1. Best overall: HP Spectre x360 14
2. Best budget: HP Envy x360 15
3. Best business: HP EliteBook Ultra
4. Best gaming: HP Omen 16
5. Best workstation: HP ZBook Studio 16 G10
6. Benchmark comparisons
7. Recently reviewed
8. FAQs
9. Choosing the right HP laptop
10. How we test HP laptops
11. Why trust Laptop Mag?
The best HP laptops cover a lot of ground. HP laptops are competitive in every category and deliver some of the best laptops overall. As a result, making a well-informed decision can feel like an arduous task.
Thankfully, as the name might indicate, we've done the legwork for you in studying HP's laptop offerings here at Laptop Mag. We review HP laptops year-round to ensure the brand's offerings are up to par, and there are plenty of fantastic laptops to choose from.
I've hand-curated this list of the best HP laptops based on the highest-scoring laptops from HP in our review pool, ensuring to include devices suitable for all walks of life and every budget. HP's vast and varied lineup has something for everyone, and I'm here to help you determine which is best for you.
Our current favorite HP laptop is the HP Spectre x360 14 (2024), which you'll also find as our choice for the best 2-in-1 laptop. If you need to spend a little less, the HP Envy x360 has you for under $1,000. Those are just a couple of our recommendations; read on for all of the details on those picks, along with options for gaming, business, or high-end performance.
Best HP laptops in 2024: The list in brief
HP breaks into the AI PC market with a fantastic showcase of laptop excellence thanks to the 14-inch Spectre x360 with its speedy Intel Core Ultra processor and AI-enhancing NPU.
Read more below
The HP Envy x360 2-in-1 is an affordable laptop with a stunning OLED display and solid performance. Overall, it's a fantastic budget-friendly computing solution.
Read more below
Showcasing quality in performance, display, and battery life, the HP EliteBook Ultra is a portable and powerful Copilot+ PC built for business.
With potent, perky specs, elegant design cues, and a solid FHD display with a speedy refresh rate, the HP Omen 16 is an excellent gaming laptop backed by AMD and Nvidia.
Powerful and portable, the HP ZBook Studio 16 G10 offers a stunning visual and audio experience with well-optimized performance, but it comes at a price.
The best HP laptops in 2024
Why you can trust Laptop Mag Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about how we test.
Rael Hornby brings decades of tech tinkering and enthusiasm to the table with a broad history of technical support, web design, and journalism under his belt. As Laptop Mag's content editor and resident reviewer of accessories, he interacts with a number of laptops to measure their strengths or weaknesses and see how peripherals can take further advantage of their potential.
Best HP laptop overall
With AI PCs being the new standard in performance, HP have come out of the gate swinging with a fantastic all-rounder capable of doing the business in all key areas. The HP Spectre x360 14 is a well-sized convertible laptop with excellent performance, considerably aided in AI-related tasks by Intel's latest Core Ultra processors with their included NPUs (Neural processing units).
While it doesn't tout the lowest price tag of our selection (for that, check out the ultra-versatile HP Envy x360 2-in-1 elsewhere in our list), HP make up for every dollar spent with a grand and even spread of performance and high-quality components.
Packing one of Intel's latest Core Ultra 7 155H CPUs, the Spectre x360 soared above category averages in our premium laptop benchmark tests when it came to measuring overall performance — even besting Apple's MacBook Pro M3 along the way.
The inclusion of Intel's latest generation of chips is only half the story here, though. The Spectre also features a stunning 2.8K OLED display, there's room for improvement when it comes to brightness and color accuracy, but you won't be left wanting for bold and beautiful pictures with this IMAX enhanced panel.
Rounding out our four-and-a-half-star review, we adored the Spectre x360 for its fantastic typing experience, powerful speakers, and quality 4K webcam — all packaged within a sleek and minimalist chassis that's sure to get tongues wagging.
When you also factor in an impressive 11-hour battery life, this ultra-portable 14-inch laptop becomes a machine that's hard to deny as one of HP's best efforts to date.
