My favourite Snapdragon X PC

When Microsoft first unveiled the Copilot Plus PCs back in May, HP’s OmniBook X didn’t immediately catch my attention. However, after using it for several weeks, it’s one of my favourite Snapdragon X laptops so far. While maybe not the most exciting laptop, the OmniBook X features a subtle design, excellent keyboard and reliable battery life. Coupled with the solid performance offered by the X Elite chip, the OmniBook is a great overall package.

Of course, no laptop isn’t perfect and there are a few things I think HP could improve, such as the display. Plus, I’m still not sold on the whole ‘AI PC’ shtick, and HP takes that even further with its own AI software inclusions.

Specs

• Display: 14-inch 2,240×1,400 pixel multitouch IPS 60Hz display 300 nits brightness
• Processor: Snapdragon X Elite
• Memory: 16GB
• Storage: 1TB
• Dimensions: 31.29 x 22.35 x 1.44 cm
• Weight: 1.34kg
• Camera: 5-megapixel IR camera
• Operating System: Windows 11 Home
• Battery: 59Wh
• Connectivity: Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.3
• Sensors:
• Ports: 1x USB Type-A 10Gbps, 1x USB Type-C 10Gbps, 1x USB Type-C 40Gbps, 1x headphone/mic jack
• Graphics: Qualcomm Adreno iGPU

Note: the above specs are specific to the model I tested. You can find all specs for the OmniBook X here.

Simple but sleek

HP changed up its laptop line significantly this year, dropping past brands like the unique, angular Spectre series for a simple two lines, OmniBook for consumers and EliteBook for businesses. The OmniBook X was the first of the consumer line and it boasts a scaled-back design. The dark grey colourway is borderline boring but looks good with its Apple-like simplicity.

The OmniBook X is also wonderfully thin and light while still feeling quite solid. The traditional clamshell form factor adds to that reliability – it feels like a laptop that will last a long time, which is welcome when putting down $1,599 on a laptop.

But the design element I appreciate the most is the keyboard. Aside from being an awesome typing experience (more on this in a bit), it looks great. I love the legend on the keycaps and the light blue shade of the power button is a nice touch.

Efficient but powerful

The OmniBook X sports Qualcomm’s Snapdragon X Elite chip, which is a major step up for ARM-based Windows machines. I went more in-depth with the X Elite in my Surface Pro (11th Edition) review, and I don’t have a ton more to say here. However, I’ve had noticeably fewer bugs on the OmniBook X than on the Surface 11. I’m not sure whether that’s due to things getting ironed out in updates or if the bugs were specific to the Surface Pro.

The OmniBook X benchmarked very similarly to the Surface Pro (11th Edition), logging 2,407 single-core and 13,718 multi-core scores in Geekbench 6 while plugged in using the ‘Best Performance’ power setting.

That said, I did have one notable but odd bug with the OmniBook X. When I first set up the laptop, it wouldn’t turn on. Pressing the power button would cause the LED indicator in the button to come on, and I could hear the laptop’s fans enter a quiet idle mode, but the screen wouldn’t turn on, despite being charged and plugged in. But a couple days later (and after I reached out to HP about it), the laptop suddenly turned on. The power issue happened only one other time and then never again. I’m still unsure of what caused the issue.

Regardless, HP’s OmniBook X handled everything I threw at it, from tons of tabs in Firefox during heavy research sessions for stories I was working on to editing tons of photos for reviews in Photoshop. Granted, the X Elite isn’t great at everything, and some more intensive workloads like video editing might not run as smoothly. Moreover, it’s worth noting that anyone who relies on software that doesn’t have an ARM variant or anyone who likes gaming will want to make sure the apps or games they want to use will work fine on the X Elite.

Battery life is also great, with the OmniBook X exceeding my expectations. My go-to battery test is my weekly train ride from Hamilton to Toronto to work at the MobileSyrup office. If I can make it there and back again without needing to plug in, that’s a success. Not only did the OmniBook pull this off, but it lasted into the next day – over 25 hours before I chose to plug in around 30 percent (though I could have kept going if I wanted). This is the kind of battery life I’ve wanted in a laptop for years and it makes the OmniBook X a great option in my books.

Everything else

As I mentioned above, I absolutely love the keyboard in this laptop. It has short travel and a lovely tactile feeling with a muted clickiness that feels and sounds like a MacBook, though less shallow. It’s quickly become one of my favourite laptop keyboards, rivaling even the excellent Surface keyboard. If nothing else, I sincerely hope HP keeps this keyboard in future laptops.

The trackpad is also great – it’s large, responsive and feels superb under my finger. Additionally, the OmniBook X has decent-sounding speakers and the webcam is about what you’d expect from a laptop – mediocre. It does have a built-in privacy shutter, which is nice, but with no fingerprint scanner, the OmniBook pushes Windows Hello for fast biometric authentication, which makes using the privacy shutter annoying.

Perhaps the biggest issue I have with the OmniBook X is the display, which can be best described as fine. However, for the price of this laptop, I’d like something a lot better. It’s only 60Hz, which isn’t a big deal – 120Hz is great, but I’ve found I needed to stick with 60Hz to get the best battery life on X Elite laptops. The more significant issue is brightness. At 300 nits, it just isn’t enough. If nothing else, the next OmniBook should at least have a brighter display.

Also worth noting is the inclusion of apps and AI bloat. The OmniBook X isn’t the worst offender I’ve seen, but it does ship with a few HP apps and some other stuff, like Booking.com and Otter.ai shortcuts preloaded in the Start menu. The AI app, dubbed ‘AI Companion,’ is listed as beta software and offers a few features, such as a chatbot you can ask questions, an ‘Analyze’ feature that can scan documents, and a ‘Perform’ function that uses AI to optimize the OmniBook and includes another chatbot that can help troubleshoot issues with the laptop.

Of those functions, only the last one seems remotely useful to me, and the first two are just HP’s versions of Microsoft’s Copilot chatbot that also ships on this PC. However, in my time with the OmniBook X, it wasn’t clear what the Perform function did, if anything, beyond telling me that the laptop was “optimized.” HP’s support site notes that Perform automatically updates the PC with “firmware, drivers, and BIOS” updates to “give you the best-known configuration available.” In other words, it sounds like a glorified automatic updates feature, which isn’t as useful as I thought for someone like myself who regularly updates their PC, though it could still be beneficial for some.

Worth the money?

The HP OmniBook X looks pricey at $1,599.99, but that puts it in the middle of the Copilot Plus PC pack, coming in cheaper than options from Dell, Samsung and Microsoft and in the same ballpark as options from Acer, Asus and Lenovo. It’s also a bit cheaper than a comparable M3 MacBook Air.

With that in mind, I think the OmniBook X is decently priced for what it offers. Sure, you might be able to get a better display or a nicer design by paying an extra $200-$300 for an option from another manufacturer, but I don’t think either of those are particularly necessary.

The OmniBook X offers overall solid performance and battery life, and top-notch typing experience and a tried-and-true clamshell design, making it a great all-around option. The laptop starts at $1,599.99 at HP, Amazon and Best Buy.