HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 Review: A Sleek 2-in-1 Powerhouse

The HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14, when launched, was one of the first laptops to get the new Intel Core Ultra 7 series 2 processors. The new chipset promises even better efficiency compared to series 1, and that’s something a lot of people look for in a slim ultrabook. However, the OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 also doubles as a tablet, since it features a 360-degree hinge and a touch-supported display.

HP’s convertible offering is among a handful of 2-in-1s available in the market with the new Intel Core Ultra series 2 chipsets. It’s not cheap though, as the base variant starts at Rs. 1,81,999. The unit that we received for review, which packs the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V chipset, retails at Rs. 1,89,999. Is this 2-in-1 worth the money? Read our review to find out.

HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 Design

At first glance, there’s nothing visibly special about the OmniBook Ultra Flip 14. The laptop is slim, made out of aluminium, and has a matte finish that does like to hold on to fingerprints and smudges.

The laptop is sleek and features a matte finish

 

However, if you look closely, you’ll see that the rear edges are angled and house the USB Type-C ports. Yes, there are no USB Type-A ports on the laptop. There’s a third USB Type-C port on the right side and a 3.5mm audio port on the right.

The bottom houses a large intake vent and bottom-firing speakers

 

It is to be noted that you can only charge the laptop using the Type-C ports on the right side. You also can’t plug anything thick into the angled USB Type-C ports, as the display comes in the way.

The hinge, which is of the 360-degree type, seemed very durable throughout the review. It was also quite smooth in function.

The angled corners house the USB Type-C ports

 

The OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 gets a metal HP logo on top, an OmniBook moniker on the outside of the right hinge, and a Polystudio engraving on the left side. On the bottom, you’ll find a large intake mesh and some rubber feet. The laptop weighs 1.34kg and is only 14.9 mm thick.

HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 Display

The Ultra Flip 14, as the name suggests, has a 14-inch 2.8K resolution OLED panel that is multitouch enabled and offers a 120Hz refresh rate. It is protected by Corning Gorilla Glass 5 and supports HDR as well. HP also claims that the panel delivers a 0.2ms response time and up to 500 nits of brightness in HDR mode.

The display has a reflective coating, which makes it difficult to read outdoors

 

The OLED panel is excellent for watching movies and especially HDR content. You get deep blacks and vivid colour reproduction. The display also gets quite bright indoors, although I’d recommend not using the laptop outdoors owing to the glossy panel.

It’s an excellent-looking display with deep blacks and vivid colours

 

The touch response on the panel is great though, and you can easily use it as a tablet. However, I preferred using it in tent mode as using it as a tablet gets uncomfortable very soon due to the weight. The panel also supports a stylus input and you get the HP Rechargeable MPP 2.0 Tilt Pen in the box.

HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 Keyboard, Touchpad, speakers, and webcam

The keyboard on the laptop is great for typing. The function row is a lighter shade of grey compared to the rest of the keyboard, and the Power button is a light blue in colour with an embedded fingerprint scanner. There’s good spacing between the keys, the backlight is good enough, and there’s decent travel. However, I’d have preferred if the arrow keys were a bit bigger.

The laptop has a large trackpad and a fingerprint scanner

 

HP has equipped the Ultra Flip 14 with a large touchpad that works great and supports multitouch gestures. The haptic feedback is also quite good but can be a bit strong.

The speakers aren’t that strong though, but are good enough for indoor use. You get dual bottom-firing speakers, which offer clear audio and are loud but lack in the low end.

The laptop has a 9-megapixel IR web camera that comes with a physical shutter. The quality is good, with enough details and mostly accurate colours in good lighting conditions. It’s better than a lot of other laptop web cameras. However, low-light performance leaves something to be desired.

HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 Software

As this is a Copilot+ PC, you do get a couple of AI features, but Microsoft’s marquee Recall feature was nowhere to be found. The laptop runs Windows 11 Home and you get a bunch of HP software baked in such as Poly Camera Pro, AI Companion, HP Smart, McAfee LiveSafe, and HP Omen.

The HP AI Companion is for those who deal with a lot of PDFs at work

 

While most of the apps that I mentioned above weren’t really that useful, you can make use of the AI Companion app to search through PDFs, if that’s something you do a lot. The laptop features a powerful Intel NPU, but there are not just enough AI features to put it through its paces.

You can use the Copilot chatbot and there’s also a bunch of AI tools available in Paint that can be helpful. The Poly Camera Pro app can also come in handy during video calls or streaming as it offers Auto Framing, backgrounds, watermarks, Spotlight, and a bunch of camera filters. There’s also Windows Studio Effects that can enhance your video calling experience.

HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 Performance

Our review unit came with the Intel Core Ultra 7 258V chipset paired with 32GB RAM, 1TB storage, and the Intel Arc 140V integrated GPU. The laptop performed quite well in day-to-day usage that involved using Chrome with a bunch of tabs open, video streaming on YouTube or Netflix, running apps such as Slack, and a lot of typing.

The Intel Core Ultra series 2 chips are highly efficient

 

I ran a bunch of benchmarks on the laptop to see how it performed against the Series 1 Intel Core Ultra chips and you can see the improvements, especially in GPU performance.

The integrated GPU is also good enough to run games such as Forza Horizon 4, which delivered about 40-50fps on the laptop. I never ran into any major issues or lag while using the laptop, and the cooling system managed the heat well during heavy tasks such as gaming and video editing.

HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 Battery

Battery life on the OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 was impressive, to say the least. I was able to consistently get 9-10 hours of usage (a full work day) out of the laptop, with about 30 percent battery still left. The new Intel Core Ultra Series 2 chipsets are definitely more efficient than before, while not sacrificing too much on performance.

HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 Verdict

Time for the verdict, and I’d like to say that the HP OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 is definitely on the expensive side, and that’s something holding me back from recommending it to users. However, if the price isn’t an issue, and it should see a drop soon, then this 2-in-1 laptop from HP is a good buy.

The OmniBook Ultra Flip 14 has an excellent OLED display, good performance, especially in gaming, great battery life, and is portable. While it does miss out on some basics such as a USB Type-A port, it’s not so bad. If you’re a creator looking for a 2-in-1 with an excellent screen and good battery life, this is a really good choice.