In today's fast-paced world, the need for a laptop that seamlessly blends power, portability, and sophisticated design is more critical than ever. Enter the HP OmniBook Ultra 14, a premium consumer laptop designed to meet the demands of modern professionals and tech enthusiasts alike. This sleek device, powered by the latest AMD Ryzen AI processors, aims to deliver exceptional performance and impressive battery life in a stylish and robust package. Let's delve into what makes the HP OmniBook Ultra 14 a compelling contender in the ultraportable category.
Design and Build: A Touch of Premium Flair
The HP OmniBook Ultra 14 immediately conveys a sense of quality with its all-metal design and a sophisticated meteor silver finish that resists fingerprints, keeping it looking pristine. The design language echoes HP's renowned Spectre series, featuring distinctive gem-cut corners that add a touch of elegance and visual interest. While not a convertible like its sibling, the upcoming OmniBook Flip Ultra, this clamshell laptop boasts a sturdy and rigid chassis that feels premium to the touch.
Opening the laptop with a single hand is generally possible, highlighting the balanced hinge mechanism. Its portability is evident in its dimensions and weight, coming in at around 3.47 lbs (1.57 kg) and a slender 0.65 inches (1.65 cm) in thickness. While not the absolute lightest in its class, it remains highly portable and comparable to other 14-inch ultraportables like the Dell XPS 14 and Asus Zenbook S 14. The attention to detail extends to the smooth, sandblasted anodized finish, contributing to its premium feel and smudge resistance.
Visual Experience: Sharp and Colour-Accurate Display
The HP OmniBook Ultra 14 features a 14-inch IPS touch screen with a crisp 2.2k resolution (2240 x 1400) and a 16:10 aspect ratio, providing ample vertical screen real estate for productivity tasks. While it doesn't boast the vibrant colours and deep blacks of an OLED panel, the IPS display offers good colour gamut coverage and accurate colour reproduction, making it suitable for colour-sensitive work. The display also delivers deep blacks, a good white point, and overall good contrast.
The touch layer is responsive, allowing for intuitive interaction with the operating system. However, the screen's brightness peaks at around 364 nits, slightly below the advertised 400 nits, which might pose a challenge in direct sunlight despite the anti-reflective finish. One notable drawback is the standard 60Hz refresh rate, which might feel less smooth compared to the 90Hz or 120Hz displays becoming increasingly common in this category. Notably, there is no stylus support for this model.
Performance Powerhouse: AMD Ryzen AI at its Core
Under the hood, the HP OmniBook Ultra 14 is powered by AMD's latest Ryzen AI processors, specifically the Ryzen AI 9 HX 375 in the higher-end configuration and the Ryzen AI 9 365 in the base model. These processors, part of the "Strix Point" architecture utilizing Zen 5 cores, offer impressive performance for both single-core and multi-core tasks, outperforming previous generations and even Intel's new Lunar Lake processors in multi-core benchmarks due to their higher core counts (up to 12 cores and 24 threads in the HX 375).
Coupled with integrated AMD Radeon 890M (or 880M) graphics, the laptop offers capable performance for everyday tasks, 4K video editing, and even casual gaming at lower settings and resolutions. While not a dedicated gaming machine, it can achieve playable frame rates in popular titles like GTA V and The Witcher 3 at reduced settings. The integrated graphics prove to be competitive, even approaching the performance of Intel's new Arc integrated graphics in some scenarios.
The tested unit featured 32GB of LPDDR5X RAM running at 7500 MT/s and a blazing-fast 2TB PCIe Gen 4 NVMe SSD, ensuring smooth multitasking and ample storage for demanding applications and large files. While the RAM is soldered, the SSD is upgradable, offering some future flexibility.
Battery Life: Endurance for the Long Haul
One of the standout features of the HP OmniBook Ultra 14 is its exceptional battery life. Equipped with a 68Wh battery, the laptop demonstrated impressive endurance in various tests, achieving over 15 hours in a modern office scenario and over 16 hours in video playback in one test. Another source reported an even more remarkable 21.5 hours in video playback. This impressive longevity makes the OmniBook Ultra 14 an ideal companion for long workdays, travel, and users who are frequently on the go. The efficiency of the AMD Ryzen AI processor contributes significantly to this outstanding battery performance.
