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Laptop shopping is always a bit stressful, right? You wanna choose something that suits your needs but also has a little growing room, so it doesn't feel outdated/obsolete by next year.
I've been testing out the HP OmniBook X AI PC for about two weeks. I didn't intend to write a review (I'm borrowing it to try out some specific accessories and software I wanted to write about), but this thing has really impressed me.
Enough so, that I figured I'd share a short list of some of the things that I appreciated most in my short time with HP's latest AI laptop.
Pros
- Amazing battery life
- Very light-weight
- Excellent keyboard/trackpad
Cons
- No Thunderbolt connections
- Few ports
- Pricey
HP Omnibook X AI Review: Incredibly Portable
The HP OmniBook X's biggest feature (in my humble opinion) is its portability. And I'm not just talking about its sleek and slender build, the battery is a big factor, too (but that's my next point)!
The laptop has a 14-inch touch display. When it comes to laptops, I don't really use the touch display, but I know for some people that having the option to navigate with the keyboard and trackpad OR tapping on the screen is a huge deal, so you get the best of both worlds here.
The display has very small bezels on the side and a slightly thicker one on top, where the built-in camera and proximity sensor are (these can work together to help your computer save battery by detecting if you're actually sitting behind it and working or not, if you choose to enable this feature).
The computer is very light (less than 3 pounds) and has full-sized keys and extra large trackpad. This is great if you're looking for a very productive work machine when you're on the go. It won't make your backpack too heavy and you won't feel a need to use an external keyboard to get things done.
HP Omnibook X AI Review: Excellent Battery Life
The biggest portability factor with this laptop is the battery. I mostly use MacBooks (Air or Pro), so when I do switch to a PC, the thing that always shocks me is the short battery life with many Windows laptops.
I'm happy to report, battery life is not a concern with the OmniBook X Ultra.
Having a long battery life is a defining factor between modern laptops and ones even from a few years ago. In the case of this laptop, it can squeak out up to 26 hours on a single charge (according to HP). In my testing, a mix of video calls, gaming, browsing, writing, and video and audio editing, the battery life has been so good that I stopped carrying the charger when I was putting it in my work bag for the day.
Being able to ditch the charger further enhances my first point, portability, because you can really use this laptop anywhere, thanks to the long battery life. You're not going to be tethered to an outlet or havethe extra weight or bulk in your bag from a charging cable when you take this out of the house.
A large part of that battery efficiency comes from the Snapdragon X Elite processor on board.
HP Omnibook X AI Review: High-End Processor
Talking about processors and computer chips is generally where I lose people's interest, so let me keep this part as concise as possible.
The Snapdragon X Elite processor is smart enough to figure out what types of tasks are being run on your laptop at any given second, and assigns them to the best part of the chip to handle them.
In the case of this laptop, which boasts many AI features and software integrations, the Snapdragon X Elite has a dedicated part of the processor that just handles AI tasks.
These AI functions, like live transcriptions on a video call, would sap your laptop's battery power extremely fast if they were being handled by just your computer's GPU or CPU (other parts of the processor chip), but the AI part of the chip (the neural processing unit) can handle these tasks with speed and efficiency. Also, many security-related functions are handled by the NPU, which further contributes to the long battery life.
Is the HP OmniBook X AI PC worth it?
The HP OmniBook X Ultra is higher priced than your basic laptop but about on-par to slightly less than your average premium model and less than many pro models (though this laptop lacks Thunderbolt ports, which I think is a bare minium for a pro workflow that involves transferring large amounts of data between devices).
Short Version - Great quality - But not for pros
If you were looking for a dedicated gaming laptop, this isn't it. But you can have decent gaming experience.
If you are looking for a basic browsing laptop for responding to emails and surfing the web, then this would be overkill.
But if you're in the space somewhere in the middle, where you need a reliable machine that can back you up for the basic daily stuff but also prop you up when you have to venture into more complicated or demanding things like design, editing, or dabbling in AI, this is an excellent option.
There is a certain amount of FOMO related to upgrading to an AI PC.
While many people think the software capabilities are the most important reason to get an AI PC, I think it's more about your computer's longevity. With an AI PC, your machine will be running efficiently today (with enhancements to the processor like we discussed above to improve battery life) and it leaves a bit of headroom for tomorrow for updates related to security on your laptop or enhancements to existing software to better leverage the AI tools that are already part of your laptop.
This laptop does come with HP-specific AI tools (like their HP AI companion, which you can ask questions to about your computer or files and it helps enhance background tasks to keep drivers and software optimized), I don't think the AI software is still the selling feature. At least not yet.
HP Omnibook X AI PC
HP's Omnibook X AI PCs have a powerful processor and excellent battery life. They sit at the higher end of the consumer laptop pricing scale and lack pro features (like a thunderbolt port). But for anyone looking for a high-end laptop for working on the go, that occasionally requires a bit more processing power than the average work machine (or someone who will experience FOMO if they don't upgrade to AI PC), the latest HP Omnibook X is a great choice.
Whether or not you tap into AI features to help you present yourself better on video calls (Virtual Sapiens) or you just pick this up because you want a powerful laptop that's also very portable, the HP OmniBook X Ultra is a great choice.
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