HP's new OmniBook Ultra 14 earned top marks from tech reviewers for something unusual: it's both very thin and genuinely tough Engadget. It weighs 2.8 pounds and is only 0.42 inches thick—slimmer and lighter than Apple's 14-inch MacBook Pro, which weighs 3.4 pounds and is 0.6 inches thick.

Most expensive laptops are built the same way: manufacturers carve the metal frame from one solid block of aluminum. HP did something different. It used forged stamped aluminum—a manufacturing technique that makes the frame both lighter and stronger. The laptop survived 20 tough military durability tests, including drops, extreme heat, and humidity Engadget. HP calls it "the world's most durably slim consumer notebook," combining everyday thinness with military-grade strength.

Here's something practical that stands out: you can actually open it yourself. Instead of glue or weird special fasteners, the machine uses four regular screws—one at each corner. This is rare in ultra-thin laptops. The device also includes a vapor chamber (a component that helps keep it cool) and can hold up to 64GB of memory, which is generous Engadget.

The ports and connections follow a familiar trade-off in super-thin laptops. You get three USB-C ports (the newer connection type), a headphone jack, Wi-Fi 7, and Bluetooth 6. There's no older USB-A, HDMI, or SD card slot. If you use older devices or projectors with these older connections, you'll need adapters.

The keyboard has a special design with trapezoidal keys and a touchpad that gives haptic feedback—it vibrates subtly when you touch it. There's also an OLED screen. One note: the matte finish scratches easily from keys or coins in your bag, which is separate from how tough the metal frame itself is. The price is quite high, especially for the fully loaded models.

HP is also simplifying how it names its laptops. It folded three older product lines—Spectre, Envy, and Pavilion—into the OmniBook name Engadget. Other big computer makers like Dell and Lenovo have done similar things recently, collapsing old names as their thin laptops start using the same chips and designs.

The OmniBook comes with different processor options—the brain of the computer. When it first launched in mid-2024, it used AMD processors Engadget. By 2026, HP added Intel and Qualcomm options too Engadget. Some versions use Qualcomm's Snapdragon X2 Elite chip Windows Central. HP says the 2026 model is the first consumer laptop with an AI processor that can run artificial intelligence tasks directly on the device at high speeds HP Newsroom.

Offering different processors under the same laptop name is HP's way of staying flexible—they can switch to whichever processor offers the best performance or battery life at any given time. But it also means when you see "OmniBook Ultra 14," you need to check exactly which processor you're getting. Different versions have different speeds.

You can find the model number 14-fd0000 in HP's support information, and you can buy it directly from HP's website HP Support. For years, people thought you had to choose: either a laptop could be paper-thin or it could be tough enough to survive a drop. The OmniBook Ultra 14 challenges that assumption. Whether the high price is worth it—especially for the top models—depends on what you need.