The best Snapdragon X2 Elite laptop yet: HP OmniBook Ultra 14 is the prettiest Windows laptop we've tested this year

HP's back with an all new OmniBook Ultra, this time powered by Qualcomm's latest Snapdragon X2 Elite, and a new design to boot. I've always loved HP's flagship laptops, and the OmniBook Ultra might just be the best Windows laptop it's ever made.

Its new design is drop dead gorgeous, featuring razer thin edges, a new keyboard design that's amazing to type on, and a best-in-class 14-inch OLED display that makes text and images crisp and clear. It also has plenty of power under the hood, all while offering all day battery life, and then some.

I've been testing the HP OmniBook Ultra over the last few weeks, and this is my full review.

This review was made possible via a review unit supplied by HP. The company had no editorial input and did not view the contents of this review before publication.

Reviewed by

Reviewed by

Zac Bowden

I'm a Senior Editor at Windows Central and have been with the site since 2016. I've reviewed hundreds of Windows laptops and have daily driven Windows on Arm powered devices since their inception in 2012, so I'm pretty well versed in the world of Snapdragon and thin & light notebook PCs!

Specs and Price

The HP OmniBook Ultra is available now from HP Online and third-party retailers with prices starting at $1,899 for the base model with a Snapdragon X Plus and 16GB RAM.

You can also upgrade to a Snapdragon X2 Elite and 32GB RAM, which will cost $2,399 from HP. The configuration used for this review is one with 64GB RAM and 2TB storage, but this model doesn't appear to be available for sale just yet.

What I love

Getting right down to business, I want to start with the overall design of this laptop. In a word, it's fantastic. In multiple words, it might be one of the prettiest Windows laptops I've ever had through the lab. It's a gorgeous piece of hardware, featuring diamond cut edges that look so sharp and satisfying.

When closed, it looks so sleek and modern. The side of the device where the display hinge is features a brushed metal design with "OMNIBOOK ULTRA" subtly etched into the metal. I'm obsessed with how it looks. I love looking at it, and I love touching it. Everything about this design is premium.

The underside if the device features a unique design that makes it appear thinner than it actually is. The device tapers towards the edges and around the ports so that the part you hold and can see is razer thin. It's only when you hold the laptop up and look underneath do you realize that it's actually thicker than it first appears.

This is accentuated by the color, "Stone Blue," which might be the prettiest blue to ever grace a computer. It looks super stylish, and doesn't overexert itself like some other laptop blues. It's much more muted than the blue on Surface Laptop 7, which I think is actually a good thing. It also does a very good job at hiding fingerprints, which can't be said for all laptops.

That color is carried into the inside of the device, which when opened looks fantastic. The display is flanked by super think bezels, and the keyboard is beautiful too. There's a large haptic trackpad below the keyboard which is also a delight to use, offering the usual haptic feedback options for adjusting how subtle the haptics are.

The only thing that really lets this design down is the usual sticker you find on Windows laptops. My Snapdragon X2 Elite model comes with a Snapdragon sticker, complete with an ugly Copilot+ PC logo. It's minor, but it really takes away from the overall elegant and clean design of the OmniBook Ultra.

Moving onto the display. It's a 14-inch 16:10 OLED panel with a high 120Hz refresh rate and 3K resolution. It's a beautiful and bright panel, with inky deep blacks, high contrast, 100% DCI-P3 coverage, and sharp text and images that make looking at webpages and icons super nice. It's also a touchscreen, which we love to see on a Windows laptop.

It can reach a peak brightness of around 500 nits, in our testing reaching 498. In HDR mode, HP rates the display for 1100 nits, which is pretty great I can confirm that HDR mode does pop on this display, though I'm not often watching HDR content.

What's also nice is that the display doesn't have rounded corners. Many high-end laptops these days, including MacBook's will round off the corners of the panel. This looks nice in theory, but in reality you lose genuine screen real-estate by doing this. The OmniBook Ultra has square display corners, so you're not missing out on any pixels.

I love typing on this laptop. There's something about the keyboard that makes it super easy to type on. It's quiet, smooth, lightweight, with enough key travel to be satisfying but not overbearing. It's a new keyboard design for HP laptops, with keys that are much closer together.

However, unlike Dell's keyboard (which I find more difficult to type on) the keys on the OmniBook Ultra are tapered at the edges, which gives them a little separation. This separation makes it easy to type without looking at the keys, as each key is distinctly placed and easily identified with your fingers. I also think it looks nicer than Dell's keyboards.

The port selection is good enough. On the left, we have a USB-C port and 3.5 audio jack, and on the right there's two additional USB-C ports. You won't find USB-A or an SD card reader here, which would've been nice additions, but I understand that to maintain the razer thin design, those ports needed to be omitted.

