AMD’s New AI Chips Have a Place in HP’s Upcoming Copilot Plus Laptop

HP’s revived OmniBook series will soon get a performance boost with the new version HP OmniBook UltraIt features an AMD Ryzen AI 300-series processor with integrated AMD Radeon 800M graphics, up to 32GB of RAM, and a pair of 40Gbps Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports. The new HP OmniBook Ultra will be available starting in August for $1,449.99, and will eventually receive a free software update to become one of the first non-ARM-based Copilot Plus PCs.

The OmniBook brand was originally revived in May with the HP OmniBook X AI laptop, which, like most of the Copilot Plus PCs announced at the time, was powered by an ARM-based Snapdragon X Elite processor. Its NPU was rated at 45 trillion operations per second (TOPS), but with the AMD Ryzen AI 300 series inside, the new OmniBook Ultra delivers “up to 55 TOPS of NPU performance,” HP says in a press release.

The AMD Ryzen AI 300 series is also an x86-based processor, which should offer greater compatibility with a wider range of Windows applications. Some older applications may require emulation to run on a Windows PC powered by a Snapdragon X Elite or other ARM-based processors.

Both OmniBooks feature 14-inch, 2240 x 1400-pixel LCD touchscreens, but the new Ultra model includes a few small updates. In addition to two Thunderbolt 4 USB-C ports (in addition to the older USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-A port), the Ultra’s webcam gets a higher resolution of 9 megapixels and quad speakers with DTS:X Ultra support instead of just stereo speakers.

The OmniBook Ultra weighs 3.48 pounds, about half a pound heavier than the OmniBook X AI, in part due to a larger 68 watt-hour battery. Although the Ultra’s battery is larger than the X AI’s 59 watt-hour battery, the OmniBook Ultra actually offers slightly less battery life, with up to 13 hours of average use or up to 21 hours of local (non-streamed) video playback.

The new OmniBook Ultra won’t be a Copilot Plus PC at launch, but HP plans to release a free update at some point that adds these features and functionality. HP says the timing and availability of the update “will depend on Microsoft.”