HP OmniBook Ultra 14 Review: The Best Of Ryzen AI In A Sleek 14” Laptop
HP OmniBook Ultra 14 Thermals And Acoustics
With no discrete GPU and a modern, efficient SoC powering the system, the HP OmniBook Ultra 14 was never going to be ear-splitting loud. Still, some thin and light laptops can be surprisingly noisy when taxed—not this one, though. At idle, it barely goes over 40 dB, which is similar to a quiet library. At load with the highest performance setting, the machine reaches a peak of just 50 dB. That's loud enough that you can hear the whine from a few feet away, but it's not distracting unless you're purposefully listening for it. If there's a TV or music playing in the room, you probably won't hear the OmniBook's fan at all.
HP OmniBook Ultra 14: Battery Life
Laptop battery life has improved markedly in the last few years. While gaming machines will still run dry quickly, productivity computers focused on AI can last for many hours. And this one goes further than most.
Here, we've calibrated laptop displays to a fixed brightness, to level the playing field with the other machines we've tested, though lots of other variables come into play as well, like battery capacity, for example. The OmniBook managed a solid 1,058 minutes (almost 18 hours) in the test. The 68Whr battery isn't the largest, so there are machines that last longer untethered to the wall. Likewise, some Arm-based computers can best the OmniBook by a couple of hours. However, HP's new AI laptop offers a compelling combination of portability, speed, and longevity.
Using the OmniBook as a daily driver is perfectly doable even if you spend a lot of time away from any electrical outlets. It will make it through a full work day without trouble, and it recharges at up to 65W with any USB-PD cable. It comes with a nice (but bulky) 65W charger featuring a braided cable. We've tested the OmniBook with numerous third-party cables too, all of which could charge the machine at maximum speed. However, HP's software annoyingly warns you every time you plug in a non-HP cable.
HP OmniBook Ultra 14: Our Conclusion
The HP OmniBook Ultra 14 is an excellent premium laptop. The build quality is superb and it runs on AMD's latest Ryzen AI 300 platform. If you are interested (or think you will be) about Copilot+ features in Windows, this is a great machine. The base model OmniBook comes with a relatively powerful Ryzen AI 9 365, but you can upgrade to the top-end Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 that we tested. Both should be speedy overall , but the HX 375 will do better in some tasks.
The 14-inch display is a good size that balances productivity and portability, and the keyboard is spacious and a joy to type on, with a responsive fingerprint reader too. Although, HP's insistence on placing the power button and fingerprint scanner right next to backspace is not optimal in our opinion. Similarly off is HP's decision to split settings and features up among numerous preloaded apps, some of which nag you with popups. We'd prefer a cleaner out-of-box OS image on a machine of this caliber.
While it's a great machine, the HP OmniBook Ultra 14 may not be the right laptop for everyone. Its gaming chops are limited by its iGPU, offering only enough horsepower for casual titles or well-optimized mainstream games. Obviously, this isn't a gaming machine and isn't marketed as such, but we wanted to point this out regardless, since many folks like to play games and unwind in their downtime. We would have also liked to see an OLED display option with this system, and it's not like HP is a stranger to OLED laptops. The company launched the 2024 Envy x360 14 with an OLED, and it's in the same price range. This certainly is no showstopper though and this machine's IPS display gets the job done nicely still.
That said, you do get a lot for a reasonable price with the HP OmniBook Ultra 14 and it's a well built good looking machine. If you can swing the Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 powered model we tested, you won't be disappointed.
