HP OmniBook X review: 16-hour Snapdragon X power

HP has been busy in recent months, paring down its PC sub-brands to just Omni (consumer), Omen (gaming), Elite, and Pro (business), and launching new laptops based around Qualcomm's Arm-based Snapdragon X Elite platform. In keeping with the new naming scheme, the HP OmniBook X we're looking at here is a high-end consumer laptop for $1,199.

Can this Arm-based OmniBook X knock one of the x86 devices off of our Premium Laptops page? We'll have to benchmark it and try out its AI-focused features to find out. But (spoiler alert) its 16-hour battery life result in our testing is certainly impressive – if not quite the next-level longevity that Qualcomm was promising in the lead-up to the launch of its latest Windows on Arm platform.

Arm Software and App Support

Previous efforts to get Windows software, which is typically written for x86 (Intel and AMD) architectures, running on Arm chips have been hit or miss at best, with many popular apps and programs running in emulation (making them slower while also consuming more battery life), and many other programs refusing to run at all. For an operating system like Windows where people have grown to expect software to mostly just work, that's a pretty big problem.

But with the launch of the Snapdragon X Elite and the Microsoft Copilot+ push, things are very different this time around, with many mainstream apps and programs getting native Arm versions. Personally, nearly everything I attempted to run on the OmniBook X just worked as I would have expected from a typical Intel or AMD laptop, with the exception of HWinfo, which we typically use for testing.

One of my favorite games at the moment, Dome Keeper, was playable (running in emulation, not that the average user would know that) but choppy in scenes with fast motion. This is a pixel art game that's generally not very demanding, so I was a bit surprised that the game felt sluggish.

Of course, HP isn't marketing the OmniBook as a gaming laptop, and I do expect gaming performance to get better as Qualcomm releases additional driver updates. But at least for the foreseeable future, you should expect some programs (and games in particular) to exhibit unpredictable performance – and for some software to occasionally just not work. If that's not something you want to deal with, especially considering the high price of the OmniBook and other Snapdragon X Elite devices, you may want to stick with an Intel or AMD laptop for this cycle and see what Windows on Arm looks like in a year or two.

Design of the HP OmniBook X

The OmniBook X is a new design from HP, but it clearly takes cues from the company's previous high-end Dragonfly laptops, with its simple but refined rounded and tapered edges, above-average keyboard feel, and high-resolution (5MP) webcam with a physical privacy shutter.

The design basics (and the physical laptop itself) all feel solid, and the chassis is svelte at 0.57 inches thick. But at 2.97 pounds, it's not the lightest 14-incher around. Lenovo's X1 Carbon is 2.42 pounds, and my personal AMD-powered Asus Zenbook 14 OLED weighs 2.82 pounds. So while the OmniBook X feels solid and dense, there are lighter ultraportable options out there.

HP delivers a decent selection of ports for an ultraportable laptop, with a 5Gbps USB-A port (under a drop-jaw hinge) on the right edge, alongside a 3.5mm audio jack.

The left edge houses two USB-C ports, one 40Gbps (USB4), and one 10GBps. It would be nice if both ports offered the same bandwidth, but both at least support power delivery, so you don't have to worry about which one you use to charge.

In its marketing materials, HP calls out the laptop's redesigned hinge for its "optimal thermal ventilation." But those who prefer a full 180 degrees will find the hinge sub-optimal, as the screen only tilts back as far as can be seen in the image above. 

The company has done some smart and visually interesting things with the keyboard, adding screen capture, calculator, and a customizable button to the function row, alongside a pale blue power button. But we'll discuss the keyboard and touchpad in more detail shortly. 

Overall, while it does give off MacBook Air vibes in silver (it's also available in white), HP's latest laptop feels like something I'd be comfortable and confident in using as my daily (portable) computing device – even if the commuter in me does wish it were about a half-pound lighter.

HP OmniBook X Specs

Productivity Performance on the HP OmniBook X

We tested the HP OmniBook X against the Surface Laptop 13, also a Snapdragon X-based portable, along with the 13-inch M3 MacBook Air. And to see how these laptops compare to a recent Intel-based portable, we tossed in Asus' Zenbook 14 OLED, outfitted with a Core Ultra 7 155H CPU and a higher-resolution 2880 x 1800 display.

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In Geekbench 6, the HP OmniBook X was competitive, but not a top performer. Its single-core score of 2,333 is actually the worst showing here, while its multi-score showing of 13,200 was better than all its competitors, save for the Surface Laptop (also a Snapdragon X device), which managed 14,426.

On our file copy test, the OmniBook X transferred our 25GB of test files at 892.54 MBps. That's not exactly slow, but again it's the slowest result here, with the Asus Zenbook 14 being about a third faster.

With Handbrake, we have computers transcode a 4K video to 1080p. And we use the Arm-specific versions of Handbrake for the Arm-based laptops and the traditional x86 version of the program for Intel and AMD laptops. Here the OmniBook landed in second place, at 5 minutes and 46 seconds, behind the 5:10 showing of Microsoft's Snapdragon-based Surface Laptop. The Intel Core Ultra-based Asus Zenbook wasn't massively behind the HP, though, at 6:17.

To measure long-term performance, we run 20 loops of the Arm version of the Cinebench 2024 CPU test and observe how the scores change, with less change suggesting more stable thermal performance. After taking a big dip after the first run, dropping from 649 to 358, the OmniBook recovered a bit on the third run (551), then stayed in the mid-to-high 600s for the rest of our test runs. Usually, we'd use HWinfo to check speeds and temperatures during this test, but that software isn't working on Arm as of this writing.

Display on the HP OmniBook X

The 14-inch, 2240 x 1400 touch display on the HP OmniBook looks pretty good, helped in some ways by the glass that covers its touch panel. But looking over some photos of a recent trip to Scotland, and comparing them to how they look on my own Asus Zenbook OLED (an AMD-based model), the color and contrast were noticeably better on the Zenbook, beginning out a level of detail that wasn't apparent on the OmniBook, even though it has a higher-resolution screen than my Zenbook (1920 x 1200).

Despite not being OLED, the OmniBook's screen does quite well in terms of its color, reproducing 80.2 percent of the DCI-P3 color space, which is only just bested here by the OLED screen on the Zenbook 14 (81.7 percent). But in terms of measured brightness, at 283.2 nits, it was the dimmest of this bunch. The Surface Laptop was the brightest, at an impressive 567.8 nits, but its color reproduction was also the worst. Both the Zenbook OLED and the MacBook Air arguably provide the best balance of color and brightness of these competing machines.

Keyboard and Touchpad on the HP OmniBook X

While the OmniBook X's key travel is predictably shallow for a thin and light laptop, the keyboard on the laptop is still quite good. The keys feel reasonably snappy, with space between them so you can orient your fingers by feel. And the three levels of backlighting gets bright enough that I could easily see even in our brightly lit office.

The company has also tweaked the top function row to include the usual media controls, along with launch keys for the calculator, snipping tool, and a customizable key. I also like that the power button in the upper-right is blue, breaking up the gray and silver look while making it easier to find. There are also tiny amber indicator lights on the volume and mic keys to let you know when you're muted – a small but genuinely useful design choice.

The roomy touchpad doesn't sport any fancy haptic feedback, instead opting for a physical click that generally worked well for me. The only issue I had with the cursor controls was occasionally when attempting to click and drag one folder into another. It's unclear whether this is a driver issue with Snapdragon laptops or something specifically to do with HP's touchpad – it didn't occur every time. The screen also supports touch input, so if you're so inclined, you can also use the even roomier 14-inch panel to move files around.

Audio on the HP OmniBook X

The OmniBook's downward-firing speakers sit near the front edge of the laptop and deliver a noticeably better audio experience if the laptop is sitting a couple of feet in front of you than if your head is hunched in front of the screen. I know this because as I was using the laptop on my coffee table, looking down at the screen and keyboard, I first thought the speakers sounded a bit mid-heavy and muffled. But as soon as I leaned back to watch the video for IAMX's latest single, "Neurosymphony," my perception of the audio improved dramatically.

All that said, even with the laptop on a desk a couple of feet in front of you, the OmniBook's speakers are good but not great. Both Apple's MacBooks and HP's own Dragonfly G4 that I tested last year get much louder while delivering at least the same quality of sound, if not better.

Battery Life on the HP OmniBook X

Of course, with Quacomm's dramatic claims about unplugged longevity, we were curious to see how the OmniBook and other Snapdragon X laptops would do on our battery life test. Our battery benchmark consists of web browsing, video streaming, and OpenGL graphics tests at 150 nits of screen brightness. And HP's laptop certainly didn't disappoint here, lasting 16 hours and 18 minutes.

That's more than an hour longer than Apple's M3 MacBook Air, and anything else here. Note, though, that the Asus Zenbook we reviewed has a higher-resolution 2880 x 1800 screen, and it's OLED, which tends to use more power. Our colleagues at Laptop Mag tested another model with a 1920 x 1200 screen (and the same Core Ultra 7 CPU as our Zenbook), and it lasted 15 hours and 52 minutes on the same battery test – just 26 minutes shy of the Snapdragon X-powered OmniBook.

So in short, the OmniBook's battery life is very impressive, easily crossing the 16 hour mark on our test. But if you choose the right models, both Apple and Intel can deliver laptops that last almost as long.

Webcam on the HP OmniBook X

One area where the Snapdragon X seems to be undoubtedly better than competing Intel and AMD laptops is in webcam performance. In part, that's because these high-end Arm-based laptops have tended to feature higher-end cameras. But it's also because the Quaclcomm chips have a dedicated image signal processor, while x86 chips do not.

Specifically, our HP OmniBook X sports a 5MP webcam, akin to previous-gen Intel-based HP Dragonfly laptops. But the sensor specs tell only part of the story. In general, thanks to the hardware and Qualcomm's years of expertise powering front-facing phone cameras, colors, detail, and the overall field of view just looks better on HP's laptop than pretty much any Windows-based laptop I've tested previously.

