HP OmniBook X Flip 16 overview: An ideal show wrapped in odd selections

Greatest Costs Immediately: HP Omnibook X Flip 16

The HP OmniBook X Flip 16 follows up on the model’s 2024 re-launch of the OmniBook household, which coincided with the introduction of Home windows Co-Pilot+ AI PCs. This new mannequin comes alongside a 14-inch model as nicely, and each are provided in Intel and AMD flavors.

The Omnibook X Flip 16 sits close to the excessive finish of the stack, although it isn’t fairly the highest of the road. That’s left to the OmniBook Extremely. Nonetheless, the OmniBook X Flip 16 comes with a steel construct, the newest processors, sufficient RAM for on a regular basis use, and many extra. This 2-in-1 has loads to get enthusiastic about on paper, however as we’ll see, it might probably fail to ship on expectations. It’s not a nasty PC, but it surely doesn’t fairly sustain with the Samsung Galaxy Book5 Professional 360.

HP OmniBook X Flip 16: Specs and options

• CPU: Intel Core Extremely 7 258V
• Reminiscence: 32GB LPDDR5X
• Graphics/GPU: Intel Arc 140V
• Show: 16-inch 2880×1800 OLED Touchscreen, Shiny
• Storage: 1TB PCIe Gen4 SSD
• Webcam: 5MP
• Connectivity: 1x Thunderbolt 4 with Energy Supply and DisplayPort 2.1, 1x USB-C 10Gbps with Energy Supply and DisplayPort 1.4, 2x USB-A 10Gbps, 1x HDMI 2.1, 1x 3.5mm combo audio
• Networking: WiFi 7, Bluetooth 5.4
• Biometrics: Home windows Good day facial recognition
• Battery capability: 68 watt-hours
• Dimensions: 14.02 x 9.67 x 0.61 inches
• Weight: 4.17 kilos
• MSRP: $1,659 as-tested ($1,099 base)

The HP OmniBook X Flip 16 is available in a wide range of configurations, together with each Intel- and AMD-powered setups. It has a base value of $899 for an AMD configuration with an AMD Ryzen AI 5 340, 16GB of reminiscence, 512GB of storage, and a 1920×1200 IPS show. Improve choices embody an AMD Ryzen AI 7 350 CPU, 24 or 32GB of reminiscence, 1 or 2TB of storage, and the 2880×1800 OLED show examined right here. 

We examined an Intel configuration, and whereas it must be broadly much like the AMD fashions, there are sufficient variations beneath the hood that you simply shouldn’t count on the identical efficiency or battery life. The Intel configurations begin at $1,099 and embody an Intel Core Extremely 5 226V with 16GB of reminiscence, 512GB of storage, and a 1920×1200 IPS show. The Intel fashions supply the identical improve choices because the AMD fashions, besides they’ve a Core Extremely 7 256V with 16GB of reminiscence or a 258V with 32GB of reminiscence as choices. Our take a look at configuration contains the highest CPU and reminiscence specs, 1TB of storage, and the upgraded show. The MSRP is $1,659 as configured. 

HP OmniBook X Flip 16: Design and construct high quality

IDG / Mark Knapp

HP doesn’t look like going for fashion factors right here. Whereas my first encounter with an OmniBook final 12 months got here with a splash of coloration within the type of a cool keyboard, the OmniBook X Flip 16  is a colorless affair. It has clear traces and a delightful construct, but it surely’s a bit lifeless.

The OmniBook X Flip 16  is an enormous laptop computer. It doesn’t fairly push the boundaries that gaming laptops do, however in an effort to accommodate a 16-inch show and the hinge design obligatory for pill mode, it finally ends up fairly sizable and a bit heavy at 4.17 kilos. Fortunately, it’s nonetheless pretty slim. 

HP’s design makes for a modern laptop computer with a lot of subtly rounded edges and corners. This combines with the surprisingly mild really feel of the sandblasted, anodized aluminum chassis for a machine that feels prefer it thought-about consumer consolation some. 

The underside of the system is curious. Quite than have huge, apparent rubber ft, the OmniBook X Flip 16  sits on lengthy skinny strips which you can virtually barely inform protrude from the underside as a result of the underside has a delicate curve to it. This creates a really slim channel for air to tug in on the sides of the OmniBook X Flip 16  and make it to the consumption fan. Although the bottom of the laptop computer has an enormous grille stretching throughout it, most of that’s plugged up. Solely two small areas across the fan truly function air intakes.

