HP OmniBook Ultra 14 review: a solid entry for AMD

HP continues to roll out new consumer laptops under their OmniBook brand, which replaces its previous Spectre, Envy, and Pavilion lineups. The OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 was one of the first, and it’s a solid replacement for the Spectre x360 14. Now, I’m reviewing the OmniBook Ultra 14, which doesn’t have quite so clear a pedigree.

The OmniBook Ultra 14 shares some design cues with its convertible 2-in-1 cousin, which I believe is a first for an HP clamshell laptop. It’s a well-made machine that leverages its AMD Ryzen AI 9 chipset for great performance and has surprisingly good battery life, but it’s not quite good enough to make it onto our list of the best laptops.

Specs and configurations

The OmniBook 14 Ultra has several configurations, with a $1,350 base model featuring an AMD Ryzen AI 9 365 chipset, 16GB of RAM, a 512GB SSD, and a 14.0-inch 2.2K IPS display (the only option). Right now, that configuration is on sale for $1,050. You can upgrade to 32GB of RAM for $100 and add in a faster Ryzen AI 9 HX 370 for an additional $150. Upgrading to a 2TB SSD is an additional $180, making the high-end model $1,680 ($1,380 on sale). That’s the model that I reviewed.

If you can get the laptop at its sale price, then that’s a pretty attractive entry-level price, and it’s also a decent value for a very nicely configured laptop. It’s around the same price as the Intel-based OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 2-in-1, although that laptop has a much better OLED display. Another AMD laptop that I reviewed, the Asus ProArt PX13, is a lot more expensive starting at $1,700, but that includes an OLED display and a discrete Nvidia GPU.

Design

The first thing I noticed about the OmniBook Ultra 14 is that it shares the notches in the rear chassis and display bottom, one of which houses a USB-C port for plugging in power or an accessory and keeping the cable out of the way. It’s therefore both a design and functional statement. The chassis sides are also reasonably rounded and avoid a sharp edge on the palm rest, making it more comfortable than some laptops.

The most obvious comparison is OmniBook Ultra Flip 14, and there are several other good 14-inch clamshell laptops to contrast. The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i and Zenbook S 14 are two of them, both sporting Intel’s latest Lunar Lake chipset.

Aesthetically, these are all attractive machines and I wouldn’t pick any over the OmniBook, or vice versa, based on looks alone.

The OmniBook Ultra 14 is also a very robust laptop, with a chassis, keyboard deck, and lid that all resist bending, flexing, and twisting. That’s become more of the norm over the last several years, with most laptops in the same premium price range boasting the same kind of build qualities. The laptops I mentioned above are equally good, as is the MacBook Pro 14 that’s considerably more expensive.

One area where the OmniBook doesn’t excel compared to some recent competition is in its size. Its bezels are fairly large by modern standards, on both the top and the bottom. That results in a chassis that’s a bit wider and deeper than many. It’s also relatively chunky, especially its 3.47 pounds that’s around half a pound heavier than the others I’ve mentioned. It’s still reasonably portable, but it doesn’t stand out so well.

Keyboard and touchpad

I’ve been a fan of HP’s keyboards, particularly those on its Spectre lineup, and the OmniBook lives up to that standard. The keycaps are large with lettering that’s highly visible in all lighting conditions, which is a nod to accessibility. There’s tons of spacing, and the switches are light and snappy.

I have the OmniBook Ultra 14 sitting next to HP’s very similar 2-in-1, and the keyboards are pretty much identically good. So, I expect that will be the design going forward — a very good thing. My favorite laptop keyboard has been Apple’s Magic Keyboard since it got rid of the butterfly switches, and the OmniBook’s is definitely in the same class.

The touchpad is less impressive. There’s plenty of space on the palm rest for a larger version, and for whatever reason, HP didn’t include the excellent haptic touchpad it used on the OmniBook Ultra Flip 14. The mechanical touchpad is just OK, with buttons that are a little loud. The display is touch-enabled, which I prefer.

Display

If the OmniBook Ultra 14 has an Achilles heel, it’s the 14.0-inch 16:10 2.2K (2240 x 1400) IPS display. At these prices, I’m used to seeing 2.8K (2880 x 1800) or sharper panels, and more often OLED than IPS. And, more and more are running at much faster 120Hz refresh rates for smoother Windows animations if nothing else. So, I was a bit surprised at the OmniBook’s display, and it’s really a bit less sharp, fast, and colorful than I want to see if I’m spending well over $1,000 on a laptop. It helps with battery life, though, so that’s the benefit here.

