The HP OmniBook 5 Is a MacBook Neo Killer, and It’s Only $500 Leave a comment

The MacBook Neo made fairly a splash final month. $599 for a MacBook felt groundbreaking, and it was simple to say that Home windows laptops had no true reply to it.

However what if I instructed you there was a Home windows choice that was higher in virtually each means? That is the HP OmniBook 5, a laptop computer you have in all probability by no means heard of until you watch the area carefully. I have been recommending it ever since I examined it final month, and the worth has fluctuated. However at the moment, it is solely $500, and that buys a stacked configuration with 16 GB of RAM and 512 GB of storage. That is twice the reminiscence and storage of the $599 MacBook Neo. It is also powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon X, a extremely environment friendly chip that will get nice, all-day battery life that is a minimum of on par with the MacBook Neo.

The HP OmniBook 5 Is Solely $500

Now, I do know what you are pondering. Specs do not inform the entire story, and Apple has by no means been recognized for providing tons of specs for affordable. However the OmniBook 5 14 can be a sexy design in a extremely transportable bundle. At 0.5 inches, it is precisely the identical thickness because the MacBook Neo and proper across the identical weight too. Does the MacBook Neo have a bit extra type and persona? Completely—particularly with these bolder colour choices. However I would say the OmniBook 5 is a really fairly laptop computer in its personal proper.

A few my largest hangups with the MacBook Neo have been the smaller issues. For one, the storage pace of its SSD was fairly sluggish, and the USB-C ports have been outdated. The OmniBook 5 has two USB-C ports able to 10 Gbps, in addition to a quick USB-A port on the opposite aspect. And whereas the MacBook Neo would not actually have a fingerprint sensor, the OmniBook 5 has an IR digital camera with facial recognition for Home windows Hey.

{Photograph}: Luke Larsen