The system’s warmth is then exhausted by a vent tucked alongside the again of the bottom, just under the show. It’s doable HP has some air exhausting out the “speaker” grilles on the highest deck, however I discover that uncertain. 

Quite than situate audio system behind these huge grilles on the highest deck, HP has positioned two audio system in little slots alongside the entrance lip of the laptop computer. This is probably not perfect for audio within the laptop computer place, but it surely helps make sure the audio system are constant in tent and pill positions as nicely.

The show lid comes fairly near flush with the decrease deck, which may make it difficult to discover a good grip for opening the lid, particularly since HP eliminated the small cutaway seen on the final technology of OmniBook laptops to assist open the show. Fortunately, the bottom of the laptop computer is heavy sufficient to remain put, making the OmniBook X Flip 16  a lot simpler to get open than its equally designed, smaller sibling, the OmniBook X Flip 14. The show hinge is a bit wiggly after any actions, however stays put nicely sufficient as soon as it involves relaxation. It additionally holds open within the pill place with the assistance of some magnets, so it doesn’t flop round. 

Above the show, the OmniBook X Flip 16  squeezes in a small webcam and a bodily privateness shutter. Sadly, HP has continued to make use of a zebra-stripe sample on the shutter, which has constantly confirmed exhausting to discern from a spot of glare. 

HP OmniBook X Flip 16: Keyboard, trackpad

IDG / Mark Knapp

The HP OmniBook X Flip 16’s keyboard might be significantly better. On the one hand, the keys have a bit little bit of journey that makes for fast resetting, they usually’re surprisingly nicely stabilized for the way huge they’re. However the factor is, they’re very huge and really flat, borrowing the regrettable design of Dell’s latest XPS laptops. This leaves little room between one key and its neighbors, and doesn’t present a lot in the way in which of tactile steering. I discover my fingers are incessantly roaming away from the middle of keys, hitting edges (and neighbors), and ending up with typos I might have way more simply averted with smaller keycaps and a little bit of contour to the keys.

Whereas I’m not shocked to see no quantity pad on this fashion of laptop computer, it’s however disappointing to see no efforts to make use of all the additional area out there to this dimension of laptop computer. It nonetheless has cramped arrow keys. It nonetheless crams the Delete key proper subsequent to the facility button — a nuisance for writers — although at the very least the white backlighting clearly illuminates the keycap legends.

The trackpad on the OmniBook X Flip 16  stretches a great way. It’s not almost as giant because it might be with the area out there to it, but it surely offers a large, central area to mouse round and carry out multi-finger gestures with ease. It has a shallow bodily click on with a delicate tactility that’s good to make use of. 

HP OmniBook X Flip 16: Show, audio

IDG / Mark Knapp

The HP OmniBook X Flip 16 has an excellent show. It encompasses a brilliant OLED panel that may attain 406.9 nits proper subsequent to excellent black pixels, and it covers 100% of the DCI-P3 coloration area. The show even had a coloration correct most dE1976 of two.37. High all that off with help for variable refresh charges from 48Hz to 120Hz, and also you’ve bought a stable display. It is shiny, although, so it might probably battle with glare in sure circumstances. 

The show additionally works as a touchscreen for simple management and pill use. On prime of that, the OmniBook X Flip 16  comes with a stylus for wonderful, pressure-sensitive management that proves responsive and correct. Due to the scale of the show, doodling on sure areas with out additionally getting your hand on the display will be difficult, and I’ve discovered contact rejection a bit troublesome. When not in use, the stylus can magnetically latch onto the proper aspect of the laptop computer, although it’s not a agency sufficient connection that I’d depend on it whereas storing and transporting the laptop computer. 

The audio system on the OmniBook X Flip 16  pack a punch, pumping out loads of quantity for a small room. They get a bit harsh within the mids at max quantity, although. Regardless of the laptop computer’s dimension, it doesn’t profit from any extra-bassy speaker drivers, and subsequently comes up missing in that space. The bass isn’t utterly absent, but it surely’s mellow sufficient that music doesn’t fairly really feel full and probably the most explosive moments of films will most likely fall flat. There’s a good little bit of stereo, although because of the broader spacing of the audio system. It’s a bit awkward that HP has two large grilles on both aspect of the keyboard that appear like they’d home audio system, however they don’t. 

