Review: HP OmniBook 3

The MacBook Neo exists, and there's no going back. The reaction is coming, though, and I've been testing one of the first budget laptops that feels like a true response: The $599 (or as low as $519) HP OmniBook 3. This Windows notebook comes with twice the memory and storage as the Neo, and is powered by the Snapdragon X. It's the real deal.

This laptop might not have the visual flair or portability of the MacBook Neo, but it might be one of the best college laptops to ever launch.

Not a Looker

Photograph: Luke Larsen

The OmniBook 3 has a plain design. It's not too flashy and made of plastic, but doesn't feel too wobbly or flimsy. My biggest gripe with this device is the thickness. At 0.7 inches thick, it feels chonky in your hands. That's especially true compared to some of the competition. And while I'm nitpicking on the lid, I get annoyed when they don't magnetize shut completely. This one will partially open when you hold it upside down, an issue that wasn't present on the Omnibook 5 that I tested last year. On the bright side, because the Omnibook 3's lid is a bit thicker than average laptop, it feels sturdy enough for something made of plastic.

In the past, none of that mattered in a laptop this cheap. The MacBook Neo changed the rules, proving that design matters, even at this price. To get to this price, however, HP and Apple made very different compromises. The OmniBook 3 takes the approach of keeping 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage at the trade-off of using a slightly thicker, plastic chassis. For the right person, that's the right choice.

The thicker chassis also makes room for some ports. On the left side, you'll find an HDMI, a USB-A 2.0, and two USB-C 3.0 ports. The right side includes an additional USB-A 2.0 port and a headphone jack. These USB-A ports are a bit slow, only capable of 480 MB per second speeds, making it only really useful for connecting peripherals.

I criticized the MacBook Neo for using a USB-C 2.0 port at the time, so I have to carry that here too. It's less confusing for users in this case since it's USB-A, but I never like seeing a brand new laptop using a 25-year old connectivity standard. Also, I'd much rather have an additional USB-C port on the right side rather than the USB-A, if only just for the ability to charge from both sides of the device.

Photograph: Luke Larsen

HP has said the touchpad has been improved in this year's model, and it very well may be, as I never actually tested the 2025 version of the Omnibook 3. I did test the Omnibook 5, however, a laptop I recommended quite a lot, and the quality of the touchpad feels more or less the same. It's not the worst I've used, but it's definitely one of the cheapest-feeling components of the laptop. The click isn't overly loud, though, which I appreciate.

The keyboard, on the other hand, feels precise and clicky. It comes with a number pad to the right, which means the touchpad can't be centered on the palm rests. This is typical, and as much as I'd prefer not to have the number pad at all, attempts to center the touchpad like the Acer Swift 16 AI somehow make it worse.

The webcam is OK when in decent lighting. It'll struggle in lowlight, like many laptop webcams, but to my eyes, it's an improvement in clarity over the Omnibook 5 from last year. As expected, the speakers really sound bad, even compared to the MacBook Neo. The max volume is rather pathetic, too, and not really loud enough to watch a show on.

Where It Really Shines

Photograph: Luke Larsen

The Qualcomm Snapdragon X is really the soul of this laptop. Without it, you have just another ho-hum budget Windows laptop that isn't as premium as its Apple counterpart. But the Snapdragon X brings Mac-level performance to the table. And when I say performance, I don't just mean raw power.

The Qualcomm Snapdragon X is one of the best chips to ever be sold at this price, both in terms of brute strength and efficiency. While it's been around since early 2025, it remains the only way to get a Windows laptop this cheap that doesn't get easily bogged down in simple tasks or with poor battery life. The HP Omnibook 3 16 gets excellent battery life, coming just short of a full 24 hours during a light video-looping test. It's quite a bit less for a heavier workflow, which would be more typical of what I use my laptop for, but it's still exceptional, especially for the price.

The actual performance of the device is hardly as important as the 16 GB of RAM. The Snapdragon X underperforms against the MacBook Neo's in some regards, such as in graphics and single-core CPU. The Omnibook 3 (and any laptop with a current-gen Snapdragon X chip) isn't going to fare well for gaming because of the ARM architecture. But for what this laptop is designed to do, none of that matters when comparing the MacBook Neo, which is bottlenecked by its limited memory. Because of the Omnibook 3's higher memory, it feels faster under higher workloads, especially once you start opening lots of browser tabs, launching applications, and keeping tasks in the background. It's much harder to hit this laptop's performance limit.

Photograph: Luke Larsen

The display is also quite strong. On a 16-inch screen, the limited 1920 x 1200 resolution display starts to show its limit, but this is less noticeable on the smaller 14-inch model. It should be noted, however, that I tested the OLED version. It's got great colors, impeccable contrast, and a glossy finish. Like a lot of OLED screens, this one's not all that bright—coming in at 290 nits in my tests. The MacBook Neo is almost twice as bright at its max brightness. This OLED model is exclusively available at HP.com, while Amazon, Walmart, and Best Buy carries the cheaper IPS version.

If you're the type of person to take a thinner laptop made entirely of aluminum over a laptop with far better performance—the MacBook Neo is your clear choice. But for my more demanding needs, the Omnibook 3 expertly balances performance, design, and quality at the $599 price point. It has its issues, but the Omnibook 3 offers a meaningful alternative to the MacBook Neo with different trade-offs.

The main caveat for shoppers is to keep an eye on prices. The HP Omnibook 5 is better in nearly every way. It is much thinner, comes the more powerful Snapdragon X Plus processor, and has a larger touchpad. The issue is that the price on that model bounces anywhere between $499 and $1,050 depending on the day. Based on what I've seen in the past, there will be times when the Omnibook 5 is cheaper, and in those cases, you should always go for that. It looks like the Omnibook 3 will more reliably sit around $500 to $600, though, which is why I rate it highly.