
If I had a nickel for every time I went to an NYC press event and got blown away by a super-light laptop, Iād have two nickels over the last four months. The first would be when Asus unveiled the Zenbook A14 before CES 2025. The second would be now, with HP doing something similar with its sub-1kg (2.2-pound) OmniBook 7 Aero. Two nickels isnāt a lot, but itās weird that itās happened twice.
Thin-and-light laptops are certainly desirable, and both of these designs are eye-catching. But thereās an important distinction between them. The Asus design uses an Arm-based Snapdragon X processor for incredible battery life, which might not be a great trade-off for those who want a lot of extra oomph. The HP design goes with AMDās latest laptop processors, which makes it a powerhouse by comparison.

Michael Crider / Foundry
With a white (or silver) exterior and keyboard deck but a black bezel around the screen (I think of it as a reverse Oreo), the OmniBook Aero 7 most resembles the OmniBook X 14, which shares the āAIā badge below the keyboard indicating itās a Copilot+ laptop. Sadly, the rather distinctive blue splash of a power button on that design is gone, not that the Aero 7 needs it to turn heads. The newer design is a brand-new magnesium alloy chassis with a 13.3-inch screen.
Otherwise, the laptopās design doesnāt seem all that remarkable. As someone who pays special attention to keyboards, I appreciate that the Delete key is placed correctly by nudging the power button to the side, though I wonder if that might cause frustration until youāve adapted to those being so close to one another. Note the lack of a fingerprint reader, though thereās a Windows Hello face scanner in the camera, which also has a physical privacy shutter. The IPS-LCD screen is generous at 2560Ć1600, but youāll have to splurge for that as the default screen is only 1200p. Sadly, thereās no OLED option.
The super-wide central hinge, another point of distinction from the other recent OmniBook designs, might specifically be for letting the lid raise without also pulling up the lightweight main body. On the left side you get a single USB-A port kept company with a headphone jack, with a much more crowded left side housing two USB-C ports, another USB-A, and a full-sized HDMI port.

HP
The big shocker is the weight, of course. A super-light laptop isnāt unprecedented, as I said in the beginning. But a super-light laptop that doesnāt compromise on power is, if not exactly mythical, then very hard to find. Youāre either looking at something of a splurge for aspiring C-suiters like the Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon series or the aforementioned Zenbook and its lower power threshold. There are also laptops that go smaller than 13 inches, like the Surface Go Laptop or various Chuwi models (basically better versions of the old ānetbookā category).
This is something different. The OmniBook Aero 7 uses full-fat AMD Ryzen AI 300-series processorsāeither an 8-core 350 or 6-core 340āand, according to HPās promo materials, can offer up to 32GB RAM and 1TB of storage. That puts it on par with, if not quite at the same level as, something like the EliteBook X G1a. Not only will it be able to handle all the usual browsing and office tasks with aplomb, it should have some of the best gaming options of any laptop on the market using integrated graphics, maybe even some light media production duties as well.

Michael Crider / Foundry
HPās representatives gave a battery life quote of 15.75 hours, with the usual proviso that itās a video rundown test. The 12.25 hours of āmixed usageā claim raises my eyebrows a bit, especially considering the small-ish 43 watt-hour battery. But again, if you want a laptop thatāll last for a day and change, you can find them out there; if you want one that you can carry around in a backpack for hours without noticing and one that packs a serious processor punch, this is it.
I donāt have a release date or pricing info for the OmniBook Aero 7 yet. Based on previous hardware in the OmniBook series, Iād guess somewhere in the $1,100 to $1,300 rangeā¦ unless HP doesnāt want to sell any. Presumably, itāll hit shelves sometime later this year. Iād be surprised to see it before August, though.