Laptops under 800 euros: HP OmniBook 5 with Wildcat Lake and Lenovo V15 with Snapdragon C against the MacBook Neo

On 1 October 2026 HP announced the OmniBook 5 14 on Intel's new entry platform Wildcat Lake. Tom's Hardware puts the starting price at 699.99 US dollars with 8 GB of memory, a 256 GB SSD and a 14-inch OLED display. A day earlier Lenovo confirmed the V15 G7 Q7X, a 15-inch machine with Qualcomm's entry chip Snapdragon C, according to Notebookcheck without a price so far. Both are pitched as answers to Apple's MacBook Neo, which sells for 799 euros with 256 GB and 899 euros with 512 GB in the Austrian Apple Store.

Apple's US store listed the MacBook Neo at 699 dollars on 3 October 2026. In its base configuration the HP therefore costs the same as the Apple machine, with the same amount of memory and storage.

What HP and Lenovo announced

Notebookcheck lists the OmniBook 5 14 with a Core 5 315, Core 5 320 or Core 7 350, the last one arriving later in October. Every display option is OLED. The two launch panels have 1920 × 1200 pixels and, according to Tom's Hardware, 300 nits. Apple's spec sheet gives the MacBook Neo 500 nits. The battery holds 60 Wh and HP claims up to 42 hours of runtime. That is the vendor's figure for local video playback, a caveat Tom's Hardware points out.

Lenovo's V15 G7 Q7X uses the Snapdragon C C11-0100 with eight Kryo cores and a 12 TOPS NPU. Notebookcheck lists up to 16 GB of memory and a 512 GB SSD, a 1920 × 1200 IPS display at 400 nits and a 50 Wh battery. Lenovo claims 23.28 hours in the JEITA 3.0 test, against a vendor-claimed 16.91 hours for the Intel version of the same machine. The Snapdragon C is already on sale in Asia in the IdeaPad Slim 3x 14, from roughly 914 dollars with 8 GB and 512 GB.

What Notebookcheck measured

Notebookcheck's headline calls the HP a MacBook Neo rival, and the article says the Core 7 350 can, per benchmarks, somewhat compete with the A18 Pro. The outlet's own measurement from June 2026 is more sober. In a Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3 15 the Core 7 350 ran roughly on par with the Core i7-1355U and only 10 percent ahead of the Core 7 150U under multi-core load. The integrated graphics were noticeably slower than the Iris Xe G7 with 96 EUs that has sat in office machines for years. Power draw was the good part: under FurMark the laptop averaged 20 W, a mini PC with a Core 7 150U 34 W. The editors suggest buyers look at a used Lunar Lake machine instead.

The HP launches with the smaller Core 5 chips. Anyone who wants the fastest Wildcat Lake model waits until late October and pays more than the entry price.

8 GB and 256 GB at the entry price

All three base configurations have 8 GB of memory, soldered on the HP. The memory crisis shows in the supply chain: according to Tom's Hardware the 12 GB option and the 1 TB SSD arrive in November, and the 2560 × 1600 panel at 620 nits in March 2027. TrendForce expects conventional DRAM contract prices to rise 10 to 15 percent in the fourth quarter and writes that PC brands are cutting SSD capacity in mainstream models to lower material costs. How it got this far is covered in the review of a year of memory crisis. Phone list prices are moving too: heise reports that Samsung raised the Galaxy S26 range in Germany and Austria by at least 100 euros.

For a company laptop running Windows 11, Teams, several browser tabs and an antivirus agent, 8 GB is tight, and soldered memory cannot be upgraded later. In a tender it pays to ask for the price of the 16 GB configuration instead of the advertised entry price.

Windows on Arm without Copilot+

At 12 TOPS the Snapdragon C's NPU falls short of the Copilot+ PC threshold; Microsoft quotes 45 TOPS for the Snapdragon X chips in that class. The local AI features of Windows 11 that are tied to Copilot+ are missing.

Software matters more for day-to-day operation. The same Microsoft documentation says Arm apps run natively and x86 and x64 programs run under emulation, and it points to the Windows on Arm Ready Software list for individual applications. For a company this means a test unit has to run the line-of-business application, the ERP front end, the VPN client, the printer drivers and the endpoint protection before anyone places an order. If a platform change at the desk is on the table anyway, the trade-offs are in the comparison of Ubuntu and Windows 11 at the workplace.

Price and availability in Germany, Austria and Switzerland

Of the three machines only the MacBook Neo has an official euro price. Notebookcheck says HP launched the OmniBook 5 globally, but it links to the US store, and HP's German product page showed no price for the Wildcat Lake model on 3 October. No HP press release with European details could be found. Lenovo has listed configurations of the V15 G7 Q7X in several European countries, according to Notebookcheck, without a price. Notebookcheck also says the Intel version of the same machine starts at over 1,000 dollars in Germany, which shows how far US entry prices and German list prices can drift apart.

Anyone buying laptops for 20 to 200 desks in the fourth quarter of 2026 should compare euro quotes for 16 GB and 512 GB once HP and Lenovo publish them, and should schedule a test run with their own software before committing to any Arm machine. Whether the OmniBook 5 lands below the MacBook Neo's 799 euros here stays open until HP names a euro price.

Further sources

• Tom's Hardware, HP OmniBook 5 from 699.99 dollars: configuration, delayed options, battery caveat
• Notebookcheck, OmniBook 5 launched globally: CPU options, 60 Wh battery, Core 7 350 later in October
• Notebookcheck, first Core 7 350 benchmarks: independent measurement from June 2026
• Notebookcheck, Lenovo V15 G7 Q7X with Snapdragon C: specs, battery claims, no price
• Notebookcheck, Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 3x 14: first Snapdragon C price, in Asia
• Apple Store Austria, MacBook Neo: 799 and 899 euros
• Apple Store US, MacBook Neo: 699 and 799 dollars
• Apple, MacBook Neo specifications: A18 Pro, 8 GB, 500 nits
• Microsoft Learn, Windows on Arm: x86/x64 emulation, 45 TOPS for Copilot+ PCs
• Windows on Arm Ready Software: application compatibility list
• TrendForce, fourth-quarter 2026 contract prices: DRAM up 10 to 15 percent, smaller SSDs in mainstream laptops
• heise, Samsung raises Galaxy S26 prices: list prices in Germany and Austria