The new OmniBook X AI PC powered by Snapdragon X represents a whole new era for HP laptops

What you need to know

• HP today announced the OmniBook X, a 14-inch Copilot+ PC powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite SoC.
• HP says the OmniBook X and the EliteBook Ultra G1q (also announced today) are the "world's thinnest next-gen AI PCs with 26 hours battery life."
• The sleek and nimble OmniBook X with 1TB of storage is now available to preorder at Best Buy starting at $1,200. The laptops will begin shipping on June 18, 2024.

HP is jumping into the future of AI PCs with both feet, simultaneously introducing a consumer-centric laptop featuring beyond-cutting-edge hardware while completely transforming its portfolio's naming system. The 14-inch HP OmniBook might sound familiar to those following HP, since it began manufacturing notebooks with the same prefix. A 'great PC reset' is starting, led by revolutionary Snapdragon X processors, and it's a big reason for the brand's transformation.

The 14-inch HP OmniBook X is already available for consumer pre-orders via Best Buy, starting at $1,199.99, and shipping is due to begin on June 18, 2024.

The 'X' in this next-gen HP OmniBook X is a 'ten,' referring to its position in HP's new, condensed range, which aims to simplify some confusing choices consumers face while looking for a new PC. HP's 'Elite' and 'Pro' devices will target a commercial market, while 'Omni' becomes the all-encompassing prefix for consumers.

This sleek-looking 14-inch laptop features Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite ARM chip and boasts immense performance gains from next-generation components that make up its System-on-a-Chip (SoC). Besides focusing on NPU-powered AI computing capable of reaching 45 TOPS, HP proudly advertises a "record-breaking 26 hours of battery life."

Plenty of laptops before the OmniBook X have promised "all day" battery life, but the outrageous efficiency on offer in the Apple-busting Snapdragon X platform is backed up with Qualcomm's open-natured benchmarking results data, creating a genuine excitement for what feels like a genuine Windows on Arm renaissance.

Flexible memory and storage options are always a delight for consumers, as they can help reduce the cost while often bypassing unnecessary upgrades. Still, even an entry-level OmniBook X with 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM and a 1TB PCIe solid-state hard drive is a bargain at $1,199.99, considering the appeal of a high-resolution 2.2K touchscreen and multi-day battery life.

HP simplifies its portfolio with impeccable style

Between this resurrection of the "Omni" prefix and an equally gorgeous HP EliteBook addition in the Ultra G1q, HP is gracefully diving into a refreshed world of Snapdragon X-powered Windows PCs. When even a mid-range notebook can offer the groundbreaking performance leaps of Snapdragon X Elite chips, everything else new on these laptops feels like a bonus. 

Even with the sad departure of a B&O audio partnership, its replacements from Poly (previously Plantronics) are beyond appropriate, as our Editor-in-Chief Daniel Rubino happily shares after seeing and hearing the tech in person. And despite the OmniBook serving as a more affordable alternative compared to the business-focused EliteBook, it has some other high-end features that will be more than enough for the average user. 

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Standouts to me are the 5MP IR camera (with privacy shutter) and the 14-inch display with 2.2K resolution, touch functionality, and 100% sRGB color reproduction. This hardware, combined with the Snapdragon X performance and efficiency, in a laptop that weighs less than three pounds and is just 0.56 inches thin, has me particularly excited. HP always does a good job of balancing features and price, but I feel like this is taking things to another level.

While the new EliteBook is intended for business and enterprise use, the OmniBook's sleek styling should have a broader appeal. I particularly love the Ceramic White color — I used to have an XPS 13 in a white finish — but there's also a Meteor Silver option for a more traditional look. The AI Helix logo is ingenious and helps set these new AI PCs apart from their siblings.

 Helping with the OmniBook X's broader appeal is the $1,200 price for a model with 1TB SSD. That makes it one of the more affordable Copilot+ PCs hitting the market in June.

What is Copilot+ and what does it mean for AI PCs?

We're going to be hearing a lot about AI PCs and Copilot+ with this revolution started by Qualcomm and Microsoft, but what do the terms mean?

The definition of an AI PC is a bit cloudy and can depend on who you ask, but the baseline to be considered is a Neural Processing Unit (NPU) that handles AI acceleration. An NPU takes some of the load off of the CPU and GPU, allowing your PC to run more efficiently even when AI is being used.

Copilot+ is a new term introduced today by Microsoft alongside the wide range of Snapdragon X-powered laptops. Copilot+ is a set of next-gen AI features coming to Windows 11, exclusively made for PCs with the Copilot+ branding.

How does a PC get Copilot+ certification? It must have an NPU with at least 40 TOPS of power, which at this time makes it exclusive to Snapdragon X-powered laptops like the HP OmniBook X. Intel and AMD are expected to play catchup later this year, but the first run on Copilot+ PCs are exclusive to Windows on ARM.

Copilot+ features are quite impressive and should prove to be useful for just about any type of user. Recall will provide a searchable timeline of everything you've seen and done recently on your PC, while Live Caption will translate more than 40 languages to English in real-time on live or pre-recorded video and audio. New Windows Studio Effects are on the way, and improved image and text generation in Cocreator will allow for improved local creation. Auto Super Resolution is also included and will be particularly useful for gamers.

Not all new AI features will be available right away, but they are expected to launch this year.