HP OmniBook X Flip 16: Webcam, microphone, biometrics

IDG / Mark Knapp

The webcam on the HP OmniBook X Flip 16 captures a pleasant and sharp image whereas additionally providing help for facial recognition. It will probably get a bit awkward because the digicam shifts publicity and white stability ranges whereas recording, seeing huge shifts within the coloration and brightness of components of the shot, but it surely nonetheless is fairly good for a built-in digicam. 

The mics paired with the digicam additionally do their job nicely. They cancelled out the sound of a close-by fan operating loudly, and managed to seize my voice loud and clear within the course of. They struggled a bit extra to cancel out clapping successfully. Whereas they did erase the sound of the claps, additionally they erased a little bit of my voice and made it sound compressed within the course of. This was shocking after the laptop computer’s smaller sibling, the HP OmniBook X Flip 14, carried out virtually flawlessly in the identical take a look at. 

The OmniBook X Flip 16  additionally helps facial recognition for fast and straightforward sign-in, although Microsoft lately restricted this method’s potential to carry out at midnight, and the OmniBook X Flip 16  was affected. Fortunately it nonetheless works in dim environments. 

HP OmniBook X Flip 16: Connectivity

IDG / Mark Knapp

You’ll get respectable connectivity from the HP OmniBook X Flip 16 , however like a lot of its contemporaries, it fails to take full benefit of its dimension. The left aspect homes a USB-A port, two USB-C ports, an HDMI 2.1 port. The proper aspect, regardless of having a great deal of area, solely features a 3.5mm audio jack and a USB-A port. Each USB-A ports supply 10Gbps speeds, which is good to see. However solely one of many USB-C ports will get the Thunderbolt 4 remedy. The opposite is simply one other 10Gbps port, although fortunately each USB-C ports help DisplayPort output and charging. 

For wi-fi connections, you get Wi-Fi 7 by an Intel wi-fi adapter and Bluetooth 5.4. In my testing, each have confirmed steady and fast to attach. 

HP OmniBook X Flip 16: Efficiency

The HP OmniBook X Flip 16 isn’t kitted out to be a efficiency monster, but it surely nonetheless affords some robust parts. At $1,659, its priced like loads of different machines that additionally supply robust parts, although, and the premium value of at 2-in-1 truly makes it look a bit worse. 

The Acer Swift Go 16 brings alongside a extra highly effective processor and an equal quantity of storage and RAM for a lot much less at $1,149, but it surely’s not a 2-in-1. The Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1 16ILL10 has a barely weaker processor and half the RAM however prices a lot much less at $1,199. In the meantime, Samsung affords each a 2-in-1 and a standard model of its Galaxy Book5 Professional. The traditional one prices $1,649 and has that very same weaker processor discovered within the Lenovo system alongside simply 16GB of reminiscence. In the meantime, the 2-in-1 model we examined contains the identical CPU as and as a lot reminiscence and RAM because the OmniBook X Flip 16.

To make issues a bit difficult, the Galaxy Book5 Professional 360 we examined isn’t one Samsung truly sells — moderately it has a $1,699 mannequin (at present $1,449) with the identical internals as its regular Galaxy Book5 Professional. Virtually all of those methods even have a 2880×1800 OLED show besides Lenovo’s.

IDG / Mark Knapp

Regardless that the OmniBook X Flip 16  is sitting close to the highest of this group price-wise, it sits on the backside of the pack within the holistic efficiency take a look at, PCMark 10. This exams a variety of actions, together with looking, opening apps, enhancing spreadsheets, manipulating photograph and video, and having video calls. The entire methods carry out nice, readily maintaining with these sorts of frequent duties, however HP simply doesn’t fairly do as a lot. Generally, it might probably simply be a barely slower SSD that can maintain a system again towards opponents with related specs, however the OmniBook X Flip 16  lagged behind throughout lots of the sub-tests.

IDG / Mark Knapp

Cinebench helps us see one of many culprits of the OmniBook X Flip 16 ’s decrease efficiency in PCMark. Cinebench pushes targeted on the CPU particularly. Unsurprisingly, the Acer Swift Go 16 has a robust lead throughout these exams because of its stronger CPU. However the OmniBook X Flip 16  typically confirmed weaker single-core efficiency than its different opponents throughout Cinebench R15, R20, R23, and R24. For multi-core efficiency, it had a greater time main the Lenovo system and its weaker CPU, but it surely constantly tailed the 2 Samsung machines although one in every of them additionally had the identical weaker CPU because the Lenovo. That remained constant even in Cinebench R24, which runs the take a look at longer to point out the impacts of thermal throttling extra. 

