The 1080p webcam is actually fairly sharp, and it does a good job handling backlight from a bright window — with only a hint of green color cast. But hey, at least it has Windows Hello face unlocking.

And at least this not-too-large large laptop has lots of ports and charges via USB-C with a very compact 65W GaN charger. Just one USB-A and an audio jack on this side.

But another USB-A, two USB-C, and HDMI over here. The left-aligned keyboard and trackpad allow for a generously sized numpad.

My biggest gripe is the dual speakers (unsurprisingly), which lack bass and sound too treble-y, but they’re just tolerable enough to live with. My next biggest is the keyboard (surprisingly).

I usually like HP keyboards, but this one feels too stiff. If you’re the type to hammer your fingers down and you love a generously sized number pad you might be fine, but I get more typos than I’m used to from keys not registering.

I could learn to live with it, but I’d still prefer not to have to. 99What I can totally live with is the performance.

The OmniBook’s 8-core Snapdragon X processor is a little slower than the one in the $950 Surface Laptop I tested, but the OmniBook’s day-to-day performance is better because it’s not starved for RAM and its larger SSD is a little faster. Like other lower-end Snapdragon laptop chips it’s not going to wow you with graphics performance or tackle heavy content creation in Adobe apps, but it’s perfectly adequate for everyday multitasking work.

Even when running several apps with a couple dozen Chrome tabs left open, including a video podcast playing, I didn’t feel it slow down the way the Surface Laptop or Chuwi UniBook, each with only 8GB of RAM, did. And while a Snapdragon chip means this Windows laptop isn’t ideal for gaming, it does make it great on battery.

You can pretty easily get around 12 hours of mixed web usage with a bit of music or video streaming. It feels like the money went into the core specs of the OmniBook 3, and HP just barely stuck the landing on the right compromises elsewhere.

1/8The screen is bright enough to use it near a big window, but outside it’s difficult to see even in the shade. If we reviewed the OmniBook 3 a year ago I might feel different, but it’s been a tiny breath of fresh air to use something this cheap and mostly think, “Not too bad!”

Especially coming right after I tested the $450 Chuwi UniBook. An employee being issued this laptop for work shouldn’t feel like their IT department totally hates them.

And while I think a MacBook Neo would still be a better all-around experience for a school-age kid, I’d totally understand saving nearly $200 to get the OmniBook 3 if a budget can’t be stretched. My only worry is that the OmniBook 3’s price will go up like everything else.

While there are more sub-$800 laptops coming, and I’ll be testing more very soon, the OmniBook 3’s price — and that of the OmniBook 5 I reviewed back in December — feel anomalous right now. The RAMageddon storm could eventually ruin them like it did many other laptops and devices.

But, for now, there’s some safe harbor with this lowly OmniBook. 73 to 16mmBattery: 68Wh (65W USB-C charger included) Price: about $520Photography by Antonio G.

Di Benedetto / The VergeFollow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates. Antonio G.

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