A fortnight with HP’s 14-inch OmniBook X

HP’s 14-inch OmniBook X is the first Windows laptop to grace this desk in more than a decade that doesn’t have an Intel Inside sticker. In its place, a Snapdragon X Elite badge sits a few millimetres south of a screen-printed “AI” logo.

These insignia make it clear Omnibook X is not a business-as-usual laptop. At least not on the inside: The outside is very much business as usual.

It resembles every other modern ultrabook design. Remove the badges and you wouldn’t know it is special

Omnibook X versus M3 MacBook Air

The OmniBook X is roughly the same size as the 14-inch M3 MacBook Air. The everyday performance is on a par and the costs are roughly the same – expect to pay a little over NZ$3000. Putting aside the Apple-Microsoft cultural divide, the two computers target similar audiences.

Of course, there won’t be that many people weighing the pair up to make a buying decision. Even so, the contrast is interesting.

As already mentioned, the OmniBook X looks ordinary. Logos, badges and case colour aside, it is not that different from a MacBook Air.

Keyboard

At first sight, the keyboard appears to have bigger, chunkier keys. That turns out to be an optical illusion.

A ruler shows the backlit keyboard layout has almost the same dimensions as the MacBook Air’s keyboard. It measures 272 x 104 mm compared to Apple’s 273 x 109 mm.

It looks larger because the letters printed on top of each key are bigger and bolder. The print is so large it borders on being an accessibility feature.

Otherwise, the keyboard and the touchpad are unremarkable. The touchpad isn’t as smooth in action as the MacBook touchpad, but that could be unfamiliarity.

The one standout difference between the Omnibook X and other laptops is the dedicated Co-pilot key.

An unexpected old-school USB-A port

HP includes a legacy USB-A port, not something you’d expect to find on a 2024 MacBook. Fitting the port into a system this thin, the laptop is 14 mm thick, is an engineering achievement. There’s a small hinge to make it work. It means you don’t need a dongle to deal with an old thumb drive.

Otherwise there are two USB-C ports. You use one for power. If you want things like HDMI you still need to find a dongle. That’s also the case with the MacBook Air, but the Apple laptop has a MagSafe power connector leaving you two USB-C ports to play with.

Screen

The 2240-by-1400-pixel touchscreen has more pixels than you’d normally find in models in the same class and price range. It’s not bright by modern laptop standards.

It is distinctly darker than the MacBook Air and the colours don’t seem as vivid. In practice it is quite hard to view in a brightly lit room or in sunshine. My eyes need the extra brightness found on the MacBook. This alone is a deal breaker for me, but it probably won’t trouble most people reading this.

The screen is fractionally larger than the MacBook Air screen at 14 inches from corner to corner. The MacBook Air screen measures 13.6 inches across the diagonal.

On the whole, the Omnibook screen is more than up to the kind of task this computer will be used for, but that screen darkness is an issue. It may help with the extra long battery life, screen brightness can drain power.

Performance and battery life

Which brings us to the most important aspect of the Omnibook X. In terms of raw performance and battery life, Windows laptop makers have been playing catch up with MacBooks ever since Apple developed processors in-house using ARM technology.

Qualcomm has made bold claims that laptops built using its Snapdragon X Elite-packed laptops will outperform M3-based MacBooks.

This is not the kind of product review that includes careful benchmarks, if you look for them elsewhere you’ll see the Omnibook X scores a little higher than the M3 MacBook Air for multicore jobs and is slow for single-core processing.

Windows catches up with Mac

In practice, it’s hard to see much of a difference between the two. Every task I threw at the two laptops took roughly the same time on both machines. In the past, a MacBook would have been noticeably faster than a similarly priced Windows laptop.

What is now beyond debate is that with ARM chips like the SnapDragon range, HP is no longer a generation behind Apple.

The same goes for battery life. Until now, MacBooks would last hours longer than Windows laptops on a single charge. There is nothing to tell between the OmniBook X and the MacBook Air. Both last for around 15 hours per charge. For comparison, last year I tested a Windows laptop that struggled to get past four hours.

AI sounds good on paper, unimpressive in practice

HP makes a huge deal of the Omnibook X’s AI features in its marketing. The demonstrations of real-time video and picture manipulation at HP’s Sydney product launch were breathtaking.

In practice, the bundled AI software is more of a showcase for the technology and an entry point for additional spending on AI. The Omnibook X doesn’t get you to the AI Emerald City, it does help you take your first footsteps down the Yellow Brick Road.

There’s a Paint app that can tidy up your amateurish digital drawings. It’s fun, but hardly groundbreaking or essential. The language translation looks more useful, but it’s not instant. I didn’t get an opportunity to test it on live Zoom calls during the review period.

HP includes a version of Microsoft’s Copilot that helps you navigate the computer. You can find information and change settings. It’s easier than hunting down features through menus, but it isn’t going to set the world on fire.

Presumably the AI features will improve over time.

The bundled software doesn’t justify the premium price for an AI laptop over a non-AI one. You’d need an Adobe subscription or to spend a similar amount elsewhere to get the most from the hardware. If that’s your plan, the OmniBook X is a steal at NZ$3200.

Compatibility

Not having an Intel processor means there are Windows apps that the Omnibook X can’t run. I didn’t encounter any problems with the review machine, but reports elsewhere suggest a number of games and a handful of productivity apps are affected. It would pay to check the list before buying the computer.

HP 14-inch OmniBook X verdict

This is the first Windows laptop that can equal or better a MacBook’s performance and battery life. That alone makes it worth a look. You can see HP will be able to take this further over time and we’ll see competition return to the market.

The screen is a weak spot, the AI aspect of the Omnibook X is oversold and there are software compatibility issues. Otherwise, this is a great computer for getting work done, you’ll power through most tasks. If you’re buying it for business or studying, it’s good value.