Latest news with #HPOmniBook7Aero
Hindustan Times
7 days ago
- Hindustan Times
Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge, Xiaomi 15 Ultra & more: The best tech of 2025, thus far
That's half the year done. That may not exactly be a bad thing, considering how it's panned out in many ways, till now. On the brighter side, we've seen a lot of rather interesting gadgets and tech being launched in previous months. Across categories, evolution has been rapid and it is no longer an easy buying decision for consumers — either performance and specs are very close, or there are new additions to a proposition that may be confusing. The layer of artificial intelligence (AI) that PC makers are increasingly adding to their new Windows laptops and desktops, a case in point. I pick some of the neatest new tech launched since the turn of the year, so that you don't have to. Xiaomi 15 Ultra Last week in Wired Wisdom: Visiting Apple's secret Durability Labs, Adobe's Firefly app and questioning AI's skills. The-Samsung-Galaxy-S25-Edge- Samsung Galaxy S25 Edge: No recency bias here, but Samsung's newest addition to its flagship line-up, the Galaxy S25 Edge finds its biggest achievement in making pretty much every other Android phone feel thick and bulky. That, whilst retaining all the bells and whistles you'd expect from a flagship Android phone, except perhaps the battery that needs some mollycoddling to last as long as you'd expect. A very minor trade-off, all things considered. The-Mac-Studio Apple Mac Studio: This generation, as I pointed out , is a unique refresh. The Apple Mac Studio line-up for 2025 gives you the choice of the latest generation M4 Max chips, as well as half a generation elder M3 Ultra chips. This is a desktop computing device that will absolutely not slow down even the slightest, irrespective of what workflow you send its way. The port options keep pace, and the design is a visual treat. There are very few certainties in life. Death, taxes and a Mac Studio's longevity. HP OmniBook 7 Aero HP OmniBook 7 Aero: In this era of AI PCs that sees Intel, AMD and Qualcomm all vying for their share of the pie, the HP OmniBook 7 Aero does stand out. I'd called it a 'computing equivalent of a mid-engined sports car'. That may have been in reference to how it's been put together, but the sports car reference very much applies to the performance aspect too. HP's intent to thicken the layer with a suite that includes AI Companion, seems to be adding value. Xiaomi 15 Ultra: The definitive camera phone of the year till now? Difficult to bet against the Xiaomi 15 Ultra though the Vivo X200 Pro and OnePlus 13 may have a few things to say. Nevertheless, Leica smarts position this as an excellent point-and-shoot Android phone (surprisingly, most rivals need some cajoling). The photography kit, which includes a grip with extra battery capacity, builds that narrative further. The photography and video results are inarguable, whilst having a likeable totality, and thats what matters. The-Sonos-Arc-Ultra Sonos Arc Ultra: Reworking physics is not for the faint of heart. Sonos has done exactly that, and now since that has happened, makes us wonder why no one else thought of this over the years. The Sonos Arc Ultra soundbar, redraws audio hardware architecture, and calls it SoundMotion. Traditional speakers use single cone or dome-shaped diaphragm to displace air and produce sound. This diaphragm is attached to a voice coil moving within a magnetic field created by a single magnet. Instead of one large driver, Sound Motion uses two opposing diaphragms powered by four compact motors (each with dual voice coils). These diaphragms move in opposite directions, canceling mechanical vibrations that could distort sound or rattle the enclosure. The-Xiaomi-X-Pro-QLED- Xiaomi X Pro QLED 2025: For Xiaomi to deliver a 'Filmmaker Mode', something similar to what Sony added to its much more expensive Bravia TVs late last year, gives the X Pro QLED TV its trump card. The extreme levels of tuning needed to make this work as it should, have been delivered. As is the rest of the features list, that includes a pristine QLED panel and support for all consumer facing HDR formats. There's barely any room for complaints, as far as image processing and reproduction is concerned. The-Nothing-CMF-Phone-2-Pro CMF Phone 2 Pro: Mid-range Android phones never had this sort of a colourful, outward personality, before Nothing's CMF brand showed up. The CMF Phone 2 Pro surprisingly has a lot of tricks up its sleeve. It has quite a bit of performance, an impressive display, as well as dual 50-megapixel main and telephoto cameras that get the job done. There's a large battery and some smart AI play with the Essential Key, but for all intents and purposes, you'd be buying this because you also love that industrial design, with visible screws. Samsung-Galaxy-S25-Ultra Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra: This generation shied away from wholesale hardware changes, with a new chip and an ultra-wide camera sensor that were needed, delivered. That meant focus was on additive improvements with AI, performance and system software. It has all come together rather well. The camera is on point as you'd expect, One UI feels just as a premium phone's software should and the design remains incredibly likeable. As I noted, the Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra is flawless, or at least is very close to achieving that. Not something many an Android phone can claim. The-Xiaomi-Pad-7 Xiaomi Pad 7: The fact that this tablet is still my go-to device for reading, is a real-world testament to how well Xiaomi has done to bring a nano-texture display at these price points. In terms of utility, and affordability. Till now, this option was only available on Apple iPad Pro range, which decidedly is in a different price range. There is of course a Xiaomi Pad 7 without this optional display too. In both instances, Xiaomi is definitively making a stronger case for Android tablets. Noise Master Buds Noise Master Buds: If you'd been looking closely (we certainly were pointing to it), Indian tech company Noise' premiumisation shift was becoming apparent. They had to, if order ticket prices had to go up. The Noise Master Buds earbuds, their most expensive true wireless headphones till date, are the latest chapter. The Bose influence is certainly more than cursory, which translates into a definite uplift of pieces that form the broader wireless audio experiential puzzle. It is a substantial upgrade in terms of audio quality, and the Noise x Bose collaboration was largely unexpected before it was announced.
