I just tested the HP OmniBook Ultra 16 — and it’s for the pros only

Tom's Guide Verdict The HP OmniBook Ultra 16 impresses thanks to its powerful Nvidia RTX Spark-driven performance, elegant design, and gorgeous 16-inch OLED panel. Though its battery life doesn't match the competition and it demands a steep price, it delivers on its promise of offline AI work. Reasons to buy +Strong RTX Spark-fueled performance +Premium design +Vivid OLED panel +Capable on-device AI tasking Reasons to avoid -Expensive for most folks -Midling battery life Why you can trust Tom's Guide Our writers and editors spend hours analyzing and reviewing products, services, and apps to help find what's best for you. Find out more about how we test, analyze, and rate. The HP OmniBook Ultra 16 ($3,199 to start), like all of the new RTX Spark laptops, occupies a unique position in the laptop space. Designed for on-device AI tasks, it’s meant to facilitate the workflows of folks who work or dabble in that space. In that sense, it’s Nvidia and Microsoft’s answer to Apple’s more powerful M-series Macs for running AI. However, it’s decidedly overpowered for everyday work and relatively underpowered for high-end gaming.The laptop itself is practically a work of art, thanks to its sleek all-black aluminum design and soft textured surface. The 16-inch 3K OLED touchscreen, roomy lattice-less keyboard, and punchy speakers also lend to this laptop’s premium experience. This is the kind of laptop you want to be seen using.Like the recently released Googlebooks, RTX Spark laptops like the OmniBook Ultra 16 aren’t for general users. Because of that, you’ll want to seriously consider whether these laptops are for you. To that end, here’s my full review of the HP OmniBook Ultra 16 to help you decide.Latest Videos FromTom's GuideHP OmniBook Ultra 16 review: Cheat sheetWhat is it? The HP OmniBook Ultra 16 is a high-end thin-and-light laptop powered by Nvidia’s new RTX Spark chip.Who is it for? This notebook is for those who want a high-powered machine for on-device AI work.What does it cost? The HP OmniBook Ultra 16 starts at $3,199 at Best Buy. This is the same model I reviewed, and it packs an Nvidia RTX Spark N1X chip, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. HP has a higher-end model for $4,999 with 64GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD.What do we like? We like the sleek design, gorgeous 16-inch OLED panel, lattice-less keyboard, and strong RTX Spark-driven performance.What don’t we like? We don’t like the steep asking price and unimpressive battery life.HP OmniBook Ultra 16 review: Specs Swipe to scroll horizontally Header Cell - Column 0 HP OmniBook Ultra 16 (starting/tested) Price $3,199 Display 16-inch (2880 x 1800) OLED | 120Hz Chipset Nvidia RTX Spark N1X (20-core CPU RAM 32GB Storage 1TB Ports 2x USB-C, 2x USB-A, 1x HDMI, 1x headphone jack, 1x microSD Connectivity Wi-Fi 7, Bluetooth 6 Battery life 10 hours 52 minutes (tested) Dimensions 14.01 x 10.1 x 0.62 inches Weight 4.89 pounds HP OmniBook Ultra 16 review: The upsThe HP OmniBook Ultra 16 is one of the best RTX Spark laptops around thanks to its solid performance, stellar design, vibrant OLED panel and easy portability.Lovely design (Image credit: Tom's Guide)I won’t mince words — the HP OmniBook Ultra 16 is one of the most beautifully designed laptops I’ve ever tested. This is especially true the instant you hold it, when you can better appreciate its sturdy CNC aluminum chassis with its smooth texture. The all-black color and discreet HP logo on the lid are also quite classy. (Image credit: Tom's Guide)Measuring 14.01 x 10.1 x 0.62 inches, the OmniBook Ultra 16 is a lot thinner than you’d expect. That makes it easy to slip into most backpacks. At 4.8 pounds, this isn’t exactly the lightest laptop, but it also doesn’t feel overly heavy thanks to its smart weight distribution. (Image credit: Tom's Guide)The trunk hinge design isn’t just for show; it also helps airflow. That said, I like how this design element sets this laptop apart from other clamshell designs. The subtle “OmniBook” etched here is also quite nice.Tom's Guide: Direct to Your InboxGet instant access to breaking news, the hottest reviews, great deals and helpful tips. (Image credit: Tom's Guide)Typing on the OmniBook Ultra 16 is a joy thanks to the spacious keyboard and lattice-less keys. I’m also a fan of the enormous haptic touchpad, which is just as responsive as the touchscreen. I don’t typically care for laptop keyboards, but the one on the OmniBook Ultra 16 is easily