Keyboard and Touchpad: Comfortable Input
The HP OmniBook Ultra 14 features a comfortable chicklet-style keyboard with good tactility and feedback, making it suitable for extended typing sessions. It also includes a multi-stage backlight for use in various lighting conditions. The power button cleverly integrates a fingerprint scanner for secure and convenient login via Windows Hello.
The laptop is equipped with a glass Precision touchpad that is responsive and accurate for navigation and gestures. While some might miss the haptic feedback of touchpads found on some competitors, the traditional touchpad performs reliably.
Audio and Webcam: Enhanced Communication
For multimedia consumption and communication, the HP OmniBook Ultra 14 features a quad-speaker system with DTS:X Audio and HP Audio Boost, delivering crisp and clear sound. While the maximum volume might not be the loudest, the overall audio quality is well above average for a laptop in this class.
The integrated 9-megapixel IR webcam captures sharp 1440p video, ensuring clear visuals for video calls and conferences. It supports Windows Hello face recognition for secure login and includes a physical shutter for enhanced privacy. Features like auto framing, background blur, and other Windows Studio Effects are also supported, further enhancing the video conferencing experience. The dual-microphone setup with Poly Studio audio tuning ensures clear voice capture with features like smart dynamic voice leveling.
Connectivity: Balancing Modern and Legacy
In terms of connectivity, the HP OmniBook Ultra 14 offers two USB4 Thunderbolt 4 ports on the right side, both supporting high-speed data transfer (40Gbps), power delivery, and DisplayPort functionality for external monitors. This makes it potentially one of the first AMD laptops to officially feature Thunderbolt support. Additionally, it includes one USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port and a 3.5mm headphone/microphone combo jack.
However, the laptop lacks dedicated video output like HDMI and an SD card reader, which might necessitate the use of dongles or docks for some users. On the wireless front, the OmniBook Ultra 14 excels with support for the latest Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 standards, ensuring future-proofed and high-speed wireless connectivity.
Cooling and Noise: Efficient and Quiet Operation
The HP OmniBook Ultra 14 employs a dual-fan cooling system to manage thermals effectively. Under normal everyday tasks, the laptop remains remarkably quiet, with the fans rarely becoming audible. Even under heavy loads, while the fans do spin up and become noticeable (reaching around 49-50 dB in some tests), the system effectively prevents significant thermal throttling, maintaining stable performance. Surface temperatures remain well-managed during typical use, ensuring comfortable operation even when placed on a lap.
AI and Security Features: Smart Enhancements
Leveraging the power of the AMD Ryzen AI processor, the HP OmniBook Ultra 14 incorporates several smart features to enhance user experience and security. The Presence Sensing tool can detect when the user moves away from the laptop or looks away, automatically dimming the screen or even hibernating to save power and enhance security. The laptop also features biometric authentication through the fingerprint scanner and IR facial recognition for secure and convenient access. HP also includes its Wolf Protect Security Suite for added online safety. The integrated NPU (Neural Processing Unit) in the Ryzen AI processor enables efficient execution of these AI-powered features. The HP Omen Gaming Hub is also included, offering performance optimization for gaming.
Conclusion: A Strong Contender in the Premium Ultraportable Space
The HP OmniBook Ultra 14 presents a compelling package for users seeking a premium, powerful, and highly portable laptop. Its strong performance driven by the AMD Ryzen AI processors, coupled with its excellent battery life and solid build quality, makes it a standout in the ultraportable category. The sharp and colour-accurate display, comfortable keyboard and touchpad, and enhanced audio and webcam further contribute to a positive user experience.
However, it's not without its drawbacks. The 60Hz refresh rate, the lack of an OLED option (at least in this model), the limited physical port selection (missing HDMI and SD card reader), and the absence of a haptic touchpad might be points of consideration for some users.
Overall, the HP OmniBook Ultra 14 is a very capable and well-rounded laptop that excels in delivering performance and battery life in a sleek and premium design. It is particularly well-suited for productivity-focused individuals, remote workers, and anyone who values a balance of power and portability. While it might not be perfect, its strengths in key areas make it a strong contender in the competitive landscape of premium ultraportable laptops, especially for those who can take advantage of the power and efficiency of the latest AMD Ryzen AI processors. Keep an eye out for potential deals, as this already impressive machine could become an even more attractive investment.