Hindustan Times
29-05-2025
- Hindustan Times
HP OmniBook 7 Aero review: Powerful computing and value, in a compact package
There is a certain charm about slim, lightweight and compact laptops. We've lost some of that troika, particularly with larger screen sizes becoming par for course with recent launches, taking away that compactness. One look at the HP OmniBook 7 Aero, and it is an easy reminder of the HP Dragonfly laptops from a few years ago. It is good to have the 13.3-inch display as an option, at a time when 14-inch and large display real estate is becoming the norm. More isn't always better, when you're lugging a computing device in your backpack, particularly during travel. HP has done well to realign this OmniBook series, making it consumer focused and fully in line with the 'next-gen AI PC' or 'Copilot+ PC' capabilities. That's thanks to the AMD Ryzen AI neural processing unit capable of 50 TOPS, or trillion operations per second. In a form factor that weighs less than 1kg (less than the 1.24kg of the MacBook Air, widely regarded as the thin and light benchmark), the baseline specs include the latest generation AMD Ryzen AI 5 340 chip with 16GB memory, a 512GB solid-state drive, AMD Radeon 860M graphics and HP's complete layering of AI functionality over and above everything Microsoft has embedded into Windows as part of the Copilot proposition. That specifically may or may not hold value for you, but you would do well to consider this machine for the future-proofed specs. We draw that inference from the performance of the HP OmniBook 7 Aero, which absolutely doesn't seem to be holding back despite having a significantly lower price tag (its ₹87,499 onwards) than most laptops bucketed as 'next-gen AI PC' or 'Copilot+ PC'. This has more than enough performance headroom for usage scenarios that you'd deploy this for at work and at home. We did test this with some typical work laptop multitasking scenarios, and the HP OmniBook 7 Aero holds the speediness of response, without any stutter. In itself, that's the OmniBook 7 Aero's biggest strength. The only noticeable change at this time would be the perceptible heating on the underside of the laptop — the don't keep it on your lap levels of heat, and ideal to have a cooling pad on the desk. Just as an added layer of care, we would recommend heading to the MyHP app preloaded on the laptop, and enable Smart Sense — that's again an AI layered performance management feature that will switch the machine between different modes, depending on usage. Then there is of course the HP AI Companion, which does have some smart tricks up its sleeve — we have covered this in detail in our review of the HP EliteBook X G1a. HP has kept feature parity across its AI PCs, and this is underlined by OpenAI's GPT models, though HP doesn't specify which ones are in play. With so much power being delivered when needed, it is creditable that the HP OmniBook 7 Aero, fully charged as we began a workday, still ends up with about 40% charge remaining at the end of the day. That would translate to close to 13 hours of battery life on a single charge, with some care regarding screen brightness and apps running in the background. For a compact laptop, this may not be the highest numbers ever (the MacBook Air, and indeed some of Qualcomm's new chips deliver much more), but still good enough to conveniently leave the power adapter behind. And you will certainly want to do that, because unlike Apple and even Asus, HP has still clung to a bulky brick that can only be classified as antiquated. It is important to touch on the ports that are available on the OmniBook 7 Aero. There are two USB-A ports of which one is rated at 10 Gbps while the other is 5 Gbps, two USB-C ports topping out at 10 Gbps, an HDMI 2.1 and an audio-out jack. That, pegged against the MacBook Air which doesn't have any USB-A port or an HDMI, is in a good place. A question that must be asked at this point is — despite all the AI to improve the video call experience, shouldn't HP have thought of moving beyond a 5-megapixel webcam? A better hardware baseline would allow the Poly Camera Pro functionality to really shine through. The one thing I am still getting used to with the OmniBook 7 Aero is its weight distribution, which for an ultra-lightweight machine, is quite unique. The centre of gravity seems to be in the middle, and not around the edges as you'd pick this up — most laptops tend to be top heavy, owing to battery placement. Think of this as a computing equivalent of a mid-engined sports car. And even beyond that, there is pristine delivery of performance through different usage scenarios, and battery life that's certainly long enough and consistent enough, to allow you to leave that bulky adapter at home or in the drawer beneath your office desk. Despite ticking off all the boxes on a decidedly premium checklist, perhaps the most exciting thing about the HP OmniBook 7 Aero is its price. And that'll define value.
