Best Prices Today: HP OmniBook 5 14

Want a Windows laptop with great battery life and portability? The HP OmniBook 5 14 should be on your shortlist. It reached up to 25 hours of endurance in our battery life test. And, to sweeten the deal, it has both a fast charging mode (up to 50 percent of a full charge in 30 minutes) and a tiny 65-watt GaN charger.

HP OmniBook 5 14: Specs and features

The HP OmniBook 5 14 is designed around a Snapdragon X Plus chip, in this case the X1P-42-100. It is paired with 32GB of RAM and a 1TB solid state drive. While it’s nice to see the 32GB/1TB combination at this price point, the X1P-42-100 is among the least capable Snapdragon X Plus chips. That’s a perk for battery life, and a negative for performance.

• CPU: Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100
• Memory: 32GB LPDDR5X-8448
• Graphics/GPU: Qualcomm Adreno
• NPU: Qualcomm NPU up to 45 TOPs
• Display: 14-inch 1920×1200 60Hz OLED touchscreen
• Storage: 1TB M.2 PCIe 4.0 NVMe SSD
• Webcam: 1080p 30fps
• Connectivity: 2x USB-C 10Gbps with USB Power Delivery and DisplayPort 1.4, 1x USB-A 10Gbps, 1x 3.5mm combo audio jack
• Networking: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
• Biometrics: Facial recognition
• Battery capacity: 59 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 12.29 x 8.56 x 0.61 inches
• Weight: 2.98 pounds
• Operating System: Windows 11 Home
• Additional features: 65-watt GaN power adapter
• Price: $899.99 MSRP

HP lists an MSRP of $899.99 and has yet to issue discounts on this model. However, HP also sells less expensive models of the OmniBook 5 that start at an MSRP of $699.99. They are already discounted to as little as $549.99. They start at 16GB of RAM and 256GB of storage, however, and have a less powerful Snapdragon X chip.

The HP OmniBook 5 is a strong contender if you want a Windows laptop with great battery life.

HP OmniBook 5 14: Design and build quality

The HP OmniBook 5 makes a good first impression, though not because it stands out. Instead, it delivers a simple but cohesive design that looks classic and feels durable. It’s built from a combination of aluminum (on the lid) and plastic (across the rest of the chassis) in a “Glacier Silver” colorway. The materials look and feel more premium than the laptop’s price tag would suggest.

It’s not all good news, however. While the build is decent, I noticed an odd thunk as I picked up the laptop from one corner and moved it from hand-to-hand. It seems the chassis flexes enough to contact the internals. It’s not immediately obvious, but once I heard it, I found it hard to forget.

The OmniBook 5’s design and build quality is about average for the category. I’d rank the OmniBook 5 ahead of an Acer Swift Go 14 AI, but the Microsoft Surface Laptop 13 and Asus ZenBook S 14 offer more drama and feel more premium.

HP OmniBook 5 14: Keyboard, trackpad, mouse

The keyboard is among the OmniBook 5’s best features. It provides a simple, spacious layout. Most keys are close to full size, with only the left-side Shift, Caps, and Tab keys a bit truncated. Key feel is excellent with good travel and a definitive, swift bottoming action.

Most Windows laptops sold in this price range have a keyboard that’s at least good enough, but the OmniBook 5’s keyboard is a standout.

The touchpad is less remarkable, but still good. It measures roughly 5 inches wide and 3 inches deep, which is average for a laptop in this category. It provides a smooth, responsive surface and enough room to handle Windows multi-touch gestures (like a five-finger pinch) with ease.

While the laptop I tested did not have a touchscreen, HP says that the shipping configuration will include one. However, this isn’t true for every OmniBook 5, as the base model lacks a touchscreen

It doesn’t matter much either way, as the OmniBook 5 isn’t a 2-in-1, and the display only tilts back 130 degrees (not far enough to lay flat). Still, a touchscreen is a convenience that can be handy when vegging out on the couch or in cramped quarters, like an economy-class airline seat.

