HP Elite Dragonfly Chromebook: Spectacular, Flawed, Costly

HP might make one other vary named “Envy,” however it’s the Elite Dragonfly that actually invokes the green-eyed monster. It’s a tool with a hefty price ticket that’s made for enterprise customers however has options to draw anybody in search of a skinny, gentle, high-end productiveness laptop computer. 

At CES 2023, HP revealed that the Dragonfly title would lastly be bestowed upon shopper fashions, with a brand new Dragonfly Professional and Dragonfly Professional Chromebook. However earlier than that occurs later this 12 months, there’s the matter of HP’s ChromeOS-flavored addition to the present enterprise vary.

This is without doubt one of the finest Chromebooks you should purchase—brace for a screeching handbrake of a caveat—if you may abdomen the hefty worth. You’ll be getting a trendy, light-weight, and pleasant productiveness laptop computer, however with just a few flaws. It is an achievement in {hardware} that falls foul of perfection. Right here’s why.

Sparks Fly

{Photograph}: HP

Writing, looking, and planning are a pleasure on the Elite Dragonfly Chromebook. There are few gadgets in the marketplace that welcome you into productiveness fairly like this one—not the brand new Dell XPS 13 (6/10, WIRED Recommends), nor HP’s luxe shopper Spectre x360 14, which options in our finest laptops information. 

The Intel Core i5-1245U vPro, 8-GB RAM, and 256-GB SSD configuration had no hassle munching via 20+ tabs. The keyboard performs a giant half, with a strong quantity of journey and a pleasingly gentle crunch of suggestions. Appropriately, the evaluation you are studying now’s being written on stated laptop computer, and getting phrases on the web page as speedily as that is blissful. 

Sadly, two factors let the productiveness bundle down. The haptic trackpad simulates an unsatisfying “click on,” although it’s correct and well-sized. And underneath extra intensive productiveness workloads, the battery life solely manages round 6 hours. Your mileage might differ, because it did all through my testing, generally managing nearer to eight hours on much less hectic days.

The three:2 show boosts productiveness additional, with the squarer show including extra display actual property in your essays, internet pages, spreadsheets, and extra. The picture high quality is a tad underwhelming, particularly for a $1,000-plus machine. No actual complaints, however you’ll discover higher panels on gadgets cheaper than this, with OLED changing into extra widespread on sub-$1,000 laptops. Anti-glare is an non-obligatory add-on and is sorely wanted, because it’s fairly the reflective show. 

So what of the enterprise focus of the Elite Dragonfly Chromebook? On high of the Intel vPro processor, which allows simpler and deeper machine administration, in addition to an added safety layer, there are just a few extra touted inclusions. There’s a bodily privateness shutter for the webcam, which you’ll discover on some non-business-focused laptops, and the choice so as to add an HP Certain View show. My evaluation mannequin didn’t characteristic this tech, however I’ve tried it earlier than and it’s all the time labored as marketed—a toggle-able characteristic that stops onlookers to your left and proper from seeing what’s in your display. A neat trick. The webcam itself gives an in depth picture, and the microphone delivers first rate audio. Neither is jaw-dropping, however you’ll get no complaints from colleagues. 

Luxe Appears to be like

This Chromebook is without doubt one of the most costly you should purchase, so that you’re nicely inside your rights to count on a style of the great life. Luckily, the design lives as much as this. It’s gloriously skinny and remarkably light-weight. The enjoyment of engaged on this each day, shifting this gentle machine deftly from house to desk and wherever else you go alongside the way in which, is palpable. The magnesium and aluminum hybrid isn’t fairly as flashy as a MacBook or Dell XPS 13 Plus (7/10, WIRED Recommends), however it nonetheless soars above plastic and appears luxurious.

{Photograph}: HP