See our full HP Spectre x360 14 (2024) review
See our full HP Spectre x360 16 (2024) review
More like this: Best 2-in-1 laptops 2024
Best budget HP laptop
Strong performance, vibrant pictures, an excellent typing experience and more are all hallmarks of HP's fantastic and affordable HP Envy x360 15. There are definitely tradeoffs to be made when securing this laptop for its $799 starting price, but the reliable quality of HP remains, regardless of configuration.
Powerful AMD Ryzen 7 performance lies at the core of this machine (though an Intel model is available for those who prefer it), delivering solid performance and excellent efficiency. Backed by 16GB of RAM and 1TB of storage, the Envy x360 is a formidable machine for multitasking and typical daily use, just don't expect any heavy lifting in games from its integrated AMD Radeon Graphics GPU.
Turning the Envy x360 from a bargain into an outright steal is this laptop's impressive 15-inch OLED display, which crushed it in our color tests, reproducing 128.1% of the DCI-P3 color gamut and sailing past the category average of just 85.5%!
However, that vivid OLED panel does have one downside: the impact on the Envy's battery life, which measured just 9 hours and 17 minutes in he Laptop Mag battery test, just shy of the 9-hour 44-minute category average.
the HP Envy x360 2-in-1 is a 15-inch laptop that makes for an ideal computing companion, and, better still, won't break the bank. With multiple configurations starting way below the $1,000 marker, the Envy x360 is impressively accessible to a number of budgets, delivering a dependable all-rounder that looks impressively premium thanks to a slick design and vivid OLED display.
See our full HP Envy x360 2-in-1 review
More like this: Best 2-in-1 laptops 2024; Best budget laptops 2024
Best HP business laptop
If the EliteBook Ultra, HP's first Copilot+ PC for business, can't win you over with its speedy performance, vibrant 2.2K display, sizeable trackpad, and svelte, executive-chic stylings, then its very impressive 16 hours of battery life might just do the job, instead.
HP's long-lasting laptop has made the leap to ARM architecture, becoming more efficient and powerful in the process as opposed to its Intel and AMD variants of past generations.
Powered by Qualcomm's impressive Snapdragon X Elite processor, backed by Adreno graphics, and a Hexagon neural processing unit, the EliteBook is equipped to tackle a wide range of computing tasks, including demanding AI-based functions — which may mean little to your workflow today, but could effectively future proof your machine against a wide range of features heading to AI PCs over the next few years.
Our review brought out the best in the HP EliteBook, highlighting its impressive performance across the board and marveling at its thing-and-light frame, bright and vivid display, and steadfast Wolf Pro Security platform.
There are a few points of contention with the switch to ARM, mostly with some major applications lacking the ability to run natively. However, this is something that is being worked on day-by-day with many developers rapidly seeking to adapt their software to suit these new ARM-based platforms.
For everything but gaming, the EliteBook Ultra is a fantastic laptop with plenty to offer. Security, speed, style, and superior battery life seal the deal on a hard working machine that's very easy to enjoy to its fullest.
See our full HP EliteBook Ultra review
More like this: Best business laptops 2024; Best HP EliteBook business laptops 2024
Best HP gaming laptop
Fusing AMD's powerful and efficient Ryzen processors with Nvidia's trailblazing GPUs, the HP Omen 16 is a sign of good things to come, especially with regards to your Steam library. The Omen is HP's flagship gaming laptop, and this model holds its own in a busy category dominated by pricier alternatives.
The brains of the Omen 16 are made up of an AMD Ryzen 9 7940HS CPU (though an Intel model is available) backed by 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage. In our benchmark tests, the Omen 16 dominated in overall performance, and it excelled when it came to multitasking in our hands-on testing too.
However, the Omen's heart stores a mighty Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 discrete GPU that lends considerable graphical output, surpassing 70 fps across a selection of demanding titles running at max, including Far Cry 6, Borderlands 3, Assassin's Creed Valhalla, and Shadow of the Tomb Raider. While it's not one of the best gaming laptops we've ever reviewed, it is more than capable of satisfying the needs of most gamers and then some.
