HP OmniBook Ultra 14 Review: The Best Windows Laptop

The model I tested is not standard, which only has a 1920 x 1200 display. Although it’s useful, the $60 upgrade to a 2880 x 1800, 120-Hz display is a no-brainer. Unfortunately, HP forces you to upgrade your CPU to at least the 12-core Snapdragon X2 Elite to get it. It’s a frustrating boundary, since the ideal configuration is somewhere in between. These price points are very hard to swallow when HP is selling budget laptops such as the OmniBook 5 and OmniBook 3 and OLED displays at half the price. In fact, this configuration pushes closer to the value of the base of the M5 MacBook Prowhich also includes twice the storage.

Qualcomm Snapdragon X2 Plus works by itself. Graphics performance has improved significantly over the previous generation, even comparing it to the M5 MacBook Air in benchmarks like 3DMark Steel Nomad Light. While this doesn’t always mean it’s a world-class game, there’s more power here than you might expect. Multicore performance outperforms the M5, which is great for multitasking. Combined with color accuracy, the power of this CPU makes it a dream for photographers and videographers – although the lack of a dedicated GPU hinders serious video editors.

Photo: Luke Larsen

The battery is impressive, lasting 24 hours on a single charge with local video playback. This is comparable to the latest Intel laptops and MacBooks.

The Snapdragon X2 Elite version adds more performance (up to 18 cores), but costs more and doesn’t improve battery life.

Regardless of the configuration you choose, the laptop comes with four built-in speakers and a 5-megapixel webcam. The speakers are surprisingly good, providing full sound that makes listening to music a pleasure—putting them right with the 13-inch MacBook Air. The web, however, is not very intuitive. Although the 5-megapixel sensor ensures a sharp image, it struggles with harsh lighting. When I tested the camera with the window open close up, it produced blurry images and struggled to keep much of it in my face.

The MacBook Air remains hard to beat. They are cheap while being incredibly versatile. The screen is sharper than the base version of the OmniBook Ultra, too. If you are hesitant to choose between macOS and Windows, I still recommend the MacBook Air.

However, the HP OmniBook Ultra 14 departs from its high price because of how it compares to similar machines such as the Dell XPS 14 and Surface Laptop 7th Editionwhich is hundreds of dollars. While I like all three options, the OmniBook Ultra 14 is more versatile, has a lower price point, and is the only one with Qualcomm’s next-generation chips.