IDG / Mark Knapp

Our Handbrake take a look at additionally pushes the CPU exhausting and can present how nicely the system can deal with warmth to carry out the duty shortly. After seeing the Cinebench outcomes, it’s clear the OmniBook X Flip 16 can at the very least make higher use of its CPU in longer duties than the Lenovo Yoga 7i 2-in-1—seemingly because of its stronger CPU and higher cooling. However once more, each Samsung methods carry out noticeably higher, suggesting that both their energy modes ship extra juice or their cooling permits for increased sustained speeds.

IDG / Mark Knapp

Since all 5 methods are operating on some type of Intel built-in graphics, it’s not shocking to see all of them providing largely related efficiency. However but once more, the OmniBook X Flip 16  lags behind. Lenovo has roughly 5 p.c higher efficiency within the 3DMark gaming benchmark Time Spy, and the Samsung methods step it up with roughly 10 p.c higher efficiency. It’s an identical story for 3DMark’s Evening Raid, besides the variations are even additional in favor of the opposite methods. 

This all places the OmniBook X Flip 16  into a nasty spot. HP merely doesn’t appear to have finished sufficient to ensure its system is operating in addition to it may. Warmth might be higher managed, and a customized efficiency profile may need let the CPU run higher than it’s right here. Contemplating how usually the OmniBook X Flip 16  is getting proven up by a machine with a lower-tier CPU (the Intel Core Extremely 7 256V), it’s clear optimization and settings can matter as a lot or greater than system specs. 

HP OmniBook X Flip 16: Battery life

The HP OmniBook X Flip 16 takes some benefit of its dimension to squeeze in a large battery with a 68 watt-hour pack, although it may have gone larger nonetheless. It manages to make use of that battery comparatively effectively. In our 4K native video playback take a look at, which runs the laptop computer in airplane mode with the display at 250-260 nits, the OmniBook X Flip 16  managed to run for nearly 18 hours. That’s pretty spectacular for an enormous, sharp show.

IDG / Mark Knapp

That battery longevity, whereas good, nonetheless isn’t thoughts blowing. It is much better than some, just like the Acer Swift Go 16 2025. However Lenovo’s competing mannequin went even additional, and each have been leagues behind both of Samsung’s Galaxy Book5 Professional fashions. Each Samsung laptops topped 23 hours of battery life, regardless of that includes {hardware} fairly much like the OmniBook X Flip 16. These are important leads that may’t be chalked as much as barely bigger batteries alone. What’s extra shocking is that each Samsung methods managed this whereas additionally outperforming the OmniBook X Flip 16 in almost each efficiency take a look at.

In on a regular basis use, the OmniBook X Flip 16  additionally lasts fairly some time, typically making it by my workdays with out difficulty. 

HP OmniBook X Flip 16: Conclusion

The HP OmniBook X Flip 16 is a bit hit and a bit miss, virtually in equal measure. On the one hand, it feels nicely constructed and has a pleasant, albeit plain look to it. It has an enormous, beautiful show as nicely. But it surely additionally makes complicated selections like having large grilles that do virtually nothing. Its keyboard prioritizes type over perform. And a 16-inch pill over 4 kilos most likely gained’t be sensible for most individuals, particularly with out dependable palm rejection. 

Then there’s the efficiency. It merely doesn’t take full benefit of the {hardware}, in lots of circumstances getting outperformed by lower-tier {hardware}. Maybe it could have labored higher had HP used all of its grilles to get extra airflow and warmth dissipation. But it surely didn’t. And regardless of that, the OmniBook X Flip 16 is on the costly aspect. Apart from the truth that Samsung’s Galaxy Book5 Professional 360 doesn’t truly come within the configuration we examined, I can see little cause to decide on the OmniBook X Flip 16 over it. Regardless that the Samsung has much less reminiscence and a lower-tier processor, I’d count on it to carry out near its non-flipping sibling, which as we noticed in our benchmarks additionally completely beat up on the OmniBook X Flip 16.