It is easy to become overwhelmed when looking for a new laptop, given the sheer number of manufacturers and varieties available on the Australian market.
Each laptop has a specific user in mind, so it is important that you yourself know exactly what you have in mind when it comes to the laptop you are looking for. What do you need it for? Will you be using it for gaming? Will you be doing high-end video editing on it? How portable do you need it to be? What are the main things you will be using it for? And much, much more.
This review will cover the new HP Omnibook X Flip and my thoughts after using it for the past couple of weeks.
The HP Omnibook X Flip is designed to be a thin, ultra-portable laptop that can serve as a media presenter thanks to its folding design, while also providing enough power for some more intensive tasks.
The specs for the Omnibook X Flip include:
On paper, the X Flip looks like an impressive laptop, and with its tent- and tablet-mode capabilities, it offers many use cases. So just how did it perform?
The Omnibook X Flip is built around “high-strength aluminium”, which accounts for its weight of just 1.38kg. It seems incredibly light and while some laptops will be lighter, can you really tell a difference of just 300 grams or so? I know I couldn’t and carrying this around all day was a breeze.
The dimensions of the laptop are 31.3 x 21.85 x 1.46 cm, which means that it sits right in the middle of the road when it comes to portable laptops. It is about the same size as my Lenovo Chromebook, so I am comfortable with its size and navigating my way around it. It is most likely small enough to easily fit in your laptop bag/backpack – it did in all of mine.
The laptop itself is “Meteor silver aluminium” in a sandblasted anodised finish, which is basically just a good-looking, but basic, silver. The mirror-finish HP logo on the lid adds a bit of flair. The lid sits against the base when closed, with a small lip between the two sections created by the curves of each half. This, along with the light top half, makes the laptop easy to open, although you will most likely need two hands.
The hinge on the HP Omnibook X Flip is really good. It is solid and can be used at virtually any angle and will stay open. Now, that doesn’t mean it is difficult to move, it is not. It’s just a solid, well-built hinge, which is important if you have a 2-in-1 convertible laptop such as this.
The base has a full-sized keyboard with smallish gaps between each backlit key, which HP call a “lattice-less keyboard design.” When I first tried these, I wasn’t a fan, but they are growing on me. Although they still don’t feel as comfortable to me as a normally curved keycap, the typing is still very accurate and fast. I’m not sure if its a functional or simply a style choice but I can’t see how the flat keys are ever better for typing.
The keys themselves though, were really nice to type on. They had a comfortable travel distance and a soft reaction when pressed, which I prefer for a lot of productivity work, such as typing this review.
The trackpad is large and gives a nice clicky sound when pressed – if you prefer a light tap also works, so you can choose your own poison. I like the size of it, as it makes it easy to use without having to go searching for the trackpad.
Sporting a 14″ 3K OLED touch display, the Omnibook X Flip stuns with its brightness and powerful colours. I love an OLED display in a laptop, or anywhere, and once you have used one it is difficult to go back to an LCD screen. This display offers vibrant colours and deep blacks as you would expect but not just that, it is a touch display.
It is multi-touch-enabled, allowing you to use it easily as a tablet, which I love. It makes reading articles much easier. Tent mode is great for playing games when you have a controller such as an Xbox controller (more on that below). Tent mode is also great for presenting to a small audience without a larger display nearby.
The display is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 3, which, while not the latest from Corning, makes it semi-robust for tablet use.
For casual gamers, the display supports up to a 120Hz refresh rate and a 0.2ms response time, so it will suffice for basic games. It may be powerful enough to run most games, but the display may limit some more experienced gamers. It did not affect my gaming experience though.
Above the display is a small webcam, a “5MP IR camera with temporal noise reduction and integrated dual array digital microphones” with a manual privacy screen to cover the camera when not in use. You won’t be using this one for any high-definition streaming, but it worked well for basic meetings. As it is an IR camera, this camera doubles as your login security using Windows Hello — there is no fingerprint on this laptop but I prefer that given it never fails and fingerprints on laptops tend to be hit and miss for me.
The HP Omnibook X Flip has all the connectivity you may require. The built-in ports give you all the charging, storage and connectivity requirements you may need. The ports found on the laptop include:
Wirelessly, the laptop will meet all your needs with support for both Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4 – you will get the speeds and connectivity stability you need.
Manufacturers keep including AI features in all their marketing – we get it, nearly every laptop released these days has AI capabilities. If you need it, this one has it too but for me I don’t and I dare say more than 90% of users do not need on-device AI capabilities.
Another thing that manufacturers keep including that is useless is McAfee. It is a security app that works but is a long long way from optimised. I have yet to use a laptop with it on that doesn’t experience slowdowns and issues with McAfee hogging resources. Do yourself a favour and uninstall it as soon as you get your laptop – the Microsoft Windows Defender is normally good enough but if you want more there are much better options out there such as Trend Micro.
This is not a gaming laptop but it is good for gaming, but keep in mind that it is not a dedicated gaming machine so it may suffer when compared to the sheer power that those possess. It is still good enough for most games though and I was able to play most games on it with ease – especially when paired with the HyperX Clutch Gladiate Wired controller.
The built-in GPU does its job, for everyday tasks but if you want to do more graphics-intensive tasks I dare say you should be looking for a laptop with a discrete GPU onboard. For an everyday use laptop, this device fits the bill, easily. I really loved it, with a great display and a great performance that never stuttered or wavered for my use cases.
For those who prefer multi-screen setups, not only could I run all programs using the device on its own, I was also able to run them while extending the display to my 5K LG OLED monitor. This is a must for me, so I was very happy it handled this with ease.
The HP Omnibook X Flip features a 59 Wh Li-ion polymer battery with a claimed battery life of up to 14 hours and 45 minutes. In my testing, I was able to get a bit more than that, so I have no doubt you would be able to get a full day’s use with usual tasks.
The charger is a basic 65W USB-C charger that works for all your devices – I like that.
At first, I thought the HP Omnibook X Flip would just be another everyday productivity laptop, and while it is that, it is so much more. Its 2-in-1 convertible design offers many more use cases. Stick it in tent mode and play a game using a controller. Want to read a book? Flip it all the way over and use tablet mode, portrait or landscape. Want to churn through some work? Use it in normal laptop mode. Movies? Tent mode. It does everything.
The specs include an AI chipset from AMD, 32GB of RAM and up to 1TB SSD but if you prefer Intel, there is that option too. If AI is your thing then you may get some advantage with the 7 series AI chipsets these laptops offer but most people who use AI use the off-device AI so the AI-enabled chipset makes zero difference.
If you are looking for a new laptop with a beautiful display, power to burn, the ability to do everything, and not overpriced, then you really should check this out. The Omnibook X Flip, Intel version, is currently on sale at HP and select retailers for just $1,699 — a steal, in my opinion. The AMD version you can find at Harvey Norman and other retailers for around $2,300AU.
Scott is our resident open technology expert. If you can mod it, or want to use it your way, Scott has probably done it. From Laptops to phones, headphones and game consoles, he’s played with it and wants to see the next generation.
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