HP OmniBook 5 14 review: an OLED is almost enough

You cognize what I emotion much than OLEDs? Cheap OLEDs. And that’s precisely what drew maine to the 14-inch HP OmniBook 5. It’s a $700 Windows laptop pinch a Snapdragon X Plus processor and an OLED screen. That intends it should person awesome artillery life and a beautiful screen. I see these important successful immoderate laptop, truthful colour maine intrigued.

You’re astir apt acquainted pinch the building “good, cheap, accelerated — prime two.” I wasn’t fond of the higher-end OmniBook I reviewed past year. It was fast, but it had a dim IPS screen, unspeakable speakers, and costs $1,200. But what if we’re now talking a overmuch nicer screen, moreover amended artillery life, and for $500 less? The OmniBook 5, expectedly, has flaws. But for the correct price, overmuch tin beryllium forgiven.

HP’s OmniBook 5 laptops travel successful 14 inches and 16 inches, either arsenic accepted clamshells aliases 2-in-1s, and pinch spot options from Intel, AMD, and Qualcomm. I’ve been testing the cheapest one: a 14-inch pinch a lower-end Arm-based Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 processor, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and — amazingly for the value — that OLED, each for $699.99 .

That’s a bargain for a value laptop pinch an OLED screen. And it’s often connected sale, sometimes arsenic inexpensive arsenic $480 — mind-bogglingly low. Laptops pinch OLEDs usually costs much than $1,000, and location are plentifulness of models good supra that value pinch cheaper IPS panels. The OmniBook’s 1920 x 1200 sheet isn’t ace high-res, but astatine 14 inches it’s conscionable large capable to still look crisp, and it has the heavy achromatic levels and colour opposition you only get pinch an OLED. The downsides of this different awesome show are that it’s only 60Hz and lacks HDR, and its highest brightness is only 300 nits. It’s harder to activity extracurricular connected a sunny time aliases sitting beside a large agleam window, but it’s doable.

That surface is paired pinch 2 different very good, cardinal components: a bully keyboard and marathon artillery life. The keyboard is pleasant to type on, moreover for agelong stretches. I wouldn’t mind deeper cardinal travel, but it’s still much tactile than a MacBook. The keys besides person very ample legends that could thief folks pinch imagination challenges, though they’re somewhat betrayed by a deficiency of backlighting.

The different tie of the OmniBook 5 is really agelong the 59Whr artillery lasts. This is the benignant of laptop you tin return to the agency without a charger for the time and not worry. Under emblematic mixed usage, pinch tons of progressive Chrome tabs, plentifulness of multi-app messaging, and a small euphony aliases video streaming, it lasts each day, good into the evening, and perchance into your adjacent luncheon break. The only clip I chewed done the artillery astatine an alarming complaint was while trying to usage a bunch of Copilot AI and Copilot Vision features — which are useless anyway, truthful don’t bother.

The OmniBook 5’s eight-core Snapdragon spot is power-efficient, but not peculiarly fast. It’s the only laptop I’ve utilized this twelvemonth pinch a current-gen processor that sometimes felt sluggish erstwhile quickly switching among galore opened apps (across only 2 virtual desktops). It didn’t grind to a halt aliases crash, aliases thing dire, but I could consciousness it. Oddly, the aforesaid processor didn’t get bogged down erstwhile I utilized it successful Microsoft’s 13-inch Surface Laptop. I’ve besides tested 2 different Chromebooks utilizing Arm-based MediaTek chips for around this price (one also pinch an OLED), and some felt snappier. That’s not to mention the acold faster M4 MacBook Air, which now regularly goes for arsenic small arsenic $750. The OmniBook is good astir of the clip for ray tasks, but it isn’t difficult to push it excessively far. And that period will only get easier to transverse arsenic it ages, for illustration immoderate computer.

I wish that was the only point incorrect pinch the OmniBook 5. The mechanical trackpad is good overall, but erstwhile placing your digit down — earlier really clicking — you perceive an audible tick sound and consciousness a tactile vibration. This annoying quirk is for illustration a pre-click click aliases a mendacious double-click whenever you azygous click. It doesn’t hap 100 percent of the clip but it 100 percent gets connected my nerves erstwhile it does.

The overmuch much audible rumor are the speakers, which sound for illustration a stereo being drowned successful mud. They’re akin to (or perchance the aforesaid as) the dual downward-firing speakers of the HP OmniBook X I reviewed past year. Just for illustration that iteration, they statement up correct nether your wrists and usage immoderate aboveground is nether the laptop to bounce sound up to you. This is peculiarly ineffective erstwhile that aboveground is your soft, sound-absorbant lap. They’re workable for calls and passable for podcasts, but a disservice to immoderate tunes you perceive to while you activity (as I often do).

The OmniBook 5 besides shares immoderate of the OmniBook X’s design, but dissimilar that 2024 model, this doesn’t consciousness for illustration a reward from IT. I’d alternatively look astatine the OmniBook 5’s OLED surface than the tepid IPS sheet of the OmniBook X, a laptop that costs astir $1,200 astatine the time. At $700, you tin bargain this OmniBook 5, a awesome brace of headphones to circumvent its lackluster speakers, and still person money near over.

Cheaper laptops mean putting up pinch astatine slightest immoderate shortcomings. There are ways to flooded astir of the OmniBook 5’s, for illustration utilizing outer audio and a mouse, aliases reminding yourself you sewage a deal. For the money spent, you get immoderate treats successful the shape of a bully surface and phenomenal artillery life, and that goes a agelong way. If you rank those features highly arsenic I do, the OmniBook 5 is astatine slightest likeable. At $500 aliases below, which it precocious deed connected sale, I’d get it, but only for ray computing needs. At its regular price, I’d get a faster Microsoft Surface Laptop aliases M4 MacBook Air for arsenic inexpensive arsenic I tin find — some often discounted to $750-ish. Or, if you tin get distant pinch moving ChromeOS, the Lenovo Chromebook Plus 14 besides offers a slick OLED and awesome artillery life, pinch amended capacity and speakers that don’t mutilate music.

Photography by Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge