HP OmniBook Ultra 14 review: a solid entry for AMD

Design

The first thing I noticed about the OmniBook Ultra 14 is that it shares the notches in the rear chassis and display bottom, one of which houses a USB-C port for plugging in power or an accessory and keeping the cable out of the way. It’s therefore both a design and functional statement. The chassis sides are also reasonably rounded and avoid a sharp edge on the palm rest, making it more comfortable than some laptops.

The most obvious comparison is OmniBook Ultra Flip 14, and there are several other good 14-inch clamshell laptops to contrast. The Lenovo Yoga Slim 7i and Zenbook S 14 are two of them, both sporting Intel’s latest Lunar Lake chipset.

Aesthetically, these are all attractive machines and I wouldn’t pick any over the OmniBook, or vice versa, based on looks alone.

One area where the OmniBook doesn’t excel compared to some recent competition is in its size. Its bezels are fairly large by modern standards, on both the top and the bottom. That results in a chassis that’s a bit wider and deeper than many. It’s also relatively chunky, especially its 3.47 pounds that’s around half a pound heavier than the others I’ve mentioned. It’s still reasonably portable, but it doesn’t stand out so well.

Keyboard and touchpad

I’ve been a fan of HP’s keyboards, particularly those on its Spectre lineup, and the OmniBook lives up to that standard. The keycaps are large with lettering that’s highly visible in all lighting conditions, which is a nod to accessibility. There’s tons of spacing, and the switches are light and snappy.

I have the OmniBook Ultra 14 sitting next to HP’s very similar 2-in-1, and the keyboards are pretty much identically good. So, I expect that will be the design going forward — a very good thing. My favorite laptop keyboard has been Apple’s Magic Keyboard since it got rid of the butterfly switches, and the OmniBook’s is definitely in the same class.

The touchpad is less impressive. There’s plenty of space on the palm rest for a larger version, and for whatever reason, HP didn’t include the excellent haptic touchpad it used on the OmniBook Ultra Flip 14. The mechanical touchpad is just OK, with buttons that are a little loud. The display is touch-enabled, which I prefer.

If the OmniBook Ultra 14 has an Achilles heel, it’s the 14.0-inch 16:10 2.2K (2240 x 1400) IPS display. At these prices, I’m used to seeing 2.8K (2880 x 1800) or sharper panels, and more often OLED than IPS. And, more and more are running at much faster 120Hz refresh rates for smoother Windows animations if nothing else. So, I was a bit surprised at the OmniBook’s display, and it’s really a bit less sharp, fast, and colorful than I want to see if I’m spending well over $1,000 on a laptop. It helps with battery life, though, so that’s the benefit here.

According to my colorimeter, this is a merely an average IPS display — but that’s a good thing, given how the technology has improved over the last several years. It’s much brighter than our 300-nit threshold, as most displays are today, coming in at 382 nits. Its colors are wide enough for productivity use at 100% of sRGB, 76% of AdobeRGB, and 76% of DCI-P3, and accuracy is excellent at a Delta-E of 0.94. And contrast is good at 1,310:1, also above our older standard of 1,000:1 that most IPS displays exceed today.

So, if you really care about battery life and don’t need the bright, dynamic colors and inky blacks that OLED provides, then you’ll be OK with this display. But I can’t help being a little disappointed.

The OmniBook has 68-watt-hour battery, which is just OK for a 14-inch laptop, but it also benefits from a relatively low-res 14.0-inch 2.2K (2240 x 1400) IPS panel limited to a 60Hz refresh rate. Every laptop in this comparison group has a higher-res display, and some are OLED as well. As mentioned above, though, the AMD Ryzen 9 chipset isn’t aimed at efficiency, and the two other laptops we reviewed with the same chipset didn’t do that well by comparison. So, I wasn’t expecting much.

The OmniBook Ultra 14 is a solid representative of HP’s newest brand. It’s well-built, offers great performance and decent battery life, and it has a great keyboard. It’s not, though, as impressive as HP’s OmniBook Ultra Flip 14, despite being priced similarly.

To begin with, the OmniBook Ultra 14’s display just doesn’t impress. It’s only an OK display where so many others are great. Sure, that aids in battery life, but HP could have opted for a higher-res version that would have offered similar benefits. And the OmniBook isn’t quite as good of a thin-and-light ultrabook, which is what it’s primarily going up against.

Overall, it’s a good device, of course, but I would only recommend it while its on discount. You’ll get slightly better battery life, performance, and displays out of some of its competitors in the same price range.