There is an all-new wave of Copilot+ Laptops gracing the market at the moment, and HP’s new offer, the OmniBook is one of the first in this new batch. We have been trying to get our hands on one of the new laptops, and HP was kind enough to send us a review unit. Priced at around $1049.99, the laptop, which is powered by the all-new Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 processor, is a mix of functionality, HP’s signature design, and a potent 30-hour battery.
Is this the device that can herald an all-new era of laptop computing for HP and the market? We decided to find out for ourselves. Without further ado, let’s dive right into the all-new HP OmniBook X.
Table of Contents
Design
When it comes to the design, we found that while it does retain that HP design language, the overall package is not much of an eye-catcher. The brand has been known for their rather out-of-the-box design ideas in the past, and we expected to see something a bit quirkier, seeing that it is an all-new series, but that is not the case here. Having said that, the device itself is quite rugged to hold, given that the company has performed 19 MIL-STD torture tests on it, and has passed them all. The colourway is gray with a reflective silver HP logo on the top of the lid, which is quite typical.
HP claims that the chassis has been made using recycled materials which includes 50% recycled Aluminium, 50% recycled plastic on the keycaps, and some small amount of ocean bound plastic in the speaker box. It has become a sort of trednt ot see big brands trying to make their products sustainable, and HP is right up there with the rest of the competition. NICE.
Along with the sturdy build, the HP OmniBook X is very light, weighing in at just around 1.3 kg, which is around half a kg lighter than similar laptops in its segment. Now, on opening up the laptop, you will see a pretty standard issue backlit keyboard and a very standard touchpad. Since this is a Copilot Laptop, we do get the dedicated Copilot key, which immediately summons up the AI assistant. HP has also affixed the blue helix sticker on the right hand side of the palm rest, which indicates that the laptop is ‘AI-Ready’.
What really stands out in the OmniBook X, is its 14.4 inch display, and for good reason. HP has decided to treat its customers with a rich 2.2K (2,240-by-1,400-pixel) resolution, which is also a touch panel. The only gripe I have with this is that a Full HD (1080p) OLED panel would have been a better alternative as the colours are pretty rich as compared to the IPS panel which has been employed.
When it comes to the webcam, HP has hit it out of the park yet again, with a brilliant 5MP webcam that has been placed centered above the display. Obviously, we have the support for Windows Hello facial unlock, and the privacy shutter has also been retained this time around. Low light performance is more than decent, which is helpful when you need to answer your video calls in areas where natural and artificial lighting are not up to the mark. Support for WiFi 6E and Bluetooth ensures that you can seamlessly connect and use other peripherals as well.
Coming to the rest of the device, we have two USB-C ports on the left edge, while the right hand side of the device features a USB-A port and a headphone jack. The slim profile of the OmniBook X means there is no HDMI port, but that is not an issue these days, thanks to the slew of adapters that are available in the market. The charging cable itself is a Type-C, so you will have to employ of the two ports when you need to charge the laptop.
All in all, the HP OmniBook X is a case of “don’t fix it if it isn’t broken” in terms of the design. HP has put in all the components and together, the package works out beautifully. Neither is it too flashy to grab eyeballs in public, nor it too underwhelming, making it a decent enough option if design is something you value a lot while making a laptop purchase.
Performance and AI
In order to be called a Copilot+ PC, the device must have components that allow it to perform AI tasks locally, rather than depending on cloud storage or computing. Right now, only the Snapdragon X processors are capable of achieving this feat, which is why HP has gone for the same. There have been reports that Intel and AMD will be coming out with their own Copilot qualified AI processors later this year, but it looks like Qualcomm has taken the lead in this race.
What is interesting here is that Qualcomm has built their chips on the ARM architecture, which is a stark contrast to the X86 architecture that Intel and AMD have been using for their chips. ARM has not really worked well on Microsoft platforms in the past, but it looks like both Qualcomm and Microsoft have ironed out the wrinkles this time around, and what we have is a chip that is lot more stable, and ready to take on the most demanding AI based tasks. Obviously, since ARM was not the architecture of choice for Microsoft in the past, there are some apps that do not run by default on this new platform.
