HP OmniBook 5 review: A surprisingly premium MacBook Neo rival
At $699.99, the OmniBook 5 has a lot going for it, including an all-metal chassis and superb battery life. It’s not without its compromises, though. The base configuration just comes with 8GB of non-upgradeable RAM and 256GB of storage. So my main question is… is this one of the better affordable laptops you can buy right now?
It depends!
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HP OmniBook 5: Specifications
The review unit I tested costs $699.99 and it comes with an Intel Core 5 320 processor, 8GB of RAM, and 256GB of SSD storage. There’s a higher-tier configuration featuring an Intel Core 7 350, 16GB of RAM, and 512GB of SSD storage–this one is pricier at $1,069.99.
Since we’re living in the age of AI, I’d prefer to see 16GB of RAM instead of 8GB (doubly so because you can’t upgrade it on this machine). That’s one of my (very few) nitpicks here, but I think it’s an important one. 8GB is fine for day-to-day workloads, but I worry it won’t be enough as applications and operating systems become more demanding over time. I would’ve liked to have seen more storage, too — but RAM and storage are both at insane price premiums in these AI-crazed times.
- CPU: Intel Core 5 320 (6 cores, 6 threads, up to 4.6GHz)
- GPU: Intel integrated graphics
- Display: 14-inch 1920×1200 OLED panel, 300 nits, 100% DCI-P3
- RAM: 8GB LPDDR5-6400 (onboard)
- Storage: 256GB PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2 SSD
- Webcam: 1080p FHD IR camera
- Weight: 2.56 pounds
- Ports: 2 USB-C, HDMI
- Price: $699.99
HP OmniBook 5: Design, build quality
Foundry / Ashley Biancuzzo
The OmniBook 5 makes a damn fine first impression. I absolutely adore the green colorway, which HP calls “Soft Honeydew.” You don’t see many laptops in this color, so it really stands out. My iPhone camera doesn’t really do the colorway justice, though. It looks a lot lighter in photos than it does in person. It’s also available in Peony Pink, Smoke Silver, and Starlit Blue. HP’s redesigned logo looks great, too.
The build quality is equally impressive, especially for a laptop well under $1,000. The whole thing is made of metal, not plastic. There’s hardly any flex in the keyboard deck and the screen doesn’t twist much when applying pressure to it. The display also has a layer of Corning Gorilla Glass on it, which is a nice added touch.