According to my colorimeter, this is a merely an average IPS display — but that’s a good thing, given how the technology has improved over the last several years. It’s much brighter than our 300-nit threshold, as most displays are today, coming in at 382 nits. Its colors are wide enough for productivity use at 100% of sRGB, 76% of AdobeRGB, and 76% of DCI-P3, and accuracy is excellent at a Delta-E of 0.94. And contrast is good at 1,310:1, also above our older standard of 1,000:1 that most IPS displays exceed today.

So, if you really care about battery life and don’t need the bright, dynamic colors and inky blacks that OLED provides, then you’ll be OK with this display. But I can’t help being a little disappointed.

Connectivity and webcam

I was a little surprised to see just two USB-C ports with Thunderbolt 4 and a USB-A port. That’s better than the Dell XPS 14 that has just Thunderbolt 4, but some 14-inch laptops add in an HDMI connection and an SD card reader. Both are missing here. One of the USB-C ports is in the notch, as I mentioned above, so that’s convenient. But I’d rate connectivity as a bit lacking. Wireless radios are fully up-to-date, which is a good thing.

The webcam is HP’s latest very high resolution 9MP version, and it will support Microsoft’s Copilot+ PC initiative including enhanced Studio Effects software, along with HP’s own AI Companion features that will be rolling out. HP uses Poly Camera Pro, and the webcam itself has some AI intelligence built in. Overall, the OmniBook will eventually take advantage of the very fast neural processing unit (NPU) for more efficient on-device AI processing.

Performance

When comparing the most recent chipsets, namely the AMD Ryzen AI 9 that the OmniBook Ultra 14 utilizes, Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X, and Intel’s Lunar Lake, AMD takes a strong lead in performance. The OmniBook is the third laptop we’ve reviewed with the 28-watt Ryzen AI 9 HX 370, which sits near the top of AMD’s latest laptop chipsets and uses 12 CPU and 18 GPU cores to power through productivity workflows.

Both the 12-core Snapdragon X and the 8-core Lunar Lake chipsets are aimed more at efficiency than sheer performance, and while Qualcomm is faster than Intel in our comparison group, the OmniBook Ultra 14 stands apart.

Pick whichever test you want — single-core or multi-core performance — and the Ryzen AI 9 consistently outperforms the competition. This is performance I’m using to seeing from Intel 45-watt Meteor Lake chipsets, only from a part that burns just 28 watts by default. The Ryzen AI 9 uses a mix of Zen 5 and Zen 5c cores, with the latter being compact but full speed, meaning that unlike the other chipsets, there are no low-power cores that can drag down pure CPU speeds. Note that HP has pushed AI deep into performance, with more intelligence driving the Smart Sense setting that is aimed at balancing performance, heat, and fan noise.

The Asus ProArt PX13, a more compact but just as powerful machine, has the option of Nvidia RTX 4050 and 4060 discrete GPUs, so it’s a lot faster in creative applications and gaming than the OmniBook, which is limited to AMD Radeon 890M integrated graphics. That’s around the same speed as Intel’s latest Arc 140V and it’s faster than Qualcomm’s Adreno graphics, but not by much.

All of this combines to make for a laptop that will rip through the most demanding productivity workflows but won’t be the best for video editing or running more than older games at limited graphics.

Battery life

The OmniBook has 68-watt-hour battery, which is just OK for a 14-inch laptop, but it also benefits from a relatively low-res 14.0-inch 2.2K (2240 x 1400) IPS panel limited to a 60Hz refresh rate. Every laptop in this comparison group has a higher-res display, and some are OLED as well. As mentioned above, though, the AMD Ryzen 9 chipset isn’t aimed at efficiency, and the two other laptops we reviewed with the same chipset didn’t do that well by comparison. So, I wasn’t expecting much.

I was pleasantly surprised, though. In our web browsing and video looping tests, the OmniBook Ultra 14 was more competitive than I imagined it would be. In fact, it did better than the OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 with Intel Lunar Lake, although that score was held back by its OLED display. The OmniBook Ultra 14 didn’t do as well in our demanding Cinebench R24 multi-core rundown. And the Apple MacBook Air M3 did the best all-around.

Is it worth it?

The OmniBook Ultra 14 is a solid representative of HP’s newest brand. It’s well-built, offers great performance and decent battery life, and it has a great keyboard. It’s not, though, as impressive as HP’s OmniBook Ultra Flip 14, despite being priced similarly.

To begin with, the OmniBook Ultra 14’s display just doesn’t impress. It’s only an OK display where so many others are great. Sure, that aids in battery life, but HP could have opted for a higher-res version that would have offered similar benefits. And the OmniBook isn’t quite as good of a thin-and-light ultrabook, which is what it’s primarily going up against.

Overall, it’s a good device, of course, but I would only recommend it while its on discount. You’ll get slightly better battery life, performance, and displays out of some of its competitors in the same price range.