This is especially true thanks to the Omen 16's 16-inch, 1080p display with its speedy 165Hz refresh rate, ensuring your eyes are treated to just about every frame this machine is capable of spitting out. This allows for smoother gameplay and a more immersive feel in your games, and is especially great for titles where reaction times are vital.
When you factor in a near-eight-hour battery life (which is rather good for a faming laptop), a solidly performing 1080p webcam, and a bountiful array of ports including a mix of modern and legacy I/O you have a well-rounding gaming offering with plenty of kick to it.
See our full HP Omen 16 (AMD, 2023) review
See our full HP Omen 16 (Intel, 2023) review
More like this: Best gaming laptops 2024
Best HP workstation
Portable, powerful, and comparatively cool to the touch compared to other hulking workstations populating this category of laptop, the ZBook Studio 16 is a force to be reckoned with in HP's computing catalog.
Under the hood, the ZBook Studio 16 pairs an Intel Core i9-13900H CPU with an Nvidia GeForce RTX 4000 Mobile Ada Generation GPU for professional performance at the drop of a hat. That's cutting-edge performance blended with workload shattering computational power, and when paired with 64GB of RAM and 2TB of SSD storage, you have a machine with more punch than your local fight club.
In our review, the ZBook Studio proved to be a multitasking maestro, effortlessly juggling multiple applications with ease, and effortlessly impressed in our lab-based benchmarks, sailing above single-core averages and hanging out at the high-end of multicore performance.
It's a machine purpose built to supply on-the-go video editors and 3D artists with all the horsepower possible in portable form, but that rich vein of performance does come at a cost, that being this laptop's actual cost.
Workstation laptops are built different, outfitted for peak performance in a portable form. That can often escalate their price tag's to heights the average consumer would balk at.
But for professionals who need the best hardware to hand any time any place, then a laptop like the HP ZBook Studio 16 G10 is a computing solution that will be worth the investment.
See our full HP ZBook Studio 16 G10 review
More like this: Best workstation laptops 2024
Benchmark comparisons
Click to view data in table format
| Header Cell - Column 0 | HP Spectre x360 14 (2024) | HP Envy x360 2-in-1 | HP EliteBook Ultra | HP Omen 16 (AMD, 2023) | HP ZBook Studio 16 G10 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Geekbench 6 (Higher is better) | 12,358 | 7,748 | 12,717 | 11,525 | 14,532 |
| Handbrake time ((MM.SS), lower is better) | 07:30 | 09:19 | 06:40 | 04:25 | 04:37 |
| Battery life - Web surfing (HH.MM) | 11:01 | 09:17 | 16:01 | 07:56 | 06:01 |
| SSD transfer speeds (MBps, higher is better) | 1,362 | 1,245 | 893 | 1,260 | 2,082 |
| DCI-P3 Color Gamut (Higher is better) | 86% | 128% | 84.70% | 76.9 | 117.3 |
| Display Brightness (Nits, higher is better) | 366 | 378 | 321 | 336 | 457 |
| Hottest temperature (95 degree comfort threshold) | 98 | 79 | 83 | 95 | 94.2 |
Recently reviewed
Not every laptop we review makes it into our top selection for buying guides. However, that doesn't mean they aren't worth taking a look at. Below are some of our most recently reviewed HP laptops, if what you find on this list isn't to your taste, be sure to check them out instead.
FAQs
- Q: Why should I buy a HP laptop?
A: HP is recognized for its value, meaning you will often find fairly affordable models of laptop within its extensive catalog.
More than this, they're a well-known brand with a reliable reputation for providing quality laptops, peripherals, and accessories — especially in its more premium lines.
There's a peace of mind that comes with buying a HP product, whether that be from dependable warranty backings or the assurance that the company has been a major player in the laptop market since the 1970s.
- Q: What are HP laptops best for?
A: That depends entirely on what kind of laptop you're looking for. HP's catalog of laptops is vast and varied, offering devices that suit everything from business, to productivity and even gaming.
What's most important to know about HP laptops is which line of laptop will serve your needs best. For a more in-depth look at choosing between HP's many laptop lines, read the section below for more, or check out our article: Which HP laptop is right for you? Why to buy the Spectre, Envy, ZBook, or OMEN for a more detailed look at each family of laptop.
