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HP OmniBook Ultra Flip Review: A Great Business Laptop, AI Aside
PC makers are desperate to convince us we need a so-called AI PC. The HP OmniBook Ultra Flip is without doubt one of those, but it’s great despite the AI features, not because of them.
The OmniBook Ultra Flip is the best HP laptop I can recall seeing in many a long year. It’s beautifully designed, has a stunning screen and it’s compact and lightweight enough to effortlessly carry on your business travels.
It’s when it starts to do the clever stuff that the shine wears off...
HP OmniBook Ultra Flip: The AI Features...The OmniBook Ultra Flip has that key component that separates AI PCs from mere spreadsheet pushers: a neural processing unit. That NPU is powerful enough to qualify for the Windows Copilot+ label, meaning it will receive AI features such as the controversial Recall, when Microsoft finally decides to roll it out.
PC makers are desperate to convince us we need a so-called AI PC. The HP OmniBook Ultra Flip is without doubt one of those, but it’s great despite the AI features, not because of them.
The OmniBook Ultra Flip is the best HP laptop I can recall seeing in many a long year. It’s beautifully designed, has a stunning screen and it’s compact and lightweight enough to effortlessly carry on your business travels.
In the meantime, you’re left with access to the regular Windows Copilot and HP’s own AI Companion app. The HP app, supposedly based on the same technology as ChatGPT, lets you ask general queries, ask questions about how to get more from your PC and—most interestingly of all—create libraries of documents that you can analyze with HP’s AI assistant.
The PC assistant is hit and miss. When I clicked on the suggestion to “make my camera follow my face” the AI assistant responded with “we encountered an error when processing your request”. However, it did manage to turn down screen brightness and toggle the screen’s HDR settings when asked to do so.
In the meantime, you’re left with access to the regular Windows Copilot and HP’s own AI Companion app. The HP app, supposedly based on the same technology as ChatGPT, lets you ask general queries, ask questions about how to get more from your PC and—most interestingly of all—create libraries of documents that you can analyze with HP’s AI assistant.
The PC assistant is hit and miss. When I clicked on the suggestion to “make my camera follow my face” the AI assistant responded with “we encountered an error when processing your request”. However, it did manage to turn down screen brightness and toggle the screen’s HDR settings when asked to do so.
The ability to query libraries of your own documents initially seemed super useful... until I asked it a question about a report from the U.K.’s telecoms regulator from which it “hallucinated” figures that weren’t in the report in the first place.
Worse, this AI Companion app is entirely useless without an internet connection, suggesting it’s not really using the NPU at all, but processing all the data in the cloud, much like Windows Copilot or ChatGPT, which are both better all-rounders. If you’re going to the bother of creating your own AI assistant, it has to offer something different. HP’s barely does.
There are other AI features. Live captions for videos, tools that work with your webcam, but none of these are game-changers. This is an AI PC where the AI is one of the least impressive things about it.
The device flips and folds into a variety of configurations. HP
HP OmniBook Ultra Flip: The Design...So, if you’re not buying this laptop for its AI features, why should you buy it?
So, if you’re not buying this laptop for its AI features, why should you buy it?
Well, the design is stunning. The all-metal casing is cast in a midnight blue that looks deadly serious, and it’s wonderfully compact. At first you’ll fret that there’s only USB-C connection on the entire device, where the charger would sit, but there are two more hidden on the rear corners, which have been neatly cut in at 45 degrees.
As the name suggests, the device flips over into a full tablet mode, made more useful by the supplied stylus. That said, don’t get too excited about this. Windows 11 is still an appalling tablet OS with a crippling lack of touch-friendly apps, and the stylus has an irritating input lag that makes scribbling on screen unsatisfactory. It’s a very poor man’s iPad in this regard.
Still, the screen is everything you could wish for at this size. The 2,880 x 1800 resolution is perfect for the 14in display, which scrolls at a smooth 120Hz. It’s an OLED display too, which means colors fizz and there’s a heavyweight punch of contrast. A variety of color profiles let you ease the glare if you’re reading a long document, say, or bashing out a report.
The backlit keyboard is a winner too. Well spaced with a satisfying degree of travel under each key, it’s one of those keyboards where you’re instantly up to full typing speed the moment you lay your fingers on it. Furthermore, the large slab of a touchpad beneath it is immaculately responsive. It’s a laptop I’d happily pack for a business trip.
Talking of work, the integrated 9-megapixel webcam is ideal for business meetings. It’s sharp and well balanced, and with the supplied Poly Camera Pro app you can apply nice touches such as graphical overlays that show your name, job title, contact details and more.
The webcam also does a superb job of helping to monitor your presence, turning the screen off the moment you look away from the display, and switching it back on as soon as your gaze returns, helping to protect privacy and battery life. There’s also a slide-across privacy shield to prevent the webcam capturing images when you don’t want it to.
Overall, a tremendous amount of thought and care has gone into the design of the HP OmniBook Ultra Flip, elevating it above the run-of-the-mill laptop.
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