HP impressed me this summer with the 14-inch Snapdragon version of the Omnibook 5. It turned out to be a well-built, portable laptop for office work that was not only fast, but also delivered astonishing battery life.
All of that remains true with this updated version of the same machine. It offers simplicity, elegance, and energy efficiency in an affordable package. The chassis is sturdy but simple, with plenty of plastic in the construction — but it’s still slim, elegant, and comfortable to carry around. At around $780 (the 32 GB version), you can’t reasonably expect premium materials everywhere.
You get two USB-C 3.0 ports, one USB-A 3.0 port, and a headphone jack — that’s it for physical connections. Still, that’s enough for everyday use since the USB-C ports support both power delivery and DisplayPort. Charging happens over USB-C, and you can run an external display and a dock from the same port, so a small USB-C dock is highly recommended.
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Buy HP OmniBook 5 14″ Next-Gen AI PC on Amazon ($678)
More Memory Makes a Big Difference
The test unit uses a different Snapdragon X Plus configuration than the one I reviewed earlier. The main difference is double the memory, which makes a big impact. The 16 GB in the earlier model could struggle with heavy browsing, lots of tabs, and multitasking. With 32 GB of RAM integrated into the SoC, there’s far more headroom. The larger 1 TB SSD is also very welcome.
The integrated Adreno graphics in Snapdragon X aren’t class-leading — Intel and AMD’s Arc and Radeon iGPUs are stronger. But compared to Intel Xe and some of the weaker x86-based options, it actually performs better. It’s not a gaming machine (compatibility and performance are still limited), but for accelerating creative and productivity workloads it’s very helpful.
The Hexagon AI processor, rated at 45 TOPS, gives a major boost to on-device AI, including the full suite of Microsoft Copilot+ features — something x86 laptops still largely lack, even when they have capable NPUs.
A Simple Display — But OLED Is Still OLED
The Omnibook 5 has a basic but reliable webcam, decent speakers, and noticeably improved microphones compared to my previous test. Whether due to driver updates or hardware changes, the improvement is clear.
The display is a Full HD+ (1920 × 1200, 16:10) OLED panel. Apart from being OLED — with its excellent contrast and rich colors — it doesn’t do anything fancy. Color accuracy isn’t officially guaranteed, though the color temperature looks nicely neutral. There’s no HDR support and brightness isn’t particularly high, which can make outdoor use in bright sunlight difficult.
There are also no power-saving display features like ambient light sensors, presence detection, partial dimming, or variable refresh rate. The panel is fixed at 60 Hz.
Despite all that, battery life is outstanding — even better than on the previous model I tested. This is likely due to BIOS and driver optimizations. In theory performance should be similar, so the older 16 GB version may also benefit from these improvements.
Battery Life That Just Keeps Going
With light usage, the Omnibook 5 now runs for up to 34 hours, even though the OLED panel can’t dim as low as some others I’ve tested. CPU load stays very low and there are few unnecessary background processes.
The 8-core Snapdragon X Plus (Arm architecture) delivers excellent performance per watt. With more typical workloads — web browsing, Excel, light image work — battery life still leads the class at close to 20 hours, even though the battery itself is modest at just 59 Wh.
It actually makes me wish for a future revision of this exact laptop with a few upgrades: a 100 Wh battery, ambient light and presence sensors, a lower minimum brightness, full LTPO OLED down to 1 Hz, and the ability to dim inactive parts of the screen. That would be magical — even more magical than this already is.
The price, at just under $780, makes it even easier to recommend. It’s only about $100 more than the 16 GB version ($680), and it’s absolutely worth paying for the extra memory.
Affiliate Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links. If you purchase through these links, we may earn a commission at no additional cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.
Buy HP OmniBook 5 14″ Next-Gen AI PC on Amazon ($678)
Specifications
Product name: HP Omnibook 5 NGAI 14-he0831no
Processor: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus X1P-42-100, 8× Oryon @ up to 3.4 GHz
NPU: Qualcomm Hexagon, 45 TOPS
Graphics: Adreno X1-895
Memory: 32 GB LPDDR5X
Storage: 1 TB SSD
Display: 14″ glossy OLED, 1920 × 1200, 60 Hz, approx. 300 nits
Webcam: 1080p with IR
Ports: 2× USB-C 3.2 Gen 2 with DisplayPort, 3× USB-A 3.2 Gen 1, HDMI, headset jack
Wireless: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
OS: Windows 11 Home
Other: Backlit keyboard, facial recognition
Noise level: 0–37 dBA
Dimensions: 31.2 × 21.75 × 1.26 cm (12.3 × 8.6 × 0.5 in)
Weight: 1.29 kg (2.84 lb)
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