That's all well and good, but considering that many office meeting apps limit the resolution of your window to 1080p or less, it's a question how much this matters for most people, unless you happen to be using your webcam to shoot stills or video for professional or pro-sumer purposes. Personally, as someone who owns a 4K webcam and regularly dials into meetings that I frequently have to run myself, I'm fine with a solid 1080p camera – but that clearly isn't the case for everyone.

This is somewhat anecdotal, but signing in via Windows Hello also seemed faster and more reliable than with many Windows laptops I've used in the past.

Software and warranty on the HP OmniBook X

One thing I don't expect to see in the taskbar of a $1,200 laptop is trialware, and yet the McAfee logo lives on the home screen of the laptop out of the box, hawking its antivirus and firewall trials, while also trying to get you to install other apps. This is something I've grown to expect from sub-$1,000 laptops, but it never feels good when you spend a serious amount of money, only to have a company shovel software at you that you most likely don't need.

HP also includes its own apps. MyHP links you to support, as well as audio and video controls. Most of these settings can of course be managed from within Windows, but HP's Poly suite gives you added features like "AI Noise Removal / Reduction," background blur / removal, auto framing and, so HP says, better handling of multiple cameras. Many of these features will be duplicated in some form in most modern video conferencing apps and through Windows Studio Effects, but for those unlikely to dig into settings before a call, HP at least gives you the option of tweaking things ahead of time, I guess. 

The company also sticks its beta AI Companion on the taskbar. From the demos I saw of it, it's mostly a front-end for a large language model / chatbot that could be accessed directly on the web. But unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any real-world experience with it, as it forced me to create an account and receive an authorization via email to use the app. But I never got the authorization code to my Gmail account, despite trying multiple accounts and checking my Spam folders.

Copilot+ PC Features

Of course, as a Copilot+ PC, the OmniBook X also ships with Microsoft's exclusive (at least for now) AI-focused features, such as they are. Cocreator is an addition to Paint that attempts to combine a text prompt and your own attempts at drawing to create the kind of image you're after. Studio Effects add background blur and other effects to your webcam. And Live Captions With Translation extends the existing Live Captions feature (which adds captioning to basically any audio playing on the device) to provide live translations between languages.

How useful the above features will be to you will of course in large part depend on how and why you use your laptop. But we generally haven't found these Copilot+ features all that useful or exciting. And of course the primary exclusive feature to the Windows on Arm, the screen-capturing Recall, has seemingly been indefinitely delayed due to privacy concerns and the resulting backlash.

Upgradability of the HP OmniBook X

Getting inside the HP OmniBook X is just a matter of removing four Torx screws (two longer ones on the top edge and two shorter ones on the bottom), and then prying off the clips around the edge of the metal bottom panel. But don't expect to be able to upgrade much, as is typically the case with slim laptops. The 2280 SSD can be swapped out (once you remove a metal shielding cage). And you could, at some point, replace the Wi-Fi card, but the 6E model that's here is good enough for almost anyone, and it's unclear if drivers for other, faster cards will be readily available for this new Arm-based platform.

Configurations of the HP OmniBook X

HP sells the HP OmniBook X in one core configuration, with a Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite X1E-78-100 CPU, integrated Adreno graphics, 16GB of RAM, and a 2240 x 1400 touch display. Our silver model with 1TB of storage lists at $1,199 (HP was selling it for $1,149 on sale when I wrote this). But if you want the "Ceramic White" color, it costs $10 more. And if you can live with 512GB of storage, that knocks $100 off the price. There is no 2TB option or the ability to get more RAM.

Conclusion

Almost all of my reservations about the OmniBook X have nothing to do with the hardware and everything to do with its underlying platform. In opting into the Snapdragon X Elite ecosystem, particularly this early, you should expect to at least occasionally run into programs that don't work or won't work as well as you might expect. And if you happen to regularly run programs that don't yet have native Arm versions (including most of Adobe's apps, save for Photoshop and Lightroom), you're probably going to experience much shorter battery life than we saw in our browser-based test. And there are traditional x86-based laptops that last nearly as long on a charge as the Omnibook, without the complications and limitations that still exist with Windows on Arm.

As much as I like the Omnibook X's hardware and battery life, I'm not convinced that most people should jump on the Snapdragon X Elite bandwagon just yet. Considering all of that, plus the perhaps interesting but mostly unnecessary exclusive features that ship with these Copilot+ PC devices, you may want to at least hold off to see how AMD's AI 300 and Intel's Lunar Lake have to offer when it comes to battery life and AI-focused features and performance. But purely considering its hardware design and 16-plus-hour battery life in our testing, the HP OmniBook X is an excellent laptop with a good keyboard. It should get you through a workday without having to reach for the charger, and the vast majority of programs I use on a daily basis just work. That's much more than I have been able to say about any previous Arm-based PC.