among the best I’ve tested. (Image credit: Tom's Guide)You get a pretty decent number of ports for such a thin laptop. The left-hand side has an HDMI port, a pair of USB4 ports, and a headphone jack. Over on the right, there are two USB-A ports and a microSD card slot. Though I wish there were an Ethernet port to complete the package, you get more than enough ports for what you’d need.Strong RTX Spark performance (Image credit: Tom's Guide)Our HP OmniBook Ultra 16 review unit is the entry-level model, which packs an Nvidia RTX Spark N1X processor, 32GB of RAM, and a 1TB SSD. As the first RTX Spark laptop I tested, I was very curious to see how it performed in a variety of situations, including basic everyday work and gaming—along with some local AI testing.It should come as no surprise that the OmniBook Ultra 16 had no problem handling my average workflow, which typically consists of multiple open Chrome tabs, Slack, photo editing in GIMP, and the occasional YouTube video running in the background. As I said in the intro, this is an overpowered machine for the basics. Swipe to scroll horizontally Header Cell - Column 0 HP OmniBook Ultra 16 MacBook Pro 16-inch M5 Pro Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Ultra Geekbench 6.7 (single/multi-core) 3,165 / 20,056 4306 / 28,586 2852 / 16,655 Handbrake SSD (mins:secs) 2:03 1:45 3:18 3DMark Wild Life Extreme (score / fps) 22,978 / 137 23,876 / 142 N/A Now, how did HP’s RTS Spark laptop fare in our lab testing? As you can see in the chart above, the OmniBook Ultra 16 scored well in the Geekbench 6 single- and multi-core benchmarks. It also turned in solid numbers in the Handbrake SSD test. The Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Ultra, which packs an RTX 5070 GPU and 32GB, didn’t perform as well. However, the 16-inch MacBook Pro M5 Pro outperformed both laptops in these tests. Swipe to scroll horizontally Header Cell - Column 0 HP OmniBook Ultra 16 MacBook Pro 16-inch M5 Pro Photoshop (score/time) 11,775 / 7.9 mins 15,204 (score) | 7.5 mins Premiere Pro (score/time) 87,127 / 7.3 mins 105,580 / 6.04 mins The OmniBook Ultra 16 also performed well in our Adobe benchmarks, which include Photoshop and Premiere Pro. Despite the strong results, Apple’s MacBook Pro scored better on both tests by a considerable margin. Swipe to scroll horizontally Header Cell - Column 0 HP OmniBook Ultra 16 MacBook Pro 16-inch M5 Pro HyperX Omen 16 (Valorant Edition) Assassin’s Creed Shadows 17 fps 14 fps 29 fps Borderlands 3 53 fps 34 fps 70 fps Cyberpunk 2077 18 fps 24 (for this Mac) 20 fps In gaming, the OmniBook Ultra 16 has mixed results. In our testing, which involves running a game’s built-in benchmarking tool at maximum graphical settings and native resolution, games like Assassin’s Creed Shadows and Cyberpunk 2077 barely hit 20 frames per second, let alone the minimum 30 fps.Even if the OmniBook Ultra 16 couldn’t match a dedicated gaming laptop like the RTX 5070-driven HyperX Omen 16, it was generally on par with the M5 Pro MacBook Pro, though Borderlands 3 ran considerably better. Though both HP and Apple’s laptops did well in the 3DMark graphical test, it shows that games need to be optimized for the respective silicon to run at their best. (Image credit: Tom's Guide)Our gaming benchmark tests are pretty demanding, so you can still have a great gaming experience with the right settings. For instance, Cyberpunk 2077 ran between 38 and 47 frames per second at default graphical settings (no frame gen) at native 1800p resolution. When I dropped the resolution to 1080p and enabled DLSS, the FPS hovered between 58 and 65, which is quite nice!On-device AI actually works (Image credit: Tom's Guide)RTX Spark systems like the OmniBook Ultra 16 are built for on-device (or offline) AI tasks. Since I’m not a coder or programmer, I just did a simple test using Qwen3.8 27B to see how this all works. Here is the prompt I used:"I have a 48-hour layover in Tokyo with a $300 budget. Plan a realistic, hour-by-hour itinerary for someone who loves ramen and hates crowded tourist spots."Though it took around 15 minutes, I got a detailed itinerary. I didn’t check it for accuracy since my goal was to see if the laptop could complete this task while offline. Yes, you can get the same results much faster by asking ChatGPT, but the point is that you can safely work with AI offline on a machine like this instead of potentially sharing private information on services that depend on the cloud.Vivid display (Image credit: Tom's Guide)One of the main selling points of