Choosing the right HP laptop
As one of the top laptop brands, HP has a laptop for every occasion, from premium business laptops to budget-friendly Chromebooks. That extensive selection might make it tough to decide which laptop is right for you, so here's a handy guide to the various model lines offered by HP.
Spectre: Premium, lightweight designs that offer portable power and beautiful displays are hallmarks of HP's best model line.
Envy: If attractive design, vibrant displays, and premium audio are your focus, HP's line of Envy laptops has style to spare.
Elite Dragonfly: HP's premium business laptop, the Elite Dragonfly series sports a stunning, premium design that's both durable and lightweight. Expect the latest, top-of-the-line features and components, along with a sky-high price to match.
EliteBook: HP's business laptops, with IT support, strong performance, and premium designs. For better portability, the thin-and-light EliteBook Folio is the name to look for. If you go with this line, be sure to check out our 5 essential accessories for EliteBooks.
ProBook: For business-capable laptops without the premium price tag, the ProBook line delivers no-nonsense designs and performance for everyday office productivity.
ZBook: For professionals needing workstation-class performance, HP's ZBooks offer all the power you need, along with robust security and rugged designs.
Laptop: If HP's "Laptop" line sounds generic, that's because it is, but these simple designs offer everyday performance that won't break the bank.
Pavilion: For a happy medium between the bland, budget-friendly "Laptop" line and HP's premium Envy laptops, look no further than the affordably-priced Pavilion. These mid-range laptops come in all shapes and sizes, but all offer decent performance with solid feature sets.
Omen: HP's gaming brand, Omen laptops have a bit more pizazz and a lot more graphics power, delivering a decent gaming experience for (relatively) reasonable prices.
Victus: Another of HP's gaming laptops, this time focusing on striking a balance between performance and value.
Stream: For a Chromebook-style laptop that still offers the familiarity of the WIndows operating system, check out HP's brightly colored, ultra-budget Stream laptops.
Chromebooks: Ranging from $300-600, the HP Chromebook line offers Google's Chrome OS in several well-made laptops.
How we test HP laptops
We put HP laptops through extensive benchmark testing — both synthetic and real-world — before they end up in the hands of our reviewers. We evaluate everything from speed and battery life to display brightness, speaker volume, and system heat.
We use a Klein K10 colorimeter to detect a laptop's display's brightness and sRGB color gamut. For performance benchmarking, we run the laptop through a gauntlet of benchmarks, including Geekbench 5.5 and 6.0 and 3DMark professional graphics tests.
To determine real-world performance, we task the laptop to convert a 4K video to 1080p resolution and to duplicate a 4.97GB multimedia file. Our real-world graphics test is the Sid Meier's Civilization VI: Gathering Storm benchmark with high settings and 1080p resolution.
We also run heat tests by playing a 15-minute full-screen video and our battery test consists of continuous web surfing over Wi-Fi at 150 nits of brightness. We consider everything over the category average (which varies with each category of laptop) to be a good result. Of course, these tests are complemented with hands-on testing from our reviewers.
Why trust Laptop Mag?
Laptop Mag reviews over one hundred different laptops every year, from paperweight ultralights to everyday workhorses to lumbering gaming notebooks that scorch the frame rates of even the hottest AAA games. We're not just experts in the laptop field, as we go one step further by meticulously testing smartphones, tablets, headphones, PC accessories, software, and even the latest peripherals and titles in gaming.
We are 100% independent and have decades of experience to help you buy with confidence. In fact, Laptop Mag has been testing and reviewing products for three decades and continues to deliver trustworthy reviews you can rely on.
Our experienced writers and editors scour information about the laptop and put it through its paces to determine which is best for you. But before they start, the testing team subjects each system to a rigorous regimen of synthetic and real-world tests to see how a system handles the type of work and games you’re most likely to throw at it.
One of the world's largest technology publishers, Future Publishing, enforces our editorial trustworthiness. As a company, we have unrivaled experience across every tech sector — and we're the group's specialist for all things mobile tech.
