HP’s revived OmniBook series will soon get a performance boost with the new HP OmniBook Ultra, featuring AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series processors, integrated AMD Radeon 800M graphics, up to 32GB RAM, and two 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports. Available from August for $1,449.99, the new HP OmniBook Ultra will eventually receive free software updates and will be one of the first Copilot Plus PCs not equipped with an ARM-based processor.
The OmniBook brand was resurrected in May with the HP OmniBook X AI laptop, which, like most of the Copilot Plus PCs announced at the time, was powered by an ARM-based Snapdragon X Elite processor. The neural processing unit was rated at 45 trillion operations per second (TOPS), but the new OmniBook Ultra with the AMD Ryzen AI 300 series inside offers “up to 55 TOPS of NPU performance,” HP said in a press release.
The AMD Ryzen AI 300 series is also an x86-based processor, offering broader Windows app compatibility. Some older applications may require emulation to run on a Windows PC with a Snapdragon X Elite or other ARM-based processor.
Both OmniBooks feature 14-inch, 2240 x 1400 pixel LCD touchscreens, but the new Ultra model includes a few small updates: In addition to two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports (and the older USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port), the Ultra’s webcam has been bumped to 9MP resolution and it now has quad speakers with DTS:X Ultra support as well as stereo speakers.
At 3.48 pounds, the OmniBook Ultra is about half a pound heavier than the OmniBook X AI thanks to its larger 68Wh battery. Despite the Ultra’s battery being larger than the X AI’s 59Wh battery, the OmniBook Ultra actually has slightly shorter battery life, at up to 13 hours with average usage and up to 21 hours with local (non-streaming) video playback.
The new OmniBook Ultra won’t be a Copilot Plus PC at launch, but HP plans to release a free update that will add these features at some point. HP says the timing and availability of the update is “up to Microsoft.”