HP OmniBook 5 14: Display, audio

All HP OmniBook 5 models with the Snapdragon Plus chip have an OLED display with 1920×1200 resolution and a 60Hz refresh rate.

HP calls this a “2K” display, which is a bit cheeky. It’s basically a 1080p display with a few more vertical pixels. Laptop companies have recently decided to redefine quoted pixel counts by focusing on the horizontal rather than vertical resolution.

That aside, there’s nothing wrong with 1920×1200 resolution in a 14-inch laptop sold under $1,000. Indeed, while more expensive competitors like the Asus ZenBook S 14 offer a higher resolution (such as 3,200 x 1,800), the added sharpness can be a bit difficult to appreciate. The 1920×1200 panel has a pixel density of 161 pixels per inch, which is nearly identical to the sharpness of a 27-inch 4K monitor.

Sharpness aside, the panel looks great. It’s an OLED display and provides the advantages typical of the panel type, including a wide color gamut and high contrast ratio. The only real issue is brightness, as the panel is rated at 300 nits and barely nudged past that in my testing. That’s not enough to comfortably use the laptop near a sunlit window or other bright light source.

The OmniBook 5 has a dual-speaker sound system that provides good volume and a decent sound stage; however, turning up the volume can overwhelm the sound system, creating a harsh and muddy experience. This is a classic mistake many mid-range Windows laptops make; they often allow the speakers to hit volume levels they can’t handle. Still, the speakers are not bad for a mid-range Windows laptop at more modest volumes.

HP OmniBook 5 14: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

Every OmniBook 5 ships with a 1080p webcam and dual array microphone. Both provide good though not exceptional quality. Video is reasonably sharp and the microphones pick up crisp audio but, like most laptops, both are only adequate for Zoom or Google Meet. The laptop does support Windows Studio Effects features, including background blur and automatic framing.

The camera provides a physical privacy shutter to fully obstruct the camera when it’s not in use. This feature, though increasingly common, is good to see on an affordable laptop. It’s more common on high-end models.

Biometric login is supported by Windows Hello facial recognition. As usual, it works well providing fast and reliable login without the need to enter a password. A fingerprint reader is not available.

HP OmniBook 5 14: Connectivity

The OmniBook 5 has a slim port selection. On the left flank you’ll find two USB-C ports, while on the right you’ll find USB-A and a 3.5mm audio jack.

Both USB-C ports support DisplayPort and Power Delivery, so both can be used to charge the laptop and/or connect to a USB-C display (or DisplayPort/HDMI if you buy an adapter).

However, the ports only support data rates up to 10Gbps. This marks a major difference between the OmniBook 5 and laptops that support Thunderbolt 4, which provides 40Gbps of data. 10Gbps is still enough for most situations. But it might be a limitation if you were planning to connect to a USB-C dock and then connect several high-speed external storage devices.

While the limited USB-C ports are disappointing, it’s common for Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus laptops. Those who want Thunderbolt will need to look at an Apple MacBook Air or entry-level laptops with an Intel Core Ultra processor.

It’s a similar story with wireless connectivity, as the OmniBook 5 supports Wi-Fi 6E and Bluetooth 5.3. Both are fine, but neither is the most recent version of each wireless standard. As with Thunderbolt, Wi-Fi 7 support is not that common in machines under $1,000, and most often provided by laptops with Intel Core Ultra processors.

HP OmniBook 5 14: Performance

The HP OmniBook 5 offers the Qualcomm Snapdragon X chip. It’s important to note there are differences between models. Base models have the Snapdragon X X1-26-100 with eight cores up to 2.97GHz, but the model I tested had the Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 with eight cores up to 3.4GHz.

