HP is coming out swinging with the slew of new laptops launching this year, and the one you should pay attention to is the OmniBook 7 Aero 13.
The new HP OmniBook 7 Aero 13 — unveiled on Tuesday in Nashville at HP Amplify, the company's annual conference on the future of work — is an ultraportable laptop that comes in at just under 2.2 pounds and is outfitted with AMD's latest Ryzen AI 7 350 CPU.
That means it could be one of the best laptops for travel and maybe even some light gaming. AMD has been killing it with its iGPUs like the Radeon 8060S, but can the OmniBook's Radeon 860M iGPU get things done?
Let's jump into why I'm excited about the OmniBook 7 Aero 13 and what other laptops HP has cooking.
Is the OmniBook 7 Aero 13 as exciting as it seems?
One of my favorite laptops is the Asus Zenbook 14 OLED (Q425M). It's light and portable, sports a gorgeous display, and offers excellent battery life. I even recommended it to a friend, and they are loving it.
Does OmniBook 7 Aero 13 have what it takes to beat the Zenbook 14 overall? It can be configured with up to an AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 processor, AMD Radeon 860M iGPU, 32GB of RAM, a 1TB SSD, and a 13.3-inch, 2560 x 1600 IPS display.
The OmniBook 7 Aero 13 is surpassed that ultraportable range, at 2.2 pounds versus the Zenbook's 3 pounds. Although, the Zenbook is thinner, at 0.59 inches versus OmniBook's 0.69 inches.
However, I do love that the OmniBook is fashioned in a ceramic white color, which beats the Zenbook 14's gray chassis by a mile.
On battery life, HP claims that the OmniBook can get up to 12 hours and 15 minutes with mixed usage. We tested the Zenbook 14 and got 15 hours and 52 minutes of battery life.
What about display? Well, the OmniBook can be outfitted with a 13.3-inch, 2560 x 1600 IPS display at 100% sRGB and 400 nits of brightness.
While the Zenbook 14 is trapped at 1080p, it does offer an OLED panel which provides more vivid colors and deeper blacks. However, it falls short at 339 nits.
I love gaming on non-gaming devices, as they're typically much more portable and sleeker (sorry, not sorry). The Radeon 860M has been benchmarked to run Baldur's Gate 3 at 23.6 fps on the lowest settings.
That's a bit disappointing considering BG3 is an incredibly well-optimized game. Although it did score 33.6 fps on GTA V at 1080p, High settings.
So as of right now, it's kind of dodgy with where the OmniBook 7 Aero 13 lands compared with the Zenbook 14. The deciding factor will be price.
We don't have price and availability at the moment, but if the OmniBook can get close to $1,000 as a starting price, then it has a serious shot of competing in the cutthroat ultraportable market.
But what else is HP offering?
All the OmniBooks!
No joke, HP is pumping out 18 different OmniBooks. Seven OmniBook 7 laptops, five OmniBook 5 laptops, two OmniBook 3 laptops, and 4 OmniBook X laptops. I think for your sanity and mine, I'll avoid going over every single one and instead focus on the series.
The OmniBook X series is HP's ultra premium line, featuring OLED displays packed in a thin and light chassis designed for "work and play."
Meanwhile, the OmniBook 7 series is a slight step down, offering similar premium qualities in a larger chassis that's designed to "keep your data secure." Although I'm not sure what makes it more secure than the rest.
The OmniBook 5 brings you down further, sporting older-gen CPUs but offering quality goods like OLED panels. This is designed for "light tasks, personal admin, and entertainment." Where's my OLED panel for the Aero, huh?
Then there's the OmniBook 3, which is the budget series, offering lower-end specs in an even thicker chassis. It's meant for "work, creativity, and connectivity at an affordable price."
I'm curious to see what HP thinks is "affordable," especially considering we have no idea what prices are going to look like for laptops with all this tariff madness.
Stay tuned to Laptop Mag for our upcoming reviews and benchmarks of the slew of OmniBook laptops that'll eventually flood our lab.