Webcam is also pretty good. It's a 5MP sensor that looks fine in daylight, but gets quite noisy in low-light environments. It is flanked by IR sensors, which support Windows Hello face unlock which is nice and fast, and much preferred over a fingerprint reader. The device also features wake on approach and screen dimming when you look away, though these are off by default.

What I don't like

Believe it or not, but there's really not a lot to dislike about the HP OmniBook Ultra. If I had to nitpick, I'd say the lack of a USB-A port is a little annoying sometimes, along with the absence of a microSD card reader.

Some will likely dislike that the display is glossy. I personally don'y have an issue with this, but it does mean reflections are very obvious when in a well lit environment. This is something that would be remedied with an anti-reflective or anti-glare coating, or a matte display option.

I also really don't like that Qualcomm insists on placing an ugly sticker on the keyboard deck to represent its silicon. I know OEMs include this because Qualcomm gives them incentive to do so, but I really feel like it detracts from the otherwise perfect appearance of the OmniBook Ultra.

I can also see how some may not love the look or feel of the keyboard. The keys are quite close together, but they are tapered at the edges to give them more of a separated feel. I personally love it, but some of my peers said they weren't huge fans. It'll come down to individual preference.

Lastly, the lack of a 5G option will be an upset for some. I know there is a small but vocal group of people who believe 5G is a must have feature on their Windows laptop, meaning this device won't be a fit for them.

Performance and Battery

Under the hood, the HP OmniBook Ultra is packing Qualcomm's latest SoC in the form of a Snapdragon X2 Elite (X2E-90-100,) featuring 18 cores and hitting boost speeds up to 5.0 GHz, this processor is capable of chewing through multi-threaded tasks with ease.

My review unit comes with 2TB storage and 64GB RAM too, though I think that's a little overkill. For most people, the configuration with 32GB or even 16GB RAM is likely more than enough for daily tasks and creative work.

In my testing, the OmniBook Ultra is a beast. I was able to edit 4K video on it with no problems, as well as play a few games with smooth framerates at 1440p. It's definitely not a gaming machine, but if you want to play something casually every now and then, it's something this device can handle, assuming there are no compatibility issues with Arm.

In benchmarks, the OmniBook Ultra performed very well. Cinebench 2026 tests resulted in 4,646 points in multi-core, and 632 in single-core. That places is neatly between an Intel Core Ultra 9 285K and Apple M4 Max in single-core performance, and and an AMD Ryzen Threadripper 2990W and Apple M4 Max in multi-core. It's a seriously capable chip.

Geekbench is a similar story, earning a multi-core score of 20,448 and single-core score of 3,687. Geekbench's GPU test resulted in a score of 39,738 too. In CrossMark, it achieved a score of 1,993. SSD performance is also excellent, with a CrystalDiskMark read score of 10,407.29 MB/s and write score of 7225.54 MB/s, making one of the fastest SSDs in a Windows laptop currently.

Above all else, even under heavy load, the device is whisper quiet. It has a built-in fan, designed around a vapour chamber that does an excellent job at keeping the keyboard deck cool enough to use comfortably under heavy load. The fan does get audible when under sustained load, but it's not loud or overbearing.

Regarding battery life, I was simply blown away. HP rates the OmniBook Ultra as capable of hitting 44 hours on a single charge, and while that's certainly an overestimation, the OmniBook Ultra can easily get you through a work day on a single charge, with plenty of power left to spare.

In my testing, I would usually end the 8 hour work day with about 35-40% battery remaining. That's with about 6-7 hours of screen time conducting day to day tasks such as writing, web browsing, and listening to music. In our controlled battery life tests, it achieved around 22 hours, which is super impressive.

That means real world usage should see you capable of taking the device to work without a charger, and not have to worry about it running out. You can even get through most of the next day too before needing to plug in again. Seriously impressive longevity in this battery, which is a 70Wh cell. Paired with the efficient Qualcomm chip, and you've got a perfect mix of power and efficiency.

When you do find yourself low on power, the OmniBook Ultra supports fast charging, meaning you can juice up from 0% to about 50% in under an hour.

Conclusion

Overall, I think the HP OmniBook Ultra is my new favorite Windows 11 PC in 2026 so far. It's beautiful, powerful, energy efficient, and features most bells and whistles that you might want on a flagship Windows laptop in the current year.

Some will likely find HP's new keyboard design a little controversial, or the lack of an anti-reflective display annoying, but personally I don't have issues with either of these. I prefer glossy displays and I've found HP's new keyboard design to be delightful to use.

You should buy this laptop if...

✅ You want an excellent all-round Windows laptop

✅ You need all day battery life

✅ You want an incredible OLED touchscreen

✅ You want a Windows on Arm PC

You should not buy this laptop if...

❌ You want a laptop with 5G

❌ You need a laptop with an anti-reflective or matte screen

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