HP OmniBook X Flip 16 First Impressions

The HP OmniBook X Flip 16 is a versatile 2-in-1 available in AMD and Intel configurations and with 14- and 16-inch displays. And the pricing is incredibly reasonable across the board, with the 16-inch Intel Core Ultra Series 2-based version I’m looking at here starting at about $1200, though HP’s routine sales guarantee you can get it for much less.

Any discussion about an HP laptop these days needs to start with a quick overview of its new branding scheme. The “Omni” bit means this is a consumer offering, not a business product, while “Book” indicates that it’s a portable PC. “X” puts this product near the top of the quality scale, right below “Ultra,” but still a premium offering. And Flip tells us that this is a 2-in-1 design. So this is a 16-inch premium 2-in-1 laptop for consumers.

Branding aside, this is precisely the type of laptop I’ve been waiting for: A premium 16-incher with a numpad-less keyboard floating in the middle of the lower deck. It’s reasonably thin and light at 14.02 x 9.67 x 0.61 inches and 4.15 pounds. Battery life is about as expected, about 6 and a half hours on average so far, but I’ll monitor that, of course. The AMD-based versions will likely get 90 minutes to two hours more battery life, if my previous experiences translate over to this. (And they would be much more powerful.)

The internals are solid: You can configure the OmniBook X Flip 16 at HP.com with one of three Intel Core Ultra Series 2 (“Lunar Lake”) V-series processors and 16 or 32 GB of integrated and non-upgradeable RAM. The base unit features an Intel Core Ultra 5 226V with Intel Arc 130V graphics and 16 GB of RAM. But there are two Core Ultra 7 upgrade choices with 16 and 32 GB of RAM, respectively, both with Intel Arc 140V graphics. Beyond that, you can choose between 512 GB, 1 TB, and 2 TB of PCIe Gen4 NVMe M.2-based SSD storage. The review unit is maxed out, with an Intel Core Ultra 7 258V processor, 32 GB of RAM, and 2 TB of storage. Very nice.

There are two 16:10 display choices, a Full HD+ (1920 x 1200) IPS panel that emits 400 nits of light and a 3K (2880 x 1800) OLED panel with a dynamic 120 Hz refresh rate, 100 percent DCI-P3 color gamut coverage, and low blue light and HDR 500 capabilities that emits 400/500 nits of light across SDR and HDR content. Each is multitouch, and each supports a smart pen; one comes bundled with some configurations. The review unit has the latter display, which I think is the right choice for a display of this size, and it did include a pen.

Connectivity is modern, as dictated by the Intel chipset, with Wi-Fi 7 and Bluetooth 5.4.

There are plenty of expansion ports, but it’s disappointing to see a new laptop without Type-C ports on both sides. It’s even more disappointing to get a new laptop with two different USB Type-C ports.

Most of the ports on the left, where you’ll find a full-sized, 10 Gbps USB Type-A port, an HDMI 2.1 port for video out, one 40 Gbps Thunderbolt 4/USB4 Type-C port (with USB Power Delivery 3.1, DisplayPort 2.1, and HP Sleep and Charge), and one 10 Gbps USB Type-C port (with USB Power Delivery 3.1, DisplayPort 1.4, and HP Sleep and Charge).

The right side has just a single 10 Gbps USB Type-A port and a combo headphone/microphone jack.

The audio-video story looks solid with dual speakers–prominently visible on each side of the keyboard—powered by DTS:X Ultra and HP Audio Boost. Hybrid works needs should likewise be met by the 5 MP webcam and integrated dual-array microphones. We’ll see.

Security is solid with Windows Hello Enhanced Sign-in Security (ESS) facial recognition via the webcam, but no fingerprint reader. It also has integrated presence sensing capabilities so that it can dim the screen when you look away, sign out when you walk away, and then wake up and scan for your face when you approach.

The OmniBook X Flip 16 is a handsome machine, available in any color you want as long as it’s Eclipse gray*, which is basically black. There’s something nice about the feel of the device, which I suspect is a magnesium-aluminum hybrid. And while I would rarely use it this way, its 2-in-1 form factor means you can use it in clamshell, tent, (very large) tablet, and presentation configurations as needed. (* It looks like other sizes/models might be available in other colors, like silver and blue.)

As noted, I love that there’s no numpad to screw up typing accuracy, but the keyboard itself is a delight, and the latest in a long and growing list of top-notch HP keyboards. The touchpad is large and mechanical and works well, though I did need to disable three-finger gestures to restore my sanity.

HP says that the bundled USB-C power supply, a standard 65-watt unit, will charge the laptop’s 68 watt-hour battery to 50 percent in 45 minutes.

The OmniBook X Flip 16 can be configured with Windows 11 Home or Pro, but there is a lot of additional software preinstalled, including 11 (!) HP-branded utilities. Sadly, some of it is crap, like the Booking.com, Dropbox promotion, and Adobe offers icons in the Start menu and the superfluous McAfee antivirus solution. It will take me a while to figure out what’s useful and what’s not.

As noted up top, the pricing is reasonable. A base model Flip 16 with a Core Ultra 5-series processor, 16 of RAM, 512 GB of storage, and the Full HD+ display is normally priced at about $1250 and you can option it out all the way up to the review configuration for about $1800. But as I write this, HP is selling a prebuild with a Core Ultra 7-series processor, 16 GB of RAM, 512 GB of storage, and the upgraded display for just $950, an astonishing deal. There’s also an AMD variant with a Ryzen AI 7 processor, Radeon 860M graphics, 32 GB of RAM, 1 TB of storage, and the upgraded display for $1000 that is, if anything, an even better deal. I would buy that one myself.

More soon, but this looks like a winner.