Even the X1P-42-100 is a fairly tame version of the Snapdragon X, sitting at the bottom of the Snapdragon X Plus product stack. It has fewer cores than other Snapdragon X chips (which offer up to 10 in Snapdragon X Plus and up to 12 in Snapdragon X Elite) and a less capable version of the Qualcomm Adreno GPU. The Qualcomm NPU is the same across chips, though, with quoted performance up to 45 TOPS.

Let’s start with Cinebench 2024, a benchmark that provides native support for both Arm and x86. It reports a multi-core score of 495 and a single-core score of 105. As the graph indicates, these scores are fine but not impressive for a laptop priced at $899.

Depending on the specifics of sales at the time you are buying, it might be possible to find a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite, Ryzen AI 7, or Intel Core Ultra 7 laptop in the same price bracket. All of these will tend to beat the OmniBook 5 with Snapdragon X Plus.

3D performance is a sneaky weakness of the entry-level Snapdragon X and Snapdragon X Plus chips. While all versions of the Snapdragon X have a Qualcomm Adreno, performance levels vary greatly. The best Snapdragon X Elite quotes 4.6 TFLOPs of performance, but the Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100 quotes just 1.7 TFLOPs. That’s well less than half the performance.

How much that matters depends both on your needs and your frame of reference. Laptops in this price range often have either Intel Arc 130V or AMD Radeon 860M graphics, both of which also give up a fair bit of performance when compared to their more expensive and premium siblings. But if you compare the HP OmniBook 5 to a laptop with Intel Arc 140V, Radeon 880M, or a Snapdragon X Elite chip, it’s going to fall quite a bit behind.

At the end of the day, the HP OmniBook 5’s performance is ok but not exceptional. Like most laptops that have an entry-level Snapdragon X or Snapdragon X Plus chip, the OmniBook 5 is vulnerable to price pressure from discounted Snapdragon X Elite laptops, which tend to offer much better performance for a slight jump in price.

Still, the HP OmniBook 5 is still plenty quick for a wide range of productivity tasks. And it has a major perk that, for many, could justify settling for modest performance.

HP OmniBook 5 14: Battery life and portability

That perk is battery life.

HP says that the OmniBook 5 14 can achieve up to 34 hours of battery life. That incredible claim did not match our testing, but the laptop still managed to exceed 25 hours in a video playback test.

As the graph shows, that’s a truly staggering figure for any laptop, never mind one sold below $1,000. I was also surprised to see this figure despite the use of an OLED display. In some cases OLED displays appear to reduce battery life relative to an IPS display, but that’s obviously not the situation here.

The laptop is also extremely easy to keep charged up. Both USB-C ports support Power Delivery and the laptop has a fast charge mode that can add up to 50 percent capacity in 30 minutes (though only when the laptop is completely shut down and below 50 percent capacity).

HP also provides a tiny 65-watt GaN power adapter with some OmniBook 5 models, including the model I tested. It measures only 2.5 inches long and about an inch thick, which makes it the smallest included power adapter I’ve ever tested. This further contributes to the already great battery life, since it’s easy to pack the adapter for quick top-offs whenever an outlet is available.

All of this combines to make the HP OmniBook 5 a remarkably portable Windows laptop and, I think, the most portable mid-range laptop in the market right now. Some competitors are smaller, but few are close to the OmniBook 5’s battery life, and HP’s inclusion of the GaN power adapter gives it an edge.

HP OmniBook 5 14: Conclusion

The HP OmniBook 5 is a strong contender if you want a Windows laptop with great battery life. Though not a top performer, it does well enough for a laptop under $1,000. And it benefits from other perks like an enjoyable keyboard and OLED display. Pricing may not always be to HP’s benefit, as steep discounting on laptops with more powerful chips can dip into price territory similar to the OmniBook 5. But the HP’s 25-hour endurance and tiny GaN charger provide shoppers a good reason to buy it over the alternatives.

Best Prices Today: HP OmniBook 5 14

Author: Matthew S. Smith, Contributor, PCWorld