HP's answer to Apple's cheap new MacBook is a $699 laptop with a 42-hour battery claim

HP unveiled the OmniBook 5 14, a consumer laptop starting at $699.99, arriving in October 2026 on HP.com and at Best Buy. It's built around an OLED touch display with 100% DCI-P3 color coverage and up to 620 nits of brightness, measuring 11.77mm thick and weighing 1.16kg.

Why it matters: that weight and thickness put the OmniBook 5 14 solidly in the same ultra-portable territory premium laptops have occupied for years, now arriving at a price point well below what that category used to cost.

The laptop is available with up to an Intel Core 7 processor that includes an integrated NPU, or neural processing unit. HP markets this as "AI-ready performance" aimed at everyday productivity and creativity tasks.

Why it matters: an integrated NPU at this price point reflects how standard on-device AI processing has become across the laptop industry, not just reserved for premium flagship machines anymore.

HP claims up to 42 hours of local video playback battery life on a single charge.

In real life that's long enough to watch an entire season of a TV show, then start a second one, without ever reaching for the charger.

Why it matters: that figure, if it holds up in real-world use rather than just controlled lab testing, would be an exceptionally long battery life for any laptop in this price range, let alone one this thin.

The OmniBook 5 14 comes in four colors: Smoke Silver, Starlit Blue, Peony Pink, and Soft Honeydew, along with a 180-degree flexible hinge that lets the screen fold completely flat.

Why it matters: a range of actual color choices, rather than the usual silver-or-black options, signals HP is chasing a younger, more style-conscious buyer alongside the usual productivity-focused laptop crowd.

Background: Apple introduced the MacBook Neo in March 2026 as a budget-friendly laptop starting at $599, aimed squarely at students and casual users who might otherwise have bought a Chromebook or an entry-level Windows machine. Some reporting at the time described it as leaving little room for competitors in that price segment.

Why it matters: HP's OmniBook 5 14 targets a very similar audience and price range, which is exactly why outlets including The Verge, Tom's Hardware, and CNET all framed this launch as HP's direct response to the pressure Apple's cheaper MacBook put on the rest of the laptop industry.

By the numbers: Apple's MacBook Neo launched in March 2026 at $599, built around the A18 Pro chip, the same processor found in the iPhone 16 Pro, marking the first time Apple used a mobile A-series chip in a Mac laptop rather than its usual M-series Apple Silicon processors. It has a 13-inch display, 8GB of memory, and weighs 1.22kg, aimed squarely at students and budget-conscious buyers.

Why it matters: using an iPhone-grade chip rather than a full Mac processor was a deliberate cost-cutting choice on Apple's part, and it shows in the specs: 8GB of memory is notably modest by 2026 standards. HP's OmniBook 5 14 competes on a different set of tradeoffs entirely, more memory and processing headroom from an Intel Core chip, a larger and brighter OLED display, and a considerably longer claimed battery life, for $100 more.

Background: reporting at the time of the MacBook Neo's launch described it as leaving little breathing room for rivals in the budget segment, warning that Apple's move could become a genuine problem for Windows PC makers who had long relied on being the clearly cheaper option. A $599 Mac, even one built around a scaled-down chip, directly challenged the price advantage Windows laptops had held in that bracket for years.

Why it matters: that competitive pressure helps explain why HP's response wasn't to simply match Apple's price point dollar for dollar. Undercutting a $599 MacBook on pure price would have meant competing in a bracket where component costs leave little room for a standout product. Instead, HP priced $100 higher and leaned into specs Apple's budget model doesn't match.

Background: Windows PC makers broadly have faced margin pressure throughout 2026 from rising memory and component costs, the same dynamic that has pushed up prices on phones and graphics cards elsewhere in the industry. Launching a genuinely competitive budget laptop in that environment means absorbing some of those cost pressures rather than passing all of them directly to buyers.

Why it matters: that context makes the OmniBook 5 14's pricing and specs a more notable bet than it might first appear. HP is trying to win a public spec comparison against Apple at the exact moment industry-wide component costs are squeezing every PC maker's margins simultaneously.

HP also introduced the ProBook 4 G2iS 14, a business-focused laptop, as part of the same announcement, which HP framed around bringing more premium PC features and experiences to a wider range of consumers.

Why it matters: launching a consumer laptop and a business laptop together suggests HP is pushing this same design and feature philosophy, slimmer builds, better displays, AI-ready processors, across more of its lineup at once, not just a single headline product.

Samuel Chang, Senior Vice President at HP, said "today's consumers expect technology that fits naturally into their lives, beautifully designed, easy to use, and powerful."

Why it matters: that framing, design and ease of use alongside raw power, echoes language Apple has used for years to sell its own laptops, another sign of how directly HP is positioning this specific launch against Apple's recent move into the budget segment.

• If you're shopping for a budget laptop this season, the field just got more competitive. A $699 machine with an OLED display and a claimed 42-hour battery is a meaningfully stronger pitch than typical budget laptops have offered in the past.
• Treat the 42-hour battery claim as a best-case figure, not a guaranteed everyday number, until independent reviews confirm it under real-world conditions.
• The four color options suggest this laptop is also chasing style-conscious buyers, not just people purely optimizing for specs and price.
• Expect more Windows PC makers to respond similarly to Apple's MacBook Neo in the coming months, since HP clearly isn't alone in seeing that segment as newly contested ground.