HP Dragonfly Professional PC Laptop computer Evaluation: The Finest PC Various to a MacBook?

HP unveiled the Dragonfly Professional collection of touchscreen laptops at CES 2023. The primary Dragonfly notebooks to rock a “Professional” moniker embrace a Chromebook and a PC laptop computer, providing a modern and sustainable design, top-notch {hardware}, and efficiency to match, all at worth factors with mainstream enchantment. The PC model begins under $1,400, whereas the Chromebook has a $999 beginning worth.

After seeing the merchandise within the metallic forward of their launch, I used to be significantly excited to place the Dragonfly Professional PC by its paces for its sticker worth and AMD {hardware}. The previous is extremely agreeable for an HP Dragonfly pocket book — such merchandise are normally costly and geared in the direction of demanding customers with huge improve budgets.

Alternatively, by promising a effective equilibrium between efficiency and vitality effectivity, the AMD Ryzen chip made me surprise how the pocket book would stack in opposition to a equally priced MacBook Air or a 13-inch MacBook Professional with an Apple M2 chip.

I spent a month testing the HP Dragonfly Professional PC in entry-level guise, and it persistently excelled as my go-to pc. The pocket book’s design, efficiency, and battery life make it the perfect PC different to the compact MacBook Professional. Right here’s a breakdown:

DESIGN: 8/10

Like each HP Dragonfly PC, the Professional iteration has a modern design and a decidedly premium construct. Obtainable in black or white with a chrome HP brand on its show cowl, the pocket book will look equally slick in your desk, a convention room desk, or at a espresso store.

The supplies used within the pocket book are decidedly premium, loads sturdy, and worthy of its worth class. HP manufactured the Dragonfly Professional’s housing utilizing reclaimed aluminum and magnesium with distinctive sturdiness and tactility.

Made utilizing recycled plastic, the keyboard of the Dragonfly Professional is among the finest in its class. Its well-spaced keys are quiet with out skimping on satisfying journey and tactile suggestions, although their backlighting may use greater than two brightness ranges.

Along with a dependable fingerprint scanner, the keyboard has 4 further buttons, together with one which’s customizable through the myHP app. The remaining buttons embrace one for launching myHP, one for product assist, and one for accessing its webcam controls.

The gadget’s haptic trackpad is great to work together with and vastly superior to non-haptic ones. I discovered it to be quieter and significantly extra dependable.

The pocket book’s trio of USB-C ports are quick and futureproof. Two (one on either side) have ultra-fast Thunderbolt connectivity for a seamless hyperlink with exterior displays, docks, and different high-speed equipment. Each USB-C connector helps quick charging.

Surprisingly, in contrast to any MacBook and lots of PC rivals, the HP Dragonfly Professional lacks a regular audio jack. Although gaining access to the latter through an exterior accent is fast and cheap through an exterior amplifier or a dongle, I want I didn’t must search for one after I wished to make use of wired headphones or earbuds.

DISPLAY: 8/10

The 14-inch touchscreen of the HP Dragonfly Professional PC I examined is stable, if not the sharpest or the brightest in its worth vary. The panel’s 16:10 facet makes viewing apps and paperwork side-by-side extremely straightforward — I had no bother taking notes throughout on-line conferences and referencing them whereas creating content material after.

Contemplating the Dragonfly Professional’s beginning price ticket, I want its display had the next refresh price for smoother interactions much like a few of its PC rivals and the 14- and 16-inch MacBook Professionals. Nevertheless, the real-life efficiency advantages in comparison with the previous and the a lot cheaper price than the latter are tradeoffs price making.

PERFORMANCE: 9/10

AMD collaborated intently with HP to create the Ryzen 7 chip that powers the Dragonfly Professional PC, lasering in on real-life efficiency and vitality effectivity as a substitute of merely producing excessive artificial benchmark scores. The result’s outstanding — the pocket book delivers considerable energy and lengthy battery life that belie its kind issue and worth vary.

The Dragonfly Professional crushed my typical workflow of concurrently working a double-digit quantity of browser tabs, fielding emails and Slack messages, enhancing textual content, and modifying pictures whereas streaming lossless audio from Amazon Music. It didn’t deal with me to heat wrist pads or distract me with fan noise throughout my work classes.

Native gameplay was additionally a nice expertise on the pocket book, courtesy of its Radeon graphics. I spent hours taking part in Age of Empires IV, and the sport ran beautifully at full show decision.

Throughout my testing, the Dragonfly Professional often made it by a workday between battery prices and with out requiring me to activate battery-saver mode within the late afternoon. Such a outstanding feat for a top-shelf PC ultrabook, completely showcasing the AMD silicon’s energy effectivity.

For comparability, high-end PC laptops with Intel chips will battle to make it by a day that features the abovementioned workflow. You’ll must be aware of the duties available and your display brightness to get shut and, simply in case, have a battery pack or a charger prepared. The bundled one can energy up the Professional’s battery from empty to 50% in solely half-hour.

Tuned by the consultants from Bang & Olufsen, the onboard audio system of the HP Dragonfly Professional pump out a surprisingly strong sound for its skinny kind issue. Its 5MP webcam with a software program suite for tuning it’s wonderful, too.

WRAP-UP

The Dragonfly Professional’s real-life pace and battery life are the closest to what I’ve skilled from a MacBook with Apple silicon. After years of primarily counting on such {hardware}, that’s the largest praise I may give the newcomer. It’s the best choice if you’re searching for a compact PC laptop computer that blends uncompromising energy and lengthy battery life at a palatable worth.

A price range of $1,399 will get you a Dragonfly Professional with 16GB of RAM and 512GB of storage — sufficient for all however probably the most demanding energy customers. Spending an additional $150 will double each and make the pocket book much more future-proof. A equally outfitted 13-inch MacBook Professional will value you $300 greater than the starter Dragonfly Professional.

Each Dragonfly Professional comes with a yr price of 24/7 reside assist. An non-compulsory $10.99 month-to-month subscription plan contains assist, an prolonged guarantee, and 3-year unintended harm safety.

Store HP Dragonfly Professional

Senior Know-how Editor

Stefan is the senior expertise editor for , the place he’s been overlaying the tech business and testing the most recent devices since 2015. He has greater than a decade of expertise overlaying client tech merchandise, particularly smartphones, tablets, laptops, and audio gear. He was beforehand the US editor for ; his work may also be discovered on Well-liked Mechanics and different Hearst publications.Within the uncommon moments when he’s not taking part in with a brand new gadget, Stefan likes to look at reside Premier League video games or hang around along with his cat and rabbit. He’s additionally an espresso snob.