the HP OmniBook Ultra 16 is its stunning 16-inch OLED touchscreen. In the latest trailer for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, I was stunned by the deep contrasts of both day and night-time scenes. Colors appear appropriately bold, while the 3K resolution and 120Hz refresh rate ensured everything appeared sharp and ran smoothly, respectively. Swipe to scroll horizontally Header Cell - Column 0 HP OmniBook Ultra 16 MacBook Pro 16-inch M5 Pro Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Ultra Nits (brightness) 434 (SDR) | 614 (HDR) 540 (SDR) | 1026 (HDR) 451 (SDR) | 564 (HDR) sRGB 120.7% 122.1% 121.2% DCI-P3 85.5% 86.5% 85.6% Delta-E 0.20 0.19 0.20 Our lab tests confirm what my eyes saw. Color reproduction (sRGB and DCI-P3) leans toward the oversaturated end, but not much so. Color accuracy (Delta-E) is also very strong. As you can see, these values are on par with some of the OmniBook Ultra 16’s competitors.The touchscreen capabilities are on par with other Windows laptops I’ve tested, never failing to register my gestures. I don’t always use the touchscreen on laptops that have them, but I appreciate their inclusion in case I ever feel the need to tap on something.HP OmniBook Ultra 16 review: The downsThe HP OmniBook Ultra HP is an impressive laptop but it has some noteable flaws.Steep price (Image credit: Tom's Guide)Make no mistake, the HP OmniBook Ultra 16 costs a pretty penny. The entry-level model starts at $3,199, which comes with 32GB of RAM and 1TB. For $4,999, you can get a model with 64GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD. If you want to go all out, the highest-end model for $6,299 comes with 128GB of RAM and a 2TB SSD.Now, if you’re the target user who wants a powerful laptop for on-device AI workloads and big creative projects, then the price might be worth it. However, if you’re just looking for a traditional work or gaming laptop, then you’re better off looking elsewhere.Middling battery life (Image credit: Tom's Guide)HP says the OmniBook Ultra 16 has up to 17 hours of continuous video playback at 1080p and with the display set to 200 nits of brightness. However, on the Tom’s Guide battery test, which involves continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi with the display set to 150 nits, the OmniBook Ultra 16 endured just eight minutes short of 11 hours. Swipe to scroll horizontally Row 0 - Cell 0 Time (hours:mins) HP OmniBook Ultra 16 10:52 MacBook Air 13-inch M5 15:28 Samsung Galaxy Book 6 Ultra 15:11 As you can see, competitors like the MacBook Air M5 and Galaxy Book 6 Ultra outlasted HP’s laptop by well over four hours. Now, we were only able to run a single battery test on the OmniBook Ultra 16, so I’ll update this review after we’ve done three full tests as we usually do. That said, I don’t expect the final results to be greatly different.While I’m placing battery life as a con, it’s only because we live in a world where Apple, Qualcomm, and even Intel have raised the ceiling on laptop battery life. You’ll be able to get plenty of work done on the HP OmniBook Ultra 16 on a single charge. That said, don’t forget to bring its 140W GaN charger when you’re on the road.HP OmniBook Ultra 16 review: VerdictThe HP OmniBook Ultra 16 isn’t a laptop for general customers, but it’s great at what it was designed for. If you want a portable device for on-device AI work or creative projects, you won’t go wrong here. The fact that the laptop is a beautiful piece of work only sweetens the deal.Even if RTX Spark systems like the OmniBook Ultra 16 are only for the pros, they’re impressive machines that prove you don’t need the cloud to get AI work done. If what I said about the HP OmniBook Ultra 16 impresses you and you think it could benefit your work (and won’t completely drain your bank account), then certainly give it a try. Follow Tom's Guide on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our up-to-date news, analysis, and reviews in your feeds. Tony is a computing writer at Tom’s Guide covering laptops, tablets, Windows, and iOS. During his off-hours, Tony enjoys reading comic books, playing video games, reading speculative fiction novels, and spending too much time on X/Twitter. His non-nerdy pursuits involve attending Hard Rock/Heavy Metal concerts and going to NYC bars with friends and colleagues. His work has appeared in publications such as Laptop Mag, PC Mag, and various independent gaming sites. You must confirm your public display name before commenting Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.