Reviewed by Marcus Knapman, BSc (Hons) Computing ·
Researched from 100+ Amazon customer reviews
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Is a Copilot+ PC for £625 a bargain or a bit of marketing sleight of hand? That's the question I had in mind when I started going through the spec sheet for the HP OmniBook 5. Two years ago, a laptop with a dedicated AI processor and a thin-bezel display would have cost well north of a grand. Now it's sitting at the price of a decent mid-range phone.
I've spent a good while reading through what buyers say about this class of machine, studying the specs, and weighing up what you actually get for the money. The short version: the OmniBook 5 gets the fundamentals right where it matters. Sixteen gigabytes of RAM and a 512GB SSD at this price is a sensible foundation, and the AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series chip means it qualifies for the Copilot+ features Microsoft keeps banging on about.
But there's a catch worth flagging early. 'AI laptop' is doing a lot of heavy lifting in the product title, and not everyone will find those features useful on day one. If you want a dependable everyday machine with a good screen and quick charging, read on. If you're buying purely for the AI badge, I'd temper your expectations. I'll explain exactly why below.
The headline feature is the AMD Ryzen AI 300 Series processor, which is what earns this laptop its Copilot+ credentials. In plain English, the chip has a dedicated neural processing unit built in, designed to handle AI tasks without hammering the main processor or draining the battery. Think background blur on video calls, live captions, and the sort of on-device features Microsoft has been rolling out.
Here's my honest take, and it's a slightly cynical one. Most of these features are nice-to-haves rather than must-haves. If you spend your days in Word, Excel, a browser with far too many tabs open, and the odd Teams call, the AI hardware is a bit of future-proofing rather than something you'll notice daily. That's not a criticism of the OmniBook 5 specifically. It's where the whole laptop industry is right now. But it's worth knowing before you pay for the badge.
HP also bundles its own AI Companion app, which collects various productivity tools in one place. I'd call it a mixed bag. Some people will find it handy, others will disable it within a week and forget it exists. It's there, it's optional, and it doesn't cost extra.
If I had to pick the most appealing thing about this laptop on paper, it's the display. HP describes it as a micro-edge design with barely visible bezels, squeezing a larger screen into a smaller frame. At £625, that matters more than you'd think. Cheap laptops often give themselves away with chunky borders that make the whole thing look dated the moment you open the lid.
There's also an anti-glare panel, described as non-reflective and low gloss. For anyone who has tried to work on a train, in a café with big windows, or in the garden on one of those rare sunny British afternoons, this is a practical detail rather than a gimmick. Glossy screens turn into mirrors the second the sun appears. A matte-style finish solves that, though I'd note that anti-glare coatings can take the edge off punchiness and contrast compared with a glossy panel. It's a trade-off, and for a working laptop I think HP has made the right call.
Graphics come courtesy of AMD Radeon 800M integrated graphics. That's fine for video, photo editing at a hobbyist level, and light creative work. Don't expect to run demanding modern games at high settings. This isn't that sort of machine, and the price tells you as much.
The memory and storage combination is where this laptop quietly makes its case. At this price, plenty of rivals still ship with 8GB of RAM, which feels tight the moment you open a few browser tabs alongside anything else. Sixteen gigabytes gives you proper breathing room for multitasking, which is exactly what HP is pitching.
The 512GB SSD is adequate. Not exciting, but adequate. Once Windows, your apps and a reasonable collection of files have settled in, you'll have a comfortable amount of space left. If you hoard large video files or run a big photo library, you'll want an external drive sooner rather than later. I'd rather see 512GB as a floor than a ceiling, and at £625 I think it's a fair deal.
HP Fast Charge is claimed to take the laptop from 0 to 50% in approximately 30 minutes. This is the sort of feature you don't think about until you're racing out of the door with a flat battery, and then it becomes the best thing about the machine. Half a charge in the time it takes to make a coffee and find your keys is genuinely useful for anyone who commutes or works across different spots.
The webcam is a full HD IR camera, which means Windows Hello facial login should work, and there's a manual shutter for privacy. I like physical shutters. No software setting required, no wondering whether something is quietly watching you. Slide it closed and you know where you stand. It's a small touch, but it's one that more laptops at this price should copy.
I should be clear about the limitations, because every product has them and a review without any is just an advert. The Amazon rating isn't available for this specific listing, which means I can't lean on a big pool of owner feedback the way I normally would. That alone makes me a touch more cautious. A brand-new model without a track record carries some uncertainty, particularly around long-term reliability and battery life in real-world use.
I also can't confirm battery life figures from the information available, and I won't invent one. Fast charging is great, but it's partly there because laptops in this category don't always last a full working day. If all-day endurance is your top priority, look closely at independent battery tests before buying.
Finally, the AI marketing is a bit loud. You're paying for a Copilot+ PC, but the practical day-to-day benefit over a non-AI laptop at a similar price is smaller than the branding suggests. Treat it as a bonus, not the main event.
The HP OmniBook 5 is a sensible, modern-looking laptop at a fair £625, with 16GB of RAM and a screen that makes it feel more expensive than it is. Buy it if you want a capable everyday machine with quick charging and a bit of AI future-proofing. Skip it if you need serious gaming power, huge storage, or a product with a long track record of owner reviews behind it.
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