The HP OmniBook 5 14in is an all-day ultraportable for 799 - but it's flanked by a queue of capable challengers

"For £799, the HP OmniBook 5 14in attempts a tricky balancing act. With that relatively limited budget, it seeks to be fast enough to rival Intel and AMD alternatives; light, robust, and long-lasting enough to earn its ultraportable stripes, and stylish enough to distract buyers from similarly priced rivals. It's fair to say that HP is setting a high bar for success."

"There's a 1080P webcam, too, replete with a privacy shutter. The image quality is very middle of the road, however. There's no fine detail to speak of, and colors tend to look oversaturated. In our testing, skintones often looked excessively flushed and reddish. You also get a stereo set of speakers that fire downwards from under the front edge. These go rather loud, but it's a rough and ready noise - there's no delicacy or body to really make music pleasant to listen to."

HP's £799 OmniBook 5 14in attempts to balance Snapdragon X Windows-on-ARM performance with ultraportable design and style. Qualcomm's pared-back Snapdragon X processor debuts in this model with expectations of solid Windows on ARM performance and all-day battery life. The chassis uses sandblasted matte silver metal, weighs 1.3kg, and measures 13mm thick, with minor base and lid flex. Connectivity includes two 10Gbps USB-C ports, one 10Gbps USB-A port, a 3.5mm headset jack, Wi‑Fi 6E, and Bluetooth 5.3. A 1080p webcam with privacy shutter produces oversaturated, flushed skintones. Downward-firing stereo speakers reach high volume but lack tonal body and finesse.

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