To solve this, Microsoft has bundled in the new Prism emulation tool, which performed to the billing, and I had absolutely no problems running the apps and software that I wanted to. Performance using the emulator was also smooth and mostly lag free. As you can tell, heavier the app, the chance of lagging on an emulator is that much larger. But overall, the Prism emulator does a great job.
Powering the HP OmniBook X is the Snapdragon X Elite (X1E-78-100 version). For those of you who are not so in sync with these new processors, the 78-100 version is a 12-core chip with a 3.4GHz clock speed. While the dual boost capability is not present (you can get that in the 80 and 84 models), the NPU is rated at 45 TOPS, which is constant across all the flavours of the X Elite chip.
On the OS front, the OmniBook X features Windows 11 Home, and features 16GB of RAM and 1TB SSD storage.
Now, let’s take a deep dive into the benchmarks –
Some of our regular performance tests, including UL’s PCMark 10 and 3DMark Night Raid and Time Spy, didn’t work with the HP OmniBook X, as these are designed for x86 systems, not Arm. We also couldn’t run our Adobe Photoshop utility. To cover these gaps, we used other tests for the CPU, graphics, and AI performance.
We compared the OmniBook to other laptops, such as Microsoft’s Surface Laptop and the upcoming HP EliteBook Ultra G1q, both using Snapdragon chips. There’s also the Acer Swift Go 14 with an AMD Ryzen 7 chip and two Intel Core-powered laptops: the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 2-in-1 and the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED. While each system varies in some aspects, they are similarly sized and priced. The EliteBook shares the same chip as the OmniBook, while the Surface Laptop has a more advanced X Elite chip. The other laptops rely on Intel and AMD processors but without the AI focus expected in upcoming models.
In our first set of tests, which assess content creation, office tasks, and raw CPU speeds, we skipped PCMark 10 due to compatibility issues with Snapdragon. Instead, we focused on video editing. We used HandBrake 1.8 to convert a 12-minute 4K video to 1080p. We also ran older tests like Cinebench R23 and Geekbench 5.4 to gauge the CPU’s ability to handle tasks like rendering a scene and running apps. To account for Snapdragon’s newer architecture, we included Cinebench 2024 and Geekbench 6.3, which are optimized for Arm systems.
The OmniBook held up well in most tests, though it lagged behind in a few. For its price, it offers solid performance, especially when compared to the Surface Laptop with a higher-tier chip. While there are some compatibility concerns with apps, those that ran via emulation didn’t perform too badly, and overall productivity and media tasks were quick.
Next, we ran tests focused on AI performance. One key test was UL’s Procyon AI Computer Vision Benchmark, which runs AI tasks like machine vision using various neural networks. Here, the Snapdragon X Elite systems, including the OmniBook, were evaluated using Qualcomm’s AI engine, while Intel systems used a different AI model. The numbers from these tests gave a clear view of how the X Elite systems compare, though it’s hard to directly measure them against the x86 machines.
Geekbench’s machine learning test also checked the systems’ ability to handle AI tasks by testing the CPU and GPU. For graphics, we were somewhat limited, but UL’s 3DMark Wild Life test, which measures GPU performance using the Vulkan API, was used at both 1440p and 4K resolutions. We also ran Steel Nomad, a test that uses APIs common in game development. The results showed the Snapdragon systems were comparable, though not meant for heavy gaming. Laptops with discrete GPUs from Nvidia or AMD are better suited for demanding graphics.
We test battery life by running a locally stored 720p video (Tears of Steel) with the display at 50% brightness and audio at 100%. The Wi-Fi and keyboard backlighting are turned off during the test. For display quality, we use a sensor to measure color accuracy and brightness.
The Snapdragon CPUs are known for their efficiency, and the OmniBook X 14 showed impressive battery life. With a 30-hour runtime, it’s clear that you can use it throughout a full day of work or school. As for the display, it’s decent but not particularly bright, so you may need to increase the brightness in certain settings.
Conclusion
The HP OmniBook ushers in a new era for HP Laptops and as far as first impressions go, the brand has done no wrong. Sure, the design can be a bit more flamboyant, but personally, I feel it is important to get the fundamentals right, and the then work on the aesthetics. The pricing of the HP OmniBook X, which comes in at around $1049, is actually justified for the specs and the overall performance that the laptop provides.
If you are in the market for a Copilot+ laptop, then you should definitely consider the HP OnmiBook X.
