HP takes on Apple's External Graphics Kit with its new OMEN Accelerator

Last night, Apple announced the new External Graphics Development Kit to help developers build advanced VR and 3D apps using laptops. HP has now announced its own external graphics enclosure named OMEN Accelerator. OMEN Accelerator will allow consumers experience desktop-caliber gaming on their current HP laptop. In addition to the external graphics card, OMEN Accelerator also has a room for an extra hard drive or SSD, you can select between a 2.5” 1 TB HDD and 256 GB SSD.

HP OMEN Accelerator can be configured with either AMD or NVIDIA graphics. It comes with a 500 W power supply and it connects with laptops using USB-C Thunderbolt 3 port. It also includes a RJ-45 port, four USB 3.0 ports and 1 USB 3.1 Type-C port. The OMEN Accelerator Software will provide simple controls for switching between your laptop’s built-in GPU and the external GPU in your OMEN Accelerator and helps reduce lag and latency by prioritizing gaming network traffic to the front of the line.

HP OMEN Accelerator will be available in August, starting at $300. HP OMEN Accelerator will only work with HP laptops for now. Razer, Alienware, MSI and few other Windows OEMs also offer their own external graphics enclosures. Check out their respective websites for more details about them.