During this new AI PC era, HP, along with various other manufacturers, are launching new AI-powered laptops. The difference with HP is that it is starting fresh and has reinvented its laptop lineup.
Consumers may be familiar with the company’s Pavilion, Envy, and Spectre products, while enterprises may be familiar with its Dragonfly devices.
These will now be retired, and other options will be overhauled under two main lines: consumer and commercial.
These lines include the Omni brand for consumers and the Elite brand for commercial. HP has proceeded with unveiling the first products under each line; the HP OmniBook X AI PC, and HP EliteBook Ultra AI PC.
These models were unveiled earlier this week during Microsoft’s AI Vision event, and are the beginning of a new brand positioning for HP.
For consumers, the company has plans for several forms and tiers of Omni products, as well as keeping its Omen gaming PC brand intact during the rebranding.
What’s expected is the OmniBook for laptops, the OmniStudio for all-in-one, and the OmniDesk for tower PCs.
The performance range of the devices will start at 3 at the base, then jump up to 5 and 7, and X (which represents 10). Finally, there will be the Ultra, the high-end, high-performance models.
For the commercial side, HP has plans to have various forms and tiers of products, including Pro for channel-oriented customers, and Elite for enterprise customers.
HP will shift the naming sequence to single digits, such as from 800 to 8 or 600 to 6. The hierarchy is expected to be 2, 4, 6, 8, X (represents 10), and Ultra.
The Omni branding will be odd numbers while the Elite branding will be even numbers.
The PCs are also expected to include in their branding a letter indicating the type of silicon featured in the product.
Another standout feature is a new AI Helix logo, which represents AI and DNA. HP has plans to use this as an identifier for each device built for AI.
The OmniBook X AI PC will be available in Meteor Silver and Ceramic white colours, while the EliteBook Ultra AI PC will be available in Atmosphere Blue and feature a smudge-resistant Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) coating on the back panel.
Highlighting the AI PC features of both devices, they are powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon X Elite processor, along with its dedicated Neural Processing Unit (NPU).
This NPU allows for a processing power of at least 40 trillion operations per second, which allows both devices to execute multiple generative AI features.
There have been several AI features included in these models, including HP’s Poly Camera Pro, which comes with multiple conferencing, framing, background, and multicamera features, that will not impact the CPU or battery life.
Additionally, the laptops include HP’s AI Companion. This is an on-device hub that allows users to perform personal tasks and system-based functions according to their needs.
This chatbot is able to execute tasks like summarising documents, analysing PCs, and creating personalised driver update schedules.
HP revealed the OmniBook X and EliteBook Ultra had performed 17 per cent better in benchmark tests when compared with the Apple MacBook Pro with an M3 chipset.
Each of HP’s models is able to support up to 26 hours of battery life without charging, and up to 22 hours of streaming.
The OmniBook has a 14-inch 2.2K multitouch display, complete with 300nits brightness, up to 32GB LPDDR5x dual channel memory, up to a 2TB PCIe SSD, and a 5MP IR camera.
For connectivity, it has two USB-C ports, one USB-A port, a 3.5mm audio jack, Wi-Fi 7, Wi-Fi 6E, Bluetooth 5.4, Bluetooth 5.3, and Modern Standby.
For battery support, there’s support for a three-cell, 59W per hour system, and a 65W USB-C power adapter. Additionally, the laptop runs the Windows 11 Home or Pro operating system.
Then, there’s the EliteBook Ultra, which has a 14-inch 2.2K touch13 display with 300nits brightness, up to 32GB LPDDR5x dual channel memory, up to a 2TB PCIe SSD, and a 5MP IR camera.
Connectivity options include two USB-C ports, one USB-A port, one 3.5mm audio jack, Wi-Fi 7, and Wi-Fi 6E.
There’s battery support for a three-cell, 59W per hour system, and a 65W USB-C slim power adapter. It also runs the Windows 11 Home 64 Next Gen Premium or Pro 64 Next Gen Premium operating system.
The HP OmniBook X AI PC is available for preorder at the official HP website for a starting price of A$2,699.99. JB Hi-Fi and Harvey Norman will begin shipping it on June 18.
The HP EliteBook Ultra AI PC is available from June 18. Pricing will be confirmed closer to the release date.
HP Senior Vice President of Design & Sustainability, Stacy Wolff said in a blog post, “As we embark on this new chapter in HP’s history, we’re excited to share these significant updates that reflect our continuous commitment to innovation and customer-centricity. And of course, we also believe this will make the purchase journey as quick and painless as possible.”
“From the reinvigorated HP OmniBook, OmniDesk, and OmniStudio portfolio to our reimagined HP EliteBook and HP ProBook lines, HP’s core belief in the transformative power of technology remains unchanged.”
Back in April, HP launched a range of commercial and consumer AI PCs in Australia, including HP Elite and Pro PC products, which feature Intel Core Ultra 5 and 7 processors with Neural Processing Units (NPU).
Devices in this range include HP Elite 1040 Series Notebook PCs, HP EliteBook 840 Notebook PCs, HP EliteBook 640 Notebook PCs, and HP Pavilion PCs.
Then, there was the Z by HP range, which included the HP ZBook Power G11 and the HP ZBook Firefly G11.
