2002 under Kingston making DDR1 RAM sticks. Omen, on the other hand, has a pedigree based in making actual computers. It stems from the lineage of another HP acquisition, VoodooPC, a Canadian company founded way back in 1991 that made unique desktops.

If you’ve never experienced lower-back pain and are therefore too young to be familiar with VoodooPC, PC World’s look back at the 2009 HP Firebird gives a good glimpse into the company’s ingenuity. And HP’s own cube-shaped Omen X desktop from 2016 was another example of the bold design it inherited (and also squandered) with Voodoo / Omen.

I may not have the love for HyperX like some folks do, but I’ve got nothing against its products or the darling status it had among gamers pre-HP acquisition. It made nice accessories, including headsets that were beloved for their lightweight comfort and streaming-focused microphones known for their iconic RGB lighting. Even recently, under HP, it introduced some interesting mice with novel ideas about customization.

But it was always an accessory brand and often a “bang for your buck” one at that. So it’s super weird to me that the accessory brand now has its name elevated to laptop, desktop, and monitor status instead of the higher-level Omen name trickling down to some keyboards, mice, headsets, and mics. (Not that I’m rooting for the HyperX name to go away.)

When I see that logo on a laptop I can’t help thinking of no-name brands sold by the likes of Amazon and Newegg — the types I tell family and friends to stay away from in favor of established ones like HP Omen / Victus, Lenovo Legion, and Asus ROG (to name a few). I know that’s not the case with HyperX, and I’ll get used to recommending them the same I do with the equivalent HP models now. But this feels like an unforced error.

As HP reps were excitedly telling me about their new unified branding, it took me right back to a year ago, watching Dell execs willfully shoot themselves in the foot when they announced the death of their XPS brand in favor of lesser-sounding laptop names. 364 days later, Dell is doing an about-face and XPS laptops are back. When Dell COO Jeff Clarke recently announced that reversal to a room full of media members and analysts, he capitulated, “Marketing matters.” Now, HyperX-ing all the things feels